There are some very inspirational leaders in the education profession. These are the people who seem to have the capacity to view the big picture and articulate so clearly what they see and hear. Linda Nathan, headmaster of Boston Arts Academy, author, and Harvard instructor in democratic schools, is such a leader.
Linda came to Oregon in May as the keynote speaker at the Oregon Small Schools Leadership Institute in Ashland. The theme of the one day Institute, led by E3 Small Schools Director Kathy Campobasso, was “moving forward.” Linda spoke with rich and vivid examples on the importance of leadership with a strong and clear vision and about the complexities of sustaining the work of personalizing education through the power of small. Principals, teacher leaders, teachers, superintendents, and board members from 22 small high schools participated in a variety of break-out sessions. They shared outstanding practices that are happening in their schools and celebrated the positive results.
Students from southern Oregon small schools presented a panel on their small high school experiences. The concluding forum was presented by Duncan Wyse, Executive Director of E3, Barbara Gibbs of Meyer Memorial Trust, and Linda Nathan on the importance and challenges of moving forward with positive school change on the state and national level. All were inspirational!
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Category:
small schools, student achievement, student success |
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Tags: class size, collaborative culture, innovation, inspiration, Oregon schools, student achievement
Where’s the outrage? That question was posed by the Oregonian Editorial Board June 29th. I’ve been mulling that one around in my head for awhile so it was nice to see it make headlines. Oregon’s budget is causing the carving away at some of the basics that bring kids to school and get them ready for the future. No PE, limited electives, larger class sizes. Ouch. Yet it seems pretty quiet around town and among my teacher colleagues.
The canary in a coal mine role that I played in the staff room this year was not a hit. Maybe because I’m not as cute as a canary or that my flustering was just that, flustering. You see I used to teach in California (LA area and SF area). I saw the gradual destruction of a once ground breaking educational system. When I left the state it was because I was burnt out and frustrated. I had over 30 kids in both of my 6th grade Core sections. More homogenous classes can function with high numbers but I had three kids whose moms were dying, a kid who got mauled by a dog, 3 kids in foster homes, one arrested for dealings with bombs. It was a crazy year, like many crazy years before that and since. For me the last straw was the lack of a school counselor. We hadn’t had a counselor in years and there was no talk about getting one. It was exhausting to try to be both a teacher and caregiver. So I moved to Oregon.
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Category:
education reform, student achievement, teacher advocacy |
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Tags: class size, education reform, student achievement, teacher advocacy
