Customer Service

Do we really serve our customers or do we serve ourselves?....hmmmm  See if you can figure out how that question connects to my thoughts below.

Should we even have gifted classes?

This is the question that we handled tonight in class.  Really when it comes down to it, what is the right answer when it comes to gifted services?  Like so many things in life, I don’t think there is one right answer.  But it seems to be that what we have done in this county is to pretty much put all of our eggs in the “acceleration” model.  Even though we like to call it enrichment, most of what is happening is acceleration.  My big question with that is whether or not the students actually understand what they are being accelerated through.  For example, in my ten years in fifth grade, I know that most students I encounter at the beginning of the year have no clue what area is.  They know that A = l X w, but they have no idea what it actually means.  My concern with a lot of the acceleration is that we are pushing our students through a curriculum without actually making sure that the students know what they are learning.

Whenever I hear about someone saying “we are finishing such and such a book” I have a deep down feeling that I am talking to someone who isn’t really teaching students – rather, they are someone who is more worried about covering curriculum.  I feel like I keep circling this same idea again and again and again.  It comes down to teaching kids not curriculum.  I think SO many people agree with this, but when it comes to changing what they are actually doing, they back off of their assertions and claim that THEY really are looking at the kids – it is all those OTHER teachers who are too focused on curriculum (I don’t pretend that this isn’t me sometimes, too).  I think if we change the way we serve all kids, then how we serve gifted students will also change.  I think that a HUGE part of this comes down to choice.  Yes it takes some courage and creativity to make sure that the standards are met, but we don’t have to march through some pre-packaged curriculum to do it.

Why is there so much bad teaching going on?  Is it that we are too tired, too overworked, don’t know any better, think that our way is the best way, need control, a combination of all of this?  Why do teachers feel like they have to have control of everything?  Why do we treat our students in ways that we would NEVER accept being treated – or at least the same way that we complain about being treated?  I think a lot of these questions come back to the central question at the top of this entry – what is the best way to serve gifted students?  Until we start really holding each other accountable about how we serve ALL students, how we serve gifted students can’t really be changed.  But for the record, I don’t believe that a pull out program that creates social stress is a good way to serve kids.  But we can’t leave them in regular education classrooms with no support either.  We need better teaching – everywhere.  I also believe that there are some profoundly gifted students that do need more services that ANY regular education setting can truly serve.  But for most gifted students, the right kind of team-teaching model with true differentiation all across the board can (I believe) meet their needs.

Sorry  - this entry was a little bit of a rant.  I don’t believe that the situation is as dire as one might surmise from above.  But there are times when I just feel the need to rant a little about what I see going on around me (and admittedly sometimes in my own room).  I’m really excited about working in a place where we will soon have an organizational paradigm that will help continue our ability to ACTUALLY differentiate rather than just talking about it.