Congratulations for reaching this milestone in the
professional learning community by completing the book study of Ron Berger’s An
Ethic of Excellence. As we continue to
work toward infusing Expeditionary Learning principles into your school, you will continue to reflect on the things you have read in
this book.
Now that we have read and discussed Berger’s book, it is time to prepare to implement principles form An Ethic of Excellence at your school. Please respond to the prompts below:
- What are some first steps in developing a "culture of craftsmanship" in your classroom and school?
- What are some stumbling blocks that we will need to overcome before the principles in “An Ethic of Excellence” can guide the development of the incubator school for Cabell County?
The first step is to expose our students to an "Ethic of Excellence" for the work they produce. This can be done by modeling quality work and finding quality work to show students. This can be started with small writing projects or everyday work. The stumbling block will be building students acceptance that it is okay to have more than one draft or can do something more than once to produce work that is quality work. It will take encouragement and reassurance by the facilitator. The peer critiquing will also take time to implement with success. I do have confidence that the staff and our students can succeed in this small step.
ReplyDeleteI agree Jenny. I’m sure while doing this we’ll see a lot of growing pains with our students and perhaps our staff as well.
DeleteThis is what I feel too Jenny. I was thinking back to the grumbling and complaining when I would have students redo their work in the past! However, I think over time they will work to their potential and will not have to redo things so many times.
DeleteI also agree Jenny. And I have given the opportunity in the past for students to redo work and that opportunity wasn't taken. I think if i don't make it an option, but rather a requirement, I won't have too much grumbling after the first couple of assignments!
DeleteI believe the first step in developing a "culture of craftsmanship" is to help students understand learning is a process. Learning takes time and our thoughts and abilities develop as we learn, explore and discover. There is always something to improve upon after our first attempt. How do we pinpoint what needs to be improved? We have to teach our students how to self critique work and peer critique. We need to have quality work to show as examples as well as several drafts of the quality work. Showing all of the drafts helps students understand that quality work is not produced the first time.
ReplyDeleteI anticipate many stumbling blocks. I think organization is going to be the first stumbling block. Our first most basic step prior to school beginning was reading the "Ethic of Excellence." Another step was to declutter classrooms. prior to school starting for a fresh slate... We committed to morning meetings in our classroom. Beyond that I'm honestly not sure what the next step is. Personally I'm going to implement taking more time on each project and really extend my student's learning by exploring topics. I'm a plan kind of person. I write lists and make detailed plans all the time, it is how my brain works. I think we need a written plan as to what and how we are going to implement changes this year. We have so many "things" we want to do. What is our first step once school begins? We need to be cohesive in order to be effective. I think we can get there, we want change, we just need a clear plan.
I agree Nicole. It looks like many of our staff members have spent a lot of personal time this summer decluttering and making our school more attractive, by the way the gym storage area is amazing! I’ve enjoyed the conversations we’ve had through the book study. Thinking about change over summer vacation has been exciting but what now? I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes us.
DeleteNicole I agree. We absolutely need a plan. I hate to begin something due and put time and effort into it and see it fade away. To be successful we have to stay excited and on task.
DeleteNot only do we need a plan, I think we need to stick with it. We are so quick to dismiss when we his roadblocks and frustration levels are high. I think as a staff we need to be there to support one another and take things slow right out of the gates so we do not feel overwhelmed.
DeleteNicole- I totally agree; I have to "see" the plan and I think that's why I feel overwhelmed. I didn't see enough at explorer academy to make me feel like I know what the expectations are for myself, let alone the students. I do believe that if we have the guidance and support in place that we need, a lot of my concerns will be addressed. I also think I'm looking at the long term goal too hard and not thinking about easing our way in. I'm the type of person that wants to get it right from the get-go and the thought that I don't have it mapped out right away is daunting to me.
DeleteAmen sista!
DeleteWe need to develop a plan together. We all need to keep a positive attitude during the growing pains.
DeleteI believe the first steps in developing a “culture of craftsmanship” in our classrooms is to become excited and get the kids excited about working hard and seeing their work improve over time. A major stumbling block is that people today wait for nothing. Good results in our work take time and today’s society has a “right now” mindset.
ReplyDeleteI agree!! In today's society many people feel the need for instant gratification. They have to have it right away. We really need to explain the changes that will be occurring in our school with EL curriculum to everyone so that they will understand what we are trying to achieve.
DeleteLaura, I also agree that the need to wait to see the success is a definite stumbling block. I also feel that in our community folks are always used to doing things a certain way and sometimes if they do not see improvement immediately they will not "buy" in to the program.
ReplyDeleteThe first steps in developing a "culture of craftsmanship" is to inform the community about what we are doing and let them be a part of it as much as possible. We could do this by inviting them to our Open House, and really reach out in the community for more guest speakers and volunteers as much as possible.
I totally agree this needs to be discussed at Open House so everybody that is involved is aware of what we are doing. If not I think their will be some pointing fingers at teachers by parents and community members-thinking they are being too hard and not like the teachers their child has had in the past.
DeleteI also think the students need to be talked to about this as a large group--so they do not start off the year having ill feelings toward their teacher. If they realize it is not just the teacher they have this year with the higher expectations-it is all of us it might make it easier--or they'll have ill feelings toward all of us:)
I feel that the first steps in developing a "culture of craftsmanship" and a stumbling block may go hand in hand for me. I think that we first need to teach the students what we expect, only their best, and why they should expect that of themselves. I also believe this will be tough the first year because while we have always said we expect their best in past years, we may not have held their feet to the fire so to speak. I think the students will be frustrated in having to redo, redo, redo. Having said this, I also think that once they learn to value their work the redo's will decrease! We can be successful!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. We have always said that we expect them to do their best but often we give in and except what they have done just because we were happy they turned something in. We are going to have some that will become very frustrated when we ask them to do another draft because they think what they have done is good enough. It's going to take time but we will succeed.
DeleteI am still unsure what we are talking about and what we are doing this day, this week, this month, this year?!
DeleteThe first steps in creating the culture of craftsmanship in the classroom is deciding what quality work should look like for each grade level, finding work samples from start to finish that show how the process actually works, and setting expectations within our classrooms. One of the stumbling blocks we'll face will come from the planning of these projects. We are one teacher per grade level and have not been given the curriculum. We are completely starting from scratch at this point and I can say for myself, I don't truly know how I want to incorporate the EL curriculum within my classroom. I must admit, I am a little overwhelmed, not really about the project aspect, but knowing how to implement the projects across all the disciplines.
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone sister--The overwhelming feeling is getting worse as our last few days of summer are going by. I hope we stick to our plan of going through with this SLOWLY--one thing at a time. Personally I think the new classroom declutter and décor, the morning meeting (Crew time), the new standards of behavior, and the new expectations of the student work is enough to focus on for this year while looking at lessons and projects for next year--but I will go along with anything everybody else wants to do.
DeleteI agree it is overwhelming! Hopefully this week will clarify the muddy water.
DeleteI have to agree with all that commented that deciding what is quality work for our students will be a struggle.
DeleteI think the first step in creating a culture of craftsmanship in the classroom is to see where our students are currently at. I know we need high expectations and they need to always try their best-but I want to make sure I am not pushing too hard. I need to see where they are and where they should be. I think the first year will be tough-but as the years go on we should get students who are at a higher starting point each year.
ReplyDeleteI think my struggle will be realizing every kids' best looks different- The best work for "Jane" might look much better than the best work of "John". Right? I do not want to discourage the students by pushing too hard or expecting too much the first couple of years.
This will be a real cultural shock for a lot of students-but high and low. We have a lot of students who just want to get it done as fast as they can.
Another challenge for me is when do the students keep redoing the work- If I have a classroom of 15 and only 3 students are still working on a project that the others have redone and is at the top of their ability-do we move on? Do we wait? I might need some guidance wit this.
I think the first step in creating a culture of craftsmanship in the classroom is to as a group decide how we will determine what quality work should look like. Then each classroom will need to have work samples to use as models to show the students what we expect of them. After we have these things in place, we can slowly introduce the EL philosophy to the students. I think this is where our stumbling blocks will begin. It's going to be very difficult for some students to understand that it is not always going to be one and done. The idea of multiple drafts to achieve quality work is going take a lot of time and effort for everyone.
ReplyDeleteIs the multiple drafts the main goal of what we have been discussing? We definitely need some clarification and team discussions....
ReplyDelete