"Be a Hero. Be a Teacher"

Recently, the news media here in Hawaii announced a program to train and retain teachers here in Hawaii. (Star-Advertiser article) I shared this article on Facebook with this statement: "Being an educator is hard work but I have never regretted my decision. Even on the most challenging days, there is something positive to reflect on. What could be more important than positively impacting our young people so they are inspired to make a difference in our world?"  I truly believe that teaching is an art, that great teachers help create excited learners who find their passion and pursue their dreams. I appreciate that the Legislature allocated more funding for "our own" who aspire to become teachers especially those who may already be in the schools and have demonstrated their commitment to education. I sincerely hope that these individuals will take advantage of this opportunity to achieve their dream of positively impacting our young people as a teacher.

The media campaign to "Be a Hero. Be a Teacher"  is a great start, but it's going to take more than that to raise confidence in our school system and our educators. Negative comments from the public are the norm, not just in Hawaii, but nationally as well. It behooves us all to participate in conversations about how our public school system can be improved, but we must be open to new ideas. Here are some suggestions to start that discussion:

• University programs should follow the lead of the University of Hawaii, West Oahu. Education majors begin taking courses and fieldwork from their freshman year.  They are in classrooms and taking education courses from the beginning. The more experience these education majors have, the better prepared they will be when they have their own classrooms. 
• All teachers - especially those in elementary schools - should be required to take classes in strategies to teach struggling learners. Students enter kindergarten with a wide range of experiences and challenges that impact their school readiness. Recognizing a student's deficits and providing early, consistent interventions using research-based strategies can mean the difference between catching up to peers or requiring more intensive services in a later grade.
• Our youngest learners in kindergarten should be "learning by doing." We weren't expected to know all the letters and sounds and numbers when we were in kindergarten. Yes, I know that was a long time ago and the world has changed since then, but let's face it - some students are not ready to read and write in kindergarten. They need more time to develop their vocabulary, to practice their fine motor skills, to listen and to contribute to a conversation, to explore and discover new information, and to create and share what they are learning. They should be looking at books and hearing stories read to them, learning to play cooperatively with others, practicing to share and to think about others' feelings and to problem-solve when things aren't going their way. They shouldn't have to sit and write letters and numbers that have no meaning for them - yet.  Let's acknowledge that learning through play or learning by doing is more developmentally appropriate for our young learners. 
• The world has changed drastically since I went to school, but schools basically have remained the same. We have charter schools who are implementing innovative practices, but the other public schools have remained the same, structure-wise. Schools are still separated by grade levels and grade level bands - elementary, middle, and high school. Schools still have schedules where students start and end at the same time.  There are standards for each grade level, and despite starting school with different skillsets, all students are expected to be at a certain place at the end of the year. If we assume that we all learn at different rates and have different interests, we might want to rethink the structure of school to be more flexible where age is not the defining criteria and where students might work in multi-age environments on collaborative projects that demonstrate their mastery of necessary skills.
• As an Early Childhood major, I strongly believe in early interventions and the power of parental involvement to make a difference for students. University coursework rarely includes strategies for working with parents, and teachers are often uncomfortable having parent volunteers in their classroom. Yet, parents can be our best advocates; they see how hard teachers work, how patient they are, and how challenging the job can be. Volunteers in the classroom can mean more eyes and more support for students. Parents are their child's first and most important teacher; let's value their input because they know their child best.

As an educator for over forty years, I can say unequivocally that teaching is an honorable profession, and I can't think of any job that is more important for our society.  To quote Charlie Brown, teachers make a difference. Teachers are heroes.