Action Plan for a Teacher Transformed-

Connect: Reconnect with your students by setting aside certain times during the day that can be devoted to having conversations with them.  These times can be during the day, before school, or after school.  Get to know your students outside of your daily schedule of events.  I see students becoming more and more disconnected from each other, their families, teachers, and society.  This issue can be addressed by knowing the people you are teaching.  Show your students that you value interpersonal relationships.

Offer parenting classes: After taking part in a preschool program that offers parenting classes, I see this as a fairly inexpensive game changer.  Although many parents lack the time necessary to come to meetings after they get done with work, many different timetables can be offered.  I believe that if we are going to expect our parents to offer more to their children in the arena of value and academic feedback, then we as an educational community must offer more to the parents in the way of guidance and support.

Open communication: Although connecting with students will increase open communication, I believe that teachers need to foster open lines of communication with parents, other teachers, and the larger community also.  Go beyond the requisite weekly newsletter and talk about things that matter.  In emails or other correspondence, attach links to articles on the educational issues of the day.  If you are integrating values such as honesty, responsibility, and respect let parents know and give them helpful hints about how they can reinforce these ideas.  Remember that the best communicators listen first.

Encourage the outside world: Encourage students to bring in artifacts from the world outside the school.  This may mean having a parent, grandparent, or neighbor visit the classroom.  It may mean allowing the student to bring in something from their home culture and share it with the class.  What better way to discover and discuss what people value than to share pieces of our lives?  Use every moment you have to show your students that the world of learning goes beyond the classroom.

Increase the use of living resources: Every school system is facing financial challenges.  This does not mean that opportunities for students should suffer, in fact it is more important when a school is struggling financially to continue to offer opportunities that reinforce the value of education.  Get to know the community you teach in and use the human resources in that community to enrich your teaching.  If you are a female teacher, connect with a male teacher or another man from the community to come in and offer another version of a role model for the students.  If your community is rich in the arts, set aside part of an afternoon to have a guest artist come in and work with the students.

What is the value of teaching values in the schools?  I believe the value lies in being able to show children different ways of learning and living so that they can choose values that work best for them and will help them create a flourishing life.

Resources:

Here is a great parent education site: http://www.parentseducationnetwork.org/Workshops
More information for parents: http://www.solutionsforamerica.org/healthyfam/parent-education.html
If you want to keep up on education news: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/index.html