Opportunities for Success

Albert Einstein said it best: In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

A handful of Sarasota’s finest educators and technology specialists have just completed a rigorous training on the newest tool that is being installed throughout our entire county. Promethean ACTIVBoards are an amazing addition to every classroom and also presents a new resource teachers can use to engage even some of the most stubborn and disinclined learners. Having this cutting-edge equipment installed in the schools presents an amazing opportunity for teachers and students to propel themselves into the 21st century. Ironically, installing the ACTIVBoards doesn’t necessarily pose the most difficult task for our county to tackle.


The biggest obstacle will be introducing the product to the disinclined teachers as well as convincing them that our schools NEED these ACTIVBoards. More importantly, it’s the students who need these interactive instruments the most.

If you take a look at Gardner’s 7 intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal), you suddenly realize that there needs to be an 8th addition: digital. Today’s students have spent over 10,000 hours on their cell phones and an additional 10,000 hours playing video games by the time they graduate college. 70% of our nation’s 4 to 6 year olds have used a computer! That statistical data alone should alert teachers to the fact that textbooks are not the only source of information which can and should be utilized in the classroom.


From my teaching experience, I have noticed the kids that have shorter attention spans and possess the need to get up and move around during class are becoming the norm. (Actually, the short attention span of today’s kids may turn out to be far from dysfunctional for future work worlds.) Students that are not engaged in instructional activities become distractions to others and negatively affect other student’s classroom experiences. These ornery kids are the ones that will benefit most from getting up out of their seat in order to demonstrate a skill using the ACTIVBoard pen or will enjoy taking an interactive quiz using the ACTIVotes. Check out the latest news report on a school here in Sarasota on Tampa Bay 10 to see what the kids say.

Yet another advantage to this county-wide installation is the ability for teachers to share their flipcharts, their ideas and their assessments with one another via the internet. It takes time to develop a great lesson plan and a valid, meaningful assessment. Having these resources on the school network or by employing the use of the Promethean Planet website, teachers have these fantastic resources at their fingertips which makes the development process that much easier when you can don’t have to “re-invent the wheel.”

Another learning characteristic we have identified with today’s digital learners is that our kids just dive right into new “toys”, such as video games and the Web. My parents (retired teachers, by the way) tend to not want to try new things, such as online banking, unless they already know how to use them. They are apprehensive about technology because they are so worried they will make a mistake and the computer will go through a countdown before it ignites into a fiery inferno only to die down to a puff of smoke. More experienced teachers and adults are the ones who enlist the aid of a manual whereas the students of today would rather jump right in, play around, “get their hands dirty”, and see what works and what doesn’t. By experimenting and watching others “play” with technology, our students are demonstrating that they are discovery learners.

So why shouldn’t today’s teachers evolve with their students? Isn’t that what goes on in the business sector, knowing your clientele? As hard as it is for me to admit, education is becoming more and more business-like. In order for educators and students to be successful, we need to utilize the valuable techniques used by lucrative businesses. In order for our students to have better opportunities to compete with countries overseas, we need to utilize the technology our county has so graciously bestowed upon us. Trust me, I have seen how the technologically prehistoric school district teach and it is a scary thought to wonder how these students would fare against the type of education we (Sarasote) are providing our kids.


I know many individuals (parents, students and teachers) question if this tool is necessary to educate the students of Sarasota County. In order for our students to be competitive in the real world following graduation, we must utilize tools that will help them become successful. More importantly, we need to understand our clientele of learners and continue to progress and evolve with them. We cannot ignore the pace at which technology is advancing daily and it is ignorant for us to believe that we can teach the students of today with materials from a decade ago. The installation of these boards presents an opportunity to be successful and if teachers, students and parents of this county continue to bury their heads in the sand then we are doing a disservice to not only the future success of our schools but the future generations of this country.

The Animal Farm of Education

On Friday, my best friend (Simoni) and I accompanied our 8th graders to Adventure Island for their “end of middle school” field trip. Within 10 minutes of being there, I got in trouble. Not 10 minutes later, Simoni got in trouble. It was great! We were worse than our students – pushing one another off of the rafts, tipping kids in the lazy river, and running up the stairs with inner tubes. My voice is still recovering from all of the laughing and screaming… and I don’t mean the kind of screaming you hear when our white trash, cigarette smoking, overweight neighbor curses at her own toddler for being loud (and those descriptions are an understatement). I mean the kind of screaming you hear teenage girls howling out when riding anything remotely frightening. Roller coasters, water slides, the occasional spider, you get the picture.

Somewhere in between the fun we had on Friday and today at school, something really got to me. I started to think about a comment someone made to me about making sure we “pass on” certain kids. I couldn’t help but be perpetually bothered by it.

When did schools stop focusing on what’s best for the kids and start functioning like a mindless and emotionally inept factory?

I do feel sometimes that American schools have eliminated the closeness and security kids might be feel in a classroom and replaced it with standardized testing and stricter standards. Don’t get me wrong, I think standards are vitally important for not only the students, but more for the educators because we need to know what exactly we are to teach them. But, somewhere along the line, I feel like we (teachers) are required to evolve into factory workers, churning out kids like machines in hopes that one day, those kids will move onto the next level of schooling. All of the requirements that it takes to become an educator is rigorous, time consuming and is very similar to a dog chasing its own tail at times, but once you are in, you’re IN. You then have a checklist of things you need to accomplish in order to earn tenure and unfortunately, there are people in this profession who do not take their jobs (or their own personal effort) seriously and therefore pass by the skin of their teeth. I have seen first hand how difficult it is for administrators to remove crummy first and second year teachers from the classroom and it makes me nauseous to know that I have the drive and desire to be good at what I do while these schlubs just do what they have to get by. I get sick to my stomach because these “factory workers” have too much of a negative influence on a child’s learning experience.

On top of feeling like we are to be essentially robotical, there are some individuals out there who feel that all educators are the same, as if we are interchangeable gears that can all perform the same task. No offense, but I know for a fact that I would not be a good language arts teacher and I know there are plenty of teachers out there who would hate to have to teach physics, human anatomy or even geology. The American education system needs to embrace the diversity EACH teacher brings to the classroom because that is what enhances a child’s classroom experience and encourages cross curricular comprehension.

I know America is different than other nations because we actually attempt to educate every child whereas other countries might educate the top 25% of their population. I have read articles stating that the national graduation rate is rising by 4 to 5% a year, so our high school graduation rate really isn’t that bad considering we do educate a larger range of students… but I have to ask, is our graduation rate higher because we have continually passed kids on? Have we lowered our standards for graduation so that we don’t have to deal with the problem students any more? I feel as if we are passing on kids because we don’t want to deal with them any longer because if the student earned a failing grade and more importantly, we record the failing grade (notice how I didn’t say we GAVE the student a failing grade), then more likely than not that student will end up in your classroom again. It’s like we are passing kids onto somebody else, so they are no longer our problem. I have a personal problem promoting a student when I fear for their future - would passing them on actually benefit the student when I know they lack the experience and the maturity to stick it out through high school?

Having said this, I am fully aware that not every one of my students will be college bound. Only 27% of adults over the age of 25 in the United States actually have a college degree, but I am not even using this data to support my awareness. Some kids just aren’t meant for college. Period. At least 1/3 of my students won’t make it to high school graduation, and sadly, I could probably identify those middle school kids in my classroom right now.

To address this problem, Sarasota has created an amazing school which I identify as a “pre-dropout” prevention program. The Phoenix Academy is one of the few schools I am familiar with who actually adhere strictly to the rules – if you don’t pass, you don’t move onto the next grade and you do NOT collect $200. They have a smaller school setting with a maximum number of about 150 students and almost 15 full time teachers. The student to teacher ratio is the lowest in the county (including the support staff who will drive to the student’s home and pick them up if they decide not to attend school that day) therefore they have probably the highest expenditure of any school in Sarasota county. Yes, it is expensive to run the Phoenix Academy. But is it worth it?

Hell yes it is.

Why, you might ask? Because they are doing what is best for the KIDS. (What a concept!) They do not promote students if they are not fulfilling requirements. They work with at-risk students to get them onto the right track and get them prepared for high school because the teachers and staff at Phoenix genuinely care.

It irks me when a teacher says, “If you were able to reach one student today, you need to consider yourself successful.” Ok, so if I worked at a car manufacturing plant, putting together automobiles and I successfully installed 1 airbag out of 100, don’t you think I would be fired? More importantly, wouldn't a normal human being have enough of a conscious to realize how many people I could harm or potentially kill? How on earth can we measure success by only reaching ONE student?! Would a doctor be considered successful if he saved 1 out of 100 patients? Would a lawyer be thought of as competent if she won 1 out of 100 cases? How about a plumber or a coach or a farmer? How is not alright for these people to have a higher expectation and definition for success but teachers do not? Was there some universal law created stating that since we don't get paid huge sums of money we therefore have the permission to be underachievers? We need to quit lowering our standards because what happens is, our students begin to lower their own and will do just enough work to get by and pass.

Can you imagine what this world would be like if we all did the bare minimum just to get by? What if we were all interchangeable parts? Why don’t we just put on our blue factory suits with our names stiched in cursive and work goggles to generate and build some average learners who have to fit the rigid mold that we make? (And if they don't fit the mold, they are labeled DEFECTIVE or IRREGULAR.)

I shudder at the thought.