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 Lesson Plans: An Introduction By: Ben Dawson web posted January 25, 2010 COLUMNIST – EdgefieldDaily.com has another columnist - one writing for teachers. Who is the author; what qualifies one to write to or for educators? All I can tell you is I have spent a lifetime (since I was 5) in a classroom. Yes, I figure I have written more than 30,000 lesson plans in my career, and I have a lot to say. I hope to encourage, inspire, even enrage teachers so they will know there is someone who understands (the general populous has no idea) all we go through every day (and into the night) of our lives. For example, right now I know most elementary and middle school teachers are panicking because they only have a short time to prepare their students for the almighty PASS test; high school teachers are worried about Exit Exams, AP Finals, and school ratings based on SAT scores. Outsiders might be saying, “You have half the year left!” We know this is not true. Our time is quickly eaten away by such things as Early Release Days, Spelling Bees, Presidents Day, Spring Break, PTO Fund Raisers, and a million other day-in-day-out things that devour our “uninterrupted” minutes. And yet our very self-worth as a human being is going to be judged (and published for all the world to see) by how well our students score. I thought you might be able to relate to the following analogy written by John S. Taylor, Superintendent of Schools for the Lancaster County School District entitled: “The Best Dentist” My dentist is great! He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth, so when I ran into him the other day, I was eager to ask, "Did you hear about the state program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" "No, how will they do that?" "It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, and Unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. It will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better. Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice." "That's terrible," he said. "What? Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?" "Sure I do, but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry. Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele; so much depends on things we can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem and I don't get to do much preventive work. Also, many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all off, so many of my clients have well water which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?" "It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. I couldn't believe my dentist would be so defensive. Well, even without finishing the analogy, you can see where this is going. The Dentist walked off with that look of fear and suppressed anger that I see in the mirror so often lately. It has been eight years since President Bush signed the bill that branded an era of school reform. Now, the education world is still wondering when our current administration will rewrite the No Child Left Behind law. Every year, public schools are rated on the progress they make toward the law's goal of universal proficiency by 2014. And every year states label more schools as falling short and impose sanctions on them, including shakeups and shutdowns. I agree with what Bob Wise (president of the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education) said, “In many ways, [No Child Left Behind] is a compact disc in an iPod world; it's still around, but it is in desperate need of an upgrade." © Copyright 2010
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