Hitting Your Target: A message to Academic Leaders

Could allowing your Elementary Teachers to slow down and focus on Developmental Growth be YOUR ANSWER to HITTING THE TARGET ?

SLOWING DOWN to GET AHEAD

It’s just like the Tortoise and the Hare!!!! The Hare was so fast, thought to be unbeatable…but as we all know, Hare didn’t win the race.

But why???

In my years of teaching I’ve watched the Academic Targets change. I’ve witnessed several pivots in education. I’m now starting to realize full circle is a real thing!

What is The Target?

Ultimately, our target as educators is to prepare our kids for the future. However, somewhere in the past 2 decades, we started to focus more on preparing them to for high achievement on standardized tests. We want to be the best…rated THE BEST! But is this really preparing our kids for the future?

Standardized tests have mandated what is being taught in the classrooms.

I’ve witnessed the bar being raised year after year.

I’ve felt the push for academics to be taught faster and faster.

I’ve observed the fun being replaced by test taking strategies, higher expectations, and a faster pace of learning.

I’ve had a principal say there is no time in our day (in kindergarten) for fluff, like singing songs and morning meeting.

I’ve witnessed the amount of pressure put on both students and teachers to be “THE BEST”. Sadly, I’ve also witnessed what this amount of pressure can do to us!

All. Of. Us.

Why are student anxiety rates off the charts?

Why are the greatest teachers quitting the profession or taking an early retirement?

Well, my theory is that we’ve taken out all the fun, creativity, and natural ability to learn, in order to teach the requirements. But in turn, we’ve omitted some unmeasurable necessities for learning: planning, organizing, inquiring, focus, curiosity, relationships, and emotions. Basically all of this defines Executive Function.

A Pilot cannot make a successful flight without the Air Traffic Controller.

A Train cannot get to where he’s going without a Conductor.

A home cannot withstand a storm without a strong foundation.

High Academic Achievement cannot happen without Executive Function Skills.

High Academic Achievement cannot happen without a firm foundation for learning.

High Academic Achievement cannot happen without Mentally and Emotionally Strong Learners.

You see, we achieve high standards, but how much can our kids really handle if we do not develop them mentally, emotionally, and physically.

When I started teaching elementary school, the academic standards in the primary grades were not nearly as high as they are now, allowing for time to focus on developing the whole child. For example, kindergarten was 1/2 day, they learned their colors, letters, sounds, numbers through play, experimenting, trial and error, etc. They played with the Letter People, dress up, housekeeping, listened to stories, learned about sharing, playing, and created art. All of this allowed for mental and emotional growth!

Today, 1/2 day kindergarten is rare. Most school districts have moved to full day and still they have no time for play and inquiry. Children entering kindergarten who can’t form their letters or even know what hand they write with at the beginning of the year are expected to be able to write a paragraph by then end of kindergarten. They are adding and subtracting, counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. The academic standards in early elementary have radically changed, but the thing is…

The developmental abilities of a child hasn’t changed.

We might know more and more about child development, but a 5 year old is still a 5 year old. They still need to play, sing songs, learn to share, learn to organize, be curious, build relationships, have fun, and establish a love for learning.

Young learners deserve to have the time to develop the appropriate mental and emotional skills that will in turn foster learning…rigorous learning!

Because of these high standards, many elementary schools have removed the play kitchens, dress up area, puppets, Letter People (yes, I loved those blow up characters and it shows my age), and arts and crafts are done in art class rather than the classroom. Learning to formally write your letters (from top to bottom, left to right) has been replaced with learning to log in to their computer or iPad. Which is a really not so fun task when they don’t even know their letters yet (funny, not funny).

And we wonder why our 3rd graders handwriting isn’t legible.

We wonder why our students cannot problem solve, create, and communicate.

We wonder why they are having emotional meltdowns.

We get frustrated when they have no attention span for human interaction. Why do they constantly need to learn from a screen?

We can’t understand why kids aren’t able to handle the rigor of their day.

Why don’t they like going to school they way that we did?

Why are they so stressed when they are only in 1st or 2nd or 3rd grade?

It’s time to slow down now to go fast later–to shift our focus from childrens’ achievement scores to their foundational needs, and to give ourselves permission to follow our instincts to teach what really matters.

Slow Down! Children are Learning

I believe that if our Educational System would allow our Early Childhood Teachers to teach all kids in a way that will focus on developmental growth, they will be ahead in the long run!

PULL BACK AND SHIFT OUR FOCUS!

It’s just like when you shoot a bow and arrow! You PULL BACK and FOCUS in order to get the arrow to stick right on the target! If we PULL BACK and shift our FOCUS onto developmental growth in grades K-3, begin to release that arrow in upper elementary (4TH-6TH) continuing to support developmental growth, let their abilities soar supporitng the academic rigor of middle school, and celebrate with them along the way… they will hit the target needed to succeed in life!

So what are we doing when we SLOWLY PULL BACK to Hit the Target?

WE FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENTAL GROWTH!

1. Develop Executive Function Skills

This means taking time to teach our students how to advocate for themselves, how to ask questions, how to listen to what others are saying, how to process the information in our working memory, how to organize materials and information, how to make connections, build vocabulary, and create mental images of what we are discussing. Our students need to be taught how to manage time, organize tasks, regulate emotions, and pay attention. We can use strategies for helping our students learn to control their impulses, stay focused, and work independently through a process. Taking time to foster the development of their Executive Function Skills will be a building block that they will rely on to help them find success as they progress academically.

2. Develop a Growth Mindset

We have trained our kids to want to be THE best, but we really need to promote being THEIR BEST! Everyone is good at something, but nobody is good at everything! Rather than taking time to teach our students to master and move on, we need to teach them to apply their best effort! When we reward effort, our students will continue to work hard! We can promote dreaming big, working hard, and learning from our failures. This mindset will help our students to achieve academic success and be prepared to handle the struggles they will face in life.

3. Organic Learning Through Natural Curiosity and Inquiry

Today, teachers are given academic standards that are broken down very specifically. If we could just give broad topics in the early elementary years and let the students curiosity lead the broad idea, we could establish an organic love for learning. For example, if your class is out at recess and they notice the color of the leaves changing, let them ask questions and explore their findings. Teach your class the process of inquiry and joy of learning about what they are curious to know. You can teach inquiry, how to research, how to create, and how to show what you know through any small curiosity. If we could foster learning through an organic curiosity, inquiry, and play, our students would continue to learn and grow and find joy in the process.

We can and will hit the TARGET!

When school leaders, administrators, and teachers realize that they need to SLOW DOWN TO GET AHEAD, they will hit their academic targets every time. Not only will students have the ability to achieve academically, they will be healthy mentally and emotionally. As our students prepare to go out into the world, they will be better prepared to handle it and will find success!

We must PULL BACK to get ahead!