School

To remember which months have 30 days.

April, June, September, November (AJSN).

(31) January

(28) February

(31) March

30 April

(31) May)

30 June

(31) July

(31) August

30 September

(31) October

30 November

(31) December

Research has shown that, even in some young children, harsh, authoritarian punishment does little to deter aggression, foster empathy, and guide positive prosocial behaviors such as cooperation, sharing, and teamwork. Schools have a duty to maintain order and discipline and to protect students from foreseeable harm (Barber, 1996; Straus, 1991). These findings are important because as early as preschool, antisocial and oppositional defiant behaviors (and lack of positive prosocial behaviors) are significant predictors of later, more serious outcomes such as violence, substance abuse, dropping out of school, and some forms of psychopathology (Parker Asher, 1987; Roff, 1984).

As Albert Einstein once stated, the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. We must embrace the responsibility of facilitating the healthy development of students by addressing problems, providing appropriate support and assistance, and enhancing their social, emotional (affective), and cognitive competence.

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward Vernon Law

All schools must have an antibullying program.

All of these must be banned from schools. NO EXCUSES!

"Learning is a Life-Long Experience." Learning does not begin in school, neither must it end there. Learning is a lifelong journey that begins at home.

Schools are like gardening with knowledge being the water. Author Unknown

All children can learn regardless of their ability level in school (e.g., TAG, special education, field dependence, field independence, visual, oral, low-ability, middle-ability, etc.). Schools have a responsibility to teach them, and school personnel and parents should work together to assure every child a free and appropriate public education in a positive school environment.

Schools are a partnership among staff, students, parents, and community, wherein educational excellence is truly a priority, but human kindness and self-worth are never forgotten. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. - Leo Buscaglia

Schools should be about TEAMWORK (i.e., a cooperative effort to solve problems,
accept others, and be flexible), TOLERANCE (i.e., modeling a caring respectful attitude with good manners, honesty and friendliness toward others), THOROUGHNESS (i.e., persevering through organization and commitment to responsibility), and ENTHUSIASM (i.e., motivated by the joy of life-long learning).

Eight Characteristics of Good Schools

1). High expectations for every student

2). Parent and community support

3). A rigorous curriculum and fair assessments

4). Sufficient resources to help all students achieve

5). Safe, healthy and supportive learning environments

6). Schools and classrooms equipped for teaching and learning

7). Qualified teachers in every classroom

8). Strong school leadership

Eight Characteristics of Effective Schools

1). High can-do expectations

2). High degree of teacher colleagueship

3). Serious teacher attitude toward instruction

4). Teachers ability to keep students on task

5). Successful behavior management

6). School principle as instructional leader

7). Involved parents

8). School environment conducive of learning

School is a place where children develop or fail to develop a variety of competencies that come to define self and ability, where friendships with peers are nurtured, and where the role of community member is played out, all during a highly formative period of development. Thus, the building of self-esteem, interpersonal competence, social problem-solving skills, responsibility, and leadership becomes important both in its own right and as a critical underpinning of success in academic learning (Good & Weinstein, 1986, p.1095).

A school climate is its atmosphere for learning. It includes the feelings people have about the school and whether it is a place where learning can occur. A positive climate makes a school a place where both staff and students want to spend a substantial portion of their time; it is a good place to be (Howard, Howell, & Brainard, 1987, p.5).

School climate is a relatively enduring quality of the entire school that is experienced by members, describes their collective perceptions of routine behavior, and affects their attitudes and behavior in the school (Hoy & Miskel as cited in Hoy & Feldman, 1999, p.85).

In general, school climate refers to the quality and consistency of interpersonal interactions within the school community that influence childrens cognitive, social, and psychological development. These interactions include those among staff, between home and school (Haynes, Emmons, & Ben-Avie, 1997, p.322).

Adler had a keen interest in applying his ideas to education, especially in finding ways to remedy faulty lifestyles of school-children. He initiated a process to work with students in groups and to educate parents and teachers. By providing teachers with ways to prevent and correct basic mistakes of children, he sought to promote social interest and mental health. Besides Adler, the main proponent of Individual Psychology as a foundation for the teaching/learning process was Dreikurs (1968, 1971). The area of parent education has been one of the major Adlerian contributions.

The goal is to improve the relationship between parent and child by promoting greater understanding and acceptance. Parents are taught simple Adlerian principles of behavior that can be applied at home. Initial topics include understanding the purpose of a childs misbehavior, learning to listen, helping children accept the consequences of their behavior, holding family meetings, and using encouragement. The book considered to be the mainstay of many Adlerian parent-study groups is Children: The Challenge, by Dreikurs and Soltz (1964). Another book that presents Adlerian paren-education materials is The Effective Parent (Dinkmeyer, McKay, Dinlmeyer, & McKay, 1987).

Adler devotes considerable attention to the effect of education on personality development. School provides the acid test of a childs readiness for social living, and offers perhaps the only possibility for correcting whatever parental errors may have occurred. The school is the prolonged arm of the family, however, classes re often far too large, making it difficult for even a skilled teacher to do much more than merely impart the prescribed curriculum.

Adler sees the educator as facing the difficulty and challenging task of preparing the child for cooperation, and inculcating the social ideas that enable civilization to continue. The true purpose of a school is to build character and the principal aim of education is social adjustment (Adler, 1929, 1969, pp.82, 103).

Adler stated that special classes for slow children should be avoided because they are all likely to produce discouragement and inferiority complexes. Where there are brilliant children in class, the progress of the whole class can be accelerated and heightened; and it is unfair to the other members to deprive them of such a stimulus (Adler, 1931, 1958, p. 171).

Adler regards encouragement and love as far superior to punishment and threats. Teachers must be sufficiently well-adjusted so that they serve effective models of social interest, treat their students with respect, and genuinely wish to contribute to the welfare of humankind.

Piaget said that education should be about thinking, not about learning facts. People who can think will learn. Piaget felt teachers should lecture less, as children in concrete operations learn best via their own actions and experimentation. Piaget also felt that before the final stage (i.e., formal operations, which begins at age 11 or 12) a child learns best from his or her own actions, not lectures, and his or her interactions and communications with peers rather than adults.

Freud implies that education should be about concern for students emotional health and welfare, not about learning facts. People whose emotional needs are met will learn.

Carl Rogers is highly critical of the authoritarian and coercive philosophy that pervades our educational system. All too often, the teacher assumes the mantle of power and directs the activities of passive, subservient students. Grades are based primarily on examinations, which require students to parrot back specific facts that the teacher considers important. Pronounced distrust is evidenced by the teacher constantly checking up on the students progress, and by students remaining on guard against trick questions and unfair grading practices. The unfortunate results are that many potentially outstanding students develop negative attitudes toward further learning, which they perceive as an unpleasant obligation rather than a golden opportunity. Our schools are more damaging than helpful to personality development, and are a negative influence on creative thinking.

The person-centered teacher seeks to create a psychological climate that facilitates the students capacity to think and learn for themselves. The teacher demonstrates empathy and unconditional positive regard for the students feelings and interests, and genuineness concerning his or her own inner experience. Decision making is a shared process, with students helping to devise their own program of learning. Class periods are unstructured, with no lectures or formal procedures, so that students may form and express their own opinion.

The teacher serves as an optional resource, and provides comments or suggested reading only when asked to do so. Grades are mutually agreed upon, with the student providing evidence as to the amount of persona and educational growth that has been achieved during the course. This primarily self-directed approach enables students to enjoy the process of learning, and to discover and develop directions that are truly rewarding (Rogers, 1969, 1983).

The person-centered approach to education often arouses initial resistance and hostility since students expect to be told what to do. Students who have been clamoring for freedom are definitely frightened when they realize that it also means responsibility. However, Rogers concludes that this approach typically leads to more rapid and thorough learning at all educational levels and to such positive student evaluations. Rogers stated that he was surprised to find out how well he was able to study and learn when he was not forced to do so. It was like I was an adult not supervised and guided all the time, and Ive never read so much in my life (Rogers, 1977, pp. 76-78).

Like Rogers, Abraham Maslow advocates a nondirective and person-centered approach to education. He takes strong exception to the rigid formalities found in higher education: courses must all span precisely the same number of weeks, even though some subjects are more difficult and comprehensive than others. Academic departments are totally independent, as though human knowledge could be neatly divided into separate and distinct categories. The emphasis is on learning many specific facts, rather than on personal growth. Motivation is provided by such external rewards as grades, which often leads students to do only the work that is specifically required by the teacher. Maslow stated that the present school system is an extremely effective instrument for crushing peak experiences and forbidden their possibilities, and school are to help people become fully human and actualize their highest potentials (Maslow, 1971).

Skinner strongly disagrees with the contingencies of reinforcement used by most educators. Some teachers excuse students from additional homework as a form of reward, a procedure that is exactly the opposite of proper behavior modification (which would make extra schoolwork positively reinforcing). Crowded classroom make it impossible for even the most dedicated teacher to meet every students needs, with lectures and other group methods proceeding too quickly for some students and too slowly for others. Although the birch rod has generally been abandoned, teachers still use such forms of punishments as sharp criticism and failing grades. Positive reinforcements typically occur minutes or even hours after a correct response, which destroys most of their effectiveness, so it is hardly surprising that more and more young people fail to learn, resort to vandalism, or drop out of school. They have not lost their love of learning, but have been victimized by educational contingencies of reinforcement that are not very compelling (Skinner, 1984).

The solution advocated by Skinner is programmed instruction, wherein specific correct responses are promptly reinforced in a carefully prepared sequence designed to produce optimal learning. To Skinner, programmed instruction has numerous advantages. Students gain immediate (and this more powerful) reinforcement for correct answers, can proceed at their own pace, and are presented with material in a maximally effective order. The teacher is freed from many tedious chores, such as grading vast numbers of test papers, and has more time to give individual assistance to those who most need it (Skinner, 1978).

The key to orderly classrooms is the teachers ability to prevent behavior from occurring in the first place rather than handling misbehavior once it happens (Freiger, 1999).

Classroom management refers to teachers strategies that create and maintain an orderly learning environment.

Good teachers have warmth, empathy, sensitivity, enthusiasm, and humor.

Schools must inspire students to pursue academic excellence and social success by celebrating diversity, knowledge, and literacy; commitment to positive character; striving for achievement; and responsibility by educating them in an encouraging, supportive, safe learning community to become independent life-long learners.

Through collaboration, dedication, professional growth, providing a safe and secure climate that fosters teamwork, an enhancing nurturing environment, parental-community involvement, and high expectations for all students, David G. Burnet Elementary promotes a legacy of excellence in education. Burnet Elementary prepares productive, responsible citizens with the highest quality of education by providing them with critical, research-based academic skills for success, empowering them with the responsibility of their own learning, fostering individual responsibility, mutual respect, self-discipline, and a passion for excellence in every aspect of life.

Excellence doesnt just happen; its a decision we make every day. It is the responsibility of the school to plant the seeds for life-long success by building and enhancing academic, social, multicultural awareness in cooperation with parents and members of the community in order for students to achieve success in life to their fullest potential, and to make positive contributions to their community. Students have a self-expectation of excellence to pursue their hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

John W. Gardner, the president of the Carnegie Corporation, stated: The most important moral of all is that excellence is where you find it. I would extend this generalization to cover not just higher education but all education from vocational high school to graduate school. We must learn to honor excellence, indeed to demand it in every socially accepted human activity, however humble that activity, and to scorn shoddiness, however exalted the activity. An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. "Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water. - Victor L. Brown (19141995) CanadianAmerican religious leader at BYU, November 7, 1962.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle (384322 BC) Greek philosopher, studied under Plato, tutored Alexander the Great.

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. - Harriet Braiker.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.- Martin Luther King, Jr. (19291968) U.S. civil rights leader, orator, clergyman, youngest to receive Nobel Peace Prize 1964.

Serendipity occurs when a researcher sets out to discover one thing but in the process makes an unexpected discovery that can be much more important.

Quote from noted educational author Jonathan Kozol in describing what he would look for in a teacher:

"Obviously we want people who can teach (their subjects), but if we had to narrow it down to one characteristic, I would always hire teachers whom I wouldnt mind getting stuck on a long plane flight to Europe, I would look for people who are capable of making the world seem joyful, people who are a delight to be with, people who are contagiously amusing human beings. To me, thats more important than almost anything else. I would put the emphasis on the capability to create contagious enthusiasm for life. There are lots of teachers like that, but not enough."

Position Available

Facilitator for Reflective Practice

Oysterman & Kottkamp

A person who is inherently curious; someone who doesnt have all the answers and isnt afraid to admit it; someone who is confident enough in his or her ability to accept challenges in a nondefensive manner; someone who is secure enough to make his or her thinking public and therefore subject to discussion; someone who is a good listener; someone who likes other people and trust them to make the right decisions if given the opportunity; someone who is able to see things from anothers perspective and is sensitive to the needs and feelings of others; someone who is able to relax, lean back, and let others assume the responsibility of their own learning. Some experience desirable but not as important as the ability to learn from mistakes.

Oysterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (1993). Reflective Practice for Educators; Improving

Schooling Through Professional Development, p. 64: Corwin Press, Inc.

Pierre Laplace, the eighteen-century mathematician and astronomer, said in his in his Mecanique Celeste, a very few fundamental laws can explain an extraordinary number of very complex phenomena.