A teacher’s working conditions are a student’s learning conditions

Part 1 of my response to Question #3 from the Trustee Forum

Question #3.How can the school board support teachers in their roles to ensure our students are 21st century learners?

21st century schools won’t be designed to open up a child’s brain and pour in knowledge. We need to help our children develop creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, technology and communication skills and help them become resourceful ethical citizens of the future, as well as curriculum knowledge in all subject areas. Hands-on, relevant learning motivates students. We need to support innovative education like the proposed Glendale skateboard option, where students use creativity and decision making to decide on the style of board they make. Engineering in designing the board and problem solving when they are building the skateboard and need to overcome design problems.

Don’t pile more work onto staff without taking something away. As a former business owner I know that if you download too much onto your staff productivity goes down and this leads to the quality of work going down. Same thing in Education, if you want a quality education for the students do not over burdened the teachers, EA’s and office staff.

“A teacher’s working conditions are a student’s learning conditions”