The school year is coming to a close in the next few weeks (too quickly for some and much too slowly for others) and the pace of activities continues to accelerate. In addition to another round of MCAS and PARCC testing, students in Advanced Placement classes are finishing up their ‘AP’ exams while students and staff are all trying to figure out how to finish up their work in preparation for final exams, field days, projects and the final days of activities before summer vacation. While classes for all students except seniors are scheduled to end on June 24th (due to the 7 snow days we missed this year), the seniors have many fewer days left with commencement scheduled for Friday evening, June 5 at 6 p.m. on Booster Field.
I believe in the great work our staff is doing with students at all age and ability levels and the evidence is visible every day in our buildings. The school committee seemed very pleased with the ‘elementary/middle school update’ arranged by Principal Coburn for our May 13 school committee meeting. At this meeting, rather than review the information she had previously shared with the committee, Principal Coburn had three students present their projects to the school committee. The projects ranged from a book report to information on Anne Frank to a personification of Benjamin Franklin. The three individuals presenting their projects did an outstanding job, which I’m sure are representative of the projects done by their many classmates. What struck me even more than the information was the delivery –all of these students did very well presenting in front of a room full of adults. Their level of poise, the articulation and projection of their voices, and their ability to respond to questions was phenomenal. When one thinks about the amount of research, preparation, and organization that goes into these types of learning projects, and then combines that with the ability to also present said information in a manner that keeps the audience’s attention, you understand the power of educating the whole child. This is so much more than simple memorization, listing basic facts, or simply reorganizing information and really points to what so many have listed as tenants of 21st Century Learning, which Gateway has included in the goals for all students – collaboration, communication, creativity and problem solving. While it is not impossible to measure some of these items on standardized tests, the complexity of developing and implementing tests to do this would be so costly that we are not likely to ever see them used in place of the more simplistic MCAS or PARCC evaluations.
I understand the difficulty of incorporating all of these facets of education into the daily life of a classroom, especially given the state and national emphasis on testing knowledge as expressed in the “Common Core”. Coupled with the manipulation of these test results to essentially ‘grade’ schools, teachers, and students, one must give great credit to all of our staff members for finding ways to incorporate these essential items into our classrooms. In conjunction with all of the other activities (sports, extra-curricular activities, field trips, etc.) that occur throughout the year, and throughout a student’s time in public K-12 education, it’s little wonder why staff members in education feel overburdened, stressed out, and more than a little anxious when new mandates are passed down that create even more of a drain on the very real time restrictions everyone faces. To find the right balance between the objectives of the policy makers and the needs of students is nearly impossible, yet somehow our staff members are walking that tightrope with very little in the way of safety nets – and they do this day after day, year after year always keeping the best interests of our students in the forefront of their thoughts.
