Book Group Meeting 3

In our third book group meeting, we will debate some of the following points. What are your thoughts?

Points for Debate

o  Motivation. You cannot motivate people, but can only set up certain conditions that will develop their interest in what they are doing and remove constraints.

o  Merit Pay. If we want to improve the quality of teaching at ISZL, we should follow the lead of some businesses and base pay increases on teacher performance appraisals and involvement in extra-curricular activities.

o  Awards. There is a place in schools for awards and rewards, especially rewards for good behaviour.

o  Report Cards. Some people want to get rid of grades on report cards and others say grades are the quickest and clearest way of telling parents how their children are doing in school. What would be the ideal reporting system?

o  Improvement. The best way to improve any educational system is to increase the length of the school day/year and to ensure that students have more set work to do at home.

o  Self-Esteem. Students are failing to learn because we’re afraid to let them know when they get something wrong for fear of injuring their self-esteem.

o  Consistency. Every teacher in ISZL should know what material is to be covered for their specific grade, when it should be covered, and how to evaluate their students’ performance.

o  Choice. The more a child feels part of the process, the more his/her point of view is solicited and taken seriously, the fewer the problems there will be.

o  Respect I. Experienced teachers sometime say that they are “not here to be liked”. A good way to gain respect and establish class discipline is to hand out detentions or ‘zeros’ for missing homework, perceived lack of effort in class, breaking classr rules or missing deadlines. If they start wit this early in the year, students won’t do it again later.

o  Respect II. Some teachers equate being a good teacher with being popular and being seen as a students’ friend. This may involve turning a blind eye to students not following minor school rules such as chewing gum or using their phones in order to avoid conflict.

o  Caring. More emphasis should be placed on teaching values. Students should learn to care, share, and help across different situations and with different people, including those they don’t know, don’t like, and don’t look like.

o  Rules. Rules have an important place in schools and it is the responsibility of the

adult to ensure that rules are fair, consistent and enforced.

o  Safety. A classroom that feels safe is one in which students are free to admit when they don’t understand something and are able to ask for help. Grades, tests, rewards and punishment are the enemies of safety as they reduce the probability that students will speak up.