Newswise — Heading back to school offers challenges for children, teens, parents—and their teachers, too. Education experts at Rowan University are available to discuss a host of back-to-school issues, including building learning communities in classrooms, parents' roles in fostering school success, challenges facing beginning teachers, and the importance of special education assessments.
Taking the (learning) community approach to the classroom
Teachers who set the stage to make their classroom a true learning community are challenging their students to do more than work hard academically. They're also instilling in their students the importance of responsibility and teamwork, according to Carol Sharp, dean of Rowan's College of Education, where teacher candidates learn how to put learning communities into practice in their classrooms.
"In a learning community, you not only value learning, you also value the community," says Sharp, an expert in learning communities. "We're teaching children to be socially responsible and personally responsible. In a learning community, everyone is entitled to learn and it's important that everyone has an equal opportunity to learn. The children understand that it's important for everybody to be successful. They learn to live with other people--and they learn from each other."
Rowan student teachers and recent alumni entering their classrooms this September "know different strategies for engaging students in a learning community," says Sharp.
"They think about their goals, how they're going to approach their teaching, how they're going to communicate with parents, and how they're going to extend what's happening in their classroom learning community into the larger community."
Back to school"¦for parents
You've bought the back-to-school wardrobe, the book bag, the cool, must-have shoes, and the pencils, crayons and color-coordinated folders. Your work as a back-to-school parent is done, right?
Not so, says Rowan education professor Burton Sisco. Parents' most important job as children head back to school is to prepare their children to learn in the classroom and to demonstrate to teachers that they want to be partners in a successful school year, Sisco says.
"Teachers expect to be treated respectfully. They want to feel supported and respected and feel like they're part of a team with parents, working in concert with students' best interests," says Sisco.
Parents can do their part to prepare for the school year by supporting their child's teacher, volunteering to help out when they can, attending parent-teacher conferences, and demonstrating that they're serious about learning by sending their children to school well-rested and well-nourished, Sisco notes.
"What we look for in teachers are really three things: that they're caring, competent and qualified. There's no question that teachers today are the best prepared we've ever had. They're graduating not only knowing their subject, but also how kids learn."
No rest for the beginning teacher
Diane Mazzei remembers one thing very clearly about being a first-year teacher. "I couldn't sleep at night," laughs the director of Rowan's Thomas E. Robinson Beginning Teacher Induction Center. "I kept thinking of activities and lessons I wanted to try with the children."
These days, Mazzei, who spent over 30 years as a public school teacher and administrator, works to help beginning teachers acquire the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in the classroom. Mazzei oversees a year-long training institute which provides professional development to novice teachers throughout Southern New Jersey. The institute kicks off with courses Aug. 21 and 22 on beginning the school year and classroom management.
Courses continue throughout the year with sessions on preparing for parent-teacher conferences, school law, inclusive classrooms, and other issues. Each novice teacher is paired with an in-district mentor, who helps them get acclimated to the profession.
While Mazzei is impressed with today's beginning teachers—"I'm impressed with their professionalism and they're very well-versed in the best classroom practices," she says—she knows novice teachers could use a little support"¦even if that means sharing tips on getting to sleep at night.
"The knowledge they gain through BTIC complements what they already know and provides them with a good network of other teachers sharing similar experiences," Mazzei says.
Assessing the role of assessments
No parent wants to hear that their child has a learning disability or cognitive impairment. But the earlier a parent knows their child has special needs, the better prepared they can be for their educational future, according to Rowan special education professor Stanley Urban and school psychologist Beth Cusack of the University's Assessment and Learning Center.
Now in its 15th year, the center provides independent diagnostic evaluations for children with educational and developmental disorders. Parents come to Rowan looking for a second opinion on an assessment already conducted by their district's child study team or simply because they feel their child may have a developmental disorder or learning disability.
"People will call us out of the blue and say, 'I just have this nagging concern about my child,'" Cusack says. "If you have that nagging concern, you should go with it. You should check it out."
Despite often daunting budgetary and administrative constraints, school districts generally do a pretty good job of assessing children with special needs, Cusack says.
"We usually find their evaluations are very good," says Cusack. The same goes for teachers, according to Urban, the assessment center's director. "A competent teacher is able to compare that child to hundreds of others they have taught. Teacher judgment usually is very accurate," Urban says.
Reach Urban and Cusack through the Assessment and Learning Center, which is part of Rowan's Special Educational Services/Instruction Department, at 856-256-4512.
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