Comments on: Too many consultants?

By: Charley Butcher

Charley Butcher — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:01:16 +0000

Now we do agree!! Technolgy is the hook that teachers must buy into in order to truly captivate their audience. Students today are obsessed with technology. From MP3 players to cell phones, and video games they are the technoology generation, and if we dont integrate that into our classroom we will surely lose some of these kids. Now I know that pushes some teachers out of their comfort zone, but who cares what you as a teacher is comfortable with, it is about the students not the teacher, and we have to use any means we have to reach them. So I agree 100% with you that money and energy has got to funneled more into the education sysytem, and quit just doing lip service to it. We need to rethink budgets and professional development opportunities and skew them towards purchasing STATE OF THE ART technology (not out dated, and the integration and implementation into the classrooms, wheteher that be by consultants for individual schools or by Divisions. But after we have met with these consultants and we are excited and motivated to use these things we have to have the hardware and software to implement these strategies. But I still maintain that if the above things happen, and I have class sizes of say 15 to 18 the opportunity for a child to not suceed in my class would be extrememly minimal!

By: Steve Poling

Steve Poling — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:54:03 +0000

Thanks for your thoughtful discussion. I agree with you, there has to be some sort of happy medium where class size can be reasonable and there can be money for other things such as consultants or technology or….
I taught in a middle school for about 4 years that had some of the largest class sizes in the area of about 30-32 per class. With 5 periods a day, that is a ton of kids to teach!

By: Charley Butcher

Charley Butcher — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:26:28 +0000

I agree whole heartedly with you that consultants can provide a very beneficial service to educators. I personally would like to see reduced classroom sizes and the use of consultants, you know the best of both worlds. But I still maintain that class sizes aound 30 no matter how great the teaching not all kids will be addressed to individual needs. But thank you for your polite and informative comments!!!

By: Steve Poling

Steve Poling — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:53:15 +0000

Interesting post and follow-up comments. Many studies show that the biggest impact on student achievement is not class size but the quality of the teacher (as everyone knows) and consultants can be valuable in increasing the quality of teachers. I was in a district which hired the best consultants for a couple of years. The results on teacher quality through embedded professional development and coaching were outstanding. The subsequent rise in student achievement was notable. The consultants were worth every penny. The tide turned however, with similar thoughts which were reflected in your post, and the district got rid of the consultants thinking that they could provide the same service in-house and therefore much cheaper. The results were equally ‘outstanding’ but not in the same direction as was hoped.

By: Charley Butcher

Charley Butcher — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:05:02 +0000

I agree with most all of your points except as a teacher I would argue that by increasing the number of teachers and therefore reducing class sizes, eductaion would change. We would have time to 1)spend time one on one with ALL students, 2)spend time implementing new ideas (less students less paperwork time you know what I mean), and 3) most importantly being able to build even better relationships with our students that will lead to a more focused and conducive educational environment. I would kill for classes of 12 to 15 kids where I could really get to know them, how they learn and what they are interested in so I could structure my course to fit into those needs. But with classes around 30 kids and 50 minute periods you just cant do that!