Challenges

There are a lot of challenges in education. So after sixteen years in education, challenges should be nothing new to me, especially when starting a new program. One of the big challenges is that our teachers do not have a contract and have not had one for two years. Scheduling any after school meetings or trainings or asking them to do anything new is very difficult this year. Some of the elements of the project the team needs to accomplish are:

1) Get the students onto the Kuder Navigator system - it's been slow getting all the students onto the site because we have close to 500 students in our freshmen class. The guidance counselors have been working hard since we started using Kuder at the beginning of October. The personality tests take about 20 minutes each, so the students use at least one period to input their information and then to take one of the tests. This process is something we'll have to work out - do we have the students take the tests with the guidance counselors, during their phys. ed classes (which are two periods, two days per week) or do they take them at home?

2) Student-led conferences -- at the NJASCD PSLP workshop in September the team saw a video of student led conferences. Wow! What a powerful tool for the students. I loved how the students took ownership of their education. So I'll have to meet with the principal on our team and figure out how this can be done. It may not happen this year - but hey, the pilot program is two years.

3) Advisory period -- a key component in the student-led conferences is having advisors for the students. Setting up an advisory period or periods is going to prove challenging because when do we work it into the schedule, are we going to have to negotiate this with the union (and can we even do that) first or do we just make it part of the schedule once a month? I get energized and exhausted at the same time by all the ideas and things that could be with this PSLP program.

4) E-portfolios -- this is an element of the PSLP program I've discussed with the freshmen English teachers, but need to educate the teachers on these so the portfolios don't become a dumping ground for just anything. The e-portfolios could and should also be used as part of the student-led conferences.

I'm sure other challenges will come up along the way -- it wouldn't be education or life if there weren't challenges.