TCEA 2005 Opening Session and Ron Clark Keynote

1st TCEA convention in 1980, had 84
people in attendance
– last year, over
12,000 total attendees

Comments from
the Texas Education
Commissioner

Every other word in this
79th Texas legislative session is
“technology”
– Grussendorf is talking about
taking testing online
– help us work
smarter not harder through technology, help us reach
everyone

Grussendorf on Dec 8th had a
special gathering for vendors and others about technology (hosted by
TCEA)


4.3 million children in Texas are counting
on us as educators

To whom much has
been given, much is required

have
developed new technoology camp / workshop for campus
technologists
– week of June
22
– around March 1st more info will be
posted

RON
CLARK
– went to teach in inner city
Harlem
– visited each child’s home before
the first day of school
– named in 2001
Disney teacher of the year
– TV movie, “The
Ron Clark Story” is being made into a
movie

Ron came up with 55
expectations for kids: “Civility in
School”

Ron Clark
comments
– last year, had been to 49 states
in last year, 300 schools

really
talked with his hands

for past 2
years, haven’t taught in regular
classroom
– is starting new school for
grades 5-8

took a group of kids to
south africa, Soweto, delivered lots of supplies in remote
locations
– Harlem kids often tell Ron

www.ronclark.info is website
that is about his work, trip to South
Africa
– lots of teacher resources,
etc.

I love teaching, when school
opens, Ron will be a 5th grade teacher
–
are not going to have a principal, 5 teachers on the
committee

growing up a never want to
teach: archelogist, teacher
– 1 greatest
aspiration was adventure: did all kinds of
things

got a job in London after
taking 1 way ticket
– took job as singing
and dancing waiter

Ended up in
Romania
– was flown home to North
Carolinea, home was 5 miles away after getting bad food
poisoning

His mother made him go talk
to principal

Found that best
adventures were in the 4 walls of the
classroom
– lots of the kids I have taught
have lost something: hope, pride,
self-confidence
– teaching is the best job
in the world and the hardest

came up
with 8 rules to respect the teacher, respect each other,
etc
– this really changed the complexation
of the class
– kept increasing rules, moved
to Harlem and had 55 rules

The more
specific you are with kids: the better results you
have
– in college they say don’t have more
than 5 rules: THAT IS CRAP!
– kids like
structure, whatever the age

what I
found: kids want structure, what the guidelines, how you expect to be
treated
– tell them how you expect to be
treated

one rule: be as organized as
possible
– that summer bought all the
school supplies, made chart send
writing

I didn’t get along well with
my Harlem principal because all she saw was test
schores

key: took the time to show
them how to be organized, and taught
them

Have kids who he taught in 5th
grade that are now in college
– these are
skills for life
– how to give a firm
handshake, go to an interview
– we are
spending so much time teaching knowledge and curriculum, but not giving them the
skills of how to use that

in America,
a lot of how you present yourself tells about
you
– kids from more affluent areas know
how to carry themselves
– our kids needed
to be lifted up, be proud of
themselves

I didn’t know if teaching
manners and respect, building the classroom into a family would work, but it
did

Every school with high test
scores feels like a family
– the secretary
is the face of the school
– there is no
need for fear or tension

You can get
a good feel for schools: do they feel like a
home
– lots of kids I taught didn’t have a
home: they had a house

all of us as
humans need to find connected to something, have a family, have a connected
bond, etc.
– the kids I taught didn’t have
this, but they look for that
acceptance

I wanted to turn the
school into a family
– turn it into a place
where kids wanted to be
– school needs to
be a community: everyone needs to know
everyone
– took pictures of
everyone

seemed no one had taught
these kids about respecting everyone as an
individual
– after school blew up photos on
xerox machine

most kids in America
have that 1 good teacher who is looking after
them
– what if these kids had a whole
school looking after them
– kids in
cafeteria had to use good manners and etiquette, finally they won over the
cafeteria
— turned cafeteria time to a
time when kids

with these 55 rules,
try to bring respect, order to classroom
–
the more specific you can be, role play with your
kids
– usually it would take till November
to get the classroom to where he wanted them to
be

Those kids that make you want to
pull your hair out, they always come to
school!

Most difficult course to
teach, sex ed to 5th and 6th grade male
students

…. I had to leave early to
make my presentation at 10:30 am…. 🙁