After her beloved husband died of cancer, young Deborah Kenny decided to go out of her little world and pursue a bigger and broader dream-to join in education. The school she founded shocked the American education community. New york Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it a "national outstanding model". After visiting her school, the president of the United States called on all schools in the United States to follow its example.
The freshmen in her school lag far behind the average students. But in just a few years, they made rapid progress and ranked first in New York State. Character education is more prominent, and the school bullying incident is zero. Deborah Kenny herself was praised by Oprah as a pioneer of American education because of her educational career. She made good use of the excellent viewpoint of peter drucker, a master of business administration, created a win-win framework for teachers and students, and led the underrated children in Harlem to break through all difficulties and reach the peak of learning. In the book, Dr. Deborah shared her new ideas about education in the past decade: changing the working environment and creating an influential teaching culture. She also shared with readers how to attract talented teachers; How to lead students to the peak of learning hall; How to create a magical campus that not only parents are satisfied, but also teachers will fall in love with? The positive energy she passed on to society along the way. After reading this book, you will explore your potential as hard as the teachers and students in Harlem School, and be willing to learn and contribute.
The contents elaborated in the book, whether it is educational philosophy or educational spirit, school-running philosophy or teaching methods, family education or personal growth, will be required books for parents who care about children's education, teachers who want to improve students' learning ability, and educators.
First, insist on doing ordinary things.
Deborah Kenny, as an ordinary person, her husband died of leukemia. As a mother, she must work hard with several children. Most importantly, she devoted herself to running a school. The countless hardships she made two years before running a school and the special education events she experienced ten years before running a school will make everyone who knows these stories cry from time to time. I have read Tao Xingzhi's educational theory before, and I know that he has spent a lot of effort in running Xiaozhuang School, Life Education Society, Shanhai Engineering Group, Yucai School and Social University, but Tao Xingzhi still has many people to support him. But I can't imagine how difficult it is to run a school in such a developed America! I know that all hardships are often not a problem for a persistent person! It is because of these hard roads that we can touch God and make a Harlem rural school less than ten years successful. This miracle is the necessity of suffering and loving education.
Second, insist on doing general education.
Deborah Kenny teaches her three children to read two or three books a week and brings the experience of teaching children to her school. She has a school goal of "making students love reading". How to achieve it? Let students read for an hour every day and ask them to read 50 books a year (other schools in Deborah Kenny's state only ask students to read 7 books a year). In fact, each student has read 100 extra-curricular books a year.
In chapter 12, Let Children Love Reading, Deborah said that all freshmen should take the first diagnostic reading test to test their reading level, and then put forward targeted reading guidance and guidance. Howard told Deborah in the book: "The prison construction industry has a very simple business model. They will refer to the failure rate of fourth-grade students in various communities across the country, and then build prisons in communities with poor reading level. If a child can't read and write before the age of nine, then he will definitely go to prison when he is young. " Deborah's own practice is to "put books, handicrafts and riddles in every room and often take them to the bookstore". Her own children regard reading as a pleasure. One of her goals for Harlem rural school is to make students fall in love with reading, aiming at "inspiring students' love for reading" and "making them form the habit of reading happily".
Third, ordinary principals do extraordinary things.
People often say that "a good principal is a good school", which is the reason. Deborah Kenny has been running a school for ten years, and finished the book Miracle School: A Teaching Legend that Shocked American Education. This is a memoir, telling the story of the headmaster and his school. I think, as a principal, I must have done a lot in a school for several years, and many things will happen to teachers and students in the school. A responsible principal should record these things and write a memoir, which will be the most valuable asset of the school. From the idea of establishing a school to investigation and evidence collection, to continuous visits and studies, to collecting relevant information and obtaining the approval of relevant departments, to striving for funds to establish a school building, to selecting the first teacher and recruiting the first student ... With the unremitting efforts of Deborah Kenny, who is thoughtful, intelligent, creative and amiable, she founded a number of Harlem rural schools in junior high schools, senior high schools and primary schools. These schools have achieved excellent results and great success, and even President Bush personally inspected these schools.
Fourth, ordinary teachers have enthusiasm to do it.
The importance of a good teacher to the development of the school is self-evident. Deborah said in the fourth chapter "Let Talents Become Core Competitiveness": "Teachers are the key to the problem ... The only way is to start with people, that is, teachers, to cultivate their teaching enthusiasm and give full play to their talents." Therefore, a good principal and a good school should give teachers full autonomy, fully tap and cultivate teachers' passion and talents, and let them give full play to their intelligence. She also said: "The basic element of a good school is excellent teachers." "Teaching is not a job, but a sacred task ... I hope all my teachers care about children, pay attention to the quality of education and enjoy the teaching process instead of thinking about leaving class early ..." Deborah interviewed thousands of teachers before finding two teachers she was satisfied with: Nick and Rebecca. These two teachers are kind, easy-going and smart, which well regulate children and classrooms and develop students' initiative and autonomy. The two of them are full of passion and can arouse students' interest in learning. Later, Deborah was also very strict and demanding in choosing teachers. On the other hand, he has full autonomy in hiring teachers, so she has the right to dismiss unqualified teachers. It is precisely because of such excellent teachers that such a famous headmaster and Harlem rural school have been made.
5. General education for ordinary children
There is a saying: "Habit determines character, and character determines fate." The process of children's growth is actually the process of constantly developing good habits. Therefore, as schools and teachers, we should do everything possible to cultivate and guide children to develop various good reading habits, study habits, living habits and social communication habits. Deborah said in chapter 1 1 The Magical Transformation of Children: "I think schools should use preventive strategies to teach students' behavior: clearly put forward the requirements for students, form routines and let them form habits." Among them, an excellent teacher, Bereka, did just that. She "corrects everyone's behavior all the time, aiming at her every time." "Bereka broke down the classroom instructions into small parts, clearly conveyed her own requirements to the students, and helped them successfully complete the task with such detailed requirements." In this way, day after day, week after week, Bereka taught children to form some good habits slowly, so that children can benefit for life.
In daily education and teaching, I also constantly cultivate students' reading habits. I often say to my students, "Reading is like farmers growing crops. Only by working hard can crops thrive and autumn will be fruitful. " Love reading! It is beautiful, happy, happy, full, rich and regretless to be accompanied by books all your life.
Life is limited and learning is infinite; Life is not limited, learning is constant.
Reflections on the Miracle School (2) "Deborah, a visionary educator! She redefined national basic education. " This is Oprah magazine's evaluation of Deborah. After watching Miracle School, I want to say Deborah, a real educator! She has the excellent qualities that a real educator should have.
Strong sense of self-education
We know that any education begins with self-education. Deborah has a strong sense of self-education since she was a child, constantly seeking and perfecting herself. In her memory, she has been focusing on her studies and knowledge. In high school, she didn't regard success as important as others. On the contrary, she is completely immersed in the road of seeking truth. She extracted a sentence from haim Potoc's The First: "Ignorance is a sin, and fools are slaughtered." During her college years, she read widely and spent almost every night in the library. She never takes part in some entertainment activities such as parties, which she thinks is a waste of time. When I was a sophomore, I went to a senior three class. I usually talk to my friends about Emerson, Kabala and William. James, who listened to the famous speaker's speech and took the initiative to consult his learned elders, finally realized the meaning of life that she had been exploring from the Jewish teaching method tutor: I used my life to serve others. This established her value orientation of dedicating herself and serving others as an educator.
Second, profound educational feelings.
Deborah is eager to serve others, and she dreams of becoming an educator. She has her own unique view on education: the highest form of education should be to convey information to students, not to impose ideas on them. A real teacher should just build a knowledge system for students, so that students can have their own innovations in the system. She expressed deep sympathy for the children living in misery, and placed great sympathy and deep educational feelings on them. The article mentioned a 12-year-old African American boy named Eric. Boyd lives in Chicago. The article quoted him as saying: "I woke up at night and heard someone shooting outside, and there was a noisy carnival. I saw a teenager hit on the head in front of my house. Mom won't let me go out to play, because he is afraid that those bad guys will force me to join in, and he doesn't want me to die. I like math as well as reading books. Once someone from a company took us to visit an engineer. I want to be an engineer, too! In stories, wishes always come true, but none of the people I know come true. " Eric's misfortune in the article strengthened Deborah's determination to help children like him. Since then, we have embarked on the arduous and tortuous road of establishing charter schools. Stick to our original wishes and remember our mission.
Third, the people-oriented educational concept.
Deborah is a person who really understands education. She believes that the education revolution should be from the bottom up. The focus of education is not to develop products, but to cultivate educational talents. We should give full play to people's subjective initiative. She said: Although I haven't fully understood how to improve the education system, I'm sure the only way is to start with people, that is, teachers, to cultivate their teaching enthusiasm and give full play to their talents. She knows that teachers are the core strength of a good school, and she gives them full autonomy. Attend classes in person, find excellent teachers, build star teachers and form excellent teams. To establish a team culture, we must first understand what everyone loves, and then give everyone a chance to show it. As a team, the most important thing is to understand each other, not to spread gossip, and to understand others in the best way. As long as the staff and culture are well managed, everything will come naturally. And through the accountability system to ensure the quality of teaching, she said, I think so: if the quality of teaching is high, the joint result is excellent exam results. A teacher's teaching doesn't have to aim at one test, but must get high marks. In my school, the curriculum will not be limited by the content of the exam. But I don't think exams will completely restrict teachers from playing their high-quality teaching level. This is exactly what she is good at, which not only improves students' quality, but also ensures their grades. For children, Deborah thinks: raise children like educators. She believes that to cultivate a healthy child, parents and teachers should pay attention to these aspects: love, books, values, self-confidence, nature, contribution, morality and curiosity. What she appreciates most is Xavier's core idea: the purpose of the school is to cultivate students to uphold those eternal values, such as simplicity, service and care. Her love for children is gentle and severe. She put an end to punishment and even reminded the teacher not to yell at the children. She said: I think schools should use preventive strategies to educate students to abide by the rules: clearly put forward the requirements for students, form routines and let them form habits, speak to them in a dignified tone, and establish a good teacher-student relationship with students. The most important thing is that the course should be interesting, difficult and reasonably designed. I deeply feel that we should do these things. As the only charter school without a reward and punishment system, it is quite risky for me to do so. She advocates that students should undertake the main thinking work in their studies. In order to create a warm atmosphere, write a welcome message on the blackboard every day, one word a day and one sentence a week; She decorated the bulletin board with classic old books to create a warm and inspiring learning atmosphere for teachers and students; Turn the harsh school clock into the classical music of composers such as Tchaikovsky and Beethoven; On the first day of school, put a bouquet of flowers on each teacher's desk to thank them for their hard work; At the beginning of school, pray for each student and write different prayers for each child; On the first day of school, I ordered some croissants to comfort my teacher.
At the graduation ceremony, the children sincerely thanked and told, and Deborah couldn't help crying.
An educator who can make children love infinitely, and a school that can make children miss the future. How can you say this is not a miracle? A miracle created by real educators!
Reflections on the Miracle School (3) I read Deborah in the dog days of "barbecue mode" in July. Kenny's Miracle School, after reading it, was also ignited by the miracle created by Deborah with her life and passion, just like this dog days. With the dream of becoming an educator, Deborah experienced the grief of losing her husband. With extraordinary courage and perseverance, she overcame a series of unimaginable problems such as financial problems, teachers' problems and school buildings, and finally built Harlem rural school-Miracle School. If I can travel through time and space, how much I want to sit in this miracle school and take classes in such a school. What a happy thing it is, because the students here will receive a comprehensive education: the cultivation of sound personality and recognized virtues.
As an educator, I always firmly believe that students' education should focus on the future. Every time I communicate with parents, I will also tell them that the education of children is moral education first, followed by the cultivation of children's comprehensive ability, and we can't just look at the scores of children's usual subject exams. Although I have always had this idea in my mind and have been working hard in this direction, I have always been confused and don't know what language to use to express this educational concept. After reading the book Miracle School, I was suddenly enlightened. The initial educational goal I have been looking for is the all-round education for students advocated by Deborah: to cultivate students' sound character and recognized virtues.
What will happen if a person's personality is not perfect or there is no recognized virtue? Look at the following shocking cases: One night in February, 2065438+2005, a junior three student in Nanchang fell asleep while doing homework at home. After being scolded by his mother, he strangled her and threw her into the river. 20 15 12 17 a graduate student of Beihou university committed suicide by jumping off a building due to depression. 2016 65438+1October 25th, a graduate student of nanyou university committed suicide by jumping off a building due to the psychological pressure of failing the thesis. On April 28th, 20 16, a middle school student in Pengshui County, Chongqing was beaten to death by his classmates in the toilet. 20 16 On June 24th, primary school students in grade one and grade six in Hunan committed suicide by jumping off a building because they were dissatisfied with the placement of classroom seats. There are many similar cases. From these cases, we can see that today's children have not developed the ability to face difficulties correctly and solve them bravely since childhood, and their psychological endurance is particularly poor. They can't stand some setbacks in life and study, and often choose extreme escape ways to solve problems. This is all because children have not formed a sound personality during their growth.
Therefore, in order to avoid the above-mentioned similar tragedies, for the healthy growth of students and the civilized development of society, we must take cultivating students' sound character and recognized virtues as our educational goal. Although this training process is full of difficulties, puzzles and challenges, as long as we set this educational goal and are full of sense of responsibility, I believe that one day we will also train students into the successful students described by Deborah: with sound personality, mature thinking, extremely independent thinking, enthusiasm for reading, compassion and meaningful and thoughtful life. Then we will also create a miracle that belongs to us!