Duncan Challenges Young TeachersWINONA LAKE - When he started out as a principal, Jefferson Elementary's Dennis Duncan said he moved into administration because of the greater impact he could have.
That's changed.
Now, it's because of the influence he can have over young teachers."I just saw it as a challenge. I think I do like the aspect of working with adults and influencing teachers," he said during an interview Dec. 1. "Initially, I wanted to be able to influence the whole building rather than a classroom. That's changed now to I like working with young teachers. Also, I teach now at Grace College one day a week. I really enjoy that. It's that whole influence over young teachers.
"Young teachers now are far more skilled than we were. Education departments are more advanced than when I went to school," he said. "Part of that is that we know a lot more about instruction and how kids learn today."
Duncan grew up as a kid in Indianapolis. He came to the Warsaw area to attend Grace College in Winona Lake. His first teaching job was at Washington Elementary School. He spent three years as an assistant principal at Warsaw Community High School and four years as a principal at Atwood Elementary School. He's been Jefferson's principal for 15 years.
As a principal, Duncan sees that teachers today have infinitely more on their shoulders than before.
It's still difficult for teachers to motivate children to learn. But now technology is thrown into the mix.
"Technology is a big thing. There are a lot of new opportunities to use technology to improve instruction, but every one of those is hard to do," Duncan said.
What teachers are expected to know about instruction is more in-depth, Duncan said. Previously, teachers would teach to middle-level learners and hope it reached the higher- and lower-level learners. Now, he said, no teacher would say that. Teachers use differentiated learning.
In differentiated learning, if there are 25 students in the classroom, a teacher has to teach at 25 different learning levels. If there are 15 lessons in a day, that can add up. But that's what teachers have to do to meet the needs of students, Duncan said.
And the students teachers are dealing with today still include the most difficult ones, but they are coming in greater numbers.
Kids continue to come from difficult home situations and are some of the hardest to reach, but now there are more of them too.
English as a second language students have always been more challenging to teach. In 1980, Duncan said, if someone would have told him that a quarter of the students would be ESL students, he wouldn't have believed it. Today, it's true. They also tend to be children from poverty whose parents don't speak English and have limited education themselves. Since those children can't get help with homework at home, they need more help at school.
"We're fully responsible for them. It's a challenge, but it's OK," Duncan said.
"By far, clearly, the most difficult thing in my 30 years as an educator is the concept of meeting the needs of our English as a second language students. It's daunting," he said.
Even with the challenges of educating ESL students, Duncan said they come with some great attributes. They have amazing family support and behave well. They want to succeed and learn.
"My job as a principal is to create in the school an environment that is kid centered and where teachers are provided the tools they need and the training they need. Certainly, teachers do all the important work in school. The principal and the rest of the staff, our job is to support the teachers in what they do," he said.
The support can include everything from a smile from the bus driver in the morning to the workers that prepare students' breakfast and lunch.
"Everyone is a teacher, and everyone plays an important role, but it's really the classroom teacher who performs a duty that we're all about," Duncan said.
Each Warsaw Community School Corp. school building has a set of goals. At Jefferson, they are focusing on improving math, reading and writing skills.
"That's pretty much our mission. As a building, we adjust what we're working on to accomplish that," Duncan said.
Readers Workshop is Jefferson's biggest target. The key is differentiated instruction. Instead of one book for the whole classes, students have stacks and stacks of books to choose from for their reading level. Classes may be broken down in five or six groups based on reading levels. Readers Workshop is an organized approached to address all the areas of learning at each child's ability, Duncan said.
As principal, Duncan also has his own personal goals for Jefferson. This year, with the construction of the expansion and improvement going on, his goal is to keep staff morale up. Teachers have to deal with a lot of headaches going on during construction. However, Duncan said the staff has been amazing at working through the construction.
A big help to Jefferson is its parental involvement. Duncan said the school has "probably some of the most amazing parent involvement I've seen around. We have amazing parents here. I think part of that is that the staff here worked for years to include parents. We also have great parental leadership."
From the students and teachers, to the staff and parents, Duncan said what he wants people to know about Jefferson is that the school is about individuals.
"We want everyone to feel like a part of the school. It's a place where kids know they are loved and we care for them. It's also about learning, but also about caring for one another," Duncan said.
