The Students
The students are the reason why teaching is the best job in the world. Working with students of any age that have a desire to learn and are willing to grow is worth every teacher’s time and patience. For those of us who have shared an “a-ha” moment, or witnessed another human being’s idea bulb light up brightly over their heads we know just how amazing and addicting the experience can be.
The Schooling
This is the art of teaching. Focusing on effective delivery and designing appropriate effective assignments that give students the opportunity to actually learn something may not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but I love it. Curriculum design and delivery is a skilled craft that can be learned in a teacher credential program, but must be polished and refined over years of classroom teaching.
The Subject Matter
If you love history, I mean you are really passionate about history, then there is no better way to wrap yourself up in the past then to share your love of facts, dates, and the greatest stories of all time with others. Teaching allows you to do that. In fact, your passion for the content is critical to your success in the classroom.
The Schedule
A week off at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Easter, and three weeks at Christmas, plus two months off in the summer. The only people who spend more time away from work then teachers are politicians. Being finished with your workday at 2:30 is fantastic, especially is you have a family.
The Salary
Ok, maybe it’s not that great, depending on where you work, how many dependents you have, and what kind of debt you’re carrying around. But I am consistently amazed that I actually get paid for teaching. It doesn’t feel like a job to me. It’s certainly not a sacrifice. Unlike some of my peers, I don’t hate driving to work, and I never regret the effort that I put in during my day.
The Spotlight
I have an ego; I’m not shy about that. When I teach I get the attention of a full room of students for hours on end as I impart my wisdom about life and whatever subject I am teaching that period. Plus I get to go to bed at night confidant that I have helped to mold and change lives in a positive way. That’s cool.
Six difficult things about teaching:
The Students
There are three basic groups of students. The first group is full of self-directed, eager listeners, who have already developed a love for learning. They are fun to teach, but not very satisfying because they don’t need the teacher to do more than deliver information and assign challenging work. The middle group comes to class because they recognize that it is the socially acceptable thing to do (ok, their parents make them), they will listen begrudgingly, and learn what you try to teach them, so long as its not too difficult, and they still have time to skateboard, chat online, or play xBox until midnight every night. These students are more fun to teach then the first group because with just slightly more effort, they will not only perform, but also will genuinely appreciates the teachers’ efforts. The third group has checked out of school mentally, and for some, physically as well. They don’t come to school unless they are forced to, they have difficulty listening or staying focused on anything longer than a music video, and they haven’t yet assigned any personal value to their education. These are the most difficult group to teach, but by far, the most rewarding once they begin to turn around and achieve.
The Schooling
Non-teachers, especially parents, assume that to teach a child to read or write is a simple process of trial and error. Challenging enough for the one learner, one teacher relationship. Multiply the number of learners to 20 or more, and the challenge multiplies exponentially. Best intentions and a desire to change lives are not enough to make a good, and more importantly, effective teacher. The best teacher training helps, but to be a truly great instructor, one has to commit themselves to spending time with students in the classroom delivering instruction and studying the results. It’s hard work, harder then most people understand.
The Subject Matter
All teachers would love to be able to teach what we want to. But more and more, teachers are being told what to teach, when to teach it, and sometimes, how. Standards are important and the district scope and sequence guides are key to making sure that all students get all the content that they need. Long ago teachers could spend six weeks on Shakespeare in the spring if they felt the students would benefit from the experience. Now we are bound to the topic and the number of questions included in the standardized tests.
The Schedule
From 7:30 to 2:30 five days a week a teacher is on stage in front of their students. We are being watch hawkishly. After 2:30 the real work begins: grading and lesson planning. I no longer teach English because spending most of my Sundays grading and not with my family quickly exhausted me. And if a teacher volunteers to coach or run an after-school program, the days at work simply seem to flow one into the other
The Salary
Collective bargaining is great. Unfortunately, it also means that unequal effort and results get paid equally. Equity in education is vitally important; equity of pay between teachers who do not make equal efforts or achieve equal results is nutty.
The Spotlight
In my classroom I am ruler of my domain. Outside my classroom I am just another Joe. While sports stars and celebrities are rejecting the label of “role model,” teachers embrace it because we’re not afraid of being seen for who we are. Unfortunately, when it comes to failing kids, the teachers are always the first to blame (after all, we do give failing grades occasionally). But the same way we are only marginally responsible for kids who succeed, we are equally only marginally responsible for kids who fail. Success or failure is ultimately up to the individual student and their support group of which teachers are only a fraction.
February 08, 2007
January 30, 2007
Classroom Presence?
“People are attracted to other people who make them forget how lousy their lives are.”
I’m sure someone else said that before I did, but I don’t know who, or when. I was talking with one of my students the other day when it dawned on me that we are naturally drawn to those who brighten our days and make us feel good inside. This seems really obvious, until we consider how important it is to our classroom presence. Think about how much time you spend with your students. They often spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents, and not by their own choice. I believe that teachers have a responsibility to their students to reflect on their classroom presence in regards to my brainstorm statement and make an effort to be attractive people, positive influences, and role models to the students, even when the students do not return the same consideration.
I’m not in a great mood every day. Sometimes my students can tell, sometimes they can’t. But I make a daily effort to put on a happy face and act in a manner that improves and brightens their day, instead of darkening it. They usually smile back.
This week marks the beginning of the second semester. One of the high school courses I teach is semester long, so I had a whole new group of students who knew nothing about my class, my classroom presence, or me. I introduced the class, I introduced myself, and tried to make them feel comfortable and at ease. The following day I read and explained all of the classroom and computer rules using humor and personal stories. Some laughed, some smiled, but all paid attention if for no other reason then to try and figure out just what I would say next.
Later that same day I greeted a different returning group of students as they entered the classroom with such joy and exuberance that one of them told me she thought I was crazy. I responded that I was one of the sanest people she’d ever met. (I’m not sure she believed me.)
High school students, and now graduate students, enjoy coming to my classes because I make an effort to make each and every class meeting a special event. I share my enthusiasm, and love for learning and living with everyone. But not all teachers put this type of effort into their classroom presence. Some teachers simply show up and teach the stuff. Some of those teachers get positive results; many do not, and do not understand why.
Students need to be sold on the material they are required to learn. Very few individuals really want to learn Algebra. Most students will attend class, complete homework, and take tests because they see it as a necessary step towards achieving a goal. But they don’t always like it. Few teachers see themselves as salespeople. However, selling our curriculum to our students can be a huge factor to their success not only on the standardized test, but their ultimate success in life as well.
One way we can sell our “snake oil” is through excellence in lesson planning and content delivery. It really does matter how much a teacher plans their lessons, designs their assignments, and refines their assessments. Taking the time to design the perfect presentation, the most accurate lecture notes, and testing instruments that really do measure the students’ understanding make the difference between a master teacher and miserable teacher. Miserable teachers make for even more miserable experiences for the students (we’ve all been there).
It helps if you love the subject matter, and are willing to share that love with your pupils. If you hate science, don’t teach it. The students will immediately know that you are indifferent to the material and they will have no reason at all to get plugged into your lesson. We must also be clear on the importance of not just enthusiasm for the subject matter, but also our personal mastery. You gotta know what you’re talking about up there man.
Even more important than the finest pedagogy, we teachers must love teaching. It must be fundamentally and critically important to us that our students “get it,” what ever “it” is. We should be happy, overjoyed, and even ecstatic when our students walk through our doors to spend an hour (or more) in our presence. We should wield our powers of instruction like Thor swings Mjollnir, his magical golden hammer impacting our students with the finest knowledge, and the power of wisdom.
Like it or not, the students are watching our every move, and listening carefully to each and every word we speak not only to them, but to everyone we encounter while they are around. Our words and actions have a major influence on our students. Even the little things that we think they miss, they get. It’s not easy to be on stage all that time, but that is the teachers’ job. Many teachers feel so self-conscious about this responsibility that they choose to live away, sometimes far away, from the campuses on which they teach. The pressure of being watched 24/7 and potentially bumping into a student at an unfortunate time can be daunting. Sometimes it’s just easier to avoid the “big show” between hours of 3pm and 7am and on the weekends.
While privacy is very important to our survival as teachers, we need to remember that we are in fact the role models for this generation. Actors, athletes, and politicians, all wave off the moniker, but not teachers. Teachers embrace the status symbol with both arms because we understand the importance of the lives and the futures of our students, and we care about the future of the planet. It’s so easy to be pessimistic about the world in 2007. But I believe that we teachers owe it to our students to focus on the positives all around us, and to share our optimism.
I’m sure someone else said that before I did, but I don’t know who, or when. I was talking with one of my students the other day when it dawned on me that we are naturally drawn to those who brighten our days and make us feel good inside. This seems really obvious, until we consider how important it is to our classroom presence. Think about how much time you spend with your students. They often spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents, and not by their own choice. I believe that teachers have a responsibility to their students to reflect on their classroom presence in regards to my brainstorm statement and make an effort to be attractive people, positive influences, and role models to the students, even when the students do not return the same consideration.
I’m not in a great mood every day. Sometimes my students can tell, sometimes they can’t. But I make a daily effort to put on a happy face and act in a manner that improves and brightens their day, instead of darkening it. They usually smile back.
This week marks the beginning of the second semester. One of the high school courses I teach is semester long, so I had a whole new group of students who knew nothing about my class, my classroom presence, or me. I introduced the class, I introduced myself, and tried to make them feel comfortable and at ease. The following day I read and explained all of the classroom and computer rules using humor and personal stories. Some laughed, some smiled, but all paid attention if for no other reason then to try and figure out just what I would say next.
Later that same day I greeted a different returning group of students as they entered the classroom with such joy and exuberance that one of them told me she thought I was crazy. I responded that I was one of the sanest people she’d ever met. (I’m not sure she believed me.)
High school students, and now graduate students, enjoy coming to my classes because I make an effort to make each and every class meeting a special event. I share my enthusiasm, and love for learning and living with everyone. But not all teachers put this type of effort into their classroom presence. Some teachers simply show up and teach the stuff. Some of those teachers get positive results; many do not, and do not understand why.
Students need to be sold on the material they are required to learn. Very few individuals really want to learn Algebra. Most students will attend class, complete homework, and take tests because they see it as a necessary step towards achieving a goal. But they don’t always like it. Few teachers see themselves as salespeople. However, selling our curriculum to our students can be a huge factor to their success not only on the standardized test, but their ultimate success in life as well.
One way we can sell our “snake oil” is through excellence in lesson planning and content delivery. It really does matter how much a teacher plans their lessons, designs their assignments, and refines their assessments. Taking the time to design the perfect presentation, the most accurate lecture notes, and testing instruments that really do measure the students’ understanding make the difference between a master teacher and miserable teacher. Miserable teachers make for even more miserable experiences for the students (we’ve all been there).
It helps if you love the subject matter, and are willing to share that love with your pupils. If you hate science, don’t teach it. The students will immediately know that you are indifferent to the material and they will have no reason at all to get plugged into your lesson. We must also be clear on the importance of not just enthusiasm for the subject matter, but also our personal mastery. You gotta know what you’re talking about up there man.
Even more important than the finest pedagogy, we teachers must love teaching. It must be fundamentally and critically important to us that our students “get it,” what ever “it” is. We should be happy, overjoyed, and even ecstatic when our students walk through our doors to spend an hour (or more) in our presence. We should wield our powers of instruction like Thor swings Mjollnir, his magical golden hammer impacting our students with the finest knowledge, and the power of wisdom.
Like it or not, the students are watching our every move, and listening carefully to each and every word we speak not only to them, but to everyone we encounter while they are around. Our words and actions have a major influence on our students. Even the little things that we think they miss, they get. It’s not easy to be on stage all that time, but that is the teachers’ job. Many teachers feel so self-conscious about this responsibility that they choose to live away, sometimes far away, from the campuses on which they teach. The pressure of being watched 24/7 and potentially bumping into a student at an unfortunate time can be daunting. Sometimes it’s just easier to avoid the “big show” between hours of 3pm and 7am and on the weekends.
While privacy is very important to our survival as teachers, we need to remember that we are in fact the role models for this generation. Actors, athletes, and politicians, all wave off the moniker, but not teachers. Teachers embrace the status symbol with both arms because we understand the importance of the lives and the futures of our students, and we care about the future of the planet. It’s so easy to be pessimistic about the world in 2007. But I believe that we teachers owe it to our students to focus on the positives all around us, and to share our optimism.
December 13, 2006
Baby Teachers?
I firmly believe that future of teaching is bright. It is bright because there is an entire generation of baby teachers at the universities who can’t wait to leap into teaching and make a difference in the lives of students. These people are optimistic, excited, enthusiastic, and passionate about the classroom and the learning experience for both students and teachers.
More than a month has passed since I completed my first university level teaching experience. As I think back on the baby teachers I taught I am encouraged by their enthusiasm for the classroom. These folks really want to be teachers! That’s saying a lot when you look at all the hoops these individuals have to jump through in order to one day land in their classroom. I have to admit, if I was starting my teaching odyssey today, I doubt that I would have completed the journey. Between the heavy load of course work, the testing, and the volunteer student teaching, I’m afraid that I would get discouraged, change my mind, and move on to something else. Luckily there are many willing souls out there who are undaunted by the challenge, and ready to jump into the world of education with both feet.
I have been helping some of my university students (I keep referring to them as “kids” like I do my high school students, but baby teachers is more appropriate) apply for internships and teaching positions by writing them letters of recommendation. Crafting a decent letter for a student is time consuming, but well worth the effort. In California, teacher candidates can bypass the “teach-for-free” student teaching process by getting hired as an intern. It’s a scary proposition. Baby teachers are placed into a classroom with a regular schedule and regular students, but without a master teacher. It's kinda like learning to swim by being thrown into a pool of sharks. Seriously. If you see an “intern” move into the classroom next door to you, walk on over and lend them a hand; they desperately need your help.
One of the letters I wrote was for a woman who wants to become and art teacher. Well, she already is an unbelievably great art teacher, she just hasn’t been hired as one yet. Her presentations in class were thoughtful, thorough, engaging, and genuinely interesting. Her students are going to love her and will produce fantastic works of art in her classes, I am convinced. The other student I wrote a letter for thanked me by cooking my family a turkey meatloaf. Who says teachers don’t get perks? She is currently a home hospital teacher working with injured or ill students who cannot make it to school. She too is already a wonderful teacher who will excel when she lands in her own classroom assignment.
I have also run into a few baby teachers on campus, and around town. I had breakfast the other morning with one who is a coach on my high school campus while he also substitute teaches to support his family and pay for his graduate courses. This man is pure, honest, and inspirational. Every time we talk about teaching I can see the fire burning so brightly in his eyes that sometimes I have to look away. I look away because I have seen this light before, and I’ve seen it extinguished after a short period of time working with reluctant students who can sometimes snuff out even the brightest infernos. There are few things more pathetic than a teacher who has lost his or her passion for the classroom. We should have some type of rehabilitation program for these sad people. But I honestly don’t suspect that this baby teacher will come to that type of unfortunate end. His passion is infectious and his students will feed on it daily, while their great accomplishments in the classroom will encourage this man to keep on fighting the good fight.
Another not-so-baby teacher that I met and taught has been teaching nearly as long as I have. Unfortunately, he is only now getting around to completing his course work, and his credential. I learned a huge amount from this man who specialized in teaching alternative education students. When he spoke of his classroom experiences, we all listened attentively as the master shared his nuggets of wisdom. I felt like there was very little I could teach my peer during those class meetings. And yet he seemed to have taken something positive away from the time we spent together. After the course finished we agreed that if we taught on the campus we would become good and long-time friends. That may yet happen; who knows?
Last week, two students from the university (but not students I taught) who are finishing their student teaching at my high school asked me to help them assemble a DVD of them teaching one of their lesson plans to a classroom of students. I was given the privilege of watching two newcomers practice their craft. They were both dynamic, engaging, entertaining, and most importantly, were clearly having fun in front of the class and working individually with their students. I’m hoping to get asked back to teach again at the university. If I do, one of the jobs I’d like to try is working more closely with baby teachers while they student teach. The student teaching experience is so critical to the first-year success, I’d like to help guide and counsel those working through their “dress rehearsal.”
If you are a veteran teacher and you’re feeling tired and stale, then I encourage you to spend some time with a baby teacher or two. Trust me when I tell you that they are starving for your experience and wisdom. Many of the daily routines, methods, and tricks that you use everyday are completely foreign, and completely needed by our younger troops. So go share. Get inspired by their enthusiasm, and rekindle the passion you held when you too were a baby teacher.
More than a month has passed since I completed my first university level teaching experience. As I think back on the baby teachers I taught I am encouraged by their enthusiasm for the classroom. These folks really want to be teachers! That’s saying a lot when you look at all the hoops these individuals have to jump through in order to one day land in their classroom. I have to admit, if I was starting my teaching odyssey today, I doubt that I would have completed the journey. Between the heavy load of course work, the testing, and the volunteer student teaching, I’m afraid that I would get discouraged, change my mind, and move on to something else. Luckily there are many willing souls out there who are undaunted by the challenge, and ready to jump into the world of education with both feet.
I have been helping some of my university students (I keep referring to them as “kids” like I do my high school students, but baby teachers is more appropriate) apply for internships and teaching positions by writing them letters of recommendation. Crafting a decent letter for a student is time consuming, but well worth the effort. In California, teacher candidates can bypass the “teach-for-free” student teaching process by getting hired as an intern. It’s a scary proposition. Baby teachers are placed into a classroom with a regular schedule and regular students, but without a master teacher. It's kinda like learning to swim by being thrown into a pool of sharks. Seriously. If you see an “intern” move into the classroom next door to you, walk on over and lend them a hand; they desperately need your help.
One of the letters I wrote was for a woman who wants to become and art teacher. Well, she already is an unbelievably great art teacher, she just hasn’t been hired as one yet. Her presentations in class were thoughtful, thorough, engaging, and genuinely interesting. Her students are going to love her and will produce fantastic works of art in her classes, I am convinced. The other student I wrote a letter for thanked me by cooking my family a turkey meatloaf. Who says teachers don’t get perks? She is currently a home hospital teacher working with injured or ill students who cannot make it to school. She too is already a wonderful teacher who will excel when she lands in her own classroom assignment.
I have also run into a few baby teachers on campus, and around town. I had breakfast the other morning with one who is a coach on my high school campus while he also substitute teaches to support his family and pay for his graduate courses. This man is pure, honest, and inspirational. Every time we talk about teaching I can see the fire burning so brightly in his eyes that sometimes I have to look away. I look away because I have seen this light before, and I’ve seen it extinguished after a short period of time working with reluctant students who can sometimes snuff out even the brightest infernos. There are few things more pathetic than a teacher who has lost his or her passion for the classroom. We should have some type of rehabilitation program for these sad people. But I honestly don’t suspect that this baby teacher will come to that type of unfortunate end. His passion is infectious and his students will feed on it daily, while their great accomplishments in the classroom will encourage this man to keep on fighting the good fight.
Another not-so-baby teacher that I met and taught has been teaching nearly as long as I have. Unfortunately, he is only now getting around to completing his course work, and his credential. I learned a huge amount from this man who specialized in teaching alternative education students. When he spoke of his classroom experiences, we all listened attentively as the master shared his nuggets of wisdom. I felt like there was very little I could teach my peer during those class meetings. And yet he seemed to have taken something positive away from the time we spent together. After the course finished we agreed that if we taught on the campus we would become good and long-time friends. That may yet happen; who knows?
Last week, two students from the university (but not students I taught) who are finishing their student teaching at my high school asked me to help them assemble a DVD of them teaching one of their lesson plans to a classroom of students. I was given the privilege of watching two newcomers practice their craft. They were both dynamic, engaging, entertaining, and most importantly, were clearly having fun in front of the class and working individually with their students. I’m hoping to get asked back to teach again at the university. If I do, one of the jobs I’d like to try is working more closely with baby teachers while they student teach. The student teaching experience is so critical to the first-year success, I’d like to help guide and counsel those working through their “dress rehearsal.”
If you are a veteran teacher and you’re feeling tired and stale, then I encourage you to spend some time with a baby teacher or two. Trust me when I tell you that they are starving for your experience and wisdom. Many of the daily routines, methods, and tricks that you use everyday are completely foreign, and completely needed by our younger troops. So go share. Get inspired by their enthusiasm, and rekindle the passion you held when you too were a baby teacher.
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