When I was younger, I used to hate chores like making the bed. My thinking was, if I'm just going to sleep in my bed and mess it up again, why should I even make it in the first place? I felt like that was a perfectly logical argument to make, but it never seemed convincing to my mom and dad.
As I get older, I realize that putting things in their proper place can actually save you time and effort later on down the road. Even though I still hate making the bed, folding my clothes, or organizing my desk at work, these tasks save me a lot of effort and stress. I'm not perfect and I still slack off on my chores, but it's not a principled stance like the 6-year-old Ian, it's just pure laziness in the moment.
Sunday, Cyd and I spent hours and hours dealing with the onslaught of leaves that have attacked our house. The beautiful oak and maple trees that first drew us to the house have now taken their revenge. There were leaves stacked on top of leaves stacked on top of older, colder, and wetter leaves. The wet leaves resisted the leaf blower, so the majority of the work had to be done the old fashioned way: with a rake.
I was also up on the roof scooping frigid, wet, stinky leaves out of the gutters. My hands were cold, my back hurt, and the job was a pain in the butt. Cleaning out the gutters is never a fun task, but at near freezing conditions on a windy day it was especially terrible. Even though I would have rather been doing something else, the gutters needed to be cleaned.
Doing those fall chores Sunday put something about teaching in perspective for me. First, it felt really good to get the job done, even though it was difficult to make myself work. While I didn't enjoy raking leaves or cleaning gutters, I did enjoy looking back and seeing the progress I had made. It was tangible and real progress. Every foot of the gutters that I cleaned was a foot that I didn't have to go back and clean again. It felt good to be making progress.
Same thing with raking the leaves into piles. It is satisfying to watch the piles grow and consolidate and to watch the green grass show through on the part you have finished. You can see the unraked areas shrinking and can watch your job inch toward completion. When you start the job it seems like it will take forever, but you just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and keep pulling more and more leaves together until you finally finish.
It's really the same thing with teaching. There are a lot of tasks that
are really boring, that you don't want to do, and that take a long
time. Even though the tasks are no fun, there is a great sense
of accomplishment when you finally finish. There's nothing like when you grade that
30th and final science test and your desk is clear again. I never
thought I would be so excited about having a clear desk.
This week was the last week of the trimester and a number of kids were rushing to get their grades up before report cards go home. Students are allowed to retake tests and redo work that they got a bad score on, so a lot of kids were coming in to make up lost work this week. The problem is that the work was from 3, 4, maybe 6 weeks ago, and students struggle to remember information for that long. It is hard enough to get them to remember something for 15 minutes, much less remember crucial information for weeks or months on end. Waiting until the 11th hour is not a smart way to get ready for the ball.
As sad as it was, I saw some kids retake tests multiple times without improving their scores. They simply did not remember the material well enough and did not prepare for the retake. Whatever gaps in understanding they had the first time were still there the second time around. They may be working hard now, but learning requires sustained effort, and there simply wasn't enough effort. It would be like me raking the top layer of leaves on my lawn, but leaving all the wet, cold, and old leaves underneath. That simply doesn't get the job done.
I really dislike grading as a way to assess learning, but it is interesting how motivated some kids are by grades. When it comes down to it, there are a number of kids who will simply slack off without some extrinsic motivator like a grade. I understand that. I wish that these kids were intrinsically motivated to learn - and some are - but there is a large group that needs the carrot and the stick to get moving.
The problem with grades is that they cut off at an arbitrary point in time and only work as motivators in a short time frame. The kids who are only motivated by grades only start to pay attention in the last few weeks of the term, when they realize they are almost out of time. By that point, they have missed so much of the fundamental knowledge that they are usually out of luck. You can't just do chores once a trimester and expect to end up with a clean house.
I don't think that grades provide meaningful and sustained motivation for students, but I don't know that anything would do the trick. I know that I am reaching most of my kids, but there are some students who want to do the bare minimum just to eke by. I hope I can teach them the value of regular practice, but it might be something that has to happen later on in life, when their brains are a bit more developed.
Let's just hope that next trimester they keep up on their chores a bit better.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Lighting a Light Bulb
The thing is, I'm a smart guy. I have a degree that says that I know how to teach math and science to students. I've read all the books I need to read. I should be able to do simple hands-on activities with ease; however, that's anything but the case.
Luckily, I am not alone. Our nation's best and brightest also suck at hands-on activities, and some of them suck more gloriously than I do. Even though they have learned about electricity in school, they cannot perform the most basic task with electricity. Could you?
The question is simple: with only a D battery, and a piece of wire, can you make a light bulb turn on?
(You really should try it out for yourself. It is surprisingly tricky, yet simple at the same time)
Watch some MIT students struggle with this very simple task.
I posed the same question to my students today. There were tons of materials laid out on the counter: battery holders, extra copper wires, fahnestock clips, masking tape, light bulb holders, and other electrical gear. I told the students that we were going minimalist. They were instructed to grab only one battery, one wire, and one small light bulb.
I told them their task, and I just let them go to work.
My favorite thing as a teacher is seeing which students are successful in which circumstances. Sometimes the "smartest" students are quite inept when it comes to hands on activities. I can relate to these students, having been in their shoes myself when I was growing up. Sometimes those students who are "trouble" kids or who are just plain "lazy" really light up when they have a hands on activity. I saw this happen today.
I have two kids in my afternoon science class who are daily struggles. It takes multiple individual reminders and coaxing to even get them to get out a piece of paper and a pencil, let alone write anything down. I try every day to get them engaged in class, and I rarely succeed. I have seen brief moments of engagement from them, but the majority of their time in class is spent spaced out, slumped down, or off task in some other way.
Today was totally different. While I was giving instructions, other students were being disruptive. I warned the class: "We do not have to do the electricity activity today. It is your choice. If you continue to talk while I'm talking, we simply won't do the activity." For the first time, one student (who normally won't even write his name down) was telling his peers to be quiet. He was actively trying to keep the class attentive so he could get his hands on a battery and a bulb. It was awesome to see him excited about science.
Once the kids had the bulbs in their hand it was great to see my two struggling students happily messing around with the bulbs and the wires. They both figured it out fairly quickly, and were shouting to get my attention: "Mr. Maurer! Mr. Maurer! Look at my light bulb!" I was ecstatic to have some positive feedback to give these kids, especially because they get so little in school.
They had the extra bonus of watching their peers struggle with a task that they were able to complete. A lot of students were asking, "Don't we need a battery holder? Don't we need a light bulb holder? How can we do it without two pieces of wire?" The students who are normally successful in school are often the students who can comply with teacher directions, listen attentively, and ask for help when they need it. Here the task was for them to figure something out for themselves, and they struggled.
I loved turning the tables on my class and seeing my kids light up. I saw light bulbs go off, both literal and figurative, for some of my kids who haven't felt successful all year. There's no other way to describe that scene than awesome.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Candy-Crazed Kiddos and Obvious Rules
I came pretty close this week to not writing a blog post because everything has been so hectic at school. The kids were crazy coming off of the 3 day Halloween weekend, and it was a struggle to get much of anything done this week. Any 3 day weekend is tough, but when you throw in copious amounts of candy it just seems impossible to get through content.
At least I wasn't alone in my struggles this week. Everyone at school was feeling the same thing that I was: disengaged kids, disruptive behaviors, disrespect, and a lack of learning. The teacher next door to me blamed it (at least partially) on the full moon. She said her farm animals are always crazy when the full moon is approaching. If she can't corral her goats and horses during a full moon, what hope is there for teaching middle school students algebra?
A funny thing happened this week, and I think it was a huge learning moment for me as a middle school teacher. In my class, just like in every single other class, the rule is that you don't talk when someone else is talking. It seems like it is the most simple rule, but you would be surprised at the number of times students need to be reminded of it. I was giving directions to my science students on a simple project we were going to do, and they needed to get out a piece of paper to write some things down. While I was giving instruction, a group of boys in the middle of the room (the usual suspects) were talking. I asked them several times to not talk while I was talking.
After I was finished giving instructions, I went over to the group to have a conversation about their behavior. I asked them if they are supposed to talk while I am in the front of the room giving directions. It went something like this:
"But I was just asking for a piece of paper!"
"But you were talking, right?"
"Yeah, but I was just asking for a piece of paper to write down the directions!"
"But you aren't supposed to talk when other people are talking. When I am giving directions, nobody should talk."
"But how am I supposed to write down the directions without a piece of paper?"
"You could wait until I am done giving directions, or you could raise your hand and ask me for some paper."
"Ohhhh!! I should wait until after you are done talking until I ask for paper."
I could almost see the lightbulb turning on above his head. It was as if this particular kid had never thought that he could wait until I was done talking to ask his question. As soon as he had a thought, he would just blurt it out. It seemed like a completely novel idea that he could wait, hold his thought, and say something when I had finished.
I think that teaching the why behind the rule is so much more important than teaching the what. I explained to the kid that if he talks while I am talking, he will miss some instructions. Not only that, his talking might cause somebody else to miss some instruction, too. He seemed receptive to this conversation, and I think he got the idea that his talking can cause problems for other people, too.
This particular kid will still have trouble talking out of turn, it's pretty much part of his personality. I'm not going to fool myself by thinking that this one conversation will fix all his behavior problems. I'm also not going to fool myself and think that explaining why we have rules will work for every kid. Another kid at the same table group continued to argue with me about the rule, even after I had this mini breakthrough with the other kid.
I know that I am going to have to reinforce the rule over and over again, but I will try to keep this little incident in mind. Most kids will behave if they understand how they are expected to behave and why they are expected to behave that way.
Teaching middle school is about so much more than teaching content. I'm trying to make these fragile, distracted, immature, wonderful little people into productive members of society. Sometimes you just need to explain the (seemingly) obvious.
At least I wasn't alone in my struggles this week. Everyone at school was feeling the same thing that I was: disengaged kids, disruptive behaviors, disrespect, and a lack of learning. The teacher next door to me blamed it (at least partially) on the full moon. She said her farm animals are always crazy when the full moon is approaching. If she can't corral her goats and horses during a full moon, what hope is there for teaching middle school students algebra?
A funny thing happened this week, and I think it was a huge learning moment for me as a middle school teacher. In my class, just like in every single other class, the rule is that you don't talk when someone else is talking. It seems like it is the most simple rule, but you would be surprised at the number of times students need to be reminded of it. I was giving directions to my science students on a simple project we were going to do, and they needed to get out a piece of paper to write some things down. While I was giving instruction, a group of boys in the middle of the room (the usual suspects) were talking. I asked them several times to not talk while I was talking.
After I was finished giving instructions, I went over to the group to have a conversation about their behavior. I asked them if they are supposed to talk while I am in the front of the room giving directions. It went something like this:
"But I was just asking for a piece of paper!"
"But you were talking, right?"
"Yeah, but I was just asking for a piece of paper to write down the directions!"
"But you aren't supposed to talk when other people are talking. When I am giving directions, nobody should talk."
"But how am I supposed to write down the directions without a piece of paper?"
"You could wait until I am done giving directions, or you could raise your hand and ask me for some paper."
"Ohhhh!! I should wait until after you are done talking until I ask for paper."
I could almost see the lightbulb turning on above his head. It was as if this particular kid had never thought that he could wait until I was done talking to ask his question. As soon as he had a thought, he would just blurt it out. It seemed like a completely novel idea that he could wait, hold his thought, and say something when I had finished.
I think that teaching the why behind the rule is so much more important than teaching the what. I explained to the kid that if he talks while I am talking, he will miss some instructions. Not only that, his talking might cause somebody else to miss some instruction, too. He seemed receptive to this conversation, and I think he got the idea that his talking can cause problems for other people, too.
This particular kid will still have trouble talking out of turn, it's pretty much part of his personality. I'm not going to fool myself by thinking that this one conversation will fix all his behavior problems. I'm also not going to fool myself and think that explaining why we have rules will work for every kid. Another kid at the same table group continued to argue with me about the rule, even after I had this mini breakthrough with the other kid.
I know that I am going to have to reinforce the rule over and over again, but I will try to keep this little incident in mind. Most kids will behave if they understand how they are expected to behave and why they are expected to behave that way.
Teaching middle school is about so much more than teaching content. I'm trying to make these fragile, distracted, immature, wonderful little people into productive members of society. Sometimes you just need to explain the (seemingly) obvious.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Quarter Century`
Tomorrow is my 25th birthday, and the number 25 feels significant to me for some reason. I haven't thought much about my last few birthdays because who really cares about turning 23 or 24 anyway? Turning 23 and 24 was just marking the passage of time, and those birthdays felt somewhat arbitrary. While 25 is no less arbitrary, it feels a little more significant this time around because of the other events that have occurred recently.
When I was growing up, I had no idea what it was like to be someone in your mid 20's. I felt like I understood what my youth was for, and I felt like I could understand what adulthood would be like, but there was this huge blank space where I simply couldn't imagine life as a mid 20-something.
Elementary school was for exploring and having fun. Nobody had expectations for you in elementary school. Everyone just expected you to play and grow. Middle school was that weird time when everything became awkward and everyone was obsessed with "being cool." Middle school was when I started to care about girls, popular kids, and having my own "cool" personality. I knew that high school was a time for being involved in a bunch of activities, doing stupid stuff with your friends, playing sports, meeting girls, and getting into college. High school was preparation for living on your own and for going to college.
When I got to college I understood it as the best chance to learn as much as I could from some really brilliant people. I tried to take as much advantage of college as I could. I volunteered, I played sports, I took random classes, I studied abroad, and I learned a ton. I read some really interesting stuff, and I read some of the most dull pages I have ever laid eyes on. I found that I really do have a passion for teaching people, and I found that I never want to live at home again. I could barely stand being home for the summer after my freshman year, and I really do love my parents. After that first taste of freedom, I just can't stand to be under someone else's roof anymore.
My first confrontation with the unknown came after undergrad, before I made the decision to get my teaching degree. I graduated with only a small amount of loan debt, and I realized that I really could make any decision I wanted. I was, in a sense, free. However, I always knew that I would not stop with just a bachelor's degree. I knew that I would pursue some career that would require further training or education. My first confrontation with the unknown was not the same as now. I always had the comforting feeling of having a next step. I would go back to school, or I would pursue a professional career, and I would continue my ascent up the ladder to adulthood.
I still didn't have a clue what people actually did in their mid twenties. I understood that you simply got older, but I didn't feel like people in their mid twenties had a set place in the world - a role to play, or a specific job to do. I couldn't envision myself as a twenty-something, I didn't know what it would be like, and I didn't really have expectations for how it would be. After some soul searching I realized that teaching really was my passion and that going back to school for my teaching degree was really the one option that was perfect for me.
A year and a half later I am a teacher, and I am learning how to be a good teacher. What feels very weird to me is that I am now a teacher, and that I am not preparing to be a teacher. In some sense I am becoming a teacher while people all around me expect me to already be a teacher. I now have a responsibility and an obligation to these young people to be an adult and a role model. I have a purpose: to teach these young people to learn.
That shift in responsibility, obligation, and purpose is made all the more poignant by another huge life event this year: my marriage. I have told Cyd this before, but I was afraid to start dating her because I could never see our relationship ending. I knew that falling in love with her would be the last time I fell in love. That's a scary thought at 19 years old. Its a profound thought on the eve of being 25, but it isn't as scary anymore. I have a responsibility and an obligation to her which goes beyond the strength of our relationship when we were dating, or engaged.
My whole life has been preparation: college, graduate school, dating and engagement. Now I have become someone, and I feel this growing urge to be someone, or to do something. It doesn't feel like it is enough to simply be that guy who will be good in the future, I need to be that guy who is good in the present. What I feel, as I am about to turn 25, is the immediacy of the present.
And the weird thing is that I love that feeling. I am truly prepared, and I have had the greatest first quarter century that anyone could ask for. I welcome the responsibility to shape these young minds that I have been charged with, and I enjoy the challenge of building an adult life. (Fake it till you make it, right?) I just want to end by saying thank you to the hundreds of people who have had an impact on my young life. You have all made it such a wonderful ride so far.
Here's to the next 25 years!
When I was growing up, I had no idea what it was like to be someone in your mid 20's. I felt like I understood what my youth was for, and I felt like I could understand what adulthood would be like, but there was this huge blank space where I simply couldn't imagine life as a mid 20-something.
Elementary school was for exploring and having fun. Nobody had expectations for you in elementary school. Everyone just expected you to play and grow. Middle school was that weird time when everything became awkward and everyone was obsessed with "being cool." Middle school was when I started to care about girls, popular kids, and having my own "cool" personality. I knew that high school was a time for being involved in a bunch of activities, doing stupid stuff with your friends, playing sports, meeting girls, and getting into college. High school was preparation for living on your own and for going to college.
When I got to college I understood it as the best chance to learn as much as I could from some really brilliant people. I tried to take as much advantage of college as I could. I volunteered, I played sports, I took random classes, I studied abroad, and I learned a ton. I read some really interesting stuff, and I read some of the most dull pages I have ever laid eyes on. I found that I really do have a passion for teaching people, and I found that I never want to live at home again. I could barely stand being home for the summer after my freshman year, and I really do love my parents. After that first taste of freedom, I just can't stand to be under someone else's roof anymore.
My first confrontation with the unknown came after undergrad, before I made the decision to get my teaching degree. I graduated with only a small amount of loan debt, and I realized that I really could make any decision I wanted. I was, in a sense, free. However, I always knew that I would not stop with just a bachelor's degree. I knew that I would pursue some career that would require further training or education. My first confrontation with the unknown was not the same as now. I always had the comforting feeling of having a next step. I would go back to school, or I would pursue a professional career, and I would continue my ascent up the ladder to adulthood.
I still didn't have a clue what people actually did in their mid twenties. I understood that you simply got older, but I didn't feel like people in their mid twenties had a set place in the world - a role to play, or a specific job to do. I couldn't envision myself as a twenty-something, I didn't know what it would be like, and I didn't really have expectations for how it would be. After some soul searching I realized that teaching really was my passion and that going back to school for my teaching degree was really the one option that was perfect for me.
A year and a half later I am a teacher, and I am learning how to be a good teacher. What feels very weird to me is that I am now a teacher, and that I am not preparing to be a teacher. In some sense I am becoming a teacher while people all around me expect me to already be a teacher. I now have a responsibility and an obligation to these young people to be an adult and a role model. I have a purpose: to teach these young people to learn.
That shift in responsibility, obligation, and purpose is made all the more poignant by another huge life event this year: my marriage. I have told Cyd this before, but I was afraid to start dating her because I could never see our relationship ending. I knew that falling in love with her would be the last time I fell in love. That's a scary thought at 19 years old. Its a profound thought on the eve of being 25, but it isn't as scary anymore. I have a responsibility and an obligation to her which goes beyond the strength of our relationship when we were dating, or engaged.
My whole life has been preparation: college, graduate school, dating and engagement. Now I have become someone, and I feel this growing urge to be someone, or to do something. It doesn't feel like it is enough to simply be that guy who will be good in the future, I need to be that guy who is good in the present. What I feel, as I am about to turn 25, is the immediacy of the present.
And the weird thing is that I love that feeling. I am truly prepared, and I have had the greatest first quarter century that anyone could ask for. I welcome the responsibility to shape these young minds that I have been charged with, and I enjoy the challenge of building an adult life. (Fake it till you make it, right?) I just want to end by saying thank you to the hundreds of people who have had an impact on my young life. You have all made it such a wonderful ride so far.
Here's to the next 25 years!
Monday, October 20, 2014
Homework
There is an article going around by Alfie Kohn about assigning homework and how it is a myth that homework completion leads to student success. It's something I think about a lot. Do students really learn from doing homework? Is it really necessary practice, or is it just something that we teachers assign our students because we had to do homework when we were in school? So much of modern education just repeats the practices of the past, even when those practices don't hold up under scrutiny.
I don't claim to have the answer about homework, I just think it is an interesting question. When I was student teaching at the high school, homework did not count for a grade, therefore students did not complete the homework. I could count on 1 or maybe 2 students completing the homework assignment for the night, so I could not refer to the homework during the lesson. It got to the point that writing the homework assignment on the whiteboard was practically a useless exercise. It was something I did just because it's something that teachers do. All good teachers assign homework, right?
Because I did not have the incentive of graded homework, I tried to appeal to students' intrinsic motivations to learn. "Homework is valuable practice," I said. I tried relating it to sports: "If you never practice dribbling, how can you play basketball? If the only time you pick up a basketball is during the game, you won't win the game." I did not have success with this line of argument. Granted, I could have done better at motivating my students in the classroom, so it's no wonder they had little motivation outside of the classroom. At the end of the day, I felt like some sort of disservice was being done when I didn't give my students something to work on at home. Homework has to matter, doesn't it?
I can remember times in my life when homework assignments have been meaningful and have been learning experiences, and I can remember times when homework was just a waste of time. The majority of the time homework was just a waste of time, to be honest. If I already understood how to do the work in class, why did I need to repeat it when I got home? On the other hand, if someone doesn't understand the work in class and can't complete it at home, why waste time on a task that can't be completed?
I think the answer has to be that homework only increases learning when it matters to students. When I really cared about an essay, I researched, pre-wrote, drafted, edited, revised, and proof-read. When I didn't care about an essay, I wrote 5 paragraphs, clicked spell check, and turned it in (maybe with some creative fonts and margins to meet the minimum length requirement). Rote memorization and routine practice doesn't really transfer to meaningful and lasting learning, so a lot of homework assignments are just a waste of everyone's time.
Again, I don't claim to know the answer to homework's (lack of) efficacy. I just want to know what other people think. Is there merit to Alfie Kohn's claim that homework is a waste of time? Or is there truth in the adage that practice makes perfect? Or is it a mix of the two?
I don't claim to have the answer about homework, I just think it is an interesting question. When I was student teaching at the high school, homework did not count for a grade, therefore students did not complete the homework. I could count on 1 or maybe 2 students completing the homework assignment for the night, so I could not refer to the homework during the lesson. It got to the point that writing the homework assignment on the whiteboard was practically a useless exercise. It was something I did just because it's something that teachers do. All good teachers assign homework, right?
Because I did not have the incentive of graded homework, I tried to appeal to students' intrinsic motivations to learn. "Homework is valuable practice," I said. I tried relating it to sports: "If you never practice dribbling, how can you play basketball? If the only time you pick up a basketball is during the game, you won't win the game." I did not have success with this line of argument. Granted, I could have done better at motivating my students in the classroom, so it's no wonder they had little motivation outside of the classroom. At the end of the day, I felt like some sort of disservice was being done when I didn't give my students something to work on at home. Homework has to matter, doesn't it?
I can remember times in my life when homework assignments have been meaningful and have been learning experiences, and I can remember times when homework was just a waste of time. The majority of the time homework was just a waste of time, to be honest. If I already understood how to do the work in class, why did I need to repeat it when I got home? On the other hand, if someone doesn't understand the work in class and can't complete it at home, why waste time on a task that can't be completed?
I think the answer has to be that homework only increases learning when it matters to students. When I really cared about an essay, I researched, pre-wrote, drafted, edited, revised, and proof-read. When I didn't care about an essay, I wrote 5 paragraphs, clicked spell check, and turned it in (maybe with some creative fonts and margins to meet the minimum length requirement). Rote memorization and routine practice doesn't really transfer to meaningful and lasting learning, so a lot of homework assignments are just a waste of everyone's time.
Again, I don't claim to know the answer to homework's (lack of) efficacy. I just want to know what other people think. Is there merit to Alfie Kohn's claim that homework is a waste of time? Or is there truth in the adage that practice makes perfect? Or is it a mix of the two?
Monday, October 13, 2014
Management: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
I was in a great mood today, and I really needed it to make it through Monday. Because of the inservice day on Friday, the kids had a 3 day weekend, which always makes for an interesting return to school on Monday. It is amazing what that one extra day of freedom will do to middle schoolers - they forget things amazingly quickly. The great lesson you taught on Thursday is merely a distant memory to the students who enter your classroom on Monday. You need to reteach material, revisit expectations, and remind students of upcoming tests and due dates. I haven't found a good way to lesson plan for Mondays yet. I seem to either plan too much by trying to move forward too quickly, or I plan too little by expecting a review activity to take longer than it does. Either way, Monday's are just plain tough.
To make matters worse, we are 1/6 of the way through the school year, and the honeymoon period is definitely over. I'm not that new, fun (charming, handsome, talented, etc.) teacher anymore; I'm just another one of their teachers who expects them to come to class prepared and ready to work. I cannot just use the force of my personality to make these students behave anymore. I need the structures and classroom procedures I have in place to work better so I don't have to.
My philosophy around classroom management is that students should always be treated as if they are intrinsically motivated and that extrinsic motivators should only be used as a last resort. I really do believe that every student wants to feel successful, and that most misbehavior is just an attempt to gain attention from me or from the student's peers. I've seen so many students completely turn around in class once they start understanding the material and participating with their group. Nobody likes feeling stupid, so it is easier to slack off and be off task than it is to honestly confront your confusion.
The trouble I am having is with other students. I'm making (slow, painfully slow) progress with a few tough students who never contribute in class. I know that they can be a part of the classroom, and that success is an addictive feeling. I have elicited some (short, semi-articulate) responses from these kids, which feels like a huge success to me. The next step is trying to help them integrate into their groups, which is extremely challenging.
If there are 4 kids in a group where 3 understand the assignment while the last kid is barely holding onto the material, then the 3 kids who understand will want to just complete the assignment themselves. It's natural to want to finish the work at a higher quality and quicker pace, and it's natural to resent the student who is slowing everything down and making it look bad. This makes the 4th kid feel bad, resent his or her group member, and not want to participate. All the gains I made with a student can be erased in a second by a harsh word or look from a peer. Middle schoolers care much more about peer approval than adult approval, so peer-to-peer relationships are incredibly difficult to manage in the classroom.
Here's my quandary: how do I respond to behavior from students who are on task but are being rude to the kid who is slowing up the whole group? It is especially hard when one of my on-task students points a finger at a kid who is off task, because I can relate with the student who resents being slowed down and I can understand the response of the kid who is struggling with the assignment. I can't allow students to be mean to each other, but I can't baby the students who are consistently off task.
How do other teachers handle this sort of issue?
To make matters worse, we are 1/6 of the way through the school year, and the honeymoon period is definitely over. I'm not that new, fun (charming, handsome, talented, etc.) teacher anymore; I'm just another one of their teachers who expects them to come to class prepared and ready to work. I cannot just use the force of my personality to make these students behave anymore. I need the structures and classroom procedures I have in place to work better so I don't have to.
My philosophy around classroom management is that students should always be treated as if they are intrinsically motivated and that extrinsic motivators should only be used as a last resort. I really do believe that every student wants to feel successful, and that most misbehavior is just an attempt to gain attention from me or from the student's peers. I've seen so many students completely turn around in class once they start understanding the material and participating with their group. Nobody likes feeling stupid, so it is easier to slack off and be off task than it is to honestly confront your confusion.
The trouble I am having is with other students. I'm making (slow, painfully slow) progress with a few tough students who never contribute in class. I know that they can be a part of the classroom, and that success is an addictive feeling. I have elicited some (short, semi-articulate) responses from these kids, which feels like a huge success to me. The next step is trying to help them integrate into their groups, which is extremely challenging.
If there are 4 kids in a group where 3 understand the assignment while the last kid is barely holding onto the material, then the 3 kids who understand will want to just complete the assignment themselves. It's natural to want to finish the work at a higher quality and quicker pace, and it's natural to resent the student who is slowing everything down and making it look bad. This makes the 4th kid feel bad, resent his or her group member, and not want to participate. All the gains I made with a student can be erased in a second by a harsh word or look from a peer. Middle schoolers care much more about peer approval than adult approval, so peer-to-peer relationships are incredibly difficult to manage in the classroom.
Here's my quandary: how do I respond to behavior from students who are on task but are being rude to the kid who is slowing up the whole group? It is especially hard when one of my on-task students points a finger at a kid who is off task, because I can relate with the student who resents being slowed down and I can understand the response of the kid who is struggling with the assignment. I can't allow students to be mean to each other, but I can't baby the students who are consistently off task.
How do other teachers handle this sort of issue?
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Fool's Gold, Rotten Eggs, and Engaged Kids
Thursday and Friday were probably my best teaching days of the year so far, and I felt really comfortable with the class. On Thursday, I was telling the class about a geology field trip I took over the summer where I broke off a piece of fool's gold with a hammer at an outcropping on the side of the McKenzie River highway near the town of Nimrod. Back in the Oregon gold rush, miners would search for precious metals by blowing a big hole in a rock outcropping with dynamite and just seeing what pops up. If they got fool's gold, there was little chance that anything valuable would be nearby, so they would move on. Right on the side of the highway near Nimrod there's a outcropping that had been blasted, which was one of our first stops on the field trip.
We have been studying characteristic properties of matter, and we were talking about how miners used characteristic properties to tell the difference between fool's gold and real gold. The miners used the density of gold to separate it from all the other lighter materials by swirling it around in water in a pan. The denser gold sinks to the bottom while the lighter dirt, sand, and other material is suspended near the top. When the miner pours the water out of the pan, the lighter junk falls out and the gold remains in the pan.
I have been trying to get the idea of characteristic properties to stick in their heads for weeks now, and I thought that this was a great example. A characteristic property is always true for a substance, regardless of the size of your sample. It is something that helps you identify what the substance is, thus it must always be true for the substance. What is cool about the panning and density is that even little bits of gold dust will sink to the bottom because they are denser. It's not just the big nuggets that sink, its all of the gold.
The great thing about fool's gold and middle school science is that fool's gold is made of iron and sulfur. Almost every kid has heard about fool's gold, and a lot of students had heard of sulfur. When I asked them how they can identify sulfur, a few kids started to giggle. Those who had heard about sulfur knew that it stinks like rotten eggs. There is no better way to get a room of middle schoolers to pay attention than to say that something smells like stinky farts. Now there's a characteristic property for you.
I'm excitedly explaining this to the class when a girl in the front raises her hand.
"You're pretty into all this stuff. You should have been a... like.. science person or something."
"A scientist?"
"Yeah, totally. That's it."
She was right, I am pretty into all this stuff, but not enough to be a professional scientist. I'm nerdy enough to want to learn about everything, but I don't have it in me to study a topic for hours, weeks, and months on end. I get interested in the next topic too easily and I can't stay focused on one problem for too long. What was great about this little exchange was that she was actually paying attention, and the rest of the class was engaged, too. When I'm nerding out about a topic, it is more engaging to the students because it is more engaging to me.
One of the biggest lessons I'm learning this year is how much of teaching is like show business. You need to constantly be moving around the classroom, telling stories, showing videos and pictures, writing things on the board, varying the mode of presentation, and entertaining. In a way, I have a full time job keeping twelve and thirteen year olds entertained, and I have to try to teach them some content along the way. Sometimes I wish that I could just present all the ideas up on the board in a logical order and have the kids learn but it just doesn't work that way.
It's an incredibly simple concept: your lessons are engaging only when you are engaged teaching them. Students feed off of your energy, and half-assing a lesson only leads to students half-assing their work. On the other hand, it's incredibly difficult to be fired up about ratios 5 times a day, every day. It's a balance I'm still trying to strike, but I feel like I'm getting closer.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Sick Day
Today I'm taking my first real sick day, and it does feel nice to lay around the house rather than working at school all day. I've got this congestion and head cold and fever that is just generally uncomfortable, but not debilitating by any means. I feel bad enough to know I shouldn't be at work, but not bad enough to feel like I can spend the whole day in bed watching Netflix. (On a related note, Law and Order is no longer streaming on Netflix as of today, so I'm not even sure what I would binge watch).
So there I was, trying to take a nap, while all these thoughts kept swirling through my head. I wondered if I left good enough sub plans, then rationalized that it probably didn't make that much of a difference, and that I should try to sleep. I worried about the lessons I have to plan, the tests I need to grade, and the paperwork I need to complete, but I really wanted to get some rest. My philosophy is usually that being a healthy and happy teacher is the most important part of teaching, but it is so hard to stay healthy and happy when you can't keep your mind off of the hundreds of things that seem so important and pressing.
I settled for 45 minutes of half-sleep, dozing in intervals just long enough to let my sinuses drain from one side to the other before flipping over and starting the whole process again. I didn't feel that sick, and I kept thinking of all the wonderful and productive things I could be doing, now that I had the time for it. On the other hand, I don't want to push myself and prolong my sickness by working too hard too soon. Sometimes it is really more productive to rest now and take care of business when you are completely well. However, sometimes you can rest easier when you take care of some tasks that have been looming over you for a while. I kept going back and forth between the desire to feel productive and the desire to rest.
I settled for a middle ground: blogging! It's not exactly productive, but not unproductive either. And it makes me feel better to get my thoughts out on the page. Writing what I'm thinking makes it seem less complicated. Once it's laid out there on the page, it really doesn't seem like that big of a problem at all. When it's swirling around in my head, it seems like some huge conundrum.
I'm sure I'll end up grading some tests, planning some lessons, and dealing with some chores around the house. When do I have a whole weekday just to spend around the house with nothing to do other than relax? I wonder what other people (teachers or otherwise) do on their sick days. Anybody have a hint for a relaxing and ameliorative day?
So there I was, trying to take a nap, while all these thoughts kept swirling through my head. I wondered if I left good enough sub plans, then rationalized that it probably didn't make that much of a difference, and that I should try to sleep. I worried about the lessons I have to plan, the tests I need to grade, and the paperwork I need to complete, but I really wanted to get some rest. My philosophy is usually that being a healthy and happy teacher is the most important part of teaching, but it is so hard to stay healthy and happy when you can't keep your mind off of the hundreds of things that seem so important and pressing.
I settled for 45 minutes of half-sleep, dozing in intervals just long enough to let my sinuses drain from one side to the other before flipping over and starting the whole process again. I didn't feel that sick, and I kept thinking of all the wonderful and productive things I could be doing, now that I had the time for it. On the other hand, I don't want to push myself and prolong my sickness by working too hard too soon. Sometimes it is really more productive to rest now and take care of business when you are completely well. However, sometimes you can rest easier when you take care of some tasks that have been looming over you for a while. I kept going back and forth between the desire to feel productive and the desire to rest.
I settled for a middle ground: blogging! It's not exactly productive, but not unproductive either. And it makes me feel better to get my thoughts out on the page. Writing what I'm thinking makes it seem less complicated. Once it's laid out there on the page, it really doesn't seem like that big of a problem at all. When it's swirling around in my head, it seems like some huge conundrum.
I'm sure I'll end up grading some tests, planning some lessons, and dealing with some chores around the house. When do I have a whole weekday just to spend around the house with nothing to do other than relax? I wonder what other people (teachers or otherwise) do on their sick days. Anybody have a hint for a relaxing and ameliorative day?
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Progress
We only had a four day week, and I'm really glad to have no school tomorrow. I could use the break to catch up on my planning and catch a breath, so I was really glad when the bell rang at 2:30 this afternoon.
Unfortunately, having a day "off" from school means you have meetings scheduled from 8-4 at a different school in the district. I had really been hoping for a day to work in my classroom, plan full units ahead, make copies, and collaborate with my team. Instead I get to go to trainings on how to use the online gradebook and how proficiency grading works (I am so sick of talking about proficiency grading).
We will get some good work done tomorrow, but we won't get all of our work done. We will still have tons of grading to do and lessons to plan when the day is done. So it feels like I still have a full day of school tomorrow, even though there are no kids in the classroom, which makes it worse because teaching is my favorite part of being a teacher. Which is pretty obvious if you think about it.
That rant aside, I feel like I am really making progress both as a teacher and with my students. I have settled into the routine of the day, and I can really direct my energy to planning more fun and engaging activities with my students. It is really hard to be creative and innovative when you have so many other tasks to take care of. I did a better job this week of following my CT's advice, which was to plan around the question: "What are the kids actually doing at any given moment in your lesson?"
Yesterday, for example, I had the kids in the science lab working with density blocks. The blocks come in 9 different substances, but they are all the same size and shape. The students' task is to calculate the densities of the blocks and then match their densities to a table I provide. Some of the time it is pretty obvious what the block is made of (steel), but other times you have to use the formula to figure it out (oak vs pine, for example).
What I saw was pretty amazing. The kids loved using the scales and the rulers, and it amazed me how little experience they have using measurement tools. I thought that the lab would just be an easy exercise for the kids - we have been talking about density for about a week, and I have modeled repeatedly how to use the measurement tools. I was quite mistaken. Using a triple beam balance is no easy task for some kids, and some of the things you assume are obvious are not obvious to everyone. Some students were unable to understand that when the big slider is on the 100, the middle slider is on the 50, and the little slider is on the 4.5 that you have a total of 154.5 grams. I saw her write down 100504.5. She then got the most gigantic density you can imagine, because she messed up her volume calculation, too. She thought you could just measure the side of the cube, which was 2.5 cm, and multiply that by 3 (there's three dimensions, right?). Unfortunately, she did not realize that 3 times 2.5 is 7.5, and 2.5 * 2.5 * 2.5 = 15.625.
Every step was written out on the lab sheet. I pre-taught all the procedures. We had talked about the concepts for a week. Yet, somehow, these kids managed to find unique and creative ways to get lots and lots of wrong answers. Perhaps the art of teaching is understanding why kids make the weird mistakes they make. We didn't even finish with Activity 1 of the lab, which is the calculating mass part, and I had thought that we were going to finish Activities 1 and 2. In Activity 2 they get to see if the individual blocks will sink or float after making predictions based on the densities.
Even though so many students failed in the lab, I think that their failures are what made it a worthwhile lesson. They were engaged and actually doing science for a change, rather than reading about it, hearing me talk about it, watching me demonstrate it, or watching a movie. They were touching and seeing objects and using scientific tools (mostly) appropriately. And they really need the practice. It is really nice to plan lessons where the kids do more work than the teacher, because the students don't realize how much they are learning. Students are too passive too often in the classroom. I need to remember that learning really is doing, and that experience is more important than recitation of facts.
I try to remind myself that nobody really remembers what they learned in their 7th grade science class, but they may remember a few cools labs or projects that they did. What is really important is that the kids are safe and that they are engaged and focused on learning something. Even if they fail at something, there is a way that failure can be progress. If my kids aren't failing, that means I am not challenging them. On Monday we will go back to the lab to fail again, and hopefully we will make some more progress.
Unfortunately, having a day "off" from school means you have meetings scheduled from 8-4 at a different school in the district. I had really been hoping for a day to work in my classroom, plan full units ahead, make copies, and collaborate with my team. Instead I get to go to trainings on how to use the online gradebook and how proficiency grading works (I am so sick of talking about proficiency grading).
We will get some good work done tomorrow, but we won't get all of our work done. We will still have tons of grading to do and lessons to plan when the day is done. So it feels like I still have a full day of school tomorrow, even though there are no kids in the classroom, which makes it worse because teaching is my favorite part of being a teacher. Which is pretty obvious if you think about it.
That rant aside, I feel like I am really making progress both as a teacher and with my students. I have settled into the routine of the day, and I can really direct my energy to planning more fun and engaging activities with my students. It is really hard to be creative and innovative when you have so many other tasks to take care of. I did a better job this week of following my CT's advice, which was to plan around the question: "What are the kids actually doing at any given moment in your lesson?"
Yesterday, for example, I had the kids in the science lab working with density blocks. The blocks come in 9 different substances, but they are all the same size and shape. The students' task is to calculate the densities of the blocks and then match their densities to a table I provide. Some of the time it is pretty obvious what the block is made of (steel), but other times you have to use the formula to figure it out (oak vs pine, for example).
What I saw was pretty amazing. The kids loved using the scales and the rulers, and it amazed me how little experience they have using measurement tools. I thought that the lab would just be an easy exercise for the kids - we have been talking about density for about a week, and I have modeled repeatedly how to use the measurement tools. I was quite mistaken. Using a triple beam balance is no easy task for some kids, and some of the things you assume are obvious are not obvious to everyone. Some students were unable to understand that when the big slider is on the 100, the middle slider is on the 50, and the little slider is on the 4.5 that you have a total of 154.5 grams. I saw her write down 100504.5. She then got the most gigantic density you can imagine, because she messed up her volume calculation, too. She thought you could just measure the side of the cube, which was 2.5 cm, and multiply that by 3 (there's three dimensions, right?). Unfortunately, she did not realize that 3 times 2.5 is 7.5, and 2.5 * 2.5 * 2.5 = 15.625.
Every step was written out on the lab sheet. I pre-taught all the procedures. We had talked about the concepts for a week. Yet, somehow, these kids managed to find unique and creative ways to get lots and lots of wrong answers. Perhaps the art of teaching is understanding why kids make the weird mistakes they make. We didn't even finish with Activity 1 of the lab, which is the calculating mass part, and I had thought that we were going to finish Activities 1 and 2. In Activity 2 they get to see if the individual blocks will sink or float after making predictions based on the densities.
Even though so many students failed in the lab, I think that their failures are what made it a worthwhile lesson. They were engaged and actually doing science for a change, rather than reading about it, hearing me talk about it, watching me demonstrate it, or watching a movie. They were touching and seeing objects and using scientific tools (mostly) appropriately. And they really need the practice. It is really nice to plan lessons where the kids do more work than the teacher, because the students don't realize how much they are learning. Students are too passive too often in the classroom. I need to remember that learning really is doing, and that experience is more important than recitation of facts.
I try to remind myself that nobody really remembers what they learned in their 7th grade science class, but they may remember a few cools labs or projects that they did. What is really important is that the kids are safe and that they are engaged and focused on learning something. Even if they fail at something, there is a way that failure can be progress. If my kids aren't failing, that means I am not challenging them. On Monday we will go back to the lab to fail again, and hopefully we will make some more progress.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Respect
Yesterday a girl stayed after algebra to get some extra help with her other math class. At my school, some 8th graders take the regular 8th grade math and then take algebra class as an elective at the end of the day. When I got the job, I assumed the algebra class would be 15 students or so, 20 at most. When I got there, however, there were close to 30 students. Nearly every student in my 8th grade math class is also in algebra, which means they get to have me for an hour and 48 minutes every day; which is really great for building relationships and math understanding, but really bad for attention spans. It is middle school, after all.
I have had to hold them after the bell several times because of the general noise level in the classroom. I frequently have to ask them for their attention or ask people to stop talking, which is distracting for me and for other students. The girl who stayed after class yesterday put it this way: "It's like, it totally makes sense when you are explaining something, then I get distracted by what other people are saying, and I look up and I'm totally lost." The talking isn't just disrespectful to me, but it prevents other students from learning. I don't really care too much about being disrespected (again, it's middle school), but I really get pissed when I see a girl working hard to understand something, who is frustrated because she isn't able to learn due to her peers' behavior.
I decided that I would address each of my classes today with a reminder about talking out of turn. I think it is important not to patronize or talk down to students, so I try to be as honest as I can about everything. Classroom rules are no exception. I don't allow you to talk to your friends at all times because it makes it difficult for other people to learn. It's not all about you - your actions affect other people. I told them that their parents and people in the community pay money every day for them to come to school. Wouldn't it be a shame if they wasted all that time and money because they couldn't stop chatting for long enough to learn something?
Students talk because they crave interaction and attention. If you've ever been to a professional development or meeting with teachers, you know that they are some of the worst culprits for talking out of turn, too. It's hypocritical to pretend like you never talk out of turn, and that students are terrible children because they talk out of turn. If you were in your own class, how well-behaved would you really be?
I admit to students that I was not a perfect kid. I don't expect them to be perfect, either. But I try to teach them every day that their actions have consequences, and that they should consider those consequences before they act. Telling a kid why he needs to stop talking is a much more effective behavior management strategy than just giving him a referral or sending him to the office.
I know that I will have to tell the kids to stop talking and quiet down tomorrow. I'll have to tell them every day. But I'm teaching them a lesson besides math and science - and it's honestly a more important lesson. I'm going to manage my classroom the same way I would want to be taught: honestly.
I have had to hold them after the bell several times because of the general noise level in the classroom. I frequently have to ask them for their attention or ask people to stop talking, which is distracting for me and for other students. The girl who stayed after class yesterday put it this way: "It's like, it totally makes sense when you are explaining something, then I get distracted by what other people are saying, and I look up and I'm totally lost." The talking isn't just disrespectful to me, but it prevents other students from learning. I don't really care too much about being disrespected (again, it's middle school), but I really get pissed when I see a girl working hard to understand something, who is frustrated because she isn't able to learn due to her peers' behavior.
I decided that I would address each of my classes today with a reminder about talking out of turn. I think it is important not to patronize or talk down to students, so I try to be as honest as I can about everything. Classroom rules are no exception. I don't allow you to talk to your friends at all times because it makes it difficult for other people to learn. It's not all about you - your actions affect other people. I told them that their parents and people in the community pay money every day for them to come to school. Wouldn't it be a shame if they wasted all that time and money because they couldn't stop chatting for long enough to learn something?
Students talk because they crave interaction and attention. If you've ever been to a professional development or meeting with teachers, you know that they are some of the worst culprits for talking out of turn, too. It's hypocritical to pretend like you never talk out of turn, and that students are terrible children because they talk out of turn. If you were in your own class, how well-behaved would you really be?
I admit to students that I was not a perfect kid. I don't expect them to be perfect, either. But I try to teach them every day that their actions have consequences, and that they should consider those consequences before they act. Telling a kid why he needs to stop talking is a much more effective behavior management strategy than just giving him a referral or sending him to the office.
I know that I will have to tell the kids to stop talking and quiet down tomorrow. I'll have to tell them every day. But I'm teaching them a lesson besides math and science - and it's honestly a more important lesson. I'm going to manage my classroom the same way I would want to be taught: honestly.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Multitasking
Teaching is all about multitasking. You need to hold so many different things in your head at all times while staying alert for new problems and issues that may arise. In one minute you have to focus on giving the whole class directions, redirecting a student who is off task, helping another student who is confused, and keeping an eye on the clock. It is really remarkable that anything gets done in what can be a stressful and chaotic environment.
That is exactly why teachers need procedures and classrooms need structure. I am working on this. Organization is not my strong suit. I have managed to survive this long in life without any serious organizational system. I make notes of my appointments and engagements, but I haven't used a single, central system, nor have I made a point of recording each and every appointment I have throughout my day. I am finding my old (lack of) system unsustainable. There are simply too many meetings, too many classes to prep for, and too many things outside of school that I need to remember every day. My goal for this week is to work on my organization and procedures. It will make the rest of the year so much easier.
Today was a good day, probably the smoothest day that I have had so far. I'm getting used to the routines of teaching every day, and the students are getting used to my personality and classroom procedures. Students come into class expecting a warm-up, they know that there will be time for group work and conversation, and they know when and how I regain their attention. I have had to start issuing tardy slips for students who are unprepared when class begins, and that seems to be effective. One technique I used with a class that was talkative was to issue a warning, then hold them after the bell for each disruption they cause after the warning. I liked this technique, as it made the students accountable for each other's behavior as well as their own.
I'm still finding the classroom management strategies that work for me, but today felt much better than any previous day. Teaching is like a juggling act - you can only juggle so many different balls at a time. I feel like I have got down 3 balls at a time right now - tomorrow we can try to add another.
Till then!
That is exactly why teachers need procedures and classrooms need structure. I am working on this. Organization is not my strong suit. I have managed to survive this long in life without any serious organizational system. I make notes of my appointments and engagements, but I haven't used a single, central system, nor have I made a point of recording each and every appointment I have throughout my day. I am finding my old (lack of) system unsustainable. There are simply too many meetings, too many classes to prep for, and too many things outside of school that I need to remember every day. My goal for this week is to work on my organization and procedures. It will make the rest of the year so much easier.
Today was a good day, probably the smoothest day that I have had so far. I'm getting used to the routines of teaching every day, and the students are getting used to my personality and classroom procedures. Students come into class expecting a warm-up, they know that there will be time for group work and conversation, and they know when and how I regain their attention. I have had to start issuing tardy slips for students who are unprepared when class begins, and that seems to be effective. One technique I used with a class that was talkative was to issue a warning, then hold them after the bell for each disruption they cause after the warning. I liked this technique, as it made the students accountable for each other's behavior as well as their own.
I'm still finding the classroom management strategies that work for me, but today felt much better than any previous day. Teaching is like a juggling act - you can only juggle so many different balls at a time. I feel like I have got down 3 balls at a time right now - tomorrow we can try to add another.
Till then!
Friday, September 5, 2014
First Week
I feel pretty accomplished right now - I just finished my first week of teaching! On top of that, my last class of the day, Algebra, felt really good. I had the kids excited to do math, shouting out answers, and laughing about their mistakes. One kid was excited to give the next term in a pattern and said that 2(3)-1 was 6. Instead of lamenting his mistake, he shared in a laugh with the class. I reminded them that the brain can only focus on so much at one time, and it is ok to have a brain fart every once in a while. When you are so focused on discovering a pattern, sometimes we forget how to multiply and subtract. That doesn't mean you are dumb, it means you are learning.
This first week was a lot of expectations, rules, and procedures, and by the end of it, I was as sick of talking about rules as the kids were about hearing me talk about them. I cannot wait to dive into the content and to have more student-centered lessons. While the sound of my voice is nice (some might say mellifluous), it isn't the best environment for students to learn. My goal is to design lessons that require less than 10 minutes of talking on my end. The less I have to stand in front of the class and give directions and explain concepts, the better. When I stand in front and drone on about a subject, I can see the kids checking out, and behavior problems begin to creep up. Middle schoolers need to socialize - it is just part of their make up. If I can have them socialize about math or science, that's a win-win.
Next week we are getting into chemistry with my science kids, and I need to prepare some demonstrations or labs for them to do. They loved watching sodium explode when we dropped it into water yesterday, and many of them asked excitedly "Are we blowing up anything today?!" Unfortunately, I'm not able to blow things up every day, but we had a good conversation about why the sodium explosion happened. I think that the explosion grabbed their attention enough for them to learn a little basic chemistry. I'll use whatever trick or gimmick it takes to get the kids interested in science for the day.
I feel that after one week, I can say that I have done a good job. I have had a chance to talk to my kids individually, I know all their names, and I have set the tone for a fun and productive year. I'm finding my stride as a teacher, and I hope I can hit the ground running next week.
For now, it's the weekend. I'm out.
This first week was a lot of expectations, rules, and procedures, and by the end of it, I was as sick of talking about rules as the kids were about hearing me talk about them. I cannot wait to dive into the content and to have more student-centered lessons. While the sound of my voice is nice (some might say mellifluous), it isn't the best environment for students to learn. My goal is to design lessons that require less than 10 minutes of talking on my end. The less I have to stand in front of the class and give directions and explain concepts, the better. When I stand in front and drone on about a subject, I can see the kids checking out, and behavior problems begin to creep up. Middle schoolers need to socialize - it is just part of their make up. If I can have them socialize about math or science, that's a win-win.
Next week we are getting into chemistry with my science kids, and I need to prepare some demonstrations or labs for them to do. They loved watching sodium explode when we dropped it into water yesterday, and many of them asked excitedly "Are we blowing up anything today?!" Unfortunately, I'm not able to blow things up every day, but we had a good conversation about why the sodium explosion happened. I think that the explosion grabbed their attention enough for them to learn a little basic chemistry. I'll use whatever trick or gimmick it takes to get the kids interested in science for the day.
I feel that after one week, I can say that I have done a good job. I have had a chance to talk to my kids individually, I know all their names, and I have set the tone for a fun and productive year. I'm finding my stride as a teacher, and I hope I can hit the ground running next week.
For now, it's the weekend. I'm out.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
General Confusion
Where does the time go? It is amazing how quickly time flies, especially when you feel like you have a thousand things to do and you are accomplishing none of them. I think every first year teacher goes through these feelings of general confusion and wasted time. I'm so used to being extremely productive that it is weird to feel unproductive. As a new teacher, I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, and even if I knew what I was supposed to be doing, I wouldn't know exactly how to do it. I suppose the best way to improve is by doing, failing, then learning from your failures.
My second day seemed to go better than the first day, especially with how I relate to my students. I had some good response to my lame sense of humor in the morning, and I really felt comfortable in front of the class. In my morning classes, I was able to get almost every student's name from memory after playing a quick name game. I think that taking the time to do these get-to-know-you activities at the beginning of the year is vital. There is nothing so demeaning to a student as having a teacher that doesn't know your name. Knowing your students' names says, "I see you. I know you are here." That's a start, at least.
I am still amazed at teachers who are able to bring that energy to every class period, every day, every week, all year long. I felt my energy drop off a bit in the afternoon, after lunch. I think the kids felt it, and they were my sleepy class yesterday, too. I need to find a way to spice things up after lunch, so the students can be engaged. Honestly, I need the spice as much as my students do. I hate teaching boring lessons, and I feed off the energy of the class. It could be that the kids were just tired of hearing every teacher's back to school expectations spiel, so I'm going to cut myself a little slack.
Tomorrow I will get started on content, and the kids seem ready for it. They jumped at the opportunity to do a little math (probably because they were tired of hearing me talk about respect and behavior), so I think they will be excited to learn some new stuff. I'm excited to go home and relax.
Till tomorrow!
My second day seemed to go better than the first day, especially with how I relate to my students. I had some good response to my lame sense of humor in the morning, and I really felt comfortable in front of the class. In my morning classes, I was able to get almost every student's name from memory after playing a quick name game. I think that taking the time to do these get-to-know-you activities at the beginning of the year is vital. There is nothing so demeaning to a student as having a teacher that doesn't know your name. Knowing your students' names says, "I see you. I know you are here." That's a start, at least.
I am still amazed at teachers who are able to bring that energy to every class period, every day, every week, all year long. I felt my energy drop off a bit in the afternoon, after lunch. I think the kids felt it, and they were my sleepy class yesterday, too. I need to find a way to spice things up after lunch, so the students can be engaged. Honestly, I need the spice as much as my students do. I hate teaching boring lessons, and I feed off the energy of the class. It could be that the kids were just tired of hearing every teacher's back to school expectations spiel, so I'm going to cut myself a little slack.
Tomorrow I will get started on content, and the kids seem ready for it. They jumped at the opportunity to do a little math (probably because they were tired of hearing me talk about respect and behavior), so I think they will be excited to learn some new stuff. I'm excited to go home and relax.
Till tomorrow!
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
First Day
"First days always suck, no matter how many years of experience you have"
Today was the first day of school for many kids, and I shared a lot of the emotions they must have been feeling: fear, anxiety, general confusion, and excitement. Today was also my first day running my own classroom as a 7th/8th grade math and science teacher, so I felt just as afraid as many of the kids coming into my classroom. I had (and still have) so many questions and unresolved confusion about how things really work around the school. The fact that so many kids rely on me to know the answers to questions I might not have even thought of yet is a bit nerve-wracking. I'm still figuring it out myself, along with trying to learn dozens of names and somehow getting lessons planned. It will come together, but I'll have to be quick on my feet and ready to improvise.
On the other hand, I feel really great about the way my first day went. It was not perfect - far from it - but I went a long way toward building a safe learning environment for my students. I think that first days are an opportunity, albeit a stressful opportunity. While my coworker may be right that "First days always suck," I think first days suck in the most glorious way. There's no second opportunity for a first impression, and the way you begin the year sets the tone for the rest of the year to come. I loved being able to introduce myself and to start learning the kids' names and interests. My first goal is to connect with my students. I don't think you can accomplish anything meaningful without first getting to know your students as individuals. Students are not just academic beings, and they should not be treated as such.
One activity I always do with my classes is to create a set of community agreements. I've found that students usually know what appropriate school behavior is like, and that when they phrase it in their own language it is more memorable. When students break the rules that they have established as a community, you can point to the agreements and ask the offender if he or she thinks they are abiding by the agreement. This way the authority for discipline is not solely on your shoulders, but is a shared responsibility of the whole class. I've had a lot of success with community agreements as a classroom management and community building activity. You can always add your own expectations, in case you are worried about giving up the reins to your class entirely. I make it very clear that I will not tolerate harassment, discrimination, bullying, or aggressive behavior, regardless of whether the class mentions it in community agreements or not. While the community agreements empower students, I make it absolutely clear that some behavior will not be tolerated, and that it is ultimately my classroom and my authority.
I framed the activity differently today than I have in the past, and I think it worked well. I usually ask students to brainstorm rules that they think would allow them to be successful in class. This focuses the activity on students advocating for their needs and thinking about successful situations, but it sometimes results in really short lists. A lot of times, students are not metacognitively aware enough to pinpoint what works for their learning. Instead, I focused the discussions today on classes they have been in that were bad experiences, and unpacked what was negative about that experience. Students shared some experiences (and we had a good laugh about a few) where they were in a class that just "sucked." After a few minutes of sharing bad experiences, I turn the question around on them, and they brainstorm rules silently. I'm really focusing on giving individual think time, so I let students silently brainstorm for 2 minutes before sharing. Then the groups of 4 make a list of rules by consensus and we create a full class list. Tomorrow we will re-visit the community agreements and dig a little deeper into rules and behavior.
I'm going to try to keep up on this blog as much as possible during this first year of teaching. I want this to be a forum for discussion and a place for advice and commiseration among teachers. Please feel free to comment! I would love to hear your thoughts on how I run things, advice for how I can do things better, and anything you are experiencing at your own school.
Alright, that's enough for Day 1. Until tomorrow.
Today was the first day of school for many kids, and I shared a lot of the emotions they must have been feeling: fear, anxiety, general confusion, and excitement. Today was also my first day running my own classroom as a 7th/8th grade math and science teacher, so I felt just as afraid as many of the kids coming into my classroom. I had (and still have) so many questions and unresolved confusion about how things really work around the school. The fact that so many kids rely on me to know the answers to questions I might not have even thought of yet is a bit nerve-wracking. I'm still figuring it out myself, along with trying to learn dozens of names and somehow getting lessons planned. It will come together, but I'll have to be quick on my feet and ready to improvise.
On the other hand, I feel really great about the way my first day went. It was not perfect - far from it - but I went a long way toward building a safe learning environment for my students. I think that first days are an opportunity, albeit a stressful opportunity. While my coworker may be right that "First days always suck," I think first days suck in the most glorious way. There's no second opportunity for a first impression, and the way you begin the year sets the tone for the rest of the year to come. I loved being able to introduce myself and to start learning the kids' names and interests. My first goal is to connect with my students. I don't think you can accomplish anything meaningful without first getting to know your students as individuals. Students are not just academic beings, and they should not be treated as such.
One activity I always do with my classes is to create a set of community agreements. I've found that students usually know what appropriate school behavior is like, and that when they phrase it in their own language it is more memorable. When students break the rules that they have established as a community, you can point to the agreements and ask the offender if he or she thinks they are abiding by the agreement. This way the authority for discipline is not solely on your shoulders, but is a shared responsibility of the whole class. I've had a lot of success with community agreements as a classroom management and community building activity. You can always add your own expectations, in case you are worried about giving up the reins to your class entirely. I make it very clear that I will not tolerate harassment, discrimination, bullying, or aggressive behavior, regardless of whether the class mentions it in community agreements or not. While the community agreements empower students, I make it absolutely clear that some behavior will not be tolerated, and that it is ultimately my classroom and my authority.
I framed the activity differently today than I have in the past, and I think it worked well. I usually ask students to brainstorm rules that they think would allow them to be successful in class. This focuses the activity on students advocating for their needs and thinking about successful situations, but it sometimes results in really short lists. A lot of times, students are not metacognitively aware enough to pinpoint what works for their learning. Instead, I focused the discussions today on classes they have been in that were bad experiences, and unpacked what was negative about that experience. Students shared some experiences (and we had a good laugh about a few) where they were in a class that just "sucked." After a few minutes of sharing bad experiences, I turn the question around on them, and they brainstorm rules silently. I'm really focusing on giving individual think time, so I let students silently brainstorm for 2 minutes before sharing. Then the groups of 4 make a list of rules by consensus and we create a full class list. Tomorrow we will re-visit the community agreements and dig a little deeper into rules and behavior.
I'm going to try to keep up on this blog as much as possible during this first year of teaching. I want this to be a forum for discussion and a place for advice and commiseration among teachers. Please feel free to comment! I would love to hear your thoughts on how I run things, advice for how I can do things better, and anything you are experiencing at your own school.
Alright, that's enough for Day 1. Until tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)