Whoever said that teaching has to be hard work? Well speaking from experience, it is. You go in early than you’re supposed to. Your planning is barely enough to scrape together anything resembling a lesson. You leave later than you’re supposed to. Then you work once you’re at home. You wake up the next morning having dreamed about tomorrow’s lesson. That’s a whole lot of work, and the craziest part is that the actual teaching comes second to the work.

You know what I’m talking about. Instead of having time to really tutor a student on a concept, you’re too busy picking up paper, doing attendance, fussing at Billy for using his cell phone, trying to show the fourth student in a row how to work a pencil, and all the while repeating the same thing twenty times. During all of this other nonsense you’re supposed to be educating tomorrow’s brightest and finest. Excuse me while I roll in the floor laughing.

The Epiphany

However, the situation seemed unavoidable to me. Fortunately I came across a very simple idea that has made a world of difference for me. I came about this revelation via reading an amazingly boring book by Fred Jones called Tools for Teaching (You’ll have to excuse me for calling it boring, but it is a very repetitive read. I think it could be shortened to a few bulleted points and be just as affective as the 300 page manual). Jones truly shines in his simple yet insightful one liners. It was after reading one such quip that I had the epiphany.

“It is not your job to work yourself to death while the students watch. It is your job to work the students to death while you watch.”

It was at this point that I felt really stupid. Why didn’t I think of that? I didn’t even need an explanation; it just made sense. The reason it felt like I was doing so much work was because I was! Not only was I taking care of the planning and the assessment and the attendance, but in many cases I was even doing the actual project via the student’s hands. I had to stand behind them and walking them through it after I had done the same thing with ten other students.

My Experience

I began trying delegation out this week. Instead of doing my normal routine of running around like a circus act, I sat back and delegated. Now don’t get me wrong, I still did the things I was responsible for. I didn’t just sit with my feet propped up behind my desk. I am by no means advocating the lazy “teaching” I experienced in high school. I think we’ve all had a class like that – where the teacher uses a worksheet as a lesson and then lets the students grade it. Rather I took the repetitive, meaningless work and let a student do it.

To my amazement they did it! Not only did they do it, but they did it better than I could do it. Normally I was trying to do too much, but giving one of those tasks to a student allowed them to focus. Suddenly I had time to teach the good stuff, instead of teaching someone how to sharpen a pencil every five minutes!

Delegation at Work

As an example, I had a project planned for my fourth block class in which the students had to execute a multi-step process. Normally I would have been running back in forth between students to try to manage the chaos. In the end, none of the students would get it right, and I would be exhausted.

This time I took the approach of delegating. In first block, I had a student draw a visual instruction plan (thank you again Mr. Jones) detailing the steps needed to complete the process. This student was already finished with their work and bored. It was a task that would have eaten nearly all of my planning. The student jumped at the chance to be doing something, and he completed it was great enthusiasm. The plan was excellent, and what really surprised me was that he was willing to do more!

I have been using students more and more as the week has passed, and my feet have hurt less and less. Even better I really feel like I have a chance to teach! I am so happy at the beginning of every class now. Maybe I’m just crazy, so help me understand. Do you have an experience similar to mine? Describe how your day normally goes in the classroom.

It has been a little while since my last post. Life has gotten the upper hand, and I have swamped with work. This week I’m on spring break though, so I have a little more time to myself.

While I was surfing the web over coffee this morning, I came across a really awesome resource for teachers. I work in a school system that provides well for its students; however as I imagine it is for most teachers, there is always something that I could really use in the classroom but don’t have the funding for. Well luckily there is a group out there helps fill the funding gap.

The group is called DonorsChoose.org, and they offer teachers the opportunity to pitch their project to the general public in order to ask for funding. DonorsChoose.org is a 501(c)(3) organization, which connects teachers in need to donors who are looking to help out. I believe that most people are more than willing to help fund education, but it can be difficult to know how you can contribute. All doubt is removed with DonorsChoose.org.

It is remarkably easy to sign up and setup your project. All you need are some pictures and a detailed explanation of what you need and how you plan to use it. Once you’ve finished setting up your project, donors are asked to help fund it. They can donate the standard $25 or any other amount they choose. In this way the cost is spread out among multiple donors. After someone donates to your project, you are given a kit to say thank you. Students write letters to the donors, which is fantastic for teaching students to say thank you.

I would encourage you to jump over to DonorsChoose.org and see what it’s all about. Maybe you have something you need for your classroom, or perhaps you are interested in helping out a teacher in need. Regardless, it is fun just browsing the projects, and seeing free-market charity at work. Leave a comment below letting me know what you think about the site, and definitely tell me if you set up a project!

So I got to thinking (I know it’s amazing news) about how we as teacher spend so much of our time correcting behavior. However, I have never really stopped to think what I’m trying to correct that behavior towards. What I’m saying is that most of the time we know exactly what makes a “bad” kid, but I don’t think I’ve really have sat down to think about what makes a “good” student.

Now without degrading into a pointless discussion about the absurdity of dualism, I think that we spend too much time separating students into categories of good and bad. It’s really a pointless exercise, but I think it’s a natural way of examining our world. With that said, I started thinking about what I believe makes a “good” student and if any of those characteristics can be found in the “bad” ones.

The lines start to blur when I stated to look at it closely. Too be honest I don’t really have bad students. I think that’s just an unproductive way of looking at my students. Good students aren’t really just the opposite of the bad ones (quotes all around). There are good and bad and okay things about each of my students. They’re unique. Even the stereotypes break down when you look at them closely. That’s why I decided to think about the ultimate student. This is the dream kid – the one that’s the best to have but not necessarily the one you like.

The Ultimate Student – My Initial Observations of the “Bad” Students >>

1. The Assohole >> Yeah that’s right, I really like the assholes. The one that challenge your every assertion. The one that asks to go to the bathroom fifteen times a class even though they know what the answer will be. They keep me on my toes. They make me question every superfluous rule and how absurd they really are. They make me answer the hard questions.
2. The Know-It-All >> This is the kid that makes you look a fool when you’re supposed to be the expert. I need the know-it -alls to force me to never be satisfied with what I know. If not for them, it would be far too easy to become stagnant. These kids are the reason I need to listen to NPR every morning and visit every art museum I can.
3. The Quiet Kid >> These kids make me work harder. The ones that volunteer to talk are so easy to pick on, but the quiet ones need the attention too. They just need it in different ways. They’re the puzzles that make teaching interesting.
4. The Nerdy Kid >> This kid wants to know they’re grade on a minute by minute basis. They make me actually grade stuff on time. It’s so easy to put stuff off, but the nerds make sure you can never procrastinate too long.
5. The Talker >> This student is my boredom barometer. They let me know when I need to shift gears or take a different approach. I have to stay loose enough to make spontaneous changes.
6. FES >> The Foreign Exchange Student can be difficult to work with sometimes, but I wish I had one in every class. This student reminds me that there are different cultures than my own. What I might consider the truth is called into question through interaction with other cultures, and I consider myself better for the exchange.

I probably could keep going, but I think I’ll save it for another post. I believe I’ll keep this idea open and revisit it in the future. In the mean time, what “bad” student do you treasure?

Holy Moo Moo, how many times have you heard that question after you just taught the class how to multiply polynomials or how to graph a line using slope-intercept form?  The answer is, in all honesty, NEVER.  So what’s the point?  Why teach these kids something they’ll never use unless they somehow get inspired to become an Algebra teacher at a local high school?  It’s a battle I fight everyday in my Algebra 1 classroom.

One day this past week, I just broke down and told the students sitting in their cute little desks with their confused, beady white eyes, that they would never have to sit down at their job and use the FOIL method unless they were a math teacher.  There’s no sense in lying, right?  Well crap, I’ve told them they don’t need to learn what I have to teach them. How in this world can I get them to work now?

There are tons of everyday applications in math classes like geometry, trig, and calculus for those future engineers in my class, but for those average kids that hate math you really have to search for everyday life skills that use algebra.  Well here’s the answer, at least the only one I’ve come up with.

It’s the logical thinking process.  I tell the students that later down the road they will use this foundation in higher math classes but more importantly, they’re going to make logical decisions quicker and better with a knowledge of algebra.  Now, am I blowing smoke up their rear-ends?  Who knows, but if it gets them to turn to page 471 in their books and do problems 16-36 evens, then I’ll go with it.

So, I guess what I’m saying is, lying isn’t always that bad. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?  Why do the kids really need algebra?  Any more b.s. answers?

On my previous post “Stop that…”, Shirley Winkle (aka my kid sister’s pseudonym) suggested two very thought provoking videos about education. I loved them so much I felt it was worth giving them their own post.

First let me preface them by saying that they are absolutely wonderful. I will not pretend to disguise my enthusiasm under layers of objectivity. Not only are they immensely thought provoking, but they are funny. Funny in a way that captures your imagination as well as your laughter. Both of these were found on TED, which I would encourage you to check out as well if you are interested in exercising your brain.

“What Teachers Make” by Taylor Mali

Taylor Mali also has a wonderful site chock full of content. Mali is an award winning poet, and “What Teachers Make” is only a small portion of his repertoire. I would definitely recommend you check it out. I’m still pouring over stuff myself.

“Schools Kill Creativity” by Sir Ken Robinson

Ken Robinson also have an absolutely beautiful site that focuses on Creativity. He also contributes to the Imagine It! project, which I find absolutely fascinating. I think I’m going to have to find his book too. My curiosity is certainly piqued.

I certainly hope you enjoyed these videos as much as I have. Please let me know what you think about these two videos. Is your opinion of education vastly different?

I’m studying classroom discipline and management for my master’s class. So far it’s been really helpful. I’ve learned several new things that have been very useful in the classroom. We are currently looking at various discipline models and the philosophies of dealing with student behavior. I am frustrated by the models I’m finding available. Each seem to have their faults, and they send my brain reeling into philosophical arguments on the benefits of different methods. I thought I’d take a minute to express these observations I’ve made. Consider this an ongoing observation of discipline. I may revisit this topic again in the future. Maybe after I’ve had a few years to reflect.

Prepare yourself for a pretentious, new-teacher rant. Consider yourself warned.

Students are Morons

I don’t really think that students are dumb, but it seems like every model I’ve come across so far assumes that students are just stupid. It’s not that they don’t have a brain; it’s just that they are too stupid to use it. We, as educators, must program their brains for them using discipline and rewards. What asinine concept! Sure we respond to classical conditioning, but we are not dogs.

Why do we think that students will someday become contributing citizens if we can only instill good behavior (aka brainwash them into doing what we want)? It’s highly ironic that we wind up teaching about revolutionary ideas and people, and at the same time we are forcing students to conform. If anything by attempting to maintain the status quo, we create a system to rebel against. Perhaps one of those rebels will be the next Einstein or Gandhi or MLK.

I truly believe that students need opportunities not lessons. We can teach them what we know, but that limits future creations and discoveries. The same applies to discipline. If I punish a student repeatedly, I am only teaching him to rely on my corrections. Why create rules that set students up for failure? Why not present students with situations where they discover the value of a certain behavior? Who knows maybe we educators can shut up long enough to learn something from our students.

Teachers Must be in Control

Control is an illusion. For some reason we believe that some rules and appropriate consequences allow us to control our students. What a joke! We may be able to prescribe behavior in the classroom, but we are doing nothing to influence the student after the bell rings.

Teaching is much more like a dance. Students are our partners. We can’t have education without them (I get the feeling that some teachers feel like they’d be better educators if they just didn’t have students). We may be the lead dancer, but we still have to respond to our partner. We are the lead dancer only, because we know more of the steps. We should be training new lead dancers not just really good followers.

Teachers Really Teach

All learning is autodidactic. That is not to say that what we do as teachers is lacking value. We provide opportunities to learn. Students may learn our intended lesson or they may learn something completely different. It is ultimately up to the student to learn. As a teacher, there is nothing I can do to make someone learn. The same methods I use to teach can be counteracted.

It seem to me that education is constantly looking for the magical formula that will get ever student on the same page. News flash: it isn’t going to happen. Part of being human is learning that you have a unique perspective. We seem to ignore that when we teach. Instead of creating individuals that are achieving there personal best, we are prescribing discipline and standards in order to create clones of the ideal human.

I believe that perfection is a conditional state. Perfection is not looking like everyone else. If you have achieved perfection, then you are harmonized with your own being and the world you find yourself in. Not only do you understand yourself, but you understand your place in this world. This is a hard thing to do, but sometimes we luck into perfection for just a moment. We should be setting students up for perfection not punishment for not conforming.

Students Don’t Care Anymore

I hate to break it to you, but students never did care. Humans are really good at playing their role. In general our motivator in education is personal not social. We do not learn Algebra in order to care for the elderly. We learn it because we need  a degree. Now we may eventually use that degree to care for the elderly, but that is a secondary motivator.

It is in our nature to be selfish and disguise our actions as altruism. I don’t necessary think that is a bad thing. It is good to know that our students are not going to care as much as we do about what we are teaching. We share different motivators, and we have motivation to teach than they do to learn. We should not delude ourselves into thinking education is the end goal. The end goal is not that students love to learn, but that they can use what they learn to do what they love. The same can be applied to discipline.

It is important that students fall into line, and we think that they should care about it. In reality we have to care about it, because it’s our job. It is criminal to expect a student to comply as a child should, while at the same time expecting them to act more like an adult. We tell them that adults make decisions, and then we prescribe the decisions we want them to make. Perhaps we should reexamine what an adult should be.

Okay I’m Out of Breath

Well that was a bit wordy. I don’t expect many of you made it through that rant, but I needed to flesh some of that out. I’ll probably revisit some of these ideas when I have had some time to process. I may change my idea completely. Time will tell.

Objective, standard, goal, benchmark, target, added progress, and on and on and on… Wow, what an amazingly useful set of words that get beat to death! They’re dead to me, Don Vito style.

I began my first class in my Master of Art in Teaching program last week. It was all a bit overwhelming at first. There are these magical acronyms that are used for everything, that for the uninitiated are completely baffling. Once I had a little more time to catch up to my thoughts, I began reflecting on what was said in class. I was absolutely amazed at some of the things brought out in the class.

Now you are probably expecting a long paragraph regaling you with the amazing new strategy that I learned that will change the world of teaching. I am sorry to disappoint.

It was explained to us that there are four essential skills that teachers must have, or they are not really teaching. We broke up into pairs and discussed what we felt the essential skills are for teachers. My partner and I came up with patience, organization, and assessment. The fourth we came up with was equally as common and forgetful.

I was absolutely shocked when I heard the actual skills required to teach. They were:

1. Select Objective at the correct level of student
2. Teach to the Objective
3. Monitor and Adjust the Objective
4. Use principles of learning to achieve Objective

Anything jump out at you? If you said Objective, then I have achieved my goal of teaching my Objective. While I understand what my professor was trying to teach, I was disappointed to find that everything in my job has to revolve around an objective. Why must all education my objective based? Why can’t a child learn something on their own that is completely unintentional, because I provided an opportunity for the student to explore their world?

I am frustrated that education must be all objectives. We do not experience the world objectively – despite great effort at doing so. Why do we think that we can teach objectively? More importantly, why do we think students can learn objectively?

By making education nothing more than moving towards an objective, we will never rise above it. As an education system, we are robbing students of the chance of making their world better. Instead we are creating a society of robots who do nothing more than follow the rules and complete their imperatives. What a silly world we are creating one student at a time.

I have expressed my idealistic, new teacher disillusionment. How do you feel about objectives? Does it get easier to just get the job done as you do this longer? Is there any hope?

Holy cow I love snow days! Especially since my school system builds days in to our schedule. Can you say free day?

If you happen to live in an area of the country that gets some snow but not a tremendous amount, you truly know what I mean by a snow day. It’s that magical moment of looking out the window and seeing just enough snow to stop the buses from running. We’re not talking about snow that covers your car and keeps you from opening the front door. The type of snow I’m talking about is the kind that you have to scrape together to even get a snow ball.

As a kid I would flip out on snow days. I remember this one day getting in my parents hot tub to warm up. Then my friend and I would run out in our bathing suits to make snow angels. Later I caught pneumonia and died. Okay that’s a lie, but it would be such a better story.

Now days things are a little more tame. I mostly wind up sitting around on the couch. I do some design stuff, watch a little boob tube, and sip on a cold one. Basically I don’t do crap. Netflix gets a work out though (no they didn’t pay me to say that).

Nathan’s Top Ways to Spend a Snow Day

1. Break open a six pack and grill some steaks.
2. Watch an entire season of Dr. Who on Netflix.
3. Turn on a Michael Jackson song and act like you can dance.
4. Create a blog about your experience teaching… Wait a minute!

Things to Definitely Not To Do on a Snow Day

1. Get Drunk; the next day sucks!
2. Watch American Idol. It’s sad to see how untalented America really is.
3. Go to school to catch up on work. Seriously!
4. Take a trip to the beach. You may forget to come back.
5. Make fun of your wife for having to go to work. You will get slapped!

The only thing that can make a snow day better is if the wife is off too (yes she paid me to say that). Then I have a snow buddy. Well I’m going to go take a nap or something equally as unproductive. The rest you remember you can make every day snow day, just lay around and do nothing.

What do you do on snow days?

So I’m kind of curious. How do you spend your snow day? Are you as lazy as I am, or do you actually do something productive.

Well, its Christmas Break still (excuse me while I do a little dance). I have finished my first semester of teaching.  Over the past three weeks I have been pondering on what I can do differently in this new semester to help my students – or rather prevent myself from killing them.

I’m already prepared to inform all of my new and returning students about my new expectations this semester: they should bow down to me! Just kidding.

I teach a freshmen algebra class first thing in the morning. Yeah it’s as bad as you’re thinking.  However, this class is close to my heart, because – just like me – they’re new. We’re learning together. I know, way to go all mushy mushy.

I feel like it is my duty to prepare my freshmen to take high school head on! One idea that I have for this class is to just give them all A’s, so they can have a great GPA right off the bat. Unfortunately my administration thought that would be a bad career move.

My second idea is to make notes mandatory each day. This way they can hopefully learn to take notes in other classes and be prepared to listen for the important things that come out of the teacher’s mouth. That and they’ll probably hate me for life.

As I thought about doing this with my freshmen, I thought, “Why wouldn’t this work for my other two upperclassmen algebra classes?” The answer is, they’re lazy? I kid!

My plan is to use notes as an extra “easy” homework grade. That way they don’t fail – maybe. What better way to raise a student’s confidence in math?

More goals to make my students math nerds will be on the way, but for now I pose this question: “What are other ways to prepare freshmen to conquer high school after they are outside of their ‘all freshmen classes’ comfort zone?”

I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that you have to be a little bit crazy to teach. From being called an asshole to cleaning up chewing tobacco out of my sinks, there have been days. Oh yes, there have been days!

At times I think they’re all out to get me. Sometimes it’s just a matter of counting down the minutes to 3 o’clock. Luckily it’s not always that bad. Actually the majority of time things are fun in the classroom.

So much of my experience thus far has been working to just survive. From the impossibly complicated task of keeping up with attendance to trying to balancing my budget with the supplies required for certain projects, there are days when my head is pounding by the end of the day. While I realize that it will likely get easier with time, right now it is a day to day task to just to keep up.

Last semester I taught one class for three different blocks. This semester I’m teaching 4 different classes in three diffeent blocks. At moments I’m in panic mode, and at others I’m perfectly at peace. It is a weird sensation for sure.

One of the things I’ve noticed having 4 different classes is that I’m very comfortable with the classes I taught last semester. I don’t spend as much time thinking, “Okay crap! Now what were we doing next.” I was free to joke a little bit more and loosen up. It feels really good. I can’t wait until I feel as comfortable in the other classes.

Here are my suggestions on how to survive – keep in mind I’m still surviving and not quite a survivor yet:

1. Coffee - Oh mighty Java, save us. Don’t keep that cheap crap either. Get some Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Just be sure not to over do it. Nothings worse than looking like a crack addict while your explaining the subtle differences of fine art and that crap Thomas Kinkade does.
2. Use Big Words – Students are less likely to challenge you when they know you can call them an idiot without them knowing it. Plus you never know when that word will popup on an ACT, and a student credits you with teaching them that word. It happened to me.
3. Listen to NPR – If you want to sound like you know it all, just listen to NPR. It’s amazing some of the things that wind up as a story on there. You are a genius, and NPR is your brain food.
4. Urban Dictionary – How else are you supposed to know that 2KX is 2010 and that you really are a sweeg? Don’t let yourself get behind the curve – plus it’s funny.
5. Get on the Desk - When you can’t get their attention do something dramatic. My favorite thing to do is jump up on my desk. You can see everything their doing that their not supposed to, and they watch your every move wondering if you’re going to fall.
6. Say No to Fundraisers - I currently have like 12 t-shirts I’ll never wear, a box of rotten oranges, candles that I can’t pawn off on anyone, and a discount card that is more expensive to use than the value meals. While it’s great to support your students, you will be broke if you help them all. Be realistic! Choose the ones that you think you’ll actually use.

While I have very little experience under my belt, I feel like I have learned so much. I recognize that I have a long way to go still. What do you use to survive the day?