The kids are “bouncing off the walls” this week, especially the ninth graders. We have a two week long holiday break approaching, and mentally the kids are already enjoying it. Tomorrow will be a “lost day” since visions of sugar plums will be floating in their heads.
I have an advantage in science. I can “entertain” my students and trick them into learning something. We are completing a chemistry unit so I am finishing the unit with chemical reactions and equation balancing. Last week I taught about hydrogen and made some as a demonstration. I used mossy zinc and hydrochloric acid. When I ignited the collected gas, I had everyone’s full attention. Then when I did oxygen production and blinded everybody by putting burning magnesium into the pure oxygen, once again I had their full attention.
Class interruptions over the intercom are a constant annoyance. Anyone who has taught knows what I mean. I even had one interruption by a student with a guitar who wanted to serenade me in the middle of a lesson. I’m not sure which class he was skipping, but he left when I nicely told him to “go find some traffic to play in”.
I made extra use of my chalkboard and white boards this past week. Some students like to write on them while others are too shy. I brought in a container of miniature candy canes and used them to generate greater student involvement.
This week I had several visitors from the Spanish class down the hall. I was given two large Christmas cards written in Spanish and three tree decorations that were hand colored with Spanish sentiments written on the back.
The past two days, my students were actually focused on science more than Christmas. We spent the two days doing a lab where they mixed pairs of chemicals to observe the reactions that took place. Keeping students active makes this week before Christmas break a valuable week. A lot of learning has been taking place. I even threatened a test on Friday but canceled it at the last minute. I told them it was a Christmas present.
I haven’t done a whole of insulting lately. It is funny how the kids seem to enjoy being insulted, as long as it is done in a nonthreatening way as part of a bantering exchange. They even laugh at the oldest wise cracks. Yesterday I had a student called to the office and I told her to “make like a tree and leave”.
I think the students enjoy my class since even the ones who are doing poorly don’t want to move to an easier level of work with another teacher. I have had several of last year’s students visit me and tell me they are planning to take physics next year so I can be their teacher again. Gee, maybe I should be cloned?
The day before vacation I always do something loosely related to science and have friendly dialog with my students. I discourage them from bringing any gifts, but a few still do. I am just happy to be working with them and being able to look forward to the upcoming holiday through their eyes.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The Poor Teacher
Teaching is not considered a high paying job. New teachers barely get by with the starting salary in most states. Then add on the increasing qualifications criteria and the recipe becomes perfect to discourage anyone from entering the profession. So then who wants to become a teacher?
Surprisingly enough, lots of different people do. Most people enter teaching as dedicated professionals. However, some are looking for a job where they have their summers free or just want to coach sports. A large number of both groups don’t survive for very long. Teaching is a grind that wears you down. It takes a unique individual to be able to do it successfully. A listing of the reasons for leaving teaching would find their classroom students down near the bottom of the list. The highest dropout rate among teachers is within the group that enters the profession for the wrong reasons.
The poor teacher has developed a number of self preservation techniques and will do one or more of the following things to excess. Principal observations are treated to a real “dog and pony show” when they are announced. Classroom discipline is maintained through excessive use of office referrals for misbehavior. Students are kept very busy with worksheets that are intermittently graded while videos, many of which are loosely related to the subject matter, are shown to excess. Notes are put on the overhead or white board and the students spend most of the class period copying them. Students are usually given minimal directions or assistance when given assignments and are left pretty much on their own to come up with solutions. Lessons are seldom changed from year to year and the same old lectures are given forever. The teaching contract is often closely followed, especially concerning the hours required. Volunteering for anything is seldom done unless there are adequate benefits or remuneration involved. School property is often appropriated for personal use through a variety of techniques.
I have had to tolerate a number of these teachers in various school districts. One time as department chairman I tried to do something about a poorly performing individual in my department. Not only was nothing done, the hard feelings generated made things uncomfortable for a year or two. Then he moved on to another district. I learned the hard way that teachers can’t do much about other poor teachers. The final responsibility rests with the principal.
Most principals know who the problem teachers are. They don’t always deal with them for a variety of reasons. Some principals just can’t gather sufficient evidence for dismissal while others don’t want the hassle of eliminating bad teachers. Many principals use “backdoor methods” to eliminate poor teachers. The most common “back door” method involves changing the teacher’s assignment to classes with students who not only perform poorly academically but are also exhibiting many discipline problems. One district used to “demote” high school teachers to the middle school in the hope of acquiring a letter of resignation.
The problem with “back door” methods is that they inflict bad teaching on the students who need the best teaching, similar to what happens in many districts when the “new guy” gets the most difficult classes that the experienced teacher tries to avoid.
Tenure protects teachers from unfair termination but does provide methods to eliminate the bad teacher. The reason many principals don’t want to take it on, is the amount of work and time required to process a teacher through the system.
Teacher bonuses to reward good teaching are never trusted as a means to improve teaching. When these awards are based on student performance, it leads to teachers wanting only the better classes where students will score well on tests. The other drawback is the possibility that the awards will be based upon favoritism or nepotism on the part of the principal or superintendent. There really is no fair way to determine how to apportion these bonuses. Not only do they lead to bad feelings among staff members, they don’t have any effect on the quality of teaching.
Every school has a mix of teachers. Just like everything in life involving people they range from excellent through mediocre to poor. Well managed districts with effective administrators tend to have more of the cream while others end up with more of the curds. Teacher associations (unions) are of little help in sorting the curds from the cream. Unfortunately, students suffer the most since not only are they subject to less than the best quality lessons, they also observe the actions of these "do as I say, not as I do" teachers and often use them as role models.
Surprisingly enough, lots of different people do. Most people enter teaching as dedicated professionals. However, some are looking for a job where they have their summers free or just want to coach sports. A large number of both groups don’t survive for very long. Teaching is a grind that wears you down. It takes a unique individual to be able to do it successfully. A listing of the reasons for leaving teaching would find their classroom students down near the bottom of the list. The highest dropout rate among teachers is within the group that enters the profession for the wrong reasons.
The poor teacher has developed a number of self preservation techniques and will do one or more of the following things to excess. Principal observations are treated to a real “dog and pony show” when they are announced. Classroom discipline is maintained through excessive use of office referrals for misbehavior. Students are kept very busy with worksheets that are intermittently graded while videos, many of which are loosely related to the subject matter, are shown to excess. Notes are put on the overhead or white board and the students spend most of the class period copying them. Students are usually given minimal directions or assistance when given assignments and are left pretty much on their own to come up with solutions. Lessons are seldom changed from year to year and the same old lectures are given forever. The teaching contract is often closely followed, especially concerning the hours required. Volunteering for anything is seldom done unless there are adequate benefits or remuneration involved. School property is often appropriated for personal use through a variety of techniques.
I have had to tolerate a number of these teachers in various school districts. One time as department chairman I tried to do something about a poorly performing individual in my department. Not only was nothing done, the hard feelings generated made things uncomfortable for a year or two. Then he moved on to another district. I learned the hard way that teachers can’t do much about other poor teachers. The final responsibility rests with the principal.
Most principals know who the problem teachers are. They don’t always deal with them for a variety of reasons. Some principals just can’t gather sufficient evidence for dismissal while others don’t want the hassle of eliminating bad teachers. Many principals use “backdoor methods” to eliminate poor teachers. The most common “back door” method involves changing the teacher’s assignment to classes with students who not only perform poorly academically but are also exhibiting many discipline problems. One district used to “demote” high school teachers to the middle school in the hope of acquiring a letter of resignation.
The problem with “back door” methods is that they inflict bad teaching on the students who need the best teaching, similar to what happens in many districts when the “new guy” gets the most difficult classes that the experienced teacher tries to avoid.
Tenure protects teachers from unfair termination but does provide methods to eliminate the bad teacher. The reason many principals don’t want to take it on, is the amount of work and time required to process a teacher through the system.
Teacher bonuses to reward good teaching are never trusted as a means to improve teaching. When these awards are based on student performance, it leads to teachers wanting only the better classes where students will score well on tests. The other drawback is the possibility that the awards will be based upon favoritism or nepotism on the part of the principal or superintendent. There really is no fair way to determine how to apportion these bonuses. Not only do they lead to bad feelings among staff members, they don’t have any effect on the quality of teaching.
Every school has a mix of teachers. Just like everything in life involving people they range from excellent through mediocre to poor. Well managed districts with effective administrators tend to have more of the cream while others end up with more of the curds. Teacher associations (unions) are of little help in sorting the curds from the cream. Unfortunately, students suffer the most since not only are they subject to less than the best quality lessons, they also observe the actions of these "do as I say, not as I do" teachers and often use them as role models.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Changing of the Guard Part II
After two years at the junior high school, I was transferred to the high school where I got to know several excellent educators. Sam made an immediate impression on me. A tall, stocky man with a completely hairless dome and a strongly Italian accent, he was an imposing presence in the classroom. He had no discipline problems at all. He had an undeserved reputation as a man to be feared. Sam always wore has class ring, which had a giant red stone. Early in his career he would use corporal punishment and once slapped a student. Unfortunately he caught the student with his ring a cut his cheek. That was the last time he touched a student.
When I knew him, he was mellow and laid back. As an experienced teacher, he had developed more relaxed and refined discipline methods. The students enjoyed his classes and I enjoyed his company. I valued his advice and improved as a teacher because of it. Sam retired many years ago and recently passed away. He had a long, successful teaching career and enjoyed over twenty years in retirement.
George was a fellow science teacher. He taught the chemistry classes and could teach physics if needed. He set high standards and expected the students to attain those standards. George’s curriculum was demanding and prepared students for college courses in the sciences. At the same time he was able to tailor chemistry classes for students who were more oriented for trade schools rather than for a four year college. George had a long, successful teaching career but developed cancer and died before he was able to retire.
I also knew a couple of teachers who at first made very strong, positive impressions on me. Ray was an excellent math teacher with very high standards and an excellent ambassador for the teaching profession. He was an excellent negotiator for teaching contracts with a focus on what was good for the students as well as the teachers. Unfortunately, he moved into administration and became the antithesis of everything he stood for earlier in his career. Eventually he became the superintendent of the school district and when he died, few people remembered anything about his years in the classroom.
Bruce was my department head and I learned more from him about organizing and preparing a good science lesson in my first year with the district than I had learned in four years of college. He had made a reputation by consistently advising state and national science fair winners. He taught the advanced chemistry and physics classes and brought many national science grants to the school district. His goals were set much higher than the classroom and as he moved into district position, the science grants dried up and budgetary cutbacks became commonplace. By the time he worked his way into the position of Superintendent of Schools, his classroom career was pretty much forgotten and a teacher antagonistic school board made the position so difficult that he had little positive impact on the educational system.
Ray and Bruce helped me develop improved classroom techniques. They also showed me how detrimental weak leadership is to the educational process.
My high school principal, Curt, was my immediate “boss” for 18 years. He was a well respected sports official until his legs gave out. We often noticed that his office door was closed after he officiated a state championship match. The rumor was that he was “napping”. I don’t know if that was true or not, but I do know what was true. Curt would defend his teachers against any questionable criticism. He would also defend teachers against complaints about decisions being made that affected students in an adverse way. Then, if the teacher’s action was not a good one, he would quietly point that out to the teacher after the parent had left. The smart teacher would then correct the problem.
Curt required weekly lesson plans so he was always aware of what was happening in the classrooms. I used to wonder if he read them and would sometimes turn in plans that were short and cryptic. I remember the week I turned in these plans: Monday-Mars, Tuesday-Venus, Wednesday-Jupiter, Thursday-Saturn, Friday-asteroids. That is when I discovered that Curt did read the plans. I spent ten minutes with him. The next day I had acceptable plans turned in and he paid special attention to me for a few weeks after that.
Curt showed many of the characteristics of an excellent high school principal. He defended teachers when they were unjustly accused by anybody- parent or board member. He supported their decisions and actions as long as they followed established policies. He would quietly discipline teachers who needed it and was always up front with any teacher in all of his actions. He always acted for in the best interests of everyone concerned. He was as fair with the students as he was with his teachers. He interacted with the students in a friendly manner and new many of them by name.
Curt was satisfied being a high school principal and served for many years until retiring and eventually moving to Florida.
When we moved to the west coast and I eventually returned to teaching, I worked under two other principals who played important roles in the development of my teaching career. John was a guidance counselor who worked his way up to being a middle school principal. His interaction with students was a very important aspect of his position. Students felt at ease with him, even when being disciplined.
John had some health problems from his time in Vietnam and found decision making to be very difficult. He was in a difficult position working in a school where teachers wanted to do things their own way and were often less than cooperative. Many of the attitudes were surprising to me and a number of them appeared to have their own agendas ranked ahead of what was best for the students. For example, most were against grouping by ability because it was easier to control a class that had very bright students scattered among students who could care less about school. They didn’t seem to mind that the bright students were held back from achieving their full potential and the slow students were unable to handle the level of work being taught (a middle ground approach). John hit a wall more than once. When he did make a decision I didn’t agree with, his door was always open and I could go in and tell him what I thought. He never held anything I said against me. That was one of several things I respected him for.
When John was encouraged to leave, I had to take part in a juvenile, distasteful proceeding. The district held a special retreat for all of the staff in the building to cleanse themselves of John’s tenure. It was felt that everyone harbored bad feelings that prevented them from moving forward under new leadership. That somehow everyone must have been psychologically injured. I wanted to vomit when I heard this plan but I was contractually obligated to take part. Here were professional people who were preparing young people to be successful and they had all of these hang-ups over a principal most of them never really supported. When everyone had to write down any bad feelings they had for John and then discard them into a trash container as they filed by, I knew then I wanted to find a high school situation. John is happy today. He is retired and working as a substitute teacher. I run into him once in a while and we swap some stories.
I spent a few more years here working under an excellent principal who had come out of retirement to be John’s vice principal. Tom had taken an early retirement from teaching to take care of his son. His son had a number of personal problems and John gave up his career to care for him and renew their father-son relationship. I respected him for that and stayed on to work with him.
Tom was in a difficult position as he had to work with a difficult staff. Many of the teachers were dedicated, but many others were self focused. One science teacher had spent most of his career telling science fiction stories instead of teaching science. His students were a disaster when they hit high school. When he retired, his replacement was a know-it-all fresh out of college who caused me all sorts of grief. A female teacher was especially vindictive and made me the focus of her attacks. Knowing I didn’t need to put up with the downslide of teaching expertise surrounding me, I became very active looking for another position. The year Tom retired, following a three year “healing program”, I also moved on to my present position.
Tom was very humanistic in his approach. He weighed all of decisions carefully before making them. He interacted with the students and always had their best interests as the basis for each and every decision. I was pleased to have worked with him for the years that I did. After he retired, he was constantly approached by other districts who wanted him to run one of their buildings to correct some problems that had become apparent.
These two blogs have been about people who have been part of my professional life and helped me become the teacher I am today. I hope that as you have read them, that you have thought about a teacher or principal who had a positive affect on your own life.
When I knew him, he was mellow and laid back. As an experienced teacher, he had developed more relaxed and refined discipline methods. The students enjoyed his classes and I enjoyed his company. I valued his advice and improved as a teacher because of it. Sam retired many years ago and recently passed away. He had a long, successful teaching career and enjoyed over twenty years in retirement.
George was a fellow science teacher. He taught the chemistry classes and could teach physics if needed. He set high standards and expected the students to attain those standards. George’s curriculum was demanding and prepared students for college courses in the sciences. At the same time he was able to tailor chemistry classes for students who were more oriented for trade schools rather than for a four year college. George had a long, successful teaching career but developed cancer and died before he was able to retire.
I also knew a couple of teachers who at first made very strong, positive impressions on me. Ray was an excellent math teacher with very high standards and an excellent ambassador for the teaching profession. He was an excellent negotiator for teaching contracts with a focus on what was good for the students as well as the teachers. Unfortunately, he moved into administration and became the antithesis of everything he stood for earlier in his career. Eventually he became the superintendent of the school district and when he died, few people remembered anything about his years in the classroom.
Bruce was my department head and I learned more from him about organizing and preparing a good science lesson in my first year with the district than I had learned in four years of college. He had made a reputation by consistently advising state and national science fair winners. He taught the advanced chemistry and physics classes and brought many national science grants to the school district. His goals were set much higher than the classroom and as he moved into district position, the science grants dried up and budgetary cutbacks became commonplace. By the time he worked his way into the position of Superintendent of Schools, his classroom career was pretty much forgotten and a teacher antagonistic school board made the position so difficult that he had little positive impact on the educational system.
Ray and Bruce helped me develop improved classroom techniques. They also showed me how detrimental weak leadership is to the educational process.
My high school principal, Curt, was my immediate “boss” for 18 years. He was a well respected sports official until his legs gave out. We often noticed that his office door was closed after he officiated a state championship match. The rumor was that he was “napping”. I don’t know if that was true or not, but I do know what was true. Curt would defend his teachers against any questionable criticism. He would also defend teachers against complaints about decisions being made that affected students in an adverse way. Then, if the teacher’s action was not a good one, he would quietly point that out to the teacher after the parent had left. The smart teacher would then correct the problem.
Curt required weekly lesson plans so he was always aware of what was happening in the classrooms. I used to wonder if he read them and would sometimes turn in plans that were short and cryptic. I remember the week I turned in these plans: Monday-Mars, Tuesday-Venus, Wednesday-Jupiter, Thursday-Saturn, Friday-asteroids. That is when I discovered that Curt did read the plans. I spent ten minutes with him. The next day I had acceptable plans turned in and he paid special attention to me for a few weeks after that.
Curt showed many of the characteristics of an excellent high school principal. He defended teachers when they were unjustly accused by anybody- parent or board member. He supported their decisions and actions as long as they followed established policies. He would quietly discipline teachers who needed it and was always up front with any teacher in all of his actions. He always acted for in the best interests of everyone concerned. He was as fair with the students as he was with his teachers. He interacted with the students in a friendly manner and new many of them by name.
Curt was satisfied being a high school principal and served for many years until retiring and eventually moving to Florida.
When we moved to the west coast and I eventually returned to teaching, I worked under two other principals who played important roles in the development of my teaching career. John was a guidance counselor who worked his way up to being a middle school principal. His interaction with students was a very important aspect of his position. Students felt at ease with him, even when being disciplined.
John had some health problems from his time in Vietnam and found decision making to be very difficult. He was in a difficult position working in a school where teachers wanted to do things their own way and were often less than cooperative. Many of the attitudes were surprising to me and a number of them appeared to have their own agendas ranked ahead of what was best for the students. For example, most were against grouping by ability because it was easier to control a class that had very bright students scattered among students who could care less about school. They didn’t seem to mind that the bright students were held back from achieving their full potential and the slow students were unable to handle the level of work being taught (a middle ground approach). John hit a wall more than once. When he did make a decision I didn’t agree with, his door was always open and I could go in and tell him what I thought. He never held anything I said against me. That was one of several things I respected him for.
When John was encouraged to leave, I had to take part in a juvenile, distasteful proceeding. The district held a special retreat for all of the staff in the building to cleanse themselves of John’s tenure. It was felt that everyone harbored bad feelings that prevented them from moving forward under new leadership. That somehow everyone must have been psychologically injured. I wanted to vomit when I heard this plan but I was contractually obligated to take part. Here were professional people who were preparing young people to be successful and they had all of these hang-ups over a principal most of them never really supported. When everyone had to write down any bad feelings they had for John and then discard them into a trash container as they filed by, I knew then I wanted to find a high school situation. John is happy today. He is retired and working as a substitute teacher. I run into him once in a while and we swap some stories.
I spent a few more years here working under an excellent principal who had come out of retirement to be John’s vice principal. Tom had taken an early retirement from teaching to take care of his son. His son had a number of personal problems and John gave up his career to care for him and renew their father-son relationship. I respected him for that and stayed on to work with him.
Tom was in a difficult position as he had to work with a difficult staff. Many of the teachers were dedicated, but many others were self focused. One science teacher had spent most of his career telling science fiction stories instead of teaching science. His students were a disaster when they hit high school. When he retired, his replacement was a know-it-all fresh out of college who caused me all sorts of grief. A female teacher was especially vindictive and made me the focus of her attacks. Knowing I didn’t need to put up with the downslide of teaching expertise surrounding me, I became very active looking for another position. The year Tom retired, following a three year “healing program”, I also moved on to my present position.
Tom was very humanistic in his approach. He weighed all of decisions carefully before making them. He interacted with the students and always had their best interests as the basis for each and every decision. I was pleased to have worked with him for the years that I did. After he retired, he was constantly approached by other districts who wanted him to run one of their buildings to correct some problems that had become apparent.
These two blogs have been about people who have been part of my professional life and helped me become the teacher I am today. I hope that as you have read them, that you have thought about a teacher or principal who had a positive affect on your own life.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Changing of the Guard
During my years in education I have worked with a variety of educators. Many of them had a positive influence on my career. Teachers come and go. (I have even come and gone a few times myself.) Some teachers are hardly missed, while others leave a gaping hole to be filled. I have encountered a number of teachers who fit one of those categories.
I have been influenced in a number of ways by my fellow educators. These influences have helped me become the teacher I am today. A number of these people from my early days as a teacher are often in my thoughts. I thought I’d share a few of them with you. It will be nice to have others get to know a little bit about these people. Even though they are gone, they are not forgotten.
Ann was a home economics teacher at my first school. She was a good friend and very active with a chapter of the FHA. She always had a large membership and was very popular with the students and faculty. She chaperoned the prom each year and would critique my date. She especially complimented me when she and a group of her students were meeting at a restaurant where my future wife and I stopped for dinner.
Reid was my first principal. He was from the old school and wouldn’t hesitate to use corporal punishment when he felt it was warranted. His methods were too old fashioned for his bosses and he was convinced to retire several years before he was ready to do so. He taught me to be consistent and fair when disciplining students.
Jim was the guidance counselor. He and I hit it off from the day I met him. He had an earlier career as a physical therapist who worked mostly with the elderly. Jim was burnt out and gave up that career to work with young people. He had a special ability and made good connections with our students. We used to go to the Friday night basketball games together and then stay out until near sunrise drinking beer and eating pizza. Then I’d crash at Jim’s place, sleep for about an hour, then head home and drink some cold coffee before going to Lehigh University for my Saturday class. The funny thing is that I don’t like beer and I seldom drink coffee hot, let alone cold. After the second time, we scaled things back to about an hour after each game. I had sowed enough wild oats.
The principal, Peter, who replaced Reid, wanted Jim to be his partner for applying corporal punishment. Several teachers wanted the paddle used on miscreants but would not do it themselves. They would call for Peter and Jim to apply the punishment. Jim soon told Peter that witnessing punishment was interfering with his role as a counselor. Jim’s relationship with students was a strong one. It was broken when he suffered a stroke and was moved into a nursing home to spend his few remaining years among the elderly receiving physical therapy to help him recover his speech and regain some movement in his arm and leg.
Jim was the best man at my wedding and the first true friend I made in my teaching career. I lost track of him when his brother moved him to New Jersey but I believe he died within a few years after his stroke. Life wasn’t fair to him but the last time I visited him in the nursing home he was cantankerous and still demonstrated a great sense of humor.
When I changed school districts, I accepted a position at a junior high school. There were several long term teachers working in the building with me. Irma had over thirty years of teaching experience and lived with her two sisters. One of her sisters, Kathryn, taught English in the high school. The other took care of their house. A brother, John, was a maintenance supervisor for the school district. They were an important part of the educational system.
I enjoyed getting to know Irma. She taught seventh grade geography. Rote memorization was an important part of her curriculum. She related well to the kids and they seemed to enjoy her class as much as preteens can enjoy anything related to education. Unfortunately she got caught up in the drive to discredit memorization as a teaching method and the drive to take geography out of the junior high school curriculum and integrate it into social studies. When geography was dropped, Irma was forced into an early retirement. She always felt unappreciated by the administration.
Charlie was the eighth grade science teacher with over thirty years of experience. He had developed an effective curriculum coupled with methods that modern educational theory considers to be outdated. Charlie eventually decided that battling with the department chairman wasn’t worth all of the stress it caused. He retired and I lost track of him. He was a great resource to a young teacher.
More later ....
I have been influenced in a number of ways by my fellow educators. These influences have helped me become the teacher I am today. A number of these people from my early days as a teacher are often in my thoughts. I thought I’d share a few of them with you. It will be nice to have others get to know a little bit about these people. Even though they are gone, they are not forgotten.
Ann was a home economics teacher at my first school. She was a good friend and very active with a chapter of the FHA. She always had a large membership and was very popular with the students and faculty. She chaperoned the prom each year and would critique my date. She especially complimented me when she and a group of her students were meeting at a restaurant where my future wife and I stopped for dinner.
Reid was my first principal. He was from the old school and wouldn’t hesitate to use corporal punishment when he felt it was warranted. His methods were too old fashioned for his bosses and he was convinced to retire several years before he was ready to do so. He taught me to be consistent and fair when disciplining students.
Jim was the guidance counselor. He and I hit it off from the day I met him. He had an earlier career as a physical therapist who worked mostly with the elderly. Jim was burnt out and gave up that career to work with young people. He had a special ability and made good connections with our students. We used to go to the Friday night basketball games together and then stay out until near sunrise drinking beer and eating pizza. Then I’d crash at Jim’s place, sleep for about an hour, then head home and drink some cold coffee before going to Lehigh University for my Saturday class. The funny thing is that I don’t like beer and I seldom drink coffee hot, let alone cold. After the second time, we scaled things back to about an hour after each game. I had sowed enough wild oats.
The principal, Peter, who replaced Reid, wanted Jim to be his partner for applying corporal punishment. Several teachers wanted the paddle used on miscreants but would not do it themselves. They would call for Peter and Jim to apply the punishment. Jim soon told Peter that witnessing punishment was interfering with his role as a counselor. Jim’s relationship with students was a strong one. It was broken when he suffered a stroke and was moved into a nursing home to spend his few remaining years among the elderly receiving physical therapy to help him recover his speech and regain some movement in his arm and leg.
Jim was the best man at my wedding and the first true friend I made in my teaching career. I lost track of him when his brother moved him to New Jersey but I believe he died within a few years after his stroke. Life wasn’t fair to him but the last time I visited him in the nursing home he was cantankerous and still demonstrated a great sense of humor.
When I changed school districts, I accepted a position at a junior high school. There were several long term teachers working in the building with me. Irma had over thirty years of teaching experience and lived with her two sisters. One of her sisters, Kathryn, taught English in the high school. The other took care of their house. A brother, John, was a maintenance supervisor for the school district. They were an important part of the educational system.
I enjoyed getting to know Irma. She taught seventh grade geography. Rote memorization was an important part of her curriculum. She related well to the kids and they seemed to enjoy her class as much as preteens can enjoy anything related to education. Unfortunately she got caught up in the drive to discredit memorization as a teaching method and the drive to take geography out of the junior high school curriculum and integrate it into social studies. When geography was dropped, Irma was forced into an early retirement. She always felt unappreciated by the administration.
Charlie was the eighth grade science teacher with over thirty years of experience. He had developed an effective curriculum coupled with methods that modern educational theory considers to be outdated. Charlie eventually decided that battling with the department chairman wasn’t worth all of the stress it caused. He retired and I lost track of him. He was a great resource to a young teacher.
More later ....
Sunday, November 22, 2009
A Day in the Trenches
I thought that maybe my readers might like to follow me for a typical day at school, especially those who are not educators themselves. Of course I might be just writing this for myself, but even so, it is good therapy.
I generally arrive at school between 7:00 and 7:15 in the morning. That gives me about a half hour to prepare for my first class. The kids start showing up about 7:30 and trickle in for the next ten minutes or so. Then they would “hang out” in the back of the room until the tardy bell rings. After all, they have to catch up on what happened since yesterday. These things are very important to ninth grade students. However, my expectation is that they are in their seats and ready to go when the tardy bells rings. Since these are CP Science nine students, grade threats are very effective. Now they are ready to go when I expect it.
My CP students are working on a chemistry unit right now. I do some interesting demonstrations that hold their interest. Friday I gave them an elements/symbols quiz and reminded them that they can earn extra credit points by singing the elements song in 1.5 minutes. Some kids think extra credit is S.O.P. at the high school. It must be an acquired expectation from the middle school days.
When class ends, my 30 ninth graders leave when the bell rings and 18 new ones enter the room. It is almost disconcerting to operate under an educational system where so many things are regimented and yet we want to encourage independent thinking. This class consists of students who are either turned off to school or just find learning to be an onerous chore. They are a real challenge. It is my goal to make them better all round students. We built and smashed craft stick bridges. That was moderately successful. Now we are also doing some chemistry, but in a different way from my CP class. After an hour of discussing elements and symbols and a demonstration of mixtures and compounds with sulfur and iron filings as an example, the kids leave for their next class.
Now I have my planning period. I patrol the halls to keep an eye on things and watch for problems. So far the only things I have seen involve what we call PDA (public display of affection). I usually stop it by telling the kids to stop swapping spit. Speaking of patrolling, I remember when I taught at a middle school and we had a bomb scare. We evacuated the buildings. Then the principal asked the male teachers to go back in and search for the bomb. Stupidly we did just that (I guess some principals think we are shock troops).
I visited the boys’ lavatory but didn’t find any smokers. I am not surprised since smokeless tobacco appears to be more popular in this area. In one district I was actually assigned to patrol the girls’ lavatory. The principal told me that since I was a married man, I could shout a warning and enter if I suspected anything (yeah, sure, like I would do that).
I spent the rest of my planning period grading papers and organizing some lesson plans, and ten minutes blasting some pocket tanks.
My fourth period class of ninth graders came trouping in and reluctantly took their seats. A few of these kids think they are in school for socializing and that the educational process is an intrusive act on their lives. The curse of the cell phone is very active in the class. A few of these students text at every opportunity and concentrate on ways to avoid detection by the teacher, instead of focusing on the lesson.
Parents look on the cell phone as a great way to stay in touch with their children. I consider the student cell phone an educational disaster. Any parent who allows a child to take a cell phone to school is working against the educational process and shouldn’t be surprised when grades start to “tank”.
The kids are interested in my sulfur/iron demonstration and overall the lesson is a success. I expect Monday’s quiz on the elements and their symbols to be a disaster. They are teachable students. They just won’t or can’t memorize information for a test. I tend to avoid using tests or homework with my fundamentals students since I know it will guarantee failure.
My fifth period class of juniors and seniors trouped in ready to learn some physics. We are in the middle of a triangulation lab but rain has messed up the schedule. I have two theodolites on permanent loan from a surveying company and a transit I purchased on eBay. I also have my own rods and tapes. We are determining the height of a flag pole and the distance from the campus to Mount Rainier.
Today we focused on vector solutions and looked at some youtube videos on vectors and Newton’s Laws. Then we discussed taking part in an engineering contest this coming February. The contest will involve building and destroying craft stick bridges.
My last class of the day is a CP Science nine class. The kids are bundles of energy and there are 31 of them. They are attentive and only once do I do a cell phone warning. However, they have the same problem as my first period group. Their study skills are very poor. Most of them do not take notes during class. Few of them really know how to study for a test. None of them knew how to properly outline a chapter from a text book so it could be used as a tool for test preparation. Even though I require them to follow an outline format and to outline each chapter studied, only a few have actually used it as a tool. Most consider the outline as “just another assignment”.
At the end of class, the students put their chairs on top of their tables so the custodians can easily sweep the room. After the students leave, I catch up on some work, blast a few more pocket tanks, and organize things for tomorrow’s lessons.
Then I pack up and head home with any uncompleted work in my bag. It is 3:00 and another school day has ended. As I walk to my car I think of the kids I connected with and the ones who remain elusively disconnected with school. I’ll get through to them tomorrow.
I generally arrive at school between 7:00 and 7:15 in the morning. That gives me about a half hour to prepare for my first class. The kids start showing up about 7:30 and trickle in for the next ten minutes or so. Then they would “hang out” in the back of the room until the tardy bell rings. After all, they have to catch up on what happened since yesterday. These things are very important to ninth grade students. However, my expectation is that they are in their seats and ready to go when the tardy bells rings. Since these are CP Science nine students, grade threats are very effective. Now they are ready to go when I expect it.
My CP students are working on a chemistry unit right now. I do some interesting demonstrations that hold their interest. Friday I gave them an elements/symbols quiz and reminded them that they can earn extra credit points by singing the elements song in 1.5 minutes. Some kids think extra credit is S.O.P. at the high school. It must be an acquired expectation from the middle school days.
When class ends, my 30 ninth graders leave when the bell rings and 18 new ones enter the room. It is almost disconcerting to operate under an educational system where so many things are regimented and yet we want to encourage independent thinking. This class consists of students who are either turned off to school or just find learning to be an onerous chore. They are a real challenge. It is my goal to make them better all round students. We built and smashed craft stick bridges. That was moderately successful. Now we are also doing some chemistry, but in a different way from my CP class. After an hour of discussing elements and symbols and a demonstration of mixtures and compounds with sulfur and iron filings as an example, the kids leave for their next class.
Now I have my planning period. I patrol the halls to keep an eye on things and watch for problems. So far the only things I have seen involve what we call PDA (public display of affection). I usually stop it by telling the kids to stop swapping spit. Speaking of patrolling, I remember when I taught at a middle school and we had a bomb scare. We evacuated the buildings. Then the principal asked the male teachers to go back in and search for the bomb. Stupidly we did just that (I guess some principals think we are shock troops).
I visited the boys’ lavatory but didn’t find any smokers. I am not surprised since smokeless tobacco appears to be more popular in this area. In one district I was actually assigned to patrol the girls’ lavatory. The principal told me that since I was a married man, I could shout a warning and enter if I suspected anything (yeah, sure, like I would do that).
I spent the rest of my planning period grading papers and organizing some lesson plans, and ten minutes blasting some pocket tanks.
My fourth period class of ninth graders came trouping in and reluctantly took their seats. A few of these kids think they are in school for socializing and that the educational process is an intrusive act on their lives. The curse of the cell phone is very active in the class. A few of these students text at every opportunity and concentrate on ways to avoid detection by the teacher, instead of focusing on the lesson.
Parents look on the cell phone as a great way to stay in touch with their children. I consider the student cell phone an educational disaster. Any parent who allows a child to take a cell phone to school is working against the educational process and shouldn’t be surprised when grades start to “tank”.
The kids are interested in my sulfur/iron demonstration and overall the lesson is a success. I expect Monday’s quiz on the elements and their symbols to be a disaster. They are teachable students. They just won’t or can’t memorize information for a test. I tend to avoid using tests or homework with my fundamentals students since I know it will guarantee failure.
My fifth period class of juniors and seniors trouped in ready to learn some physics. We are in the middle of a triangulation lab but rain has messed up the schedule. I have two theodolites on permanent loan from a surveying company and a transit I purchased on eBay. I also have my own rods and tapes. We are determining the height of a flag pole and the distance from the campus to Mount Rainier.
Today we focused on vector solutions and looked at some youtube videos on vectors and Newton’s Laws. Then we discussed taking part in an engineering contest this coming February. The contest will involve building and destroying craft stick bridges.
My last class of the day is a CP Science nine class. The kids are bundles of energy and there are 31 of them. They are attentive and only once do I do a cell phone warning. However, they have the same problem as my first period group. Their study skills are very poor. Most of them do not take notes during class. Few of them really know how to study for a test. None of them knew how to properly outline a chapter from a text book so it could be used as a tool for test preparation. Even though I require them to follow an outline format and to outline each chapter studied, only a few have actually used it as a tool. Most consider the outline as “just another assignment”.
At the end of class, the students put their chairs on top of their tables so the custodians can easily sweep the room. After the students leave, I catch up on some work, blast a few more pocket tanks, and organize things for tomorrow’s lessons.
Then I pack up and head home with any uncompleted work in my bag. It is 3:00 and another school day has ended. As I walk to my car I think of the kids I connected with and the ones who remain elusively disconnected with school. I’ll get through to them tomorrow.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Everybody Has a Story
Whenever I meet somebody for the first time and we have a conversation, I often hear a school related story. It seems that all of us like to tell stories about things that happened to us when we were in school. It is even more common when talking to a school teacher.
For example: last week I was at a tire shop talking about some new tires and wheels with the manager. When I mentioned that I am a science teacher, he told me a story about his “good old days” in high school. He graduated from the school where I presently teach.
He and three other guys were in shop class standing around a 50 gallon garbage can chewing tobacco and spitting into the can. The principal caught them and after dealing out some consequences, he ended up giving my new friend a ride home. To this day they are good friends.
Four guys in a shop class standing around a barrel and spitting tobacco juice into it do create a rather incongruous picture. But then this was a shop class where on some days students would have contests throwing axes at a target on a board. There was even a time when kids in the science class above the shop would tie a piece of candy onto a string and dangle it down into the shop through a hole in the floor. When a kid would grab for it, the candy was pulled up to the shop ceiling.
We all have stories to share about our days in high school. I see my students living out their future stories and I often think about some of my own. Like the time I parted Harry’s hair with a paper clip shot from a rubber band. I was lucky I didn’t hit him in the face. Or when I pushed David’s face down into a water fountain to get him all wet and ended up having him cut his gum on the water shield. We booby trapped lockers and were really fascinated with girls, who were at least two years ahead of us in many different ways. I remember another Dave driving his father’s car to some kind of a meeting with Jimmy and me as passengers. He was driving about 100 mph and kicking the dashboard with his right foot because the radio wasn’t working properly. He must have had his left foot on the gas. Later that year another boy became half vegetative after being badly injured in a crash along that same road. Sometimes I wonder how I ever survived school. Some of us were lucky. Some of us were not.
We had fun in school, sometimes got into trouble, and were never vindictive in our actions. All but a few of graduated and most lived good, successful lives. A few did not. Ned committed suicide a few years after graduation (I never found out why.). John had a heart attack and died before he was 30. Jimmy had a nervous breakdown in college and lived at home until a fatal accident. Judy passed away in her early fifties while Bernie, my best friend, died in his early sixties. Most of us still chug along and tell stories to anyone who will listen about “the good old days” with a Mr. Dubs or a Prof Meyers or a Coach Kline or a Mr. Potera or ……
I bet everyone who reads this blog could tell an interesting short story about their school days in the comments section. In fact, feel free to do so.
What we do in school stays with us throughout life in many ways. We don’t only learn academics and fine arts. We don’t just pass standardized tests. We also become members of society. School helps us develop emotionally through our interactions with teachers and our peers while teaching us to use our minds. Too many people in authority forget that school is more than scoring high on tests and preparing for college. Who gives a damn if Japanese kids are smarter than American kids in math? There is a lot more to education than being a math whiz.
For example: last week I was at a tire shop talking about some new tires and wheels with the manager. When I mentioned that I am a science teacher, he told me a story about his “good old days” in high school. He graduated from the school where I presently teach.
He and three other guys were in shop class standing around a 50 gallon garbage can chewing tobacco and spitting into the can. The principal caught them and after dealing out some consequences, he ended up giving my new friend a ride home. To this day they are good friends.
Four guys in a shop class standing around a barrel and spitting tobacco juice into it do create a rather incongruous picture. But then this was a shop class where on some days students would have contests throwing axes at a target on a board. There was even a time when kids in the science class above the shop would tie a piece of candy onto a string and dangle it down into the shop through a hole in the floor. When a kid would grab for it, the candy was pulled up to the shop ceiling.
We all have stories to share about our days in high school. I see my students living out their future stories and I often think about some of my own. Like the time I parted Harry’s hair with a paper clip shot from a rubber band. I was lucky I didn’t hit him in the face. Or when I pushed David’s face down into a water fountain to get him all wet and ended up having him cut his gum on the water shield. We booby trapped lockers and were really fascinated with girls, who were at least two years ahead of us in many different ways. I remember another Dave driving his father’s car to some kind of a meeting with Jimmy and me as passengers. He was driving about 100 mph and kicking the dashboard with his right foot because the radio wasn’t working properly. He must have had his left foot on the gas. Later that year another boy became half vegetative after being badly injured in a crash along that same road. Sometimes I wonder how I ever survived school. Some of us were lucky. Some of us were not.
We had fun in school, sometimes got into trouble, and were never vindictive in our actions. All but a few of graduated and most lived good, successful lives. A few did not. Ned committed suicide a few years after graduation (I never found out why.). John had a heart attack and died before he was 30. Jimmy had a nervous breakdown in college and lived at home until a fatal accident. Judy passed away in her early fifties while Bernie, my best friend, died in his early sixties. Most of us still chug along and tell stories to anyone who will listen about “the good old days” with a Mr. Dubs or a Prof Meyers or a Coach Kline or a Mr. Potera or ……
I bet everyone who reads this blog could tell an interesting short story about their school days in the comments section. In fact, feel free to do so.
What we do in school stays with us throughout life in many ways. We don’t only learn academics and fine arts. We don’t just pass standardized tests. We also become members of society. School helps us develop emotionally through our interactions with teachers and our peers while teaching us to use our minds. Too many people in authority forget that school is more than scoring high on tests and preparing for college. Who gives a damn if Japanese kids are smarter than American kids in math? There is a lot more to education than being a math whiz.
Monday, November 9, 2009
How Stupid are They?
Today I had some visitors in my classroom. Second period a girl was kicked out of her class for being a wiseass to her teacher. The teacher asked to put her into my room rather than the office. Sixth period another girl was placed in my room by another teacher for repeatedly using foul language in the classroom. I even had a problem with a young lady in one of my classes who consistently ignored everything I asked her to do unless I got right into her face. Is the full moon out tonight????
My kids were amazed at the stupidity of these people. Antagonizing someone who has authority over you is stupid. Unfortunately some students have to learn that lesson the hard way. Even more unfortunately, some never learn that lesson. High school is a time to learn and create lifelong memories. Causing grief to others and yourself makes for bad memories and a painful time that will often carry over into greater problems in adult life.
What incentive does a teacher have to cut a kid a break who has been antagonistic during the school year? I can answer that in one word- NONE! It is like poking a tiger with a sharp stick, except the student won't be physically mauled. Only his reputation will be mauled.
I remember one kid in Pennsylvania who jumped onto the hood of his own car in front of the high school with some sort of a weapon and wanted the Vice Principal to come out and fight him. What a smart thing to do! After the police were called, he became a nonentity on the school campus. I hope he is getting along okay as the "village idiot".
I ask kids why when they dislike a certain class or teacher, they deliberately fail the class. It only means they will be in the class again. The response is invariably a shrug and a quizzical smile that says "So what if I act that stupid. I'm just a kid."
Some kids outgrow their stupidity. Too many don't. As long as there have been schools, kids have been getting kicked out of classes. I will just keep an extra chair in the back of my room for visitors. At least that way they won't be cluttering up the office.
My kids were amazed at the stupidity of these people. Antagonizing someone who has authority over you is stupid. Unfortunately some students have to learn that lesson the hard way. Even more unfortunately, some never learn that lesson. High school is a time to learn and create lifelong memories. Causing grief to others and yourself makes for bad memories and a painful time that will often carry over into greater problems in adult life.
What incentive does a teacher have to cut a kid a break who has been antagonistic during the school year? I can answer that in one word- NONE! It is like poking a tiger with a sharp stick, except the student won't be physically mauled. Only his reputation will be mauled.
I remember one kid in Pennsylvania who jumped onto the hood of his own car in front of the high school with some sort of a weapon and wanted the Vice Principal to come out and fight him. What a smart thing to do! After the police were called, he became a nonentity on the school campus. I hope he is getting along okay as the "village idiot".
I ask kids why when they dislike a certain class or teacher, they deliberately fail the class. It only means they will be in the class again. The response is invariably a shrug and a quizzical smile that says "So what if I act that stupid. I'm just a kid."
Some kids outgrow their stupidity. Too many don't. As long as there have been schools, kids have been getting kicked out of classes. I will just keep an extra chair in the back of my room for visitors. At least that way they won't be cluttering up the office.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Your Cheating Heart
Cheating is not an unusual phenomenon in any classroom. Even the best kids will do it on occasion; especially when they are under pressure to get good grades from their parents.
When I was in high school, I had a science teacher who taught all of the science- biology, chemistry, and physics. He gave all of his tests out of test books. We were able to look ahead at the upcoming tests for the whole year. So a group of us got together and we each copied three different questions from the next test onto our desks and later put them onto paper. Then I compiled them and put together all of the answers, which I then gave back to the group members. Then we would punch pinholes indicating the answers into a pencil the day of the test. The funny thing was that I knew all of the answers anyway. The teacher got suspicious when everyone in the class got 96% or higher except for one girl who scored a 40%. He never did figure out how it was done. The teacher was replaced soon after I graduated. During three years of science, I never did one lab. Everything was done out of a textbook. Eventually that caught up with him. He was a nice guy but a terrible teacher.
Kids think they are too smart for us teachers. They don't realize that every trick they pull has been done hundreds of times before and that many of them I had even done myself.
From my early years in Tamaqua I remember many students. However, one made a lasting impression on me that leads to many stories. Joe M. was a big guy who was just cruising along through school happy with D's and once in a while earning a C. He was taking a short course with me in oceanography and showing no effort at all. I noticed one day that he was chewing tobacco and spitting into a cup that he thought he was keeping well hidden. I made him throw the cup away and told him that he was not allowed to spit into anything in my room and I figured that was the end of it. A few days later I caught him chewing again and was prepared to lay into him when I discovered he wasn't spitting into anything. I asked him what he was doing with the juice. His response was "I'm just swallowing it." and he gave me a big grin. In those days there were rules against smoking but nobody had thought about chewing tobacco. So I just shook my head and continued with the lesson.
Joe scored a "B" on our first test. When I discussed the test with the class, he couldn't answer any of the questions orally. I knew then he was copying from his neighbor. The next test I gave was a big unit test. I made two difefrent versions and made certain Joe's copy was different from his neightbors. No one knew they were different. After the test was given and graded I read off the scores. I read the score of the student next to Joe and it was a 98%. Joe broke into this big grin and looked me right in the eye. Then I read his score of 8% and he almost fell off his seat. Then I explained what I had done. Joe told me "You got me good on that one." and gave me a big, yellow-toothed grin.
The following year I taught the class again and Joe was right in the front row making up the "F" he had from the previous year. We actually got along quite well together and he earned an honest "C" or "D" and did graduate with his class.
A kid like Joe who is lazy and content to just scrape through with minimal effort but at the same time bears no grudges and takes whatever consequences are earned for his behavior is someone who can be a lot of fun to have in the classroom while providing a challenge to the instructor. After all, not everyone will go on to higher education.
I don't know what Joe is up to today but I think I would enjoy sitting down with him in a bar somewhere, sharing a couple beers, and reliving some of his school days. I always felt he would become that kind of a man. After all, only a real man can swallow his chew.
Back to cheating-
I remember one test I gave in a class where the whole test was true-false. Half the class had all true questions and the other half had all false questions. One student had an all true test and marked every answer false (his neighbor had an all false test).
With computers I am able to always give two different versions of the same test. Copying almost completely disappears under those conditions. Unless I am missing something, I don't have much copying going on. I know it goes on in other classes because kids tell me stories. Whenever kids copy or cheat during a test, it is the fault of the teacher. If the teacher is not vigilant or smart enough to prevent cheating, the kids will do it, even if they know the material covered in the test.
Cheating on homework, etc. is another whole topic for s future blog.
When I was in high school, I had a science teacher who taught all of the science- biology, chemistry, and physics. He gave all of his tests out of test books. We were able to look ahead at the upcoming tests for the whole year. So a group of us got together and we each copied three different questions from the next test onto our desks and later put them onto paper. Then I compiled them and put together all of the answers, which I then gave back to the group members. Then we would punch pinholes indicating the answers into a pencil the day of the test. The funny thing was that I knew all of the answers anyway. The teacher got suspicious when everyone in the class got 96% or higher except for one girl who scored a 40%. He never did figure out how it was done. The teacher was replaced soon after I graduated. During three years of science, I never did one lab. Everything was done out of a textbook. Eventually that caught up with him. He was a nice guy but a terrible teacher.
Kids think they are too smart for us teachers. They don't realize that every trick they pull has been done hundreds of times before and that many of them I had even done myself.
From my early years in Tamaqua I remember many students. However, one made a lasting impression on me that leads to many stories. Joe M. was a big guy who was just cruising along through school happy with D's and once in a while earning a C. He was taking a short course with me in oceanography and showing no effort at all. I noticed one day that he was chewing tobacco and spitting into a cup that he thought he was keeping well hidden. I made him throw the cup away and told him that he was not allowed to spit into anything in my room and I figured that was the end of it. A few days later I caught him chewing again and was prepared to lay into him when I discovered he wasn't spitting into anything. I asked him what he was doing with the juice. His response was "I'm just swallowing it." and he gave me a big grin. In those days there were rules against smoking but nobody had thought about chewing tobacco. So I just shook my head and continued with the lesson.
Joe scored a "B" on our first test. When I discussed the test with the class, he couldn't answer any of the questions orally. I knew then he was copying from his neighbor. The next test I gave was a big unit test. I made two difefrent versions and made certain Joe's copy was different from his neightbors. No one knew they were different. After the test was given and graded I read off the scores. I read the score of the student next to Joe and it was a 98%. Joe broke into this big grin and looked me right in the eye. Then I read his score of 8% and he almost fell off his seat. Then I explained what I had done. Joe told me "You got me good on that one." and gave me a big, yellow-toothed grin.
The following year I taught the class again and Joe was right in the front row making up the "F" he had from the previous year. We actually got along quite well together and he earned an honest "C" or "D" and did graduate with his class.
A kid like Joe who is lazy and content to just scrape through with minimal effort but at the same time bears no grudges and takes whatever consequences are earned for his behavior is someone who can be a lot of fun to have in the classroom while providing a challenge to the instructor. After all, not everyone will go on to higher education.
I don't know what Joe is up to today but I think I would enjoy sitting down with him in a bar somewhere, sharing a couple beers, and reliving some of his school days. I always felt he would become that kind of a man. After all, only a real man can swallow his chew.
Back to cheating-
I remember one test I gave in a class where the whole test was true-false. Half the class had all true questions and the other half had all false questions. One student had an all true test and marked every answer false (his neighbor had an all false test).
With computers I am able to always give two different versions of the same test. Copying almost completely disappears under those conditions. Unless I am missing something, I don't have much copying going on. I know it goes on in other classes because kids tell me stories. Whenever kids copy or cheat during a test, it is the fault of the teacher. If the teacher is not vigilant or smart enough to prevent cheating, the kids will do it, even if they know the material covered in the test.
Cheating on homework, etc. is another whole topic for s future blog.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Would you believe …
One of the mixed blessings of public school teaching is the gullibility of the students, especially the eighth and ninth graders. They are so trusting of their teachers that it is easy to lead them astray. If done in an unthreatening manner, it is not only a way to inject a bit of humor into the teacher/student relationship but it is also a way to encourage students to not take everything at face value and question things they are told.
For example, when I was teaching science to eighth graders , I inherited a monkey fetus in a jar of formalin. When I would set it out for the first time each year, I acted as if I had made a mistake when students noticed it. It was always possible to convince some of them that it was an alien in a jar. The alien had been shot by a farmer in western Washington when he discovered it walking in a field. I was hired by the government to keep and study it. It seems that the more farfetched a story may be, the more likely some students will believe it. Most often, the trick is to be sure they know the truth before the end of the class period. That way everyone has a good time with the story and the story can lead directly into a lesson.
I used to have sixth graders stop by my room after school asking me if they could look at “the monkey in the jar” that a brother/sister had told them about.
We also had some really interesting conversations about dogs and cats. I was teaching a lesson about rabies when an opportunity presented itself. We were discussing German shepherds when I pointed out to the class that they are very difficult to train because they only understand German. English doesn’t work. A Scottish terrier only understands Scottish and even a Siamese cat only understands Siamese. That is why they act so independently and don’t listen to commands.
I stood by this ridiculous assertion until the next day. That way I was able to actually stimulate some dinner table conversations in a number of students’ homes.
During my tenure as an eighth grade science teacher I became known as the “teacher who eats chalk” by my students, some of their parents, and even a couple of board members. I have always wanted to have a chalkboard in my room (in many ways I’m just an old fashioned kind of teacher). One day the kids were talkative during a lecture. I told them that they made me so angry I could just “eat chalk”. So I proceeded to bite a stick of chalk in half, which I then chewed and swallowed. The kids were surprised and couldn’t believe what I had done. I then passed out chalk, and several of the most extroverted ones joined me in a chalk snack. When the clay in the chalk coated the inside of their mouths, they decided they didn’t care for the taste. So I handed out Jolly Ranchers to help them get rid of the bad taste. That story spread throughout the campus and parts of the community. I have done this many times over the years, but I have learned to slip a candy cigarette into the chalk box for my “chalk” snack.
I am one of the few teachers in the state of Washington who still shows 18mm films. Thanks to eBay I have a small library of excellent films and a couple of projectors. A good friend owns the local movie theater, and students often see me there in the evening. Because I show some science movies in class, I
was able to convince students that I am the projectionist in the theater. That just fascinates them. My friend tells them that I watch for anyone who misbehaves during the movie since I know who they are.
When my wife and I both taught in the same Pennsylvania high school, kids would often ask me if she was my wife because we both had the same last name. I would tell them “No, she is my sister”. Then they would tell her what I had said and she would have to explain to them that the Mrs. In front of her name meant that she was actually my wife. Then they would proceed to tell her what was going on in my classroom.
It seems as if being a teacher who can interact in a humorous way with my students while not belittling them allows me to build good relationships that benefit everyone. My senior high kids know they can do some give-and-take with me and have an enjoyable experience in my classroom. Even old cracks from the sixties are well received: “You have wonder muscles. We wonder when you’ll get some.” “You are muscle bound. Bound to get muscles.” “Are you hungry? How about I give you a knuckle sandwich?” That seems to be a favorite with my upper classmen.
I even had a student with the bad reputation who was always being suspended for behavioral issues who once told me I had curly hairs sticking out the top of my shirt. My response was “When you go through puberty, you’ll probably get some of those too.” I not only never had another problem with him, but he actually looked forward to my class.
Over the years I have developed an ability to interact with students in many different ways. Students know I am concerned that they are successful and that I have their best interests at heart. My kidding and mock threats are always done in a way that they not only don’t feel abused but actually look forward to the interaction. Student/teacher relationships are often difficult at best, and only after a high level of trust has been developed should any of my activities be attempted.
For example, when I was teaching science to eighth graders , I inherited a monkey fetus in a jar of formalin. When I would set it out for the first time each year, I acted as if I had made a mistake when students noticed it. It was always possible to convince some of them that it was an alien in a jar. The alien had been shot by a farmer in western Washington when he discovered it walking in a field. I was hired by the government to keep and study it. It seems that the more farfetched a story may be, the more likely some students will believe it. Most often, the trick is to be sure they know the truth before the end of the class period. That way everyone has a good time with the story and the story can lead directly into a lesson.
I used to have sixth graders stop by my room after school asking me if they could look at “the monkey in the jar” that a brother/sister had told them about.
We also had some really interesting conversations about dogs and cats. I was teaching a lesson about rabies when an opportunity presented itself. We were discussing German shepherds when I pointed out to the class that they are very difficult to train because they only understand German. English doesn’t work. A Scottish terrier only understands Scottish and even a Siamese cat only understands Siamese. That is why they act so independently and don’t listen to commands.
I stood by this ridiculous assertion until the next day. That way I was able to actually stimulate some dinner table conversations in a number of students’ homes.
During my tenure as an eighth grade science teacher I became known as the “teacher who eats chalk” by my students, some of their parents, and even a couple of board members. I have always wanted to have a chalkboard in my room (in many ways I’m just an old fashioned kind of teacher). One day the kids were talkative during a lecture. I told them that they made me so angry I could just “eat chalk”. So I proceeded to bite a stick of chalk in half, which I then chewed and swallowed. The kids were surprised and couldn’t believe what I had done. I then passed out chalk, and several of the most extroverted ones joined me in a chalk snack. When the clay in the chalk coated the inside of their mouths, they decided they didn’t care for the taste. So I handed out Jolly Ranchers to help them get rid of the bad taste. That story spread throughout the campus and parts of the community. I have done this many times over the years, but I have learned to slip a candy cigarette into the chalk box for my “chalk” snack.
I am one of the few teachers in the state of Washington who still shows 18mm films. Thanks to eBay I have a small library of excellent films and a couple of projectors. A good friend owns the local movie theater, and students often see me there in the evening. Because I show some science movies in class, I
was able to convince students that I am the projectionist in the theater. That just fascinates them. My friend tells them that I watch for anyone who misbehaves during the movie since I know who they are.
When my wife and I both taught in the same Pennsylvania high school, kids would often ask me if she was my wife because we both had the same last name. I would tell them “No, she is my sister”. Then they would tell her what I had said and she would have to explain to them that the Mrs. In front of her name meant that she was actually my wife. Then they would proceed to tell her what was going on in my classroom.
It seems as if being a teacher who can interact in a humorous way with my students while not belittling them allows me to build good relationships that benefit everyone. My senior high kids know they can do some give-and-take with me and have an enjoyable experience in my classroom. Even old cracks from the sixties are well received: “You have wonder muscles. We wonder when you’ll get some.” “You are muscle bound. Bound to get muscles.” “Are you hungry? How about I give you a knuckle sandwich?” That seems to be a favorite with my upper classmen.
I even had a student with the bad reputation who was always being suspended for behavioral issues who once told me I had curly hairs sticking out the top of my shirt. My response was “When you go through puberty, you’ll probably get some of those too.” I not only never had another problem with him, but he actually looked forward to my class.
Over the years I have developed an ability to interact with students in many different ways. Students know I am concerned that they are successful and that I have their best interests at heart. My kidding and mock threats are always done in a way that they not only don’t feel abused but actually look forward to the interaction. Student/teacher relationships are often difficult at best, and only after a high level of trust has been developed should any of my activities be attempted.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
A Code to Live By?
Dress codes have always been a topic of discussion throughout my teaching career. I’m not speaking of student dress, but rather the ways that teachers dress.
When I was a student in high school, male teachers wore ties with either a sport coat or a dress suit. Women all wore dresses and nylon hose. When I student taught, I had three clip-on ties, two hand-me-down sport coats, and two pairs of slacks. I was expected to be formally dressed at all times. After all, teaching is a profession, not a job.
Things have really changed since my early years as an educator, and not always for the best. I always resisted wearing a tie because I did not like the constriction around my neck (partly also because it was expected of me.) At one of my positions, I was teaching in a three story building. I was on the third floor and the office was on the first floor. My tie stayed in my desk drawer except when I went down to the first floor. Then the tie went on. Once in a while I’d forget it and the principal would just shake his head. After a few years he gave up and the tie just stayed home. My justification was that if the gym and shop teachers didn’t need them, then, neither did I.
Looking back on those early days, I realize that dressing formally helped define the difference between myself as the educator and the teenagers as my students. It helped to maintain the classroom as a formal place of learning. As I gained experience, I developed skills that allowed me to interact with my students in a successful manner without the formal attire. However, I have always felt that being well dressed and well groomed are important in a world that has become very informal. I am the one in charge and it needs to be reflected both in my manner and my clothing.
I taught a total of 23 years in Pennsylvania and during that time the form of dress became more and more informal among the faculty members, but only to a limited extent.
I then had a six year hiatus from teaching and returned to the classroom in 1993 in the state of Washington. The mix of clothing proved to be very interesting. Ties had all but disappeared and jeans were in for the male faculty while the women wore anything from jeans with torn holes to nice slacks and dresses from formal to very short. One very attractive young teacher wore skirts that were shorter than the students were allowed to wear. She even had the habit of sitting on her desk when teaching. One day we were in the faculty room and she was sitting with me and another science teacher (older but inexperienced with women). She was sitting on a low chair with her feet up on a table right across from him. He was trying very hard to keep his eyes up on hers as she talked to us. I started to snicker at his discomfort which only made him get a bit flustered. It took a while but then she asked, “I’m flashing him, aren’t I?” I grinned at her and said, “Yes, you are.” So she put her feet down and just continued chatting away. That was during her second year of teaching. Today she is an elementary school principal and much more formal in her behavior and attire. I suspect she is a very fine administrator, too.
I have had two student teachers during my last fifteen years. Both dressed inappropriately for the position. The woman was overweight and wore jeans and tops that were several sizes too small with more rolls than Pillsbury. The young man wore formal attire the first week and then switched to old jeans and shirts. They both had clothing that fit their roles; they just wouldn’t wear it. I believe part of the problem is educational indoctrination that often encourages new teachers to blend in with the students and be their friend.
One of my principals once suggested at a faculty meeting that the men should all wear ties when teaching. I was surprised when some of the older teachers strongly objected. Most of the resistance was financially based and was based upon the perception that ties and coats are an unnecessary expense .
It is difficult to proclaim oneself as a professional when attired in rubber sandals and shorts or jeans full of holes while instructing students. It seems as if we like to vacillate between extremes and the pendulum has been swinging to and beyond the informal. I suspect that some day it will swing back the other way. Especially when people realize that if you want to be looked on as a professional, you have to sometimes dress the part. Looking worse than many of the students you teach does not accomplish that role.
I am nearing retirement and decided to go out the way I came in. I am wearing a tie but avoided purchasing a number of sport coats by taking the approach that I am a science teacher and as such can wear a white lab coat similar to that worn by a doctor. I am also doing this as an experiment to determine if students look on me any differently for dressing as a professional. So far I have noted slight differences that I believe would be magnified for the new teacher.
When I was a student in high school, male teachers wore ties with either a sport coat or a dress suit. Women all wore dresses and nylon hose. When I student taught, I had three clip-on ties, two hand-me-down sport coats, and two pairs of slacks. I was expected to be formally dressed at all times. After all, teaching is a profession, not a job.
Things have really changed since my early years as an educator, and not always for the best. I always resisted wearing a tie because I did not like the constriction around my neck (partly also because it was expected of me.) At one of my positions, I was teaching in a three story building. I was on the third floor and the office was on the first floor. My tie stayed in my desk drawer except when I went down to the first floor. Then the tie went on. Once in a while I’d forget it and the principal would just shake his head. After a few years he gave up and the tie just stayed home. My justification was that if the gym and shop teachers didn’t need them, then, neither did I.
Looking back on those early days, I realize that dressing formally helped define the difference between myself as the educator and the teenagers as my students. It helped to maintain the classroom as a formal place of learning. As I gained experience, I developed skills that allowed me to interact with my students in a successful manner without the formal attire. However, I have always felt that being well dressed and well groomed are important in a world that has become very informal. I am the one in charge and it needs to be reflected both in my manner and my clothing.
I taught a total of 23 years in Pennsylvania and during that time the form of dress became more and more informal among the faculty members, but only to a limited extent.
I then had a six year hiatus from teaching and returned to the classroom in 1993 in the state of Washington. The mix of clothing proved to be very interesting. Ties had all but disappeared and jeans were in for the male faculty while the women wore anything from jeans with torn holes to nice slacks and dresses from formal to very short. One very attractive young teacher wore skirts that were shorter than the students were allowed to wear. She even had the habit of sitting on her desk when teaching. One day we were in the faculty room and she was sitting with me and another science teacher (older but inexperienced with women). She was sitting on a low chair with her feet up on a table right across from him. He was trying very hard to keep his eyes up on hers as she talked to us. I started to snicker at his discomfort which only made him get a bit flustered. It took a while but then she asked, “I’m flashing him, aren’t I?” I grinned at her and said, “Yes, you are.” So she put her feet down and just continued chatting away. That was during her second year of teaching. Today she is an elementary school principal and much more formal in her behavior and attire. I suspect she is a very fine administrator, too.
I have had two student teachers during my last fifteen years. Both dressed inappropriately for the position. The woman was overweight and wore jeans and tops that were several sizes too small with more rolls than Pillsbury. The young man wore formal attire the first week and then switched to old jeans and shirts. They both had clothing that fit their roles; they just wouldn’t wear it. I believe part of the problem is educational indoctrination that often encourages new teachers to blend in with the students and be their friend.
One of my principals once suggested at a faculty meeting that the men should all wear ties when teaching. I was surprised when some of the older teachers strongly objected. Most of the resistance was financially based and was based upon the perception that ties and coats are an unnecessary expense .
It is difficult to proclaim oneself as a professional when attired in rubber sandals and shorts or jeans full of holes while instructing students. It seems as if we like to vacillate between extremes and the pendulum has been swinging to and beyond the informal. I suspect that some day it will swing back the other way. Especially when people realize that if you want to be looked on as a professional, you have to sometimes dress the part. Looking worse than many of the students you teach does not accomplish that role.
I am nearing retirement and decided to go out the way I came in. I am wearing a tie but avoided purchasing a number of sport coats by taking the approach that I am a science teacher and as such can wear a white lab coat similar to that worn by a doctor. I am also doing this as an experiment to determine if students look on me any differently for dressing as a professional. So far I have noted slight differences that I believe would be magnified for the new teacher.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Den of Iniquity
I remember early on in my career that I was given some advice by an experienced teacher. Stay out of the faculty room. It’s nothing but trouble. I soon discovered that he was right and wrong.
When I was a high school student and would walk past the faculty room, if the door was open, cigarette smoke rolled out of the room and I couldn’t see across the room for the smog. If students wanted to smoke, they had to go off school property during the lunch hour. Eventually teachers had to do the same thing due to fire codes, and later due to antismoking regulations on campuses.
Basically, the faculty room is a place where teachers can “hang out”. It will generally have a fridge, microwave, toilet access, and assorted furniture. It is a place where many teachers will gather twice a day, once during a planning period and then during a duty free lunch period.
I discovered early on that when I spent time in the faculty room I got nothing done. In one district there was even a continuous game of pinochle throughout the day. There was often a race to get a seat at the table and I always felt that some players dismissed their students early since the same three were always there first.
The newspaper was read to the point of falling apart, tests were run off on the duplicator, later a photocopier, papers were graded, and gossip flourished. I uncovered more information about various students than I ever really wanted to know. Whenever I wanted to accomplish something, I spent my planning period in my room, provided it wasn’t being used by another teacher.
There are some good points about the faculty room. It is a place to share information about students that can be of value by giving different viewpoints on their skills and behaviors. The faculty room is also a place to unwind from the pressures of the classroom. Teachers also get to interact with their peers and not spend the whole day just in the company of students. It is also a room for sharing (donuts, brownies, cookies, etc.).
One year we had a teacher who was getting married and wanted to make her own wedding cake. Every few days she brought her latest attempt for us to evaluate. One cake couldn’t be cut and another tasted like baking powder. One even flowed when it was cut. She finally gave up and had one of the other women bake it for her.
The typical high school teaching day does not allow time for teachers to exchange ideas and information on shared students nor on their teaching methods and curriculum across grade levels and departments. Even within departments such exchanges are difficult to manage.
The middle school philosophy is badly flawed, but it does allow for teams of teachers who share information on their students. However, there is no such time allowed for sharing curriculum ideas or student information across grade levels- a serious flaw for a number of reasons, not the least of which is “turf wars”.
Unfortunately the “den of iniquity” is usually the only place for sharing information and ideas. The trick is to filter out the gossip while actually focusing on meaningful topics and avoiding pinochle, gossip, football pools, and criticism of the administration.
When I was a high school student and would walk past the faculty room, if the door was open, cigarette smoke rolled out of the room and I couldn’t see across the room for the smog. If students wanted to smoke, they had to go off school property during the lunch hour. Eventually teachers had to do the same thing due to fire codes, and later due to antismoking regulations on campuses.
Basically, the faculty room is a place where teachers can “hang out”. It will generally have a fridge, microwave, toilet access, and assorted furniture. It is a place where many teachers will gather twice a day, once during a planning period and then during a duty free lunch period.
I discovered early on that when I spent time in the faculty room I got nothing done. In one district there was even a continuous game of pinochle throughout the day. There was often a race to get a seat at the table and I always felt that some players dismissed their students early since the same three were always there first.
The newspaper was read to the point of falling apart, tests were run off on the duplicator, later a photocopier, papers were graded, and gossip flourished. I uncovered more information about various students than I ever really wanted to know. Whenever I wanted to accomplish something, I spent my planning period in my room, provided it wasn’t being used by another teacher.
There are some good points about the faculty room. It is a place to share information about students that can be of value by giving different viewpoints on their skills and behaviors. The faculty room is also a place to unwind from the pressures of the classroom. Teachers also get to interact with their peers and not spend the whole day just in the company of students. It is also a room for sharing (donuts, brownies, cookies, etc.).
One year we had a teacher who was getting married and wanted to make her own wedding cake. Every few days she brought her latest attempt for us to evaluate. One cake couldn’t be cut and another tasted like baking powder. One even flowed when it was cut. She finally gave up and had one of the other women bake it for her.
The typical high school teaching day does not allow time for teachers to exchange ideas and information on shared students nor on their teaching methods and curriculum across grade levels and departments. Even within departments such exchanges are difficult to manage.
The middle school philosophy is badly flawed, but it does allow for teams of teachers who share information on their students. However, there is no such time allowed for sharing curriculum ideas or student information across grade levels- a serious flaw for a number of reasons, not the least of which is “turf wars”.
Unfortunately the “den of iniquity” is usually the only place for sharing information and ideas. The trick is to filter out the gossip while actually focusing on meaningful topics and avoiding pinochle, gossip, football pools, and criticism of the administration.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Survival of the Fittest
Somewhere along the line people got the idea that everyone needs to go to college. In the state of Washington parents can put money away for their newborn child's college fund. Everybody needs a college fund. That is the word throughout the land. Well guess what. Not everybody goes to college. Some people just don't want to go to college while others just are not college material.
Our department of education and people who decide the status of education in this state either do not believe it, or are living in a delusional state of mind. The latest mandate (unfunded of course) requires a third year of math to graduate. Not a bad idea if it was handled realistically. But guess what, the students must complete algebra and geometry as the required classes. I am not sure how that will help the dropout rate.
Now Seattle school district is trying to require a 'C' or higher to get credit for a class. Another well intentioned idea that often leads to grade inflation. In other words, a 60% mastery of the subject matter is not good enough. Get a 70% mastery. I don't know of any college who accepts students with D's scattered through their transcripts. However, a 'D' does allow a student to move on to the next level. So 'D' students become dropouts since that is not good enough to pass a class.
I have science curriculum that I have developed according to certain standards. Once a student completes my class with a certain grade, s/he has mastered the material to that level. Any rote memorization will soon be forgotten and only the skills of how to learn, along with the major principles of the discipline, will be retained. So throw a high stakes test at the kids a year or two later to show them how dumb they are and to denegrate the evaluation methods of the curriculum being taught.
Why are our graduates so dumb? According to comparisons of our students with students from other countries and according to the failure/dropout rates in four year colleges, our educational system "sucks".
People who say that ignore some basic facts. We keep everybody in public school, whether they want to be there or not. We can't remove troublesome students like charter schools and private schools. We have to teach 'em all. Overseas in many countries students are tested and sent to the appropriate school with only the best going on to their universities. Others are diverted into training for trades. Our students have fine arts classes. In Japan that would just be a distraction. In other countries teachers are respected. In this country teachers are expected to be babysitters and Heaven help the teacher who dares to discipline a rowdy student too agressively.
Why do so many students fail at four year colleges? Don't look at the public schools. Look at the colleges. Teaching methods are very different from the public school methods. Instructors make many assumptions about their students and most use a lecture/test method while flying through the material being covered. Competition is fierce among students and no longer are there low achievers to take care of the bottom of the "bell curve". Using college teaching methods in public schools would greatly reduce class size as students would drop out as soon as legally permitted to do so.
We used to offer curriculum for students not planning on college. Vocational/technical programs were offered to these students. Well guess what, these programs are going away from the middle schools and junior high schools and the high schools have elevated the level to attract students interested in engineering, not the student who wants to learn how to build a house with basic hand tools.
It is too bad that we worry about how dumb our kids are compared to the rest of the world and accuse our educational system of catastrophic failure when we live in a country that has become great through its educational system and attracts students from other countries who want to take advantage of what we offer. If our educational system has failed anywhere, it is in its production of political hacks who attack the system for their own political gain, not caring about the negative effect their tinkering has on the present generation of students.
Now I'll get off my soapbox and next time talk about "dens of iniquity"- faculty rooms.
Our department of education and people who decide the status of education in this state either do not believe it, or are living in a delusional state of mind. The latest mandate (unfunded of course) requires a third year of math to graduate. Not a bad idea if it was handled realistically. But guess what, the students must complete algebra and geometry as the required classes. I am not sure how that will help the dropout rate.
Now Seattle school district is trying to require a 'C' or higher to get credit for a class. Another well intentioned idea that often leads to grade inflation. In other words, a 60% mastery of the subject matter is not good enough. Get a 70% mastery. I don't know of any college who accepts students with D's scattered through their transcripts. However, a 'D' does allow a student to move on to the next level. So 'D' students become dropouts since that is not good enough to pass a class.
I have science curriculum that I have developed according to certain standards. Once a student completes my class with a certain grade, s/he has mastered the material to that level. Any rote memorization will soon be forgotten and only the skills of how to learn, along with the major principles of the discipline, will be retained. So throw a high stakes test at the kids a year or two later to show them how dumb they are and to denegrate the evaluation methods of the curriculum being taught.
Why are our graduates so dumb? According to comparisons of our students with students from other countries and according to the failure/dropout rates in four year colleges, our educational system "sucks".
People who say that ignore some basic facts. We keep everybody in public school, whether they want to be there or not. We can't remove troublesome students like charter schools and private schools. We have to teach 'em all. Overseas in many countries students are tested and sent to the appropriate school with only the best going on to their universities. Others are diverted into training for trades. Our students have fine arts classes. In Japan that would just be a distraction. In other countries teachers are respected. In this country teachers are expected to be babysitters and Heaven help the teacher who dares to discipline a rowdy student too agressively.
Why do so many students fail at four year colleges? Don't look at the public schools. Look at the colleges. Teaching methods are very different from the public school methods. Instructors make many assumptions about their students and most use a lecture/test method while flying through the material being covered. Competition is fierce among students and no longer are there low achievers to take care of the bottom of the "bell curve". Using college teaching methods in public schools would greatly reduce class size as students would drop out as soon as legally permitted to do so.
We used to offer curriculum for students not planning on college. Vocational/technical programs were offered to these students. Well guess what, these programs are going away from the middle schools and junior high schools and the high schools have elevated the level to attract students interested in engineering, not the student who wants to learn how to build a house with basic hand tools.
It is too bad that we worry about how dumb our kids are compared to the rest of the world and accuse our educational system of catastrophic failure when we live in a country that has become great through its educational system and attracts students from other countries who want to take advantage of what we offer. If our educational system has failed anywhere, it is in its production of political hacks who attack the system for their own political gain, not caring about the negative effect their tinkering has on the present generation of students.
Now I'll get off my soapbox and next time talk about "dens of iniquity"- faculty rooms.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
They'll Eat You Alive
The first year of teaching is the hardest. As a new teacher I was fair game for some of the hardcase, older students. I had a section of shop math where some of the students were going on 19 and I had just turned 21 four months earlier. After our get aquainted first month together, things became very difficult and from day to day I didn't always know who was going to control the class. Looking back I realize now how I could have handled things better, but at least I survived.
I was a real introvert growing up and hated speaking to a group. Now I not only had to control and educate large groups of students, but I also had to handle the attention of girls with their love letters hidden in my desk. A new, young teacher attracts some students like a flame attracts moths. It is one of those things the ed classes do not prepare you for. Once again, I survived and now the girls look at me like a "father figure".
In a smaller district the new teacher may not have as many assets for help over the bad spots, but there are other compensations. Scheduling is fairer and administrators are more available to assist.
In many districts the new teacher gets a schedule shafting, although nobody would admit that. The teachers with seniority feel they have earned the right to teach the classes with motivated kids. Give the "hard cases" to the new guy. Of course the new guy goes through some very difficult times and too often will not survive. Low pay and a difficult schedule, who wants to look forward to years of those conditions? It is unfortunate but the kids needing the most help often get the new teacher, who is least prepared to cope with them. But at the same time, the experienced teacher has some entitlements as well. A good administrator finds and applies the obvious solution.
I remember a new teacher was substituting next door to me. I talked to him several times about coming to me if he had any problems. He told me "not to worry". He had just finished a class called "Disrupting the Disruptor" and he would apply what he had learned. Unfortunately, his plan did not work and at the end of the day he was told he would not be called back. At the start of his first class, he picked out the biggest student in class, walked by his desk, and shoved his books onto the floor. He then started to shout at the student in an attempt to demonstrate something about disruption in the classroom. Needless to say, he lost all control of the class, word got around, and he had a terrible day with several principal visitations.
When I taught at my second district in Pennsylvania, we used to get new teachers that were trained at Penn State. Their theme was "be friends with your students". What a recipe for disaster. One teacher, call him Mike Johnson, told his biology classes "Just call me Mike. We are going to be friends and work together to master biology." It lasted two-three days before he forced them to use Mr. Johnson to regain some control of the classroom. There is a big difference between a friendly classroom atmosphere and having students as friends.
Then there is the new teacher who thinks every experienced teacher is out of touch and should retire. I have met a couple of them. I even mentored one when I taught eighth grade science in Washington State. He taught half of the eighth grade science and I taught the other half. I loaned him a three ring binder stuffed with my curriculum and told him to feel free to copy anything he wanted from it and then return it when he finished. Unfortunately he went to the principal and complained I was forcing my curriculum down his throat and he had ideas of his own. Needless to say that mentoring did not work out. Refusing any aisstance from experienced teachers is just asking for trouble. When I left that position to teach at the high school level, he had attained tenure and was doing a terrible job with his students.
It is too bad that ed courses don't teach their students how to distinguish teachers who are "burnt out" or just collecting a paycheck from those who are dedicated and look upon education as an important service to the students in their charge. They also need to instill confidence in their students without giving them arrogance and also how to interact with students in a teacher/student atmosphere and avoid the idea that students need to be their friends for best results.
One other short "newbie" story. Sometimes a new teacher can be very naive. "Betty" was a new PE teacher at my Pennsylvania school. She had returned to her alma mater, where she had been Homecoming Queen and a four year cheerleader. The guys just loved having their planning when she did since she always wore her skimpy gym shorts. At the end of the school year the guys always had a "kegger" picnic to celebrate the end of the year and the sign up sheet was in the faculty room. Thirty names were on the final list. Nineteen guys and Betty, then ten more guys who had never attended before. She thought it was for the full faculty until one of the women explained the situation to her. When she crossed her name off the list, so did eight of the guys.
More on faculty rooms later.
I was a real introvert growing up and hated speaking to a group. Now I not only had to control and educate large groups of students, but I also had to handle the attention of girls with their love letters hidden in my desk. A new, young teacher attracts some students like a flame attracts moths. It is one of those things the ed classes do not prepare you for. Once again, I survived and now the girls look at me like a "father figure".
In a smaller district the new teacher may not have as many assets for help over the bad spots, but there are other compensations. Scheduling is fairer and administrators are more available to assist.
In many districts the new teacher gets a schedule shafting, although nobody would admit that. The teachers with seniority feel they have earned the right to teach the classes with motivated kids. Give the "hard cases" to the new guy. Of course the new guy goes through some very difficult times and too often will not survive. Low pay and a difficult schedule, who wants to look forward to years of those conditions? It is unfortunate but the kids needing the most help often get the new teacher, who is least prepared to cope with them. But at the same time, the experienced teacher has some entitlements as well. A good administrator finds and applies the obvious solution.
I remember a new teacher was substituting next door to me. I talked to him several times about coming to me if he had any problems. He told me "not to worry". He had just finished a class called "Disrupting the Disruptor" and he would apply what he had learned. Unfortunately, his plan did not work and at the end of the day he was told he would not be called back. At the start of his first class, he picked out the biggest student in class, walked by his desk, and shoved his books onto the floor. He then started to shout at the student in an attempt to demonstrate something about disruption in the classroom. Needless to say, he lost all control of the class, word got around, and he had a terrible day with several principal visitations.
When I taught at my second district in Pennsylvania, we used to get new teachers that were trained at Penn State. Their theme was "be friends with your students". What a recipe for disaster. One teacher, call him Mike Johnson, told his biology classes "Just call me Mike. We are going to be friends and work together to master biology." It lasted two-three days before he forced them to use Mr. Johnson to regain some control of the classroom. There is a big difference between a friendly classroom atmosphere and having students as friends.
Then there is the new teacher who thinks every experienced teacher is out of touch and should retire. I have met a couple of them. I even mentored one when I taught eighth grade science in Washington State. He taught half of the eighth grade science and I taught the other half. I loaned him a three ring binder stuffed with my curriculum and told him to feel free to copy anything he wanted from it and then return it when he finished. Unfortunately he went to the principal and complained I was forcing my curriculum down his throat and he had ideas of his own. Needless to say that mentoring did not work out. Refusing any aisstance from experienced teachers is just asking for trouble. When I left that position to teach at the high school level, he had attained tenure and was doing a terrible job with his students.
It is too bad that ed courses don't teach their students how to distinguish teachers who are "burnt out" or just collecting a paycheck from those who are dedicated and look upon education as an important service to the students in their charge. They also need to instill confidence in their students without giving them arrogance and also how to interact with students in a teacher/student atmosphere and avoid the idea that students need to be their friends for best results.
One other short "newbie" story. Sometimes a new teacher can be very naive. "Betty" was a new PE teacher at my Pennsylvania school. She had returned to her alma mater, where she had been Homecoming Queen and a four year cheerleader. The guys just loved having their planning when she did since she always wore her skimpy gym shorts. At the end of the school year the guys always had a "kegger" picnic to celebrate the end of the year and the sign up sheet was in the faculty room. Thirty names were on the final list. Nineteen guys and Betty, then ten more guys who had never attended before. She thought it was for the full faculty until one of the women explained the situation to her. When she crossed her name off the list, so did eight of the guys.
More on faculty rooms later.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Interesting Day
From time to time I'll throw a short blog into the mix about an interesting day at school. These blogs will digress from the train of thought being developed in my regular weekly blog.
Today we are in the midst of homecoming activities week and the kids were to dress as animals to earn points for their grade levels. I had a stuffed weasel that I put onto my shoulder with some masking tape. Kids just love being scared by a teacher. One sophomore girl screamed so loud when she suddenly saw it up close that she was heard throughout the building. Luckily it was between classes. What made it so funny is that I had her in class last year and she was used to my antics.
It is interesting how my relationship with my students has evolved as I have become more experienced. Kids appreciate a humanistic approach that includes some give and take teasing coupled with a teacher/student relationship that maintains some boundaries.
I have been wearing a lab coat on a regular basis for the first time in twenty years along with a tie. It is funny that most comments are about the lab coat and just an ocassional mention about the tie. There are only three teachers who regularly wear a tie so I am a bit surprised about that. but I did get comments about my Project Mercury/Space Shuttle tie today.
I will be retiring in 2-3 years and I thought I would go out looking as professional as when I started teaching many years ago. I wore a tie my first five years of teaching and then stopped, opting for a more casual appearance.
For secret agent day one of the sophomore girls is planning to wear a lab coat so she can be like me (although I don't see the connection to being a secret agent). One of the boys is planning to be me for Halloween and do the same thing. Should be interesting.
I had a lot of fun in lab today watching students struggle over finding a way to determine the volume of an irregular piece of salt so they could determine its density. In Physics one of my seniors figured it out. The advanced freshmen don't have a prayer. I seldom ever give kids a straight answer. I want them to use that thing between their ears to do some reasoning based upon the hints I give them. Some get frustrated while others accept the challenge. The trick is to keep them working at the problem without giving up.
Meanwhile my Fundamentals of Science 9 students are getting the hang of work with drafting equipment (mechanical drawing) and should be able to master scale drawings and subsequently map reading.
Last week all of my ninth graders were enthralled with the lesson. It was on an 18mm film shown on an old projector. None of them had ever seen an actual film in school. I have a film library purchased from EBay and the single concepts they present are as relevant today as when they were filmed. Videos tend to be too much of a shotgun aproach.
Next time it is back to Newbies.
Today we are in the midst of homecoming activities week and the kids were to dress as animals to earn points for their grade levels. I had a stuffed weasel that I put onto my shoulder with some masking tape. Kids just love being scared by a teacher. One sophomore girl screamed so loud when she suddenly saw it up close that she was heard throughout the building. Luckily it was between classes. What made it so funny is that I had her in class last year and she was used to my antics.
It is interesting how my relationship with my students has evolved as I have become more experienced. Kids appreciate a humanistic approach that includes some give and take teasing coupled with a teacher/student relationship that maintains some boundaries.
I have been wearing a lab coat on a regular basis for the first time in twenty years along with a tie. It is funny that most comments are about the lab coat and just an ocassional mention about the tie. There are only three teachers who regularly wear a tie so I am a bit surprised about that. but I did get comments about my Project Mercury/Space Shuttle tie today.
I will be retiring in 2-3 years and I thought I would go out looking as professional as when I started teaching many years ago. I wore a tie my first five years of teaching and then stopped, opting for a more casual appearance.
For secret agent day one of the sophomore girls is planning to wear a lab coat so she can be like me (although I don't see the connection to being a secret agent). One of the boys is planning to be me for Halloween and do the same thing. Should be interesting.
I had a lot of fun in lab today watching students struggle over finding a way to determine the volume of an irregular piece of salt so they could determine its density. In Physics one of my seniors figured it out. The advanced freshmen don't have a prayer. I seldom ever give kids a straight answer. I want them to use that thing between their ears to do some reasoning based upon the hints I give them. Some get frustrated while others accept the challenge. The trick is to keep them working at the problem without giving up.
Meanwhile my Fundamentals of Science 9 students are getting the hang of work with drafting equipment (mechanical drawing) and should be able to master scale drawings and subsequently map reading.
Last week all of my ninth graders were enthralled with the lesson. It was on an 18mm film shown on an old projector. None of them had ever seen an actual film in school. I have a film library purchased from EBay and the single concepts they present are as relevant today as when they were filmed. Videos tend to be too much of a shotgun aproach.
Next time it is back to Newbies.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Becoming A Newbie
A newbie is a first year teacher. I was one a long time ago in the state of Pennsylvania.
I still remember how nervous I was when I walked through students to enter the high school on my first day as an educator. I had applied to substitute at my alma mater and prepared to be drafted into the army for Vietnam.
I was called into the district office and met the superintendent from a nearby district who offered me a full time position teaching math. Since I had a science degree, he felt I could handle the math. Especially since the kids had destroyed three different subs and he couldn’t find any math subs with a death wish.
My cooperating teacher during my student teacher experience had taught me a lot and I was not only able to get through the rest of that school year, but was given a permanent contract to teach science the following year. Unfortunately my undergraduate education classes were little or no help at all.
As a new teacher, I depended upon the advice of other teachers to help me resolve bad situations. There were no mentors available to new teachers. I was lucky to be teaching with two other science teachers who willing to help me plus the district was a very small district where everyone worked together or at least knew each other's business.
New teachers today still have to complete student teaching in order to get their credentials. Then in Washington State they have to pay for an additional two years of education before they are considered competent enough to receive professional certification. Even then the state is not done. Every five years until retirement the equivalent of an additional 15 credits must be completed.
These requirements say a number of things. First, undergraduate educational programs are out of touch with reality and don’t prepare truly qualified teachers. Second, be prepared to spend money and time to be licensed to earn a minimal salary that is actually insulting to a college graduate. Third, teachers are not dedicated enough to stay up to date on their own and the state has to force them to recertify every five years (must have been a university lobby at work here). Fourth, bright, dedicated people take the good paying career tracks so the state and university system have to guide the rest of us bozos through the complexities of the classroom.
The reality is that dedicated people are subject to the mediocre teaching methods practiced in undergraduate education classes and then required to spend additional funds for continuing indoctrination throughout their teaching careers. Requirements are piled on while salaries stagnate.
In spite of all attempts by the state to keep the best people out of education, I have seen many dedicated people enter education and stay there. I have also seen some that needed a lot more training to be successful in the classroom.
In my next blog, I’ll share some stories about Newbies in school.
I still remember how nervous I was when I walked through students to enter the high school on my first day as an educator. I had applied to substitute at my alma mater and prepared to be drafted into the army for Vietnam.
I was called into the district office and met the superintendent from a nearby district who offered me a full time position teaching math. Since I had a science degree, he felt I could handle the math. Especially since the kids had destroyed three different subs and he couldn’t find any math subs with a death wish.
My cooperating teacher during my student teacher experience had taught me a lot and I was not only able to get through the rest of that school year, but was given a permanent contract to teach science the following year. Unfortunately my undergraduate education classes were little or no help at all.
As a new teacher, I depended upon the advice of other teachers to help me resolve bad situations. There were no mentors available to new teachers. I was lucky to be teaching with two other science teachers who willing to help me plus the district was a very small district where everyone worked together or at least knew each other's business.
New teachers today still have to complete student teaching in order to get their credentials. Then in Washington State they have to pay for an additional two years of education before they are considered competent enough to receive professional certification. Even then the state is not done. Every five years until retirement the equivalent of an additional 15 credits must be completed.
These requirements say a number of things. First, undergraduate educational programs are out of touch with reality and don’t prepare truly qualified teachers. Second, be prepared to spend money and time to be licensed to earn a minimal salary that is actually insulting to a college graduate. Third, teachers are not dedicated enough to stay up to date on their own and the state has to force them to recertify every five years (must have been a university lobby at work here). Fourth, bright, dedicated people take the good paying career tracks so the state and university system have to guide the rest of us bozos through the complexities of the classroom.
The reality is that dedicated people are subject to the mediocre teaching methods practiced in undergraduate education classes and then required to spend additional funds for continuing indoctrination throughout their teaching careers. Requirements are piled on while salaries stagnate.
In spite of all attempts by the state to keep the best people out of education, I have seen many dedicated people enter education and stay there. I have also seen some that needed a lot more training to be successful in the classroom.
In my next blog, I’ll share some stories about Newbies in school.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Two Down- 34 to go
I've been back in my classroom two weeks and things are falling into place. My students are getting used to me and I'm getting used to them. One even interrupted me ten minutes into lecture one day to ask when class would end, and did I intend to keep talking the whole time. It is amazing to me how some kids act toward a teacher. It is as if we can't do anything to affect their lives for the upcoming 180 days.
The class sizes are being adjusted with the health teacher down from 40 to the low 30's. My largest class is now at 32. But it is offset with a couple of small classes. That helps my average class size, but puts some limits on my helpfulness in the larger classes whenever individual help is needed.
Our school was just remodeled and I was rewarded with my own computer lab of 15 new Dells. I think the principal took pity on me because for the past ten years I have been supplying my own student computers through EBay. I just finished networking them and today students were able to start working with them. They are a great tool for teaching science.
Speaking of class sizes- let me finish my story from last week. Remember that this was my first full year of teaching. I don't think I mentioned that I was in a small district in Pennsylvania.
I waited for the 54 students to arrive for their first day with me. They all squeezed into my classroom. The twenty without desks stood around the back of the room. They were too shocked at the number of kids in the room to even think of throwing spitballs or kicking each other.
I "took the bull by the horns" and marched the 54 ninth graders out of my regular classroom down to the cafeteria, where I assigned two students to each lunch table. I rolled in a portable chalkboard and got ready to teach.
I actually had this situation for about a week. Not being an experienced teacher, I decided that I had to be a real prick or there was no way I could survive. The first student to start talking when I was lecturing got a severe reprimand in the form of a verbal toungue lashing, after I slammed a meter stick onto the table right in front of him. Talking was not a problem after that.
I assigned homework the second day and any student who did not have it done got chewed out in front of the class. I kept a paddle close to hand where all could see it.
I had decided that the only way to control such a large group of students, who were not academically motivated, was to be very strict and downright nasty. It worked for the first week. Then the science chairman volunteered to set up another class and took twenty of the students out of the class. I was then able to get back into a classroom and forgot about joining the army (at least for the next few weeks).
I'm not sure what had gone on behind the scenes. As a new teacher I was trying to survive. In those days it was pretty much sink or swim. The principal had put the schedule together and had messed up some classes. I suspect they were afraid of what might happen if I continued in such a difficult situation.
The joys of being a new teacher! Things are so much better for new teachers today. NOT! That everyone should want to go into teaching. YEAH, SURE! More on this topic in a future blog.
The class sizes are being adjusted with the health teacher down from 40 to the low 30's. My largest class is now at 32. But it is offset with a couple of small classes. That helps my average class size, but puts some limits on my helpfulness in the larger classes whenever individual help is needed.
Our school was just remodeled and I was rewarded with my own computer lab of 15 new Dells. I think the principal took pity on me because for the past ten years I have been supplying my own student computers through EBay. I just finished networking them and today students were able to start working with them. They are a great tool for teaching science.
Speaking of class sizes- let me finish my story from last week. Remember that this was my first full year of teaching. I don't think I mentioned that I was in a small district in Pennsylvania.
I waited for the 54 students to arrive for their first day with me. They all squeezed into my classroom. The twenty without desks stood around the back of the room. They were too shocked at the number of kids in the room to even think of throwing spitballs or kicking each other.
I "took the bull by the horns" and marched the 54 ninth graders out of my regular classroom down to the cafeteria, where I assigned two students to each lunch table. I rolled in a portable chalkboard and got ready to teach.
I actually had this situation for about a week. Not being an experienced teacher, I decided that I had to be a real prick or there was no way I could survive. The first student to start talking when I was lecturing got a severe reprimand in the form of a verbal toungue lashing, after I slammed a meter stick onto the table right in front of him. Talking was not a problem after that.
I assigned homework the second day and any student who did not have it done got chewed out in front of the class. I kept a paddle close to hand where all could see it.
I had decided that the only way to control such a large group of students, who were not academically motivated, was to be very strict and downright nasty. It worked for the first week. Then the science chairman volunteered to set up another class and took twenty of the students out of the class. I was then able to get back into a classroom and forgot about joining the army (at least for the next few weeks).
I'm not sure what had gone on behind the scenes. As a new teacher I was trying to survive. In those days it was pretty much sink or swim. The principal had put the schedule together and had messed up some classes. I suspect they were afraid of what might happen if I continued in such a difficult situation.
The joys of being a new teacher! Things are so much better for new teachers today. NOT! That everyone should want to go into teaching. YEAH, SURE! More on this topic in a future blog.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Stack 'em deep, teach 'em cheap.
One full week plus two days back in the classroom and enjoying almost every minute of it. I just love the banter with my students as I help them adjust to high school while turning them into "little scientists".
I have two ninth grade CP classes with 29 and 31 students. That is a high number to do any individual work with students, but in a CP class many of the students are self directed. I can handle it but it is not an ideal situation. In a 1 hour class period, each student gets 2 minutes (but then who's counting?)
Contrast that with the health teacher who has a room full of ninth graders of varying abilities and behaviors. He had 40 students until yesterday when 1 was transferred. We have had math classes in the high 30's and history is often in the 30's. Don't even think about PE where the 40's are not uncommon class sizes.
Teaching associations (unions) try to have class size limitations placed into teacher contracts. Seldom will a school board even consider any sort of binding language since the costs can be horrendous. The best we could get was an agreement that the district would work very hard at keeping the class size average about 24 across the district.
My district is a small district and scheduling is very difficult with our limitations. However, we have most class sizes set at reasonable numbers as we begin this school year. The administration realizes the importance of class size to education and does work to shrink oversize classes.
Some districts focus on costs when working with averages and will count the counselors, librarians, and SPED teachers, who are all certified personnel. That puts a number of zeros to low double digits into the calculations.
Any parent with a child in a large class needs to make some noise and annoy their school board representative.
I remember my first full year of teaching. We did not see our class lists until the day before the kids arrived. I taught the ninth grade science and geography. I had six classes. One of my two advanced classes had six students. My third period class had 54 students assigned to it. I took over the cafeteria and considered joining the army.
I'll tell you what happened in my next blog.
I have two ninth grade CP classes with 29 and 31 students. That is a high number to do any individual work with students, but in a CP class many of the students are self directed. I can handle it but it is not an ideal situation. In a 1 hour class period, each student gets 2 minutes (but then who's counting?)
Contrast that with the health teacher who has a room full of ninth graders of varying abilities and behaviors. He had 40 students until yesterday when 1 was transferred. We have had math classes in the high 30's and history is often in the 30's. Don't even think about PE where the 40's are not uncommon class sizes.
Teaching associations (unions) try to have class size limitations placed into teacher contracts. Seldom will a school board even consider any sort of binding language since the costs can be horrendous. The best we could get was an agreement that the district would work very hard at keeping the class size average about 24 across the district.
My district is a small district and scheduling is very difficult with our limitations. However, we have most class sizes set at reasonable numbers as we begin this school year. The administration realizes the importance of class size to education and does work to shrink oversize classes.
Some districts focus on costs when working with averages and will count the counselors, librarians, and SPED teachers, who are all certified personnel. That puts a number of zeros to low double digits into the calculations.
Any parent with a child in a large class needs to make some noise and annoy their school board representative.
I remember my first full year of teaching. We did not see our class lists until the day before the kids arrived. I taught the ninth grade science and geography. I had six classes. One of my two advanced classes had six students. My third period class had 54 students assigned to it. I took over the cafeteria and considered joining the army.
I'll tell you what happened in my next blog.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
My Teaching Background
My teaching career began in 1967 when I was hired by a small school district to teach six sections of math: general math grade 7 and grade 8, algebra grade 9, business math grade 10, and shop math grade 11 for one semester. The substitues that had taught these classes were "eaten alive" by the students.
That was a very interesting year and more than once I considered resigning and joining the army. But I survived and taught at that Jr. Sr. High School for two more years. I taught Earth Science and Geography for that time.
Then I took a position in another district from 1969 until June, 1986. I taught many different science classes/courses while at my new district. I taught courses in astronomy, geology, marine science, radiation biology, and agriculture.
I then left education for the business world in another state until 1992. At that time I accepted a teaching position for 8th grade science and history. I taught history for one year and then I taught only 8th grade science.
After nine years with eighth graders, I changed districts in order to teach high school students. I have just begun my ninth year at this last position and I will retire from it in either two or three years.
I have been teaching science, with a six year hiatus, for 37 years. I will havea total of about 40 years of experience when I retire from teaching.
I still enjoy teaching and I love to interact with my students. The constant challenges keep me energized and being around young people keep me feeling young myself.
I have gained many insights into the world of education and I have had many interesting things happen in my classrooms over the years. I have worked with many different administrators and teachers in a variety of school districts in two different states in different parts of the country.
I took my "rose colored glasses" off a long time ago. I will write about true events, do a little politicising, and I will point out what I see as some of the fallicies being spread around about public education today.
Stay tuned for some enjoyable as well as poignant experiences.
That was a very interesting year and more than once I considered resigning and joining the army. But I survived and taught at that Jr. Sr. High School for two more years. I taught Earth Science and Geography for that time.
Then I took a position in another district from 1969 until June, 1986. I taught many different science classes/courses while at my new district. I taught courses in astronomy, geology, marine science, radiation biology, and agriculture.
I then left education for the business world in another state until 1992. At that time I accepted a teaching position for 8th grade science and history. I taught history for one year and then I taught only 8th grade science.
After nine years with eighth graders, I changed districts in order to teach high school students. I have just begun my ninth year at this last position and I will retire from it in either two or three years.
I have been teaching science, with a six year hiatus, for 37 years. I will havea total of about 40 years of experience when I retire from teaching.
I still enjoy teaching and I love to interact with my students. The constant challenges keep me energized and being around young people keep me feeling young myself.
I have gained many insights into the world of education and I have had many interesting things happen in my classrooms over the years. I have worked with many different administrators and teachers in a variety of school districts in two different states in different parts of the country.
I took my "rose colored glasses" off a long time ago. I will write about true events, do a little politicising, and I will point out what I see as some of the fallicies being spread around about public education today.
Stay tuned for some enjoyable as well as poignant experiences.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Topics I Will Write About
I have never been involved in writing or reading blogs, but there is a first time for everything.
There are so many misconceptions about classroom teaching that I thought some readers might be interested in following me through some of my teaching experiences. I am a high school science teacher working with young adults
I plan to discuss a number of things here and I will avoid any educational jargon so the reader will be able to follow what I am writing. The topics will include:
1. daily experiences in my classes
2. things that occurred in my classes earlier in my career
3. my opinions about recent events in the world of education
4. how you can help your child have a better educational experience
5. anything else that I believe will interest my readers (assuming I get some)
My next blog will be about me and my background in education.
I will be blogging once or twice a week unless something really special happens in my classroom.
There are so many misconceptions about classroom teaching that I thought some readers might be interested in following me through some of my teaching experiences. I am a high school science teacher working with young adults
I plan to discuss a number of things here and I will avoid any educational jargon so the reader will be able to follow what I am writing. The topics will include:
1. daily experiences in my classes
2. things that occurred in my classes earlier in my career
3. my opinions about recent events in the world of education
4. how you can help your child have a better educational experience
5. anything else that I believe will interest my readers (assuming I get some)
My next blog will be about me and my background in education.
I will be blogging once or twice a week unless something really special happens in my classroom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)