Lesson Planning
Teacher Theory
Classroom ManagementMississippi Teacher Corps
I love fielding questions on teacher theory,
bicycles, and anything science!
-or-
email me at thneedfactory[at]gmail[dot]com
Communicate with the 5th grade teacher your thoughts on how she reacted to the issue. Explain that it ought to be a non-issue. Maybe you could ask her if she was truly offended, rather than assuming/jumping to conclusions via your ex-bf. Our flag serves as an important historical landmark for the civil war era and the hate that many people in the south and north held and may still hold to this day. It is a good talking point, NOT something that should shut down conversation, but create discussion. Explain this to her and be willing to talk it out.
Tonight was our last family night, and my students were doing “wax museum” type performances based on their state they have been researching. Under a table I had everything my kids would need - the “push here” button, their state suitcases they made, and their state flag that they would hold up.
I am not yet a classroom management historian, perhaps I’ll become one, but I am quite certain that there are certain insidious motives behind it. While many classroom management techniques are necessary, I submit that their genesis has roots in behaviorist techniques based in social control. This certainly should be an almost redundant statement as some might understand public schooling was born out of the intention of managing and separating certain populations. I hope to spend some of the summer organizing these suspicions into some proper research. And, I hope my research proves my speculations wrong beyond doubt. I hope to uncover the benevolence of our current system of education and behavioral management and be made an utter fool. But, until then, I’ll remain a fool in waiting with my somewhat conspiratorial and alarmist beliefs. I most certainly believe, because I’ve seen in numerous arenas, that children in poverty and, more saliently, children of color are treated more harshly. This may not be consistent across the entire nation, but it is in my experience and the extended experiences of colleagues. But that is not the point I am trying to make. Classroom management is successful only when the following is true in some form:
“The ideas of crime and punishment must be strongly linked and ‘follow one another without interruption… When you have thus formed the chain of ideas in the heads of your citizens, you will then be able to pride yourselves on guiding them and being their masters. A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas; it is at the stable point of reason that he secures the end of the chain; the link is all the stronger in that we do not know of what it is made and we believe it to be our own work; despair and time eat away the bonds of iron and steel, but they are powerless against the union of ideas, they can only tighten it still more; and on the soft fibres of the brain is founded the unshakable base of the soundest Empires’” (Foucault quoting Servan in Discipline and Punish)
Classroom management is a beginning. The roots spread into other realms of existence as the child grows. Is there another way? A better way? I’m not sure exactly what. But, surely there’s something more freeing than silently imprinting allegiance and respect to one’s masters through subtle and consistent enculturation practices. Please prove that my speculations are deeply incorrect. Please show me that my experiences have simply been rare exceptions, and have driven me down a path of cynicism. Please.
I used to be a molecular biologist. I spent my days culturing viruses. Sometimes, my experiments would fail miserably, and I’d swear to myself in frustration. Acquaintances would ask how my work was going. I’d explain how I was having a difficult time cloning this one gene. I couldn’t seem to figure out the exact recipe to use for my cloning cocktail.
Acquaintances would sigh sympathetically. And they’d say, “I know you’ll figure it out. I have faith in you.”
And then, they’d tilt their heads in a show of respect for my skills….
Today, I’m a high school teacher. I spend my days culturing teenagers. Sometimes, my students get disruptive, and I swear to myself in frustration. Acquaintances ask me how my work is going. I explain how I’m having a difficult time with a certain kid. I can’t seem to get him to pay attention in class.
Acquaintances smirk knowingly. And they say, “well, have you tried making it fun for the kids? That’s how you get through to them, you know?”
And then, they explain to me how I should do my job….
I realize now how little respect teachers get. Teaching is the toughest job everyone who’s never done it thinks they can do. I admit, I was guilty of these delusions myself. When I decided to make the switch from “doing” science to “teaching” science, I found out that I had to go back to school to get a teaching credential.
“What the f—?!?,” I screamed to any friends willing to put up with my griping. “I have a Ph.D.! Why do I need to go back to get a lousy teaching credential?!?”
I was baffled. How could I, with my advanced degree in biology, not be qualified to teach biology?!
Well, those school administrators were a stubborn bunch. I simply couldn’t get a job without a credential. And so, I begrudgingly enrolled in a secondary teaching credential program.
And boy, were my eyes opened. I understand now.
Teaching isn’t just “making it fun” for the kids. Teaching isn’t just academic content.
Teaching is understanding how the human brain processes information and preparing lessons with this understanding in mind.
Teaching is simultaneously instilling in a child the belief that she can accomplish anything she wants while admonishing her for producing shoddy work.
Teaching is understanding both the psychology and the physiology behind the changes the adolescent mind goes through.
Teaching is convincing a defiant teenager that the work he sees no value in does serve a greater purpose in preparing him for the rest of his life.
Teaching is offering a sympathetic ear while maintaining a stern voice.
Teaching is being both a role model and a mentor to someone who may have neither at home, and may not be looking for either.
Teaching is not easy. Teaching is not intuitive. Teaching is not something that anyone can figure out on their own. Education researchers spend lifetimes developing effective new teaching methods. Teaching takes hard work and constant training. I understand now.
Have you ever watched professional athletes and gawked at how easy they make it look? Kobe Bryant weaves through five opposing players, sinking the ball into the basket without even glancing in its direction. Brett Favre spirals a football 100 feet through the air, landing it in the arms of a teammate running at full speed. Does anyone have any delusions that they can do what Kobe and Brett do?
Yet, people have delusions that anyone can do what the typical teacher does on a typical day.
Maybe the problem is tangibility. Shooting a basketball isn’t easy, but it’s easy to measure how good someone is at shooting a basketball. Throwing a football isn’t easy, but it’s easy to measure how good someone is at throwing a football. Similarly, diagnosing illnesses isn’t easy to do, but it’s easy to measure. Winning court cases isn’t easy to do, but it’s easy to measure. Creating and designing technology isn’t easy to do, but it’s easy to measure.
Inspiring kids? Inspiring kids can be downright damned near close to impossible sometimes. And… it’s downright damned near close to impossible to measure. You can’t measure inspiration by a child’s test scores. You can’t measure inspiration by a child’s grades. You measure inspiration 25 years later when that hot-shot doctor, or lawyer, or entrepreneur thanks her fourth-grade teacher for having faith in her and encouraging her to pursue her dreams.
Maybe that’s why teachers get so little respect. It’s hard to respect a skill that is so hard to quantify.
So, maybe you just have to take our word for it. The next time you walk into a classroom, and you see the teacher calmly presiding over a room full of kids, all actively engaged in the lesson, realize that it’s not because the job is easy. It’s because we makeit look easy. And because we work our asses off to make it look easy.
And, yes, we make it fun, too.
(via sotospeak8)
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/02/teach_for_america_corps_member_1.html
The debate is great and all pointless at the same time. It evades the issues deep seeded, and unfortunately not in plain sight.
Alternative teacher programs do have their place in this countries current education affairs. Especially when data suggest that alternative licensure programs like TFA are delivering teachers that are equal to or greater in ability than a traditional route teacher. Until this nation starts to appreciate the teacher again, hold even higher standards for them and compensate above and beyond what they are worth this debate will keep going and will never matter truly.
Once this fundamental change happens in appreciating the teacher, a shift in the homes will happen, and thus the children and eventually the parents will be held to fit into the system of high expectations and high achievements that the teachers lay out for them. Because right now, under our current system, why the hell should a teacher first of all want to be a teacher if all they seem to get is flack from administration, the public, children, and parents for a job asserted in the public eye as “half-assed” And second, hold children to high expectations when again, they are attacked for being supportive and critical of student learning (i.e. PASS THOSE KIDS ON TO THE NEXT GRADE, OK?)?
This debate will keep on going infinitum until there is a conscious shift in how a teacher is viewed in the public eye. A teacher CARING can only go so far. We need the parents, public, policy makers, government, corporations, and administrators to care before we can even hope for the children to care and make our jobs worth a damn in this world.
I’ll end with a quote from the article that points to my issue with the debate, oh by the way, this article have the word “parent” in it once:
At the end of the day, students need pencils to learn, and the teacher should take on some of the burden for figuring out how to get those students to have pencils (whether it be a pencil renting system or calling parents), even if it is outside the teacher’s immediate locus of control. Once again, the point isn’t that socioeconomic factors are irrelevant, but that they shouldn’t be used as excuses and that they can be overcome. The model isn’t supposed to be used to blame teachers, it’s supposed to be used to help them help their students.
In response, I care about kids and having their supplies and being prepared for the day. I do so much as to never provide them with the necessary supplies that they need to be successful that day. Is it my job to provide them with supplies when they have in their pocket a nice new smart phone and brand new shoes on their feet? In this effed up model of how a teacher ought to conduct his or her room, yes, yes it is my job. If that is that case and continues to be the case, well, I’m sorry, but I quit.
If we are going to be real about this issue, we have to NOT EVEN THINK about what the teacher is or is not doing in the classroom.
Discuss?
So far I feel as though there is three factors to a teacher being successful that they can control:
Having a lesson ready/being prepared for the day…Even if that means staying up all night and make sure you have crossed all your t’s and dotted your i’s.
Confidence in giving consequences/handling classroom management…in other words known how and when to be strict and hopefully having enough sleep to know how to appropriately defuse a situation.
Having a willingness to constantly adapt and change for the sake of student success. This means being able to go back to a lesson or competency that they did not retain or understand and present it in a new way with the hope that they will better understand. Also this means to go with the flow of your crazy school and not get upset/overwhelmed by the adults and how you think they want to take the school down with them.
Things you can’t control, but wish you could because it would help make you a successful teacher:
Have involved, compassionate parents that support their child’s learning and you, the teacher.
Have helpful, competent and supportive administration that supports you, your decisions in the classroom, and appreciates you for the work you do.
Having uninterrupted classroom instruction, or at least a schedule in advance that your principal provides for you when he will be having that school wide assembly to yell at the kids, so that you can be prepared for a short lesson or a long one when you have to hold your classes.
Me:
Separate school from my time, Free time / ZONE OUT time AFTER lesson planning (shoot for 7:00).
Bedtime at 9:00
Reading before bed (15 minutes)
Exercise daily (tennis, frisbee, or at least a walk with best friend)
In my daily conversations, stop complaining about school so much, and look for opportunities that I can improve on for next year. Change the frame of reference.
Play more games.
Watch more movies.
Enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
Cook more with spouse.
Have more heart-to-hearts.
Be Here Now.
School:
Separate school from my time, i.e. No more lesson planning after 8:00!
Use planning period more effectively, don’t fall into zombie-status for 45 minutes.
Spend an hour after school lesson planning/getting ready for the next day.
Smile more, don’t let the kids get you upset…Just let things go.
Maintain student behavior log and lesson plan notes.
Start planning big goals/management changes for next year.
Don’t reinvent the wheel…This is only your first year. Stop panicking and enjoy the day. Start loosening up, let the kids talk during work time. Bring less work home. Play outside more.
Mississippi at a glance.
How is my experience so far? Every single day I’m becoming more and more exhausted and strung out. I am getting headaches more often and more intense. My management is usually perfect periods 1-4, then gets worse as the day progresses into chaos, which is a sucky way to end the day. I’m not exercising or eating right. I’m not biking or doing the things that I loved to do 7 months ago. I actually haven’t ridden my bike in 4 months. Going from biking every day, 95 degrees highs, below zero lows, rain, shine, sleet, or snow, to not biking at all is extremely saddening to me. I don’t use my hands nearly as much as I did before. I am getting a little faster with the lesson planning. I am much better at getting to know my students and talking with parents. I am increasingly frustrated with my administration and wish to Santa for my principal’s timely exit from my school. I want desperately for a break from all of this. For a big vacation that makes me forget this awful place, and remember why I am alive and love life again. I want to explore the outdoors and look under rocks for bugs. Really, “how is my experience so far?” it sucks overall, but it’s a nice way to grow up I suppose. ;)
By Dana Truby, Megan Kaesshaefer“What’s the secret to avoiding art messes? How can you make your room orderly without emptying out Office Depot?” Here is a selection from 100 teacher tips for creating a beautiful, organized environment (click the link to see all 100).
1. Address Stickers
Brand anything as yours—classroom library books, rulers, staplers—with a return-address sticker, and they just may stick around.2. Download It!
From field trip forms to IEP progress reports to “No Homework!” reward coupons, you can find dozens of free downloadable templates at toolsforteachers.org. Better yet, each form can be customized for your needs.3. Number Line
Assign each of your students a number. Then have them write their name and number on every paper. It makes assignments easy to keep track of and grades quick to enter.4. Label Everything
Place labels and photos on shelves and containers. It will make cleanup quicker and you won’t have to field a thousand questions a day about where things go!5. Hide It Away
Ugly storage area? Hit the fabric store and look for a bright fabric or remnant. Use safety pins to hang kids’ work or to make it into a word wall.6. Reduce Clutter
Weed out all unnecessary clutter. Use crates and baskets for those things you want out of sight but handy when needed.7. Start at the End
I have a calendar for the entire year. I take notes on major themes, brainstorm books, then I break down each book into themes and skills. I count the days and work backwards to fit it all in.8. Tangles of Wires
Slip wires through two or more empty paper towel tubes to contain them. For an even better look, have kids cover them with colored paper first.9. Too Much Art
So much artwork, so little wall space. When kids’ work piles up, take photographs of their masterpieces and post them on your website, or make them into an inexpensive photo book. (Try shutterfly.com or snapfish.com.)10. A five-minute daily clean routine can help keep the germs at bay and your classroom gleaming. Have your helpers of the day use disinfectant wipes to scrub down these hot spots:
- Desktops
- Countertops
- Light switches
- Doorknobs
- Keyboards
- Cabinet handles
- Drawer pulls
- Faucets
- Water fountains11. Brain Break
Between activities, have kids take turns acting out a fun or silly thing (e.g., catch and reel in a fish, hit a home run and then cheer for yourself)12. Style Code
I place a letter (A=Auditory, V=Visual, K=Kinesthetic) by each lesson plan idea to keep track of learning styles.13. Math on Monday
Try to plan one subject’s lessons for the next week each day. On Tuesdays, plan social studies, etc.14. Kitchen Timer
Multipurpose tool of the gods. Use it for transitions, group time, journaling, cleanup time.15. Teach Study Skills
Never assume kids know how to study. Teach them how to review a chapter.16. Library Cards
When students borrow a book, have them write the name of the book on an index card and place it in a pocket chart. Later they can write about the book on the back on the card.17. Match Up
Place stickers (yellow stars, blue circles) on your baskets and the books inside and they’ll be easy to return to the right place.18. Student Information Sheets
I send home student information forms the first week. On the back of the sheet is a contact log I use all year long.
If you are thinking of joining the Mississippi Teacher Corps, or any alternative route teaching program, please, consider the following:
Every day I wake up at 5:30, eat a little something, take a shower, and drive off to school. I am there before most teachers and the principal, getting things ready for the bright new day. Each morning during this time I have big dreams of how the lesson I spent 6 hours on the night before won’t be delivered to deaf ears, but will turn out amazing and the kids will learn and retain SO much in 50 minutes. It’s a peaceful beginning, that ends with unknown but typically frustrating pull-your-hair-out feelings of intense dissatisfaction and lack of fulfillment.
Let’s stop before we go on. Now, before you discount this advice as ramblings, remember you and I are really the same. If you are considering joining such a program to become a teacher and you’re trying to read up on the pros and cons, remember I was exactly in your shoes not too long ago. Except, my vision was clouded in a such a way that I discounted any negative sounding advice about becoming a teacher (teacher burn-out, under-appreciation, non-stop crying, etc. etc.) and replaced it with all the ideas of the positive impact I would be making on my children and the community by becoming that rock and safe harbor. I would whip this school into shape and shame those teachers for allowing their school to sink to such a level that allows such a young, under-qualified, big dreamer such as myself to enter through those doors.
Okay, back to how I feel, or rather, back to how you will feel as I do now. Exhaustion. You’ll be exhausted everyday. Everyday. And not the feelings of exhaustion that you are familiar with currently. Really, remember that one time you pulled that all nighter in college and how tired and zombified you felt the next day? Remember how you were sleepy all day and then you got done with classes and crashed on your dorm bed at 2:30 and slept until 7:00 at night? Grabbed something to eat and were just brain-dead for the rest of your night? Well, take away the nap, because you’ll have to plan for the next day in that time, and get ready to allow your mind and body to experience exhaustion like it never has before.
Let’s regress back to that frustration you will feel each day. You will not just feel frustrated all the time because your students don’t understand the gibberish that comes out of your mouth, but you may vary well even feel real anger and sincerely want to hurt someone. You will slowly realize that your students and no one appreciates you for the the long hours you spend making that perfect lesson, because it turns out: 1) it’s not perfect, and 2) even if it was perfect, no one cares but you, so stop searching for appreciation at this point in your journey (yet know that it will come, and is coming, in ways you don’t yet fully realize—spoilers).
Alright, I hope by now, you have seen a glimmer of the depression you will undoubtedly feel—and no, you won’t be that 5% of teachers who are simply just born teachers, who don’t experience this, so stop holding out hope for that. And, stop. OK, let’s move on to some others things you might feel, or should be looking forward to feeling. Because if you don’t hold out hope for some happy thoughts, this job will consume you and you will quit before your time.
Everyday along with having a headache, getting frustrated, and being angry at my position in life, I smile, laugh, and love what I’m doing. I love spending six hours on a lesson the night before and getting the feeling of excitement that my little 6th graders will hopefully get just as excited as I am about Newton’s Laws of Motion, or any science topic that we’re learning about next. I absolutely love kids sneaking to my room in the morning saying, “Good morning Mr. H” to me in the morning, then running out of the room to their homeroom where they were supposed to be in the first place. I love the feeling of excitement that I get every time, it’s happening daily now, one of my children who I never expect to get the right answer answers a question dead on and I have them repeat it to the class, “SAY THAT AGAIN LOUD AND PROUD LAMARCUS!” “DID EVERYONE HEAR THAT?” “I SAID LOUD AND PROUD LAMARCUS!!” “YES, YES, PERFECT!!” I love that I can be a role-model and a confidant to my kids that I have earned trust from. I love those perfect management days I have when I’m on firing at the beginning of class dishing out the consequences, as the remainder of the period runs smooth like melted butter and the kids actually learn something. I love the anticipation of breaks, Fall break, Thanksgiving break, Winter break, Spring break. I get just as excited as the kids get at the anticipation of a snow day. I love that my room is my fortress that I’ve poured my life into and each student helps build it and break it down each day. I love that I try to make us family each period for 50 minutes every day, even though it never seems to work, I love that I can push my ideals onto these young minds just by the way I am naturally. We should all love one another and treat others with respect, be it the person sitting next to you, the bee that flies into the room, or the mouse that has found a home on the piles of writing assignments.
So, in short: should you join MTC? If you want to make meaningful difference in the lives of a couple kids who need someone like you most in their lives and want to learn how to be a good teacher, then yes. However, if your mission is to save some people from their situations, and be a superman, then no, please, no, you will not succeed at this.
Regardless your decision, if you do join you will fail miserably at what you set out to do. How you cope and grow from failing is what makes you a good teacher, a bad teacher, or just a quitter.
As a first year teacher, today I witnessed one of my most unruly and disrespectful students be struck with a paddle by my principal 15 times because of his mocking and disruptive behavior in my class today and for the bad behavior he racked up all last week. At first it was supposed to be *just* five, however, the student blocked the third paddle with his hands and the principal gave him an added 10 licks for defending his bottom. These remaining 12 licks were as hard as my principal could swing a board. My student cried out in pain and tears were jolted from his eyes each swing. I merely witnessed this punishment, rather than administering it, as I have told my principal I refuse to paddle students for misbehavior. Yet, even though I never touched and never will touch a paddle, I feel accomplice to the abuse of my student. I never wanted my child to be hit for his actions, yet he needed a serious time out (in school suspension) for his behavior as my multiple calls home, multiple hall conferences, and multiple alternative assignments were obvious not working. So even though I did not want it, it happened because my principal insists to raise the board. I struggle with this culture, with this school, and with the idea that you can beat behavior into a child. How do you deal with corporal punishment at your school?
