The Witching Hour

Take a look at the last post I entered here and you’ll get a bit of a feel for how I’ve been doing with my return to the classroom. No, I’m not saying that it is difficult, I’m just saying that getting back into the swing of the planning for, delivery to, and assessment of my students has been a bit time-consuming. I’m really enjoying it, though, and finding that the time away from teh classroom probably helped me to regroup and start fresh.

That is not to say that I feel like a first year teacher again (thankfully!). I still feel like I have a few years behind me, but I also feel like I have a new perspective.

October brings with it all kinds of fun things to consider. Fall is underway, with the leaves all changing colors and the cold wind starting to howl. We’ve all got approximately 9 weeks of school done and are beginning to have thoughts like – “wow, this year is flying by” or “awesome! only a few more weeks until Thanksgiving!”. New teachers, however, might be thinking a few other things as well ….

Dr. Mark Littleton and Dr. Pam Littleton did a study awhile back on “The Evolution of a Teacher“.  According to their study, new teachers in October are disillusioned. They are wondering why they wanted to teach in the first place. They are wondering if they will be able to make it through their first year. They are considering not ever teaching again if they do manage to make it through this year. Following is a graph of their findings:

I’ve been thinking about what our responsibility as seasoned educators is to these new teachers. With nothing to back it up except observation, I’ve developed the following graph of the level of support offered to new teachers during their first year:

Look a lot like the original graph? Yes, and even though I’ve taken the liberty to add a little humor into the labels, it actually rings true. Seasoned teachers know what to expect throughout the year. When we start the school year, we make sure we know who the new teachers are, offer them words of advice, maybe give them a few lesson plans, and promise that we’ve got their backs. As the year rolls on, however, we begin to get wrapped up in the running of our own classrooms. At the same time, the new teachers are feeling overwhelmed and often are not seen coming out of their room for weeks at a time. It is when we don’t see them that they are in trouble and they need help.

It is the responsibility of veteran educators to support them through this time, which will last until around April (after all the standardized tests have been administered), when they will begin to feel a new energy and hope for a future in teaching. We must first of all let them know that these feelings they are having are normal and that all new teachers face them. We must then support them through the rest of the disillusionment phase by encouraging them, offering them advice when they ask for it, giving them lesson plans and ideas, and inviting them to observe our classrooms.

The witching hour is upon them – give them garlic to fend off the attack!

Do you have all the answers?

I’ve posted here and elsewhere the news that I’m returning to the classroom this year. I’m very excited about this, and have been doing a lot of reflection on my previous experiences, on what I want to change, and on teaching styles in general.

Because of this reflection, whenever I’m in a room with other educators, I’m always reflecting on their comments and actions, as well. One of the things that has come up recently happens to be one of my pet peeves when it comes to educators, so I thought I’d write about it here. I’m writing in response to teachers who decide to remove content from their curriculum based on the fact that they think they don’t know enough about it to teach it.

Do you have all the answers?

I certainly hope not. How dull would a classroom be that didn’t give students room to discover? How much creativity and how many thinking skills can we kill as educators who want our students to ingest information and regurgitate it at test time? I’ve experienced teachers who were not willing to say “I don’t know” in answer to a student’s question — teachers who would rather not introduce a topic if they themselves know little about it. Why is it that these teachers feel a need to be the single source of information in their classroom? When did we, as a whole, decide that teaching was all about being the expert in the classroom?

Of course, we have to be able to seem as though we know our subject well enough to teach it, but won’t my students learn more from me by witnessing my willingness to reveal my shortcomings? The sciences I teach have vast amounts of information — even genius’ like Einstein would never know all of it. Pretending to know it all makes me an imposter. Won’t my students retain what they learn longer if they have the opportunity to teach me or others in their classroom about what they discover?

If I refuse to let students know the vast amount of information that is out there for them to discover, aren’t I cheating them of opportunities to stretch their own minds and create? Who am I to rob them of the challenge of expanding their own knowledge and exploring the topics that interest them?

My first-day-of-school speech always contains this sentence: “I want you to question everything I tell you”. Great scientists did not come from children who blindly believed everything they were told. They came from those who said “I don’t believe the world is flat” or “I don’t believe Earth is the center of the universe”. My goal as a teacher is to give my students just enough knowledge to run with it. Then I stand back and watch the incredible directions they go. I would never be able to come up with those directions on my own.

Do you have all the answers? . . . Let them run with it!

Back to school means collaboration

End of July means it’s time to start getting ready for the new school year. In Texas, there are laws that keep schools from starting too early in August, but we still have to start attending professional development, get our rooms ready, and start planning out the first weeks of school.

For me, since I’m returning to the classroom after being away for almost two years, this is a really exciting time. My mind is churning through possibilities – what will I cover the first week? how should my class wiki look? how do I want to do assessments? Can I really maintain a paperless classroom?

Tomaz Lasic, author of a blog called “Human”, has written a great post entitled “Sanity Kit” which has some really good advice for teachers. After reading it, I started thinking about the most important part of that kit for me — collaboration. Whether you are a new teacher, a veteran teacher, or one like me who is returning to the classroom after an extended departure, the key to solving all of the questions I posed above is collaboration!

No teacher is an island.

Well, I’ve taken a bit of liberty with that one, but basically, we all have to share ideas, ask questions of each other, learn from each other, and develop a strong network. Drawing from the experience of multiple teachers is invaluable to every teacher.

As you get ready to get back in there with the kids, think about your personal/professional learning network. If you haven’t developed one, now is a good time to dip your toe in the waters!

Developing a personal/professional learning network requires several components:

Communication: there has to be an effective, easy-to-use, method of communication. For me, the main connection to my network is Twitter. I recently wrote an article on another blog that may be helpful if you are just starting out. It is called “Twitter 101 for teachers“. Whatever method you choose, it needs to be something that a lot of other teachers have chosen, as well. If you are out there posting questions on a discussion board nobody reads, you’ve wasted your time.

Sharing: Sharing goes both ways. Even if you are a new teacher, you will have valuable information to share. Don’t sell yourself short or assume that something you just found must have been found and shared by someone else. Even if it has been shared before, we sometimes need to hear it again, or we may have just missed it the first time. I have been in several workshops and mentioned the name of various Web 2.0 tools that I assume everyone has heard about and been astonished at the number of people for whom these tools are brand new. Teachers in your network will be at different levels of technology usage, for example, so what is old hat to you might be exciting and new to others. A note about sharing new sites: if you haven’t had a chance to actually play with the site, make sure people know that so you won’t lose credibility if people try it and it doesn’t deliver the impact you may have thought it would.

Reflection: I add this as an item separate from sharing because I think it gets forgotten by many teachers. When we come up with new ideas as a result of our collaboration with other teachers, we often do not report back. How did that lesson go? What would you change? Where did you modify it? Were you able to go into more depth? Did your students come up with something nobody had thought of when planning the lesson? We want to hear it!

Learn: Sometimes I’ve found myself so intent on throwing resources onto Twitter that I think might be helpful to others that I don’t take the time to read what others are posting and visit the sites they are directing me to. Take time to check out the new tools and make determinations on whether they will be useful in your classroom.

Good luck in the new year!

Putting the cruel shoes on

A few days ago, I wore a new pair of shoes to work. I should have known better – my schedule for the day was full of walks on and across campus. If you’ve never been there, Southern Methodist University is a beautiful campus, but getting from anywhere to anywhere is a walk. Thankfully, the group of teachers who were there for professional development that day decided to eat on campus instead of walking off campus, but I still had a lot of walking to do.

I knew I was really in trouble when I already had four giant blisters forming around my heel/ankle by 10:00 a.m. I put lots of bandages on and hoped for the best as I walked with the teachers to lunch.

When I got home, I had two huge blisters and one gigantor blister (two had merged), and none of the little bandaids I had put on remained. I went out that night and bought special bandages that would actually stay on so that I’d be able to wear similar shoes the next day.

What’s the point of this post? Well, I started this blog with a cruel shoes post and, although I’m not ending the blog, it is moving into a new adventure with me, so I thought this recent story was relevant.

I’m returning to the classroom. A face-to-face classroom. I’m putting on those cruel shoes again.

Why would I do something like that? I’ve had a year and a half to reflect on things and it has been very valuable. I’ve learned where the “blisters” are likely to form. I’ve learned the correct type of “bandage” to use to keep them from forming in the first place and if they form anyway, what type of “medications” to use to make them heal.

I’ve also learned how to choose more comfortable shoes.

I’m excited to be going back to the classroom. Keep watching this blog, as I’m sure I’ll have lots to talk about.

5 cool tools I discovered without going to NECC

I normally don’t cross post on my blogs, but I wanted this article to be both places, so what I’ll do is link to the original post here. Please visit my site and see what I learned at the Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council Symposium and NECC pre-conference.

Thoughts at the Start of Summer

Vicki Davis, who writes the Cool Cat Teacher blog, has some really good points in her recent article entitled “School Daze – Recovering Teacher Within”. I recommend reading it as one of your first steps in becoming focused this summer.

The article brought to mind my own feelings during the last summer I had after my last year of teaching in a classroom. Vicki hits the nail on the head when she talks about that 4-6 week daze. It was a time when I needed to just vegetate and let everything from the last year diffuse from my brain and into the past.

I also started thinking about how excited I would be by the time the end of the summer came along – excited about new ideas I had for my classroom, excited about seeing my teacher friends and hearing about all that they had done over the summer.

Whether you are the adventuring type or the stay-at-home-reading-books type, be true to yourself this summer. Take Vicki’s advice and LIVE!

Show Me the Money!

So you’ve gotten through your first year or two of teaching and found that, although you still have a strong desire to implement exciting and innovative activities in your classroom, you may not have the funding for the technology and/or equipment to do it? Well, to quote Colonel Klink “Ve haf vays” to get the money! Read on . . .

Although many of the big-money grants want to give money to more seasoned teachers, there are several ways that you can get some funding. One way, if you are determined to go for those big grants, is to get a veteran teacher to co-write the grant for you (or at least allow his/her name to be on the paperwork). This makes the big-money companies feel more comfortable about doling out their dollars. We know that you are quite capable of administering a grant on your own, but the experience of a veteran teacher makes the donors think their money is more likely to be spent wisely.

There are several smaller grants out there year after year that you should definitely try for. How do you find them? In response to one of my tweets, Jen Wagner gave me a good place to start. Grant Wrangler is sort of a one-stop-shop for you to find grants to apply for. You can search the site for grants and you can also subscribe to their bi-weekly email. Grant Wrangler also has a Ning you can join which will immerse you in a community of educators that can answer your questions.

You can also join state, regional, or national Listservs for email updates on grants. Often, you can join one that is specific to your content area or age range of students. There are too many of them for me to start listing them. Google “grant listservs” and you’ll begin to find the ones you need. Visiting your state education agency will likely put you in contact with relevant Listservs as well.

When applying for a grant like the ones you’ll find on Grant Wrangler and other grant-finding websites and Listservs, be sure to read everything about the grant first. Then take a look at past awards. Getting an idea of the type of projects that grant funds will help you to write your grant in a manner that will appeal to the folks who decide your monetary fate. Being sure to fill in all the blanks, provide all the requested information, and wording your request in a professional, technical, and clear manner will ensure that your application doesn’t get cut before it is even looked at.

Attending grant-writing workshops is a good idea. Ask veteran teachers who you know have received grants for suggestions on the best ones to go to. Your district grant coordinator, if your district has one, can be a good source of information as well.

Two websites that allow you to put your requests out there for the world to see, instead of focusing on a particular grant, are worth mentioning. DonorsChoose is a great source for obtaining funds for equipment that doesn’t cost a lot of money. DonorsChoose is specifically for public schools. It gives philanthropic individuals an opportunity to look through requests from teachers and decide where they want their money to go. Several people may donate small amounts to add up to the total (see this project that has had several donors and is close to being funded), or one person may decide to fund the entire thing. This is why smaller dollar amounts are better on this site. Your chances of being funded is also greater if you work in a Title I school and you write your grant to spotlight the demographics of your school.

If you teach in a private school, or if you are needing funds for something that you think parents of your students would be interested in funding, you can use ChipIn. In just a few minutes, you can set up a website that allows people to donate money to your cause through PayPal. I set one up every year for my children’s mission trips. Visit the site and you can see that it has a blog sort of feel and you can add entries to update people on how much has been collected through the site and in person. One note about ChipIn – there are still a lot of people who are uncomfortable paying through the web. Be sure to give them an option for sending a check.

Spend some time this summer checking out these grant opportunities. When you return to school in the fall, you just might have the equipment you need!

It’s All About the Relationship

I’ve been asked several times in the last few weeks about the value of building relationships with students. For some people, the words “relationships with students” bring to mind other words like Letourneau, but what I’m talking about are the appropriate relationships that must be built in order to instill trust, respect, and safety in the classroom.

Teaching isn’t just about delivering instruction. It is about providing students with an opportunity to learn more about themselves and the world around them. Developing an atmosphere conducive to this type of exploration requires that the teacher establish relationships with his/her students. We cannot simply be dictators or king/queen of our little 15-40 seat kingdom. We must be facilitators of learning. We must give students a reason to WANT to succeed and that is where the relationships come in.

As I’m wrapping up my first year teaching online, I”m reflecting on the differences between my online and face-to-face classrooms. I’m asking myself – are my online students ending their school year knowing that I truly cared about their successes and failures? Did they feel respected? Did they respect me? These are things that are a little tough to gauge in an online setting, although it can be done. However, in the face-to-face classroom, it should be easy to see whether you’ve effectively built relationships with your students.

If you constantly struggle with classroom chatter, disrespectful behavior, and downright rebellion against class rules, then you probably haven’t established the right kind of relationships. If you realize that you never really sat down and talked about anything besides the content of your course with your students, then you probably didn’t establish good relationships. If the first thing you did at the start of the year is have the students complete form after form and sit through long lectures telling them the procedures and expectations for the year, then you probably started off on the wrong foot.

Don’t get me wrong – there is definitely a need for procedures, guidelines (I dislike calling them rules), and perhaps even forms if your district or school requires them, but there are better ways to get all of the above working in your classroom than packing it all in on the first day of school. What if, on the first day of school, you sat down on your desk and just had a chat with your students? Waste of a class period? No. What you’ve accomplished after that class period is not only the start of an appropriate relationship with your students, but you’ve also begun to get  a feel for the interests, learning styles, and personalities in your class. Now you can meaningfully assign groups for that first project of the year. From the students’ perspectives, you’ve begun to show them that you aren’t just about the teaching, you have a genuine interest in them. Sadly, you may be one of the only adults in their lives not related to them who has shown that interest.

One of the 40 developmental assets for children is having adults in their lives who are not related to them, but still care about them. Is it appropriate for a teacher to be the “other adult”? I think so. As you reflect on this year, think about the relationships. Did you have students who excitedly told you about things they noticed on television that was relevant to something they learned in your classroom? Did they proudly tell you about their successes in sports, band, or other extracurricular activities? Do you have students who return to your classroom or contact you in other ways after they’ve grown up to let you know how they are doing? All of these are indicators that you did what you probably became a teacher for – you made a difference in someone’s life.

To borrow and mangle a line from an old movie – If they get the message that you care about them, they will learn. Caring about them doesn’t mean that you are a pushover and will let them get away with anything and do nothing. Caring about them means a relationship of trust, responsibility, and meaningful, realistic expectations.

It’s That Time of Year . . .

This is the time of year when everyone has either signed a contract for the coming year or let their principal know they will not be coming back. This means the opportunities for moving into a teaching job that is a better fit for you are most abundant.

New teachers often find themselves “settling” for a job that hasn’t quite been what they had hoped for because they are afraid they won’t be able to find anything better. They sign their contract in April and think they are locked in for another year. The fact is, most districts have cut-off dates up to which you can still get out of that contract without penalties. If you are not feeling quite right about the teaching job you have, be aware of that date and do something about it!

The most important factor you should consider as you are thinking about your teaching gig is “does this job make me happy?” If there are things your school/district asks you to do that go against your fundamental beliefs, you may need to look elsewhere. If there are elements of the school experience that are missing and that you feel passionately should be there for your students, you may need to look elsewhere (and/or try to convince administration to facilitate the inclusion of those things). If the administration at your school or district doesn’t seem to back you up with regards to discipline, you may want to look elsewhere.

You will definitely want to look elsewhere if your administration is asking you to do something that you believe compromises teacher ethics. I have a teacher friend who had to leave his school for that specific reason. Don’t fall into that slippery slope. If the administration is asking you to do something that you believe is wrong, it’s time to move on.

The bottom line is, don’t settle. Young/new teachers often don’t realize that not all schools are created equal. If you have considered leaving teaching altogether, but haven’t given other learning environments a try, you are not only cheating yourself, you are cheating the students whose lives you would have impacted had you stayed in the profession.

Edutopia has a good article with tips for finding your dream teaching job. Another great resource is other teachers. Try to establish a good network of teachers from other schools. Talk to them about what they like or don’t like about their school or district. Look into teaching at an academy or magnet school, which are often more cutting-edge than traditional schools. Some teachers find their niche in private schools. Others may find that virtual teaching is the thing for them.

Give it a shot – you deserve to be happy.

What Are We Afraid Of?

I started off my morning reading an article about a really cool new school in Coppell, Texas, in the Dallas Morning News. This school calls itself a project-based school. Students are given freedom to explore and create their own learning opportunities. The school is 1:1 and students are free to use portable electronic devices in their learning.

Taught by educators who have been teaching in “traditional” settings for years, these students are guided and their efforts are facilitated, but they are not lectured. Gone are worksheets and “filler” assignments. I read this article and was so happy to hear that a local school district had taken that deep of a plunge and I’m excited to see how things turn out. But then I saw a sentence that really caught my eye:

“Still, some educators are wary of anything trendy and fear giving kids so much freedom to learn on their own. “

I kept reading that sentence and wondering about the word fear. Have we really come to a place where educators have such a need for control that they fear giving students an opportunity to educate themselves? I found it ironic that this article came across my desk this morning because just yesterday I began formulating an idea for a presentation about educational reform and it involved this very thing.

My idea is this – if we make two mind trips – one back in time and one into nature, we will discover the key to the way learning should be.

1. The time mind trip. I’m taking you back to early Greece. Socrates is sitting with his students. What is he doing? Is he lecturing to them? No. He is only asking them questions. He is so firmly set on asking questions, rather than answering them, that it gets almost frustrating to his students. Guiding questions, however, lead some of his students into discoveries that earn themselves their own places in history. Have you ever heard of a guy named Plato?

2. The nature mind trip. I’m seeing a lioness with her cubs. She’s allowing them to follow her on a mildly dangerous hunt. They watch her as she stalks the prey and skillfully attacks. To the side, the cubs mimic this behavior in their own play. Mother hasn’t said a word. Cubs get it.

What does all this mean? I believe in a world where students can learn for themselves. A world where teachers model the behaviors they wish for students to mimic. A world where science teachers put the equipment and the supplies out on the table and watch students create their own experiments to answer questions (yes, I understand the teacher has to monitor this for safety – that’s the real reason the teacher is there). A world where, at the beginning of a grading period, the teacher hands the students a list of the content that needs to be covered and asks “where do YOU want to start” and “how will YOU learn this?”

What are we afraid of?

Students are lacking in one thing as a result of our need to control their learning – critical and analytical thinking skills. That one thing is crippling them and is what has put us in the position we are today in education. Let’s stop holding them hostage and start giving them their minds back.