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Top 10: How to Take Control of Your Teaching

heather — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Occasionally, I repost this article so that new readers can find it more easily. Based on some very enthusiastic feedback, it has since morphed into a book proposal called The Top Secret New Teachers Handbook. I’ll share more as it evolves…

I’ve been developing this Top 10 list of ways to take control of your teaching even in the face of, well, teaching. It’s an advice list on how to encourage respect, and, if necessary, how to demand it as a means to make sure you aren’t being taken for granted.

Let’s face it, if you are feeling appreciated, you will be happier in this difficult job. Consequently, your students will be happier, and quite frankly, if they are happier, they will be more successful. After all, an unhappy teacher’s room has the smog of misery in it, and for a student, it hovers like a stench that affects their own victories. And while it benefits a school to keep its teachers happy, it is a teacher’s responsibility to demand those things that make this challenging job better than tolerable.

I think that finding those tricks or strategies to keep in your pocket is important in any career; but in education you need them even more so. Otherwise, the day-to-day duties of the job will eventually grind your enthusiasm to a halt and it won’t just be you who is affected, your students will be affected as well.

I will be expanding on each of these over time, but in a nutshell, here’s my TOP 10:

(...)
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Kelly Gallagher’s Golden Line

heather — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:42:03 +0000

Kelly Gallagher, educator and author of Teaching Adolescent Writers, came and spoke to the UCI Writing Project on Friday and his focus of the presentation was a Golden Line: The Goal in Education is “Everybody Improves.”

Duh, you say, isn’t improvement always the goal of education? Actually, no. When you consider AYP scores, for instance, the goal is to hit a benchmark, not the level of improvement you made to hit it. (...)
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Joanne Jacobs comment:”Stop facilitating and start teaching”

heather — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:16:35 +0000

I commented on Joanne Jacobs article, “Stop Facilitating and Start Teaching,” based on Fred Strine’s article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Strine indicates that more student-centered teaching is somehow less taught and, consequently, less learned. Jacobs paraphrases that the “’sage on the stage’ is more effective than the ‘guide on the side,’” that students of today lack the discipline that they had in his day, as if handing over the ownership to the class is handing over the reins entirely. (...)
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The Carnival #178 is in town!

heather — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:49:35 +0000

An (aspiring) Educator is hosting this week’s Carnival of Education #178. I’ve tweaked my How to Take Control of Your Teaching list and although it’s still in an evolving state, you can read it here. Enjoy the Carnival and the post.

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D is the New F for North Carolina

heather — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:22:23 +0000

I commented recently on an article for The Core Knowledge Blog about bottom of the line grade inflation. They reported that one North Carolina district was in discussions to make 61% the lowest grade rather than 50%. That is, in an effort to help failing students not feel like such failures, D is now the new F. We see the path this is taking, do we not?

However, it does come from good intentions. The fact is that failing students who do chip away at their work cannot earn an increase in their grade if we don’t massage the current system. Without positive ends, why would they struggle through the means?

I commented as follows:(...)
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This Totally Beats the “#1 Teacher” Mug

heather — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:45:43 +0000

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get a student who gives you a mug at the end of the school year. Sometimes, you even get a letter of thanks on a Teacher Appreciation Day. And then there are the times (maybe) that you get an idea of the influence that you had on someone. And then there is an email such as the one that I want to share with you today.(...)
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It’s the End of The Internet as we Know It (and I feel…)

heather — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:36:20 +0000

Check out this kinda frightening prediction from early Time Magazine sources. It seems that there is an attempt to create blocks of media packages starting as early as 2012 or earlier. That is, very much like TV cable packaging, the Internet would only be sold in blocks to purchase access much as you would your HBO Basic or Plus packages for cable.

Just imagine the even wider achievement gap that would occur if schools had to pay for their Internet packages.

If it’s true, we need to get more media attention on this attempt to stomp out the global communication that we have all come to know, love, and support.

I can’t say I know a lot about this subject, but it’s definitely worth looking into. Of course, there’s no way Google’s gonna let this happen, of course. After all, they’re a juggernaut in the business of universal information access.

Have you heard any updates on this topic that our Ed Tech community should be aware of? What steps should we take to ensure that it doesn’t happen?

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Oral Presentation Rubric

heather — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:59:11 +0000

Here is a short Oral Presentation Rubric that I developed for my Teach the Teacher unit. Haven’t used it yet, but the students have heard all the terms and definitions before.

I’ll hand one out to each of the students to have on their desk before them to refer to as they all begin presentations. Each student is presenting a 10-15 lesson on an activity of his or her choice. I’ve scaffolded each of their multi-modal assignments (narratives, persuasive essays, posters, ads, recipes, powerpoints, etc…) that they could choose from. We’ve used Inspiration to create entire lesson plans to help guide the creation of our presentation note cards. I’ll walk you through the unit in another post. It was pretty cool this year, but I will definitely tweak things for next year to help scaffold the rigor even more.

Hope this helps with your own classroom needs.

ORAL PRESENTATION RUBRIC

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The Carnival #174 has Arrived!

heather — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:38:24 +0000

Check out this week’s Carnival of Education hosted by Eduwonk.

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Cheering on the Demise of One’s Own School

heather — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:15:47 +0000

It seems that at every school there is always a small minority of teachers that don’t seem to like teaching, or kids, for that matter. And putting in more then the minimum is unheard of. But beyond that there seems to always be that one tenured teacher who actively cheers on the demise of one’s own school.(...)
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Don’t Knock the Less Experienced Teacher

heather — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:41:59 +0000

Look, we all know the statistics. Many of the hardest-to-teach classes are being taught by the least experienced teachers. According to Education Week, a study was recently conducted in Philadeliphia evaluating 9th graders, “the make-or-break year for many students on the path to dropping out of school” which found that “students are more likely than their upper-grade peers to be taught by inexperienced, uncertified teachers.”

While I understand the argument, I also know that these young teachers have an advantage that I will not have years down the line: energy.

When I was in my early years of teaching in my mid-twenties, I was hired to teach at an inner city school. It was, in fact, the under-funded alternative school for those students kicked out of the other schools. We had broken glass in the halls, police tape from the weekend still strewn over the kindergarten yard come Monday, and no textbooks. A classic Michelle Pfieffer/Hilary Swank/Morgan Freeman movie in the making.

I actually jumped into the deep end of the pool, and there wasn’t any filter, so there was moss on the top and calcium deposits coming from the cracks in the bottom, but it was there that I learned to swim. (...)
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Education X-Prize

heather — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:41:56 +0000

Maybe it’s time that education outsourced our brainstorming. Maybe it’s time that we listen to people outside of education brainstorm what to do inside of education. Check out The Opinion page of USA Today for February 13. In it, various authors debate the merit of merit pay. Look, I ultimately believe that teachers and administrators need to be in on the decisions, but I think that new, fresh ideas might just come from the dreamers who aren’t shackled by the reality of our past practices. (...)
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Fundraising Stinks

heather — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:45:31 +0000

In response to a recent Washington Post article:
Obviously nobody has a problem with tackling the obesity problem in this country in any way we can. I remember the time when everyday for 10 months straight students would come up to me, carting a cardboard box, its cardboard handle cutting into their hands with the weight of the various evil, wicked, Wonkalicious treats inside. The student always said the same thing: “Mrs. W, would you like to buy a candy? It’s to support the .” Well, of course I want to support them, but have you ever taught hormonal middle schoolers jacked up on sugar how to write a thesis statement for a Response to Literature? It’s not easy, let me tell you. So, clearly, nobody is against the ratification of irradicating the candy on campus more than I am. But, it turns out, there was a down side to this decision. Yep, you guessed it, more work on the teachers; because now we have to fund our own programs and figure out how to do it as lucratively as we did before.

(...)
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