The things that the first years need to know reach out into the infinite. As such, I must pare my list down to a few key words. These key words are explained and given due measure, as they are applicable to not only the classroom but also.
1. Patience. Unless you met your charges in a former life, you are new to them and they are new to you. Your expectations and their expectations will differ dramatically. Accordingly, be prepared for the growing process. You have a full year to learn the likes and dislikes, hopes and fears, tragedies and triumphs, etc. Never rush with anything. That is, you will find that things you think can and should be done in a minute will take three. Concepts you found to be inexplicably simple in high school will test the students’ mental endurance. Patience should be easy to have in Mississippi. Everything moves a little slower.
Another aspect of patience is it is needed when dealing with any school-related technology. Copiers, computers, printers will all stop working in your most desperate hour. Need four emergency copies of your nine weeks test? Yep, it’s broken. Need Internet access for a killer set you spent all night planning? Yep, Internet’s down. Here, in the program, patience is more than a virtue; it’s a survival tool.
2. Creativity. You must have a thousand and one ways of getting your lesson across. Students now are part of the generation where they lose interest quickly. It’s up to you to engage them and keep them engaged. Further, you must simply create stuff. You will surprise yourself when faced with challenges. Far from it to disturb someone when you can make it or do yourself. You’ll learn to make tablecloth using sticky craft paper or sharpen a pencil with a box cutter. Also, find ways to be creative in your discipline. Sick of doling out copy assignments? Have a student stand in the corner. Make him or her clean the classroom. Play late 80s heavy metal during detention. If they happen to like it, play ballads and standards from the 1940s. Use your brain to keep your students on their toes.
3. Silence. Quite possibly, the sweetest sound there is. Not all of your classes need to involve student chatter. There will be days when you and the students need some silent time. On days when they are composing essays or working out problems in mathematics, there are moments that demand a noiseless environment. Too, when dealing with school bickering among co-workers, silence is golden. Your next-door neighbor’s complaining about how another teacher tries to run the hall is your opportunity to remain silent. Staff meetings, dreadful as they are, require silence. Take the time to listen to the nonsense administrators spew. Think to yourself, “Wouldn’t be easier if we….”
But remember it’s an administrator’s job to attempt to fly when walking will more tan suffice.
Patience, creativity, and silence are three keywords guaranteed to get you started off right. Here’s to a grand first year. Go forth.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Trying to be Different
Though summer school teaching for a second year is limited to the month of June, it is not in any way a limit on instructional creativity. One problem area I know that needs more focus is differentiation. I hope to take this month and use it to challenge myself into employing differing instructional strategies and overall presentation of material. More and more, I realize how diverse the learners are after a full year, especially in my grade level.
Gone are the days of straight lecture and instant student mastery. I hope to make my instruction more visual and hands on. I want students to see the product. Trying to combine grand showmanship and Language Arts does take its toll though. How exciting are clauses? I want to bring in manipulatives and graphic aids that put the lesson into students’ hands. Talk of parts of speech does little to generate interest. The plan is to constantly keep the students’ mind going by making them think and visualize
The days still exist where one student picks up the skill near instantly and another must have it retaught before mastery is gained. I plan to use everything I know. Remediation flash cards, foldables and graphics for those students who need practice, and enrichment writing are necessary to gain full understanding. Such is needed for summer school and the classroom. That it took me so long is a little problematic. But I hope to remedy the situation. There must always be at least three different ways to present the material to the learners.
Of note, I want to bring in more color to impart the material. I realize how important color is. Plain notebook paper and copy paper can only do so much in the classroom. Colored paper and construction paper, even in note taking, provide such a visual that it may aid in remembering content. The simple act of making trifolds with colored paper and writing definitions in colored pencils and markers is an act that aids in mastery. Bringing in color more often shows that breaking away from the ordinary is a simple step toward helping students.
In sum, this summer need not be a grand experiment. It does, however, need to be one for delivering information in different ways. Students are nowhere near the same. As such, delivery of content must cater to their learning styles. Creativity need not involve whimsy, either. Just the act of bringing in color and remediation and enrichment can lead to greater successes with material. That’s the plan. Employ differing instructional strategies and make sure there is something for every learner.
Gone are the days of straight lecture and instant student mastery. I hope to make my instruction more visual and hands on. I want students to see the product. Trying to combine grand showmanship and Language Arts does take its toll though. How exciting are clauses? I want to bring in manipulatives and graphic aids that put the lesson into students’ hands. Talk of parts of speech does little to generate interest. The plan is to constantly keep the students’ mind going by making them think and visualize
The days still exist where one student picks up the skill near instantly and another must have it retaught before mastery is gained. I plan to use everything I know. Remediation flash cards, foldables and graphics for those students who need practice, and enrichment writing are necessary to gain full understanding. Such is needed for summer school and the classroom. That it took me so long is a little problematic. But I hope to remedy the situation. There must always be at least three different ways to present the material to the learners.
Of note, I want to bring in more color to impart the material. I realize how important color is. Plain notebook paper and copy paper can only do so much in the classroom. Colored paper and construction paper, even in note taking, provide such a visual that it may aid in remembering content. The simple act of making trifolds with colored paper and writing definitions in colored pencils and markers is an act that aids in mastery. Bringing in color more often shows that breaking away from the ordinary is a simple step toward helping students.
In sum, this summer need not be a grand experiment. It does, however, need to be one for delivering information in different ways. Students are nowhere near the same. As such, delivery of content must cater to their learning styles. Creativity need not involve whimsy, either. Just the act of bringing in color and remediation and enrichment can lead to greater successes with material. That’s the plan. Employ differing instructional strategies and make sure there is something for every learner.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Open Letter to the Second Years
I find that, similar to most people, I am much better at hello. The good-byes ring too empty, too hollow. Further, a natural extension of good-bye is the evitable feeling of loss. To be sure, the second years have come full circle. Off to return to the lives they lead before this excursion, some will remain in public education. Others will run away, far away, hoping the students do well and avoid the inevitable crises associated with poverty and lack of quality education.
So every year, the Mississippi Teacher Corps takes a hodgepodge of fresh faces from all over the United States and trains them to be teachers for the underserved youth of the state. Bonds develop, friendships forged, plans written, apartments shared, unions created, etc. Within two years, a lot happens. Without going the road of trite axioms, I suggest the people of the cohort have a more measured effect on your life than the students. Granted, you see the students more. But seemingly you crave the presence of a peer for empathy, for commiseration, for drinks. The hodgepodge becomes something more, something special. Accordingly, the Class of 2009 is not just a name and year assigned to those who entered the program during that term.
The Class of 2009 encapsulates an era. Be it a brief two years or no, it is time and space where twenty-odd people shared common moments in disparate places. Just as one member of the cohort in Holly Springs uttered exasperated sighs, surely another in Jackson slammed a right foot hard into the oft-broken copier in the workroom. Their roles were reversed, I’m sure. While I still struggle with the loss of the group, I feel exceedingly content knowing that they gained a lifetime of experience and stories. Many of the stories and storytellers will enthrall future members of the program. With each passing year, the entering class finds a new generation of students. Conversations years hence will include phrases such as “Really? They were not like that when I was there.” The era is well-nigh over for the Class of 2009.
In sum, good-bye suggests too much finality. I expect none will go to parts unknown. I know many will try to do something, anything to keep making lives in the state of Mississippi better. Within the group, there will be one who takes a leadership role in the corps, one who moves into administration, and quite possibly, one who fixes the problem. The Class of 2009 comes full circle. Those returning for the third year are hooked. A calling is there. We are the better for it. The members not returning will still keep in touch with the students and faculty who impacted them in the most unexpected of ways. As crazy as this post is, it reveals what I could not deny. I am much better at hello. As such, I offer to the second years: Hello to the next chapter of your lives.
So every year, the Mississippi Teacher Corps takes a hodgepodge of fresh faces from all over the United States and trains them to be teachers for the underserved youth of the state. Bonds develop, friendships forged, plans written, apartments shared, unions created, etc. Within two years, a lot happens. Without going the road of trite axioms, I suggest the people of the cohort have a more measured effect on your life than the students. Granted, you see the students more. But seemingly you crave the presence of a peer for empathy, for commiseration, for drinks. The hodgepodge becomes something more, something special. Accordingly, the Class of 2009 is not just a name and year assigned to those who entered the program during that term.
The Class of 2009 encapsulates an era. Be it a brief two years or no, it is time and space where twenty-odd people shared common moments in disparate places. Just as one member of the cohort in Holly Springs uttered exasperated sighs, surely another in Jackson slammed a right foot hard into the oft-broken copier in the workroom. Their roles were reversed, I’m sure. While I still struggle with the loss of the group, I feel exceedingly content knowing that they gained a lifetime of experience and stories. Many of the stories and storytellers will enthrall future members of the program. With each passing year, the entering class finds a new generation of students. Conversations years hence will include phrases such as “Really? They were not like that when I was there.” The era is well-nigh over for the Class of 2009.
In sum, good-bye suggests too much finality. I expect none will go to parts unknown. I know many will try to do something, anything to keep making lives in the state of Mississippi better. Within the group, there will be one who takes a leadership role in the corps, one who moves into administration, and quite possibly, one who fixes the problem. The Class of 2009 comes full circle. Those returning for the third year are hooked. A calling is there. We are the better for it. The members not returning will still keep in touch with the students and faculty who impacted them in the most unexpected of ways. As crazy as this post is, it reveals what I could not deny. I am much better at hello. As such, I offer to the second years: Hello to the next chapter of your lives.
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