13 posts from 2008

I had a dream...

Dec 19, 2008
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Here's a conversation I had with a student in my 8th period at the high school:

JT: Mr. S, I had a crazy dream last night that you were in.
Mr. S: Really? Tell me about it.
JT: Naw, you don't don't want to know.
Mr. S: Okay, then don't tell me.
JT: You don't want to know about my dream?
Mr. S: You told me I didn't want to know.
JT: Do you want to hear about it?
Mr. S: Sure.
JT: You and MW got into a fight.

[The obvious next question...]

Mr. S.: Well... Who won?
JT: He got a couple good licks in, but you took him out and made him urinate on himself.

So... A girl in class dreamed I beat her best male friend so badly that he pissed himself. What does that mean, Dr. Freud?

Perfect

Dec 10, 2008
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One of my geometry students at the high school did not pass his Algebra I state test last year (so did many others, and yet they all passed their class and moved on--go figure), and so had to re-take it this year.

He got his scores back this week, and came to me right after he read them. He proudly announced that he did not miss a single geometry competency question this time.

Perfect geometry score for my current geometry student. Pretty Awesome.

Why Join?

Dec 2, 2008
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Here's an actual conversation I had today...
I'm obviously Mr. S, and my students are named using only initials. This takes place right after lunch, on a sunny, but cold, December morning.

DH: Mane, why y'all hurryin back to class? You know we're just gonna have to do work when we get there.

PW: Yeah! We always be doin work in Mr. S's class. Some teachers around here don't make us do nothin. Like Ms. B last year.

DH: They just don't even care what we doin in their room. Some teachers just don't be doin their jobs.

Mr. S: What did you say about that teacher from last year who didn't make you do anything?

PW: She just didn't even care.

Mr. S: Why would you say that?

PW: She didn't make us do anything.

Mr. S:Oh, so the amount of work teachers give you tells you something about them?

PW: Yeah, you always be pushin us and tryin to make us do better.

Mr. S: Yeah, and why do you think that is?

PW: You care.

Finally!

Nov 24, 2008
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One of my O-linemen in class has been abnormally lazy all semester. I'm talking comatose... in class. We just had our progress reports go out last week, and he hadn't done well (can't figure out why, though).

As I walked into a meeting with the team, I notice he is just glaring at me from across the room. I walked right up to him and asked (more like pestered) if he had anything to say to me. His response: Naw, i just didn't do my work in your class.

Finally! Someone gets it! Your work is directly correlated to your grade. He told me he would turn it around and get to work. I said I didn't believe him, but okay.

He busted his tail the whole next week studying, asking (relevant) questions, and making up assignments, and guess what... he made an 87 on the test!

Mason Cole

Jul 17, 2008
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Mr. Cole was (and still is) the mysterious guy in the back of the room, one whom the kids know better than to mess with. He's not as much the silent-seductive type with me as he is with the kids, so I get some really good input. He lets me do my thing, then he gets to tell me where I screwed up and where I was alright.

Point 1) Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Point 2) Shut up and let them work

Point 3) Sit down more and longer

Point 4) My classes in Hollandale will likely NOT be ANYTHING like this one

I also really enjoyed the subject-area meeting. I feel like I learned some of the most difficult topics for me personally: teaching something in another way than just a lecture and notes that's actually interesting and engaging, and teaching something in another way than the one in which I understand it. So for that here's a special thanks shout out to Miss, HT & Mr. Cole.

Teaching in July

Jul 17, 2008
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I was slightly less nauseated watching myself teach on film for the second time in as many months. I certainly showed improvement from last time (thank God--I don't know what that would have meant had that not been the case), mainly in my method of instruction. Instead of the lecture style, I had everything written out on overheads; that way, all I had to do was ask questions and guide students through my questioning to the correct answer so they think they came up with it on their own. Once they get it right, I pull down the sheet covering the overhead to reveal what one of them has just said. This takes a LOT more time and preparation (even a little TLC), so I'm not sure how often I'll do it this way during the actual year, but I might go out on a limb to say it's the most effective style I've used thus far.

Sadly, even with this preparation, I still didn't think of everything they might have trouble with; thus, I wound up back at the board (for way too long) answering their questions and showing them why. This event itself is not too bad; I hit my biggest struggles when I realized just how much time I spent with my back to the class. I'm going to get tormented during the year. I'm not just inviting students to misbehave. I'm begging them. It's easy with just three of them in the room (or four when they all show up), but I won't be that lucky during the year. I also won't be given a gift of some of the best behaved and hardest working students in the whole summer school. I hear horror stories (for summer school, at least), and just can't even comprehend them because of how great my students are. They obviously have been academically abused throughout their young lives, but all things considered, I'm rather impressed. They still have a LONG way to go, but they're making great strides. I wish I could say that it was because of me, but let's be serious: when there's only 4 kids and at least 2-3 teachers, it's really audacious to do anything OTHER than be on task.

My own worst critic.

Jul 5, 2008
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Nobody likes to hear his own voice on an answering machine. Go ahead and multiply that by ten when you're talking about both audio and video on a recording. We had to watch film all the time playing football for the last decade-and-a-half of my life, but that pales in comparison to watching yourself teach for the first time on film. It was painful.

I have many idiosyncrasies, but one in particular was very obvious not only to myself in the video, but also to Mr. Alred and Mr. Cole in their evaluations of me--and they let me know it. I move. I do it all the time. I am on my feet walking all around the classroom from the time of the first bell until the dismissal one rings. Over the summer when I'm only teaching two periods or so, this isn't too bad. After all, I tend to be a louder, more authoritarian teacher. Add to that my 6'2'' 200 lb. former football player (and new coach) personality and you have a combination that makes me much more inclined to physically dominate the classroom instead of relying on my rules, procedures, consequences and rewards. That is a big problem. As both Matt and Mason have pointed out, I'm going to be so physically exhausted at the end of the day that I won't make it that way for more than the first couple weeks (especially when I'm coaching). Not only to I stay on my feet the majority of the time, when I do sit down i remain in motion. I'm not consciously nervous or anything, but I'm almost positive that it will be interpreted that way in the fall.

Another bad tendency I have has also been exacerbated by my four-student classroom; I tend to turn my back on the students (not all the time, but much more than I should). With more than four students, I would have been setting myself up for disaster about 5 times per period; however, with only four and two extra teachers in the classroom we've never had a real problem.

One thing that I started doing at the beginning of the summer that I really like is calling them by Ms.- or Mr.- Whatevertheirlastnameis. I hope it gives them the impression that I respect them and that we have to work collaboratively like we are co-workers if either of us are to be successful. I'm not sure if that's their impression or not, but oh well.

When I went back this week to review the material that was being taught in the taped period, I was amazed at how little they remembered and were able to do when given problems. I shouldn't have been. I spent way too much time listening to my own voice than making them work to learn. I know exactly why I do this, too; if I only talk the first twenty minutes and then leave the last thirty for them to work independently, then I end up answering the same questions over and over and over again to individual students rather than to the whole class. I feel like the more I say, the less I'll have to answer later when they still don't get it. The only problem with this is that I'm still doing all the work. I'll have to get much better at letting them struggle for awhile to get something. If any of you older folks have any suggestions or thoughts on this last paragraph, please let me know!

Photographs: Delta Lovin' and HSSS

Jul 2, 2008
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So... Dirty Deitz (if you don't know about the nickname, you should probably get with the program--the MVC program, that is) and I had this great idea that when we visited our district for him to sign the contract and the two of us to find a place to live, we would take a ton of pictures--pictures of Hollandale (all four stop signs), Simmons High School, the football field, Chambers Middle School, Leland, Deer Creek and our House.

The thing about this idea, was that it was a good idea...in theory. After we hit Washington County, I pretty much forgot I had a camera on me with which to take pictures. However, I was able to snap off something that is worth the proverbial 1,000 words. Well, it's more like it's worth a couple well-developed sentences, not a paragraph so much. There isn't that much to say.

Highway 61

This is the beautiful sight traveling down Hwy 61 in Washington--aka God's country. I had never considered myself a country boy (seeing that I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta), but I definitely felt more at home here than I ever did in a city. I'm sure the 2.5 hour drive will get REALLY old after making it 40+ times, but right now it's still cool.

The Big Cheese

The ride that was never really cool was riding the Big Yellow Limousine. After a hard day's work, all the MTCers pile on the school bus to head home. The weirdest part (and I'm sure best sight for all the kids) is when we all wearily dismount the bus first thing in the morning in front of all the eager onlookers. They love the little switch-a-roo we have daily, I'm sure.

I don't know it all?

Jun 26, 2008
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I really lucked out with my second year teachers in my room. I say "my room" only because I will be the only person to remain in it for the entirety of summer school--not because I have commanded the troops better than the other teachers. In all their infinite wisdom, I have managed to pick up a couple things.

1) I'm still a guy. Surprise, surprise. That's not the problem. The problem is that as a guy who has played sports his whole life, I have a tendency to alienate students, particularly females or those who aren't that into sports. My bass voice combined with my other tendency--to hover over students--generally makes them nervous and uneasy. That in itself might not be that bad for management purposes, but two things need to be kept in mind: a) if i alienate too much, the students will begin to shut up and tune me out. Then we both lose; and b) i can't rely on my authoritarian management style to dominate the class. I HAVE TO be a firm but consistent jerk when it comes to rules.

2) I need to model EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING, that I want the students to do. That includes everything from activities to how I want my answers written, to exactly how long I want a written response to be. I hated teachers who did that mainly because I knew what they were looking for and would just give it to them off the bat--no cattle prodding necessary.

3) Creativity is the FIRST thing to go when you're struggling with planning and students. The caveat? Those creative ways are usually how they learn and remember best; it's not through my voice or lecture. They loved the flip book we made for learning slope-intercept form for graphing linear equations. It took over half the period just to make the book, which meant that we only "covered the material" for about 15-20 minutes. But somehow, they seemed to do better after that than when I went over examples and materials the whole 50 minutes. Harry Wong can talk about time on task all he wants, but it had better be something that is not causing internal hemorrhaging as they work.

Willing Disciplinarian

Jun 26, 2008
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Unlike the paper-folding class, which I really wish we had done earlier, I'm glad we didn't have this assigned until midway through summer school. My reason? I felt like I could either relate to, or very easily see, everything written in the book. The size of the print, pictures, and generally 3rd grade style certainly alleviated any pains of having a reading assignment.

Everything was useful, and very easily applicable, but a few things stuck out more than others to me. They weren't necessarily discipline strategies either, though. That surprised me.

1) The decisiveness quiz was hilarious (I didn't score perfectly, but I did alright). Any time a book talks about not leaving any room for response, I think back to my days as a summer counselor at my church camp growing up. I had cabins full of 11, 12 and 13 year olds, 24 hours a day. There was no pushing them off onto someone else at the end of second period, never to see them again for another 23 hours. Pick your battles; which, in teaching, means you don't have to fight any. In fact, you shouldn't fight any. You've already won without fighting. You lose as soon as you think you have to fight back.

2) The teacher personas you should not take on. I think we all know people who have stepped into those kinds of situations. Even if they didn't go into teaching as their profession, we had friends who volunteered at a soup kitchen or something like that; they were better than you because they were "helping the less fortunate." I'm hired to teach math and coach football. That's what I'll try my very best to accomplish. If anything more happen, then it's just a bonus. There will always be someone smarter, more competent and more successful than me or you. I'm going to drill that as well.

3) Although I wasn't surprised at the chapter about developing your own persona, I wanted to reiterate that point by directing everyone to a great book on that topic. Parker Palmer's The Courage to Teach might be the quintessential book on this topic, and anyone interested should definitely read it. I might even lobby to have that as a reading assignment for next years' class.

4) I was very surprised at his "real teachers use text books" part. I, for one, hate the algebra text we use in summer school. I always thought my HS teachers were huge nerds for placing any kind of liking or judgement amount on a text book, but I can see now why they would or wouldn't. I was of Rubinstein's mindset: I can teach you from my things way better than the book can. I'm thrilled I can learn from his mistake before having to make that on my own. I will now be passing out texts in that first week of class.

5) I understand his argument that alternative route licenses into teaching are better than the traditional education major, but i have to say...My minor in education was WAY harder than that to earn, and, while I understand it was a hyperbole, I was a little offended that people who took education classes are seen that way by at least some.