Class Dismissed

A Super Awesome Week

2010-03-12T19:24:00.003-05:00

Being in a class has sapped my originality so you'll have to bear with the title. Nonetheless, I thought I'd update and mention that my prac was generally pretty awesome but more than that, this past week has been one of the more rewarding weeks of prac I've had this entire year.

I remember going into this third block thinking that being in the music department for the entire time might kill me. But it turned out that apparently, I am musically competent! This was a somewhat interesting discovery. The more interesting discovery, however, came in the form of me realizing that as a music teacher, you form a different kind of bond with your students. Part of it might have to do with the fact that music students tend to like music so your students generally enjoy being in class every day. But a part of it also had to do with this feeling of collaboration that you sometimes don't get when you're teaching other subjects.

But the real reason why I wanted to blog about my music prac is because of the particular phenomenon that turned my prac from being "pretty good" to "awesome".

See, because my associate teacher runs a junior jazz band, junior concert band, senior jazz band, and senior concert band, all during lunch and after school, he only teaches 2 periods a day. So what ended up happening was that we'd have period 1 and 4 to prep, but we'd also have to conduct during lunch and every day after school. Busy life. In the end, though, the "extra" prep period produced an unforeseen side effect.

Music kids, as a rule, dawdle after class. To the point where Mr. Walker and I had to chase them out sometimes. However, the students who had fourth period spare (it was a grade 11/12 band class) were never really in a hurry to leave. Well, it just so happened that last Friday, two such students lingered for longer than usual so I started talking to them about their futures (their plans for next year, what they wanted from life, etc). They ended up staying for about half of fourth period. No big deal, right? Happens from time to time...

Except that this week, they started hanging around on an everyday basis. Then, they were joined by more students (a number of whom I'm pretty sure did NOT have fourth period off). Long story short, by the time Thursday rolled around, what happened was that the bell would ring, these students would put their instruments away, and then stand around, looking at me expectantly like I was supposed to pull a rabbit out of my hat. In essence, for this last week, I spent at least half of my fourth period prep time conducting a "character development" seminar. Rewarding for me, rewarding for them, win-win situation (aside from the marking that I would be obliged to put off).

My final words of advice to them today:

"Try hard, do good, and remember that God is in the details."

Why we keep this blog going, despite all the chaos of school

2010-01-18T10:21:00.002-05:00

What It Takes To Become A Great Teacher by Susan Engel

Finally, young teachers need to be in serious conversation with other smart talented teachers. Most schools leave almost no time for open ended discussion about education, and most teachers have no precedent for initiating such conversations. A new teacher who makes conversation about learning and teaching a priority will be much better prepared than the one who knows four different ways to organize a lesson plan book. But this is a complex habit, and one that takes deliberate effort to acquire, and should be actively cultivated during training.

And all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade...

2010-01-17T17:15:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile since we've posted. I know, that's sorta how we preface every post. We're really sorry. But the good news is that we haven't posted because there's been such a comical amount of stuff happening that's kept us constantly busy and bewildered as we enter the "Job Hunt" phase of our year.

You see, for the first semester of Education, we were all told to focus on doing well on prac and to leave the worrying about the future until second semester. Well, second semester has officially arrived and with it, said worrying. We had a special day last week that involved a slew of school boards coming to Queen's and telling us that there were no jobs. Basically. From what I was able to absorb, the day was primarily centered around 4 things:

1. Applying to the Ontario College of Teachers
Basically, this involves paying hundreds (yes, hundreds) of dollars after we graduate in order to be granted a certificate by the OCT just to be allowed to apply for teaching jobs that don't exist.

2. There are no jobs in Ontario
See Above. Every school board presentation I went to informed me that my chances of getting a job in that particular school board were bad to even worse. Some boards like York Region tried to make us feel better about the fact that only 30% of us will get hired. Other boards tried to make us feel worse.

3. There are plenty of jobs if you're willing to work overseas
Ontario seems to have a mysterious abundance of teachers - especially those that apparently like marking English essays (we are a masochistic bunch). Teachers in other countries seem to understand that there is an improper workload-to-money ratio in this profession. This is usually offset by the understanding that the job is intrinsically rewarding and that we are making a difference in the lives of our future generation. Apparently, we are a youth-loving nation. We're also Canadian.

4. There was something else here I forgot
In its place, I'd also just like to mention that none of the above really came as surprise to any of us. But at the same time, I try not to worry too much about it. I probably should (be worrying) but I figured it's hard to predict the future and all I have control over is what I do at the faculty of Ed. and how I do while I'm on prac. So far, both ventures have proven to be fairly successful. Does that success necessarily translate into the future? Of course not. But I figured it can't hurt to hope.

Being an education is one of those careers where getting yourself to the starting line is almost as hard as the actual race itself. First, you gotta decide that you want to become a teacher and then apply to get into the program (easier if you do it through Con-Ed, though it means you have to decide early). Then you have to make it through the program without losing your desire to teach (no small matter in itself). And then in the end, if you do decide that teaching is the right profession for you, you have to get a job in an incredibly thin market.

Mom wanted a doctor in the family. But would I listen? Nooooooooooooo

Your well-being = your students' well-being

2010-01-03T00:05:00.003-05:00

This blog, as you may guess from the giant, shiny apple graphic at the top of the site (and accompanying description), is devoted exclusively to the discussion of teaching-related issues. When we mention anything about our personal lives, it's always in the context of teaching.

Naturally, this isn't the right blog to be chronicling my New Year's resolutions, right? Well, I thought about it, and I realized that any resolution or goal or decision I make in the hopes of becoming an all-around better person is not only relevant to my teaching career, but crucial to it.

Though most teachers see the year as going from September-August, it's really helpful for us to take a hint from those who follow the traditional January-December calendar and re-evaluate our lives at the outset of the new year. By doing this, we stay on top of goals that may have slipped a bit and get a handle on them before it's too late. We can also decide which September aims may not be attainable, and swap them for resolutions slightly more grounded in the real world.

It's a good idea to have several goals, each pertaining to one aspect of your life. That being said, you want to keep your list fairly small. I've seen people with upwards of 15 resolutions-- if you can't count them on one hand, you'll never attain them!

So, without further ado, my resolutions:

1. Health, Wellness & Stress Management: Go to hot yoga every Thursday night for 6 weeks. Ok, I would love to say "I'm gonna go to the gym every day for the rest of the year!" but let me tell you, that is NOT happening. I know I need to exercise to prevent my stress from overtaking me and to keep colds and flu at bay in time for the third round of practicum, but if I give myself too lofty a goal, I know I'll be back to doing diddly squat before I hit week #2. So one night a week of a fun, affordable, stress-busting activity is what I'm promising myself.

2. Personal Relationships: Wear comfortable but flattering clothes at home and on weekends. I so wish I could resolve to see all of my close friends at least once a month, or to write long, detailed emails and have phone dates that last hours-- but again, not very realistic given that I've only got 4 more months to complete my B.Ed and, you know, get hired and stuff. So I'll save my keeping in touch with friends resolution for 2011 and stick to something deceptively simple. So, my boyfriend doesn't give a rat's tail about what I wear, but I do think he might appreciate it if I let him wear his own clothes once in awhile. Instead of changing into men's baggy sweats and hoodies when I'm not teaching, I've got a cute collection of women's yoga pants and fitted sweatshirts all ready for my leisure time in 2010. Again, not something that takes much thought, but I think my boyfriend AND the old ladies we see in the grocery store will appreciate my more mature approach to casual fashion. This will be especially important once I have a job, since I will not only be seeing little old ladies at the grocery store, but students and parents as well.

3. Finances: Stick to the grocery list. I've got a pretty tight budget as I cope with some of the costs incurred by commuting last semester, so I'm trying to cut corners anywhere I can. I want to stick to my budget, obviously, but the most annoying bad money habit I have is grabbing things I don't need in the grocery store. Instead of snatching up (usually unhealthy) foods on impulse, I'm going to follow my list religiously and avoid spending too much on things I don't need. And not having to worry about money frees up a ton of energy that I can then use to create creative, original material for my lesson plans.

4. Teaching Skills and Job Acquisition: Keep in touch with important contacts. Jon has talked about this before-- as we enter the application and interview stage of our B.Ed year, we're starting to need more reference letters and phone numbers than ever before. It's always good to be able to tailor your references to the position and to use the best possible references in every situation, so I'd like to make sure I have all my mentor-ducks in a row. I'm definitely hoping that by giving them some advanced warning, I'll be better able to secure those letters in time for the deadlines.

Have you made New Year's resolutions for 2010? Have you noticed that your personal well-being (or lack thereof) affects your students? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

That's what we're here for too...

2009-12-31T20:07:00.002-05:00

"Sometimes it's hard to talk to kids, especially when they're teenagers. They're in their own world, and they don't look like they're even listening to you. But that's the time when it's most important to find a way to talk to them - not to lecture them, but to tell them things I think are important for them to know."

- Robert De Niro

Phew! Blocks One and Two Complete... Bring on the job search

2009-12-23T21:38:00.003-05:00

Wow, the past few months have been crazy hectic for me- hence the total neglect of this blog on my part. I apologize profusely for my absence, and for the lack of warning about said absence. I really thought I could keep all my metaphorical balls in the air (to use a clowning metaphor, always the best kind) but it just got too overwhelming.

Hopefully though, with a nice relaxing vacation (I have been sleeping like CRAZY, probably to make up for all those 4:30am wake-ups) and a 5-week sojourn at the Country Club on West (aka our Faculty of Education), I should be able to return to a brisk-paced blogging schedule.

I suppose the last you heard from me was in November, so I'll give a bit of an update of how the last two months went. This may be a tad on the boring side, but it'll give me a chance to work out my thoughts on my whirlwind first semester, and it might be quite helpful for those of you who have yet to enter teacher's college and are wondering what to expect.

My 3 weeks spent in Kingston in November absolutely flew by. I had a few assignments (mostly lesson plans) to complete for some of my profs, but I also had to cram in a semester's worth of doctor/dentist/optometrist, etc appointments into 3 weeks, catch up with all of my non-teacher friends, somehow arrange an alternate practicum for the spring, try to negotiate a better location and subject for Practicum Block #s 2 & 3, manage the club I founded last year, and attempt to stick to a verrrrrry limited budget so I could afford the ridiculous commuting costs for December. Are you starting to understand why I didn't blog much last month?

Then December came, and I moved all my crap back to my boyfriend's to begin another practicum block. Sadly, all my frantic negotiating with the Practicum Office and my Faculty Advisor's repeated pleas to the Social Sciences department at my host school were fruitless, so with 5 days to go until the block started, it seemed like I would be in the same ESL class with the same 2.5-hour commute as the first block. Don't get me wrong, I adored being with my first associate teacher and I learned a ton, but my first teachable is History and I really wanted to get a lot of experience with that, especially since I'd only taught English during my ConEd placements.

All was not lost, though-- my first associate teacher, upon hearing that he would have to forfeit another month's lessons to me, accosted a Social Sciences teacher in the office and peer-pressured him into taking me on for the second block of Practicum in December (I'm kidding- my first AT was incredibly generous with his classes, giving me a full schedule load by the second week and really letting me experiment with my own teaching style and giving me a lot of invaluable advice. He's a really wonderful person and a great mentor, as was my second AT. I got really lucky on that front, at least!).

Anyway, December still brought that hellish 5-hour/day commute, but at least I was teaching history at the end of it. I did a lot more observation for the second block, but I got to see quite a variety of different classes, including Civics, Politics, Ancient Civilizations, and Enriched Canadian History. I focused all of my energy into the creation of dynamic, interesting, and structured lesson plans, and that hard work really paid off in my evaluations. I also made a special point of targeting the areas for improvement that my associate teacher suggested, and was able to fine-tune several skills that will prove useful in the future. All in all, I'm quite pleased with the results of my first semester, despite all the crazy.

Looking back on my experiences, I really could have benefitted from a bit of advice that would have helped me easily avoid some of my stress. With that in mind, I'll do a Top 10 Tips-- what a great bonus to make up for months of bloggy drought!

Top 10 Tips To Avoid Going Crazy in Your First Semester of Teacher's College

1. Make all of your routine appointments before school starts. In July or August, get in to see your doctor for a physical and to renew prescriptions for as far into the future as you can. This is especially important if you're moving back and forth between cities like I do, but even if you're staying in one place, having your health and wellness taken care of is a huge stress-relief. Same goes for the dentist, optometrist, pharmacist, etc.

2. Do a Costco run before school starts. It is just such a pain to have to go all the way to the drugstore just because you didn't stock up on Q-Tips or shampoo. Trust me, when November comes, you don't want to waste time on this sort of thing.

3. Create a filing system ahead of time. I collected a whole bunch of resources, forms, spare photocopies, etc from both of my practicum blocks, but all I had time to do was to throw on some paper clips and stash them in a bookshelf. If you get yourself a box of hanging folders in September and label them according to subject or category (i.e., lesson plans, parental contact, interview tips), you'll be far less scattered and far more prepared when you take on your own classes in the future.

4. Make a list of goals for all aspects of your life. You don't have to list more than 5 or 6 goals, but if you have an idea of what you want to accomplish, you'll be able to prioritize better and not fall behind on things that are really important to you. Obviously, doing your absolute best in your practica should be goal #1, but look at the other things you do and decide what to jettison if things get too hectic.

5. Sit your friends down and explain how busy your year will be. Since you have limited time during big chunks of the semester, try to emphasize quality friend time like going for a chat over coffee or a quiet dinner instead of clubbing or a movie. Explain to your friends that you love them and you enjoy spending time with them, but that you can't just take off to hang out with them after school when you feel like it. If you do this ahead of time, you'll hopefully head off the hurt feelings about being abandoned or ignored and they'll be more likely to arrange their schedules around yours. As a bonus, they'll be ready and willing to help you out in a pinch if you need an emergency printer or drive to the grocery store since they know you're so stressed. Remember, though-- this year isn't an excuse to be a bad friend, just one that is temporarily not quite as attentive as usual. If you schedule in advance and know when to drop everything for someone you love (that marking can wait if your bestie just got dumped), you'll do fine.

6. Beg for care packages. Nothing brightens up a miserable week of essay-marking like a batch of Grandma's cookies or some quirky socks from Mom. My mom does this on a regular basis because my parents live far away, but even if you're in the same province, a care package can really brighten your day.

7. Budget carefully. The reality of life as an aspiring teacher is that costs can spring up out of nowhere, there isn't much opportunity for a part-time job, and a real full-time job once you graduate might be hard to come by. With that in mind, give yourself ample wiggle room while budgeting for your B.Ed year. My advice would be to plan your year's living costs into June, instead of stopping the school year's budget at the end of April. You also can't assume you'll get a convenient placement, so include possible rental or transport costs. I managed to be incredibly frugal in November, but that was pretty much cancelled out by $500+ for transportation costs in December.

8. Tape your favourite TV shows and save them for the weekend. Television can be really helpful to help you decompress after a tough day, but make sure you don't get carried away. When I got home from my intense commute and busy day, it was incredibly tempting to just veg out in front of the TV and spend all evening watching the shows I love. Before I knew it, though, it would be time to go to bed and I had wasted all my time zoning out on the couch instead of making my lunch, washing my hair, taking the dog for a walk, etc. I would have been better served catching Jeopardy over dinner (kind of a ritual for me and my boyfriend) and then turning the TV off and saving all my weekly shows for a fun weekend marathon.

9. Work out a chore routine with your housemate(s) or significant other. My boyfriend was SO incredibly wonderful with me this semester. He deserves a medal, he really does-- a Nobel Prize in tolerance. He generously suggested that since I was taking on such a ridiculous commute, he would make dinner for me every night when I got home (I know, right? He's awesome). This gesture really helped my sanity, but after awhile it became obvious that the arrangement wasn't really working. Though I pitched in on the weekends, from Monday to Thursday he felt like a servant (he didn't say as much, but I know he did). I was so over-extended that I didn't notice his resentment and frustration for far too long. If you want to avoid this situation (and you do), my best suggestion is to take on an equal share of all the chores. Instead of my boyfriend making dinner every night, he would start cooking the meal while I changed and told him about my day, then I would pitch in and make the salad, set the table, pour the drinks, etc. Once we stopped putting all the responsibility of certain chores on one person at a time, we both felt more supported and less stressed.

10. Keep an agenda and/or a teaching journal. Random brilliant ideas strike me at the weirdest times, and now I have a huge collection of post-its, looseleaf paper, napkins and notes on my laptop to collect and put into one big document that I can refer to for teaching inspiration. As well, keeping a planner or journal will be very helpful for scheduling in all of your responsibilities so you can get everything done. And make sure you really use some of those brilliant ideas!

There, I think I wrote enough tonight to almost make up for a month's worth of silence! Hopefully it's not too overwhelming to read. Oh, one last thing-- I got an incredible early Christmas gift from my sister, a book that I can't recommend enough. It's called See Me After Class: Advice For Teachers By Teachers, by Roxanna Elden. It. is. PHENOMENAL. I'm only 20 pages in and I've already picked up dozens of helpful tips, most of which I would never have thought of myself. She touches on issues in every grade level, so this is perfect for anyone in Education.

A (Gross) Lesson

2009-12-22T20:27:00.003-05:00

This is kinda gross but I couldn't resist posting about it...

So over the course of prac, I got sick. This should come as no surprise to anyone since it's a well known fact that our bodies are generally ill-prepared for all the germs that run rampant throughout the schools. I'm still a little sick, actually, but that is neither here nor there.

Well, most people will be able to tell you that as you near the tail-end of the common cold, you get to that period where your sinuses are all congested and your nose feels blocked even though nothing comes out when you blow into a tissue. This stage in the process tends to irritate me to no end and this time was no exception. I mean seriously, is it not supremely frustrating to blow your nose and get nothing but still be congested?

Suddenly, I had a thought. A few months ago, during my singing lessons, I was taught (when I sing) to breathe from the diaphragm and then, rather than sing outwards through my mouth, sing upwards, through my head, and then out my mouth. It sounds very theoretical until you put it into practice but it does work remarkably well at adding resonance to your voice. And I thought, "I wonder if that theory could work for nose-blowing as well?" So I tried it. I took a deep breath from the diaphragm and blew upwards into my head (and presumably through my clogged sinuses) and then out... and lo and behold! It works! I cleared my sinuses (temporarily at least).

I told you it was kinda gross. But it's also kinda funny. And it *does* work...

ratemyteachers.com

2009-12-13T20:37:00.003-05:00

I took some time this afternoon to browse around the site, ratemyteachers.com, more out of curiosity than anything else. I imagine that some of us might eventually find our way onto that website sooner or later so I thought I'd check it out and see if there was any real validity to the site.

As a teacher-in-training, I figured that I would have a rather insurmountable bias by looking up teachers working at King City Secondary school; ergo, I decided to do a quick survey of the teachers I had when I was in high school and see what some of the results were. Now, before you read this, keep in mind that I can be incredibly elitist about my opinions when it comes to comparing myself to the "general public". It's not so much that I think that the general public is always wrong so much as it is that when pitted against an individual, anonymous, opinion that contradicts my own I have a tendency to assume that this individual doesn't know what he/she is talking about. In my defense, however, I do think that the "general public" as whole unit usually winds up with the correct overall opinion unless there are mitigating circumstances.

One of these mitigating circumstances, where ratemyteachers.com is concerned, is that the ratings are divided into 3 categories (which are then averaged out to an overall rating per teacher). One of these 3 categories is "Average Easiness" which I assume relates to whether or not the teacher is a "hard marker". The problem with this category is that it really should be called "Fairness" rather than "Average Easiness." Why? Because "Average Easiness" tends to devolve into "Will this teacher let me get away with not answering the question and bullshitting the answer," which doesn't exactly seem to be the right question; or at least, it doesn't seem to work on the correct scale.

This is what I noticed about many of the ratings for my old high school teachers - that their overall rating was pulled down because the rating in the category of "Average Easiness" was pulled down... and I'm sure (having been a student in these teachers' classes) that THIS happened because these were teachers that wouldn't let you get away with not knowing your stuff or BS-ing your answers. There's no reason they should be penalized for this as teachers but many students seem to live in this egocentric world of self-importance and self-privilege where a teacher that gives them bad marks is a bad teacher, even if these marks are entirely justified.

I looked at some of the comments for some of the teachers who got really high ratings in "Average Easiness" and came across many that said something like "Such an e-z marker! I was such a shitty student and still got an A- lolololololol!!!"

Yeah ok... cause that's the best indicator of a good teacher...

P.D. Day

2009-12-06T21:42:00.004-05:00

I attended my first ever "Professional Development Day" last Friday. I must say, it was not like I expected it to be. But then again, my preconceived notions were founded upon absolutely nothing one could call a reliable source (meaning, they were founded upon what my imagination conjured up). I thought we were all going to arrive at school and play trust games where we fell into each arms and such similar things! So disappointed to find that that wasn't the case. Instead, we had 2 hour assembly in the morning - one that was thankfully made far more bearable due to an interesting guest speaker - followed by a few workshops.

It was weird being at a P.D. Day. Having attended a staff meeting during my previous block (teachers make the worst students), the assembly part did not strike me as being too odd. The workshops, on the other hand, felt odd. Now, that's not to say that they were not helpful. In fact, one of my workshops was pretty cool (it was about a grade 12U culminating media project). But it just... felt really weird to be sitting in classroom with people who were not my age. I mean, staff meetings are staff meetings, but to actually sit in a standard sized class and listen to a presentation/lecture is just not the same when the "students" are years ahead of you in age and seniority.

All in all, though, it was not a bad experience. Better than I thought it'd be, realistically speaking (I figured it wouldn't just be fun and games, even though that's what I hoped it would be).

A Fleeting Glimpse Into the Mind of a Student

2009-11-28T15:41:00.003-05:00

I thought I'd mention something I experienced yesterday. I was talking to some of my students about university and I mentioned something about the amount of effort you have to put into your work in order to succeed. One of my students piped up, "Yeah well, I'm just not trying very hard right now. Once [If] I get into university, I'll probably start trying a lot harder because then it's like my parents are PAYING for me to be there."

Well, that's not so surprising I guess. The downsides to a publicly funded education system.

The Ins and Outs of Our Subjects

2009-11-22T21:05:00.005-05:00

We talked in class the other day about breaking down English sentences to their constituent parts (i.e. subject, predicate, etc... basically grammar stuff) and how practically every sentence in the English language is built the same way. It was actually pretty cool. I won't get into the details of it here because it's long, complicated, and took us 2 classes to fully understand, but suffice to say, it was informative, to say the least.

Somebody put their hand up in class and asked about why it's important for us to know about how our sentence structure breaks down since realistically, no one's ever going to walk up to you and insist that you explain to them where you draw the line between a subject and the predicate. I thought I'd write a bit about my take on the matter.

Kate (see: awesome vocal teacher) likened English grammar to Music theory. And in a lot of ways, I think it's a very apt comparison. We study music theory because we understand that there are certain ways we hear sound and there are certain tendencies we expect when we hear music. Music theory helps you understand that there's a reason why a 4th scale degree almost always wants to move down to a 3rd scale degree; why a II chord almost always resolves to a V chord; why parallel fifths tend to make people with any kind of music sensitivity cringe. In the same way, English grammar helps you understand why almost every sentence in the English language is constructed using a fairly consistent way. In a lot of ways, we don't even realize that we've been conditioned to do all this. But if someone were to construct a sentence in a convoluted way, we notice it because it doesn't conform to what we've come to expect from every sentence ever constructed.

On some level, it's an elitist way of thinking. I once went on a long rant about how the song Fireflies by Owl City irks me SO much because they don't resolve their chords properly. For those of you who are interested/those of you who understand music theory, there is a leading tone - a LEADING tone of all things! - that resolves DOWN to the 6th instead of up to the 8ve. It makes me cringe just to hear it. But I've spoken to a variety of other people (non-music people), who don't seem to be bothered by it. And I always have to resist the urge to respond in some sarcastic, elitist fashion about how they're the reason why so much garbage is churned out by popular radio on a daily basis at the expense of my poor ears.

So you may be asking, is it really problematic if it only bothers those who have studied the subject? Well, the response I give to English teachers is this: music notes that don't resolve are similar to people making spelling errors. And lo and behold, suddenly, it's not something to scoff at anymore. English students tend to get highly annoyed by spelling/grammar errors, even if those errors don't detract from our overall ability to understand the message being conveyed. Why? Because English students understand that there are certain rules we're simply supposed to follow when we USE the English language. As a principle, you're supposed to spell your words correctly. That's a given right? Well, the same thing applies to tonal tendencies.

On top of everything, if you STUDY the subject, very often, you'll realize that there's a REASON why we do things a certain way. Resolving notes isn't simply an arbitrary process; neither is sentence construction. They almost always make our lives easier, whether it is psychologically, or practically. You might not think so when you're actually forcing yourself to apply these rules, but the rules are there to make things easier for you, not harder. Without these rules, you wouldn't even be able to read what I'm writing; nor could I be expected to write in such a way that you would understand.

In a lot of ways, it speaks to our fundamental tendency to connect with other human beings. We put systems in place so that we have a common ground off which we can build mutual understanding. Because if you didn't care about other people understanding what you say, sure, you can invent your own grammar and sentence structure if it makes life easier for you. And maybe, if you really wanted, you could teach other people your own rules. But eventually, your ability to touch others stops; your own personal influence can only carry you so far before you need your product (be it music, words, writing, whatnot) to speak for itself.

And for the records, I guarantee you that Owl City, despite being hugely popular now, will not be a band that people will look back upon when they think "the turn of the decade". There's just no way. Not if they don't resolve their chords.

For the record, I actually really like the Owl City album. Garbage lyrics and non-resolved-chords be damned.

On motivating students

2009-11-15T22:47:00.002-05:00

Last month, I began my placement using reasoning that I believed would motivate kids outside of what they had to do for marks. I told them that e.e. cummings’ “i carry your heart with me” could win them any love interest; I told them that their Twitter musings were poetic and that their Facebook profiles were really character profiles of themselves. What I learned in my practicum was that while the above would win over some of the most skeptical of Canadian students, these particular ESL students just didn’t care about those abstractions—they cared about getting marks. To them, a Facebook page would never get them into university, and they had a very difficult time connecting to material that wouldn’t help them get 95%.

The fact that I modified the motivation I gave them does not mean that I believe they are correct in being disdainful or what they see as abstractions; far from it. I will still mention the importance and relevance of the material in English classes to the outside world. However, after all of my careful crafting of interesting, creative activities to test comprehension, to my chagrin, the kids reveled in being given a quiz. So I decided that instead of fighting them, I would continue to give them activities that tested more than their skills at memorization, but remind them that learning and practicing the (to them) less traditional ways of showing their knowledge and understanding of a book would still get them marks and help them in university.

I suppose over the course of my practica in undergrad I got the idea that every lesson had to be wildly creative and fascinating to my students; that everything the students learned had to connect to them on a completely personal level. In that process, I forgot what it felt to be in grade 12, panicking about being accepted into my program and university of choice. These students do look to the teacher to tell them what skills and knowledge will help as they enter the world of academia, so I have begun to give them concrete, detailed reasons as to why they should learn what I teach instead of why they would want to learn it.

In reality, the students were motivated to learn the specific expectations I was teaching them(in one particular case, how to debate) because they knew that they would have to actually use those skills in a summative assignment the week after, and because they knew that in university, they would often be called upon to substantiate their answers in class and come up with rebuttals to their classmates' points. The kids really responded to that and worked very hard on the assignments I gave them. I did still mention, however, that my friends and I enjoyed many hours spent debating and discussing issues that had come up in class or in the reading of a newspaper article, and that with these skills, they might do the same (and perhaps already did). So in the end I integrated some parts of my former teaching philosophy with my newfound method of motivation.

What is Poetry?

2009-11-04T19:58:00.000-05:00

My friend Christian once wrote this:

"I truly think that learning to write at least half-decent poetry is a major step toward writing excellent prose. You can write good prose without being able to write poetry, and you can likely get toward excellent without it, but I can assure you that being able to write poetry hugely improves your ability in prose."

He didn't really explicate this statement at the time but I recently discovered why this was so. It came about partly because I was writing my own poetry and partly because I was teaching a poetry unit to my class. They had just finished learning about short stories in the unit before so I thought I would tie my poetry unit into that one by turning a poem/ballad into a short story. Thus, I took the song, Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars and spent an entire weekend turning the lyrics from that song into a short story and when I finished, I sat back and looked at the short story I produced.

Now, I'm a fairly concise writer. But I looked at the short story I generated from the song lyrics and thought to myself, "It is amazing that the lyrics to Your Ex-Lover Is Dead can encapsulate, in 3 short verses something that took me 3 pages to write out in short-story format." And then it hit me...

This is why poetry is so important to writing good prose. To quote Coleridge, poetry is "the best words in their best order". I realized this when I was writing my own poetry - in order to produce GOOD poetry, you have to work to ensure that every word is perfect and that the order in which they come is perfect as well. It forces you to come up with the best possible combination of the best possible words. And of course, this is a skill that is essential to writing truly excellent prose. In a sense, you have to put yourself in the same mindset of writing poetry in order to write great prose - something that is easy to neglect because there appears to be less pressure to ensure that every word is perfect in prose.

Prose lets you get away with some things that you wouldn't be able to get away with when you write poetry. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But put it this way. When I write prose, sometimes I write about the environment and the atmosphere of whatever setting about which I am writing. I take the time convey to the reader what my characters are feeling and I explain the circumstances that have led up to the event in question before the "action" starts happening. And because I'm writing prose, I have every right to do this. But poetry - poetry is the ability to write in such a way that all the things I mentioned above are implicit and indicated in the way the "action" unfolds. In order to do that, your words and how they appear have to be perfect and nuanced.

This, I believe, is why writing good poetry is essential to writing great prose. See, you never stop learning as a writer.

On relating to teens and their music

2009-11-02T14:25:00.002-05:00

"Popular music has an emotional-intelligence quotient that's geared much toward younger people. It's all about [he flattens his voice to a disaffected teen monotone] 'You left me. Why did you leave me? I still love you. I tried so hard to stop loving you.' And it's like, well, I relate to that, I just don't want to think about that. When you're younger, you want to wallow in it. When you get older, you still love the person, and wonder why they don't love you. You just have other things to do."

— Alec Baldwin.

Practicum Wrap-up

2009-10-31T21:11:00.002-04:00

We're really REALLY sorry, by the way, about our lack of posting. Personally, my computer had been eaten alive by a virus for the past few days and I know that Courtney has a comical 5-hour commute. Not that that excuses us (or me at least) but such is life.

But anyhow! I am safely ensconced in my room at Kingston and I just thought I'd let the blogging world know that I'm alive. Overall, the practicum experience was pretty good. It did involve a ridiculous amount of work and I think that is a large part of the reason why teachers get so irked by students who don't pay attention in class. It's like, "I worked for hours on end to design this lesson in an interesting, clear and relevant fashion - you had damn well better pay attention!"

One thing I learn, though, was that the students really do appreciate the hard work you put into your lessons. They don't seem like they do, but I think in the end, they do appreciate what you do. One of the most important rules of being a teacher (I think) is to always remember that no matter what students say about how bored they are or how much "this sucks," they never mean it personally. As teachers, there's a tendency to take it as an attack against you, but I started to realize that it rarely is - especially if they're the kind of students that gripe about everything. And from what I've heard from all the other teacher candidates at my school, most of our students didn't want us to leave. That, in my opinion, is a HUGE compliment.

I had a chance to speak to a substitute teacher during my prac. She told me that she's been a substitute teacher all her life because she's actively chosen not to pursue teaching as a full time career (in the sense of being one teacher at one school). And she said one of the most interesting things about being a substitute teacher is that you always get a chance to gauge your performance based on your students' reaction to your departure. As a full time teacher, your students are the ones who leave you at the end of the year. As a substitute teacher, you leave your students. I never thought about it that way before, but it's an interesting viewpoint, I think.

Finally, I thought I'd leave you all off with a version of what I said to my grade 12 philosophy class on my last day. We had been studying the chapter on ethics. And I summed up my block with this:

I want to say something about “morality,” as it stands, before I head back to Queen’s.

Up until a few years ago, I wasn’t exactly sure about what the difference was between morality and ethics. I mean, like you guys, I recognized that there was a difference – but I didn’t quite know in what way.

We all kinda agree that ethics refers to “right vs. wrong” or “good vs. bad,” right? And Kant created this third qualification that had to do with leading a “good life”. And then we get into the whole issue of what a “good life” means. To some people, it means to experience a great amount of pleasure. To some people, it means living by great principles – Gandhi for instance, we would say led a good life… hardly pleasurable but he DID good.

And so, I realized something during my years at university about the nature of morality or what it means to have or demonstrate moral strength. And to some extent, morality DOES overlap with ethics. There are certain ethical principles that we might consider universally important. But more than that, I realized that moral strength isn’t just about doing “the right thing” as it is defined universally; it also has to do with recognizing what’s important to you… and this might change depending on who you are, but at the end of the day, we all need something to stand for.

University has taught me that the saying, “if you don't stand for something or you will fall for anything” is true in a lot of ways. And if you take nothing else away from my segment of “Ethics,” take this. To be able to recognize and strive for the things in life that are important to you, without forgetting to be compassionate, tolerant, and open-minded along the way… that’s what moral strength is all about.

Academic vs. Applied

2009-10-18T18:13:00.003-04:00

Over the course of the last week, I think I've identified one of the major components that separate the students in the academic stream from the applied stream. I mean, the typical answer one might give to such a question is, "Academic students produce better work than applied students". And yeah, at the end of the day, that is the final measure of their difference. However, I gave some thought to exactly why this occurred on a more fundamental level. Why do academic students produce better work than applied students?

Now, I've always been very iffy about chalking it up to pure intellectual aptitude. That's not to say that I'm not prepared to admit that academic students think at a higher level, but the curriculum is SUPPOSED to cater to that by default. What I mean when I say that is, when you read the ministry guidelines, the academic version of, say, grade 10 English expects more from the students than the applied version. Thus, an applied class is already operating under "reduced" expectations, compared to the academic class. Where the academic stream might require you to understand a concept and then connect it to a broader issue, the applied stream would only require you to understand the concept. If this is true, then the quality of work in an applied class, relative to the expectations, shouldn't be that different than its academic counterpart.

Clearly, though, this isn't true. So there's something else. And I think it boils down to pure and simple effort. I came to realize that students in the applied stream do not try as hard as students in the academic stream. Regardless of the quality of the work they may or may not produce if they actually put their mind to it, the first difference between applied and academic students starts with the fact that the applied students don't always put in that effort. So I thought more about this - about why this might be true - and came to this hypothesis:

Academic students are better able to think long term. Because when you think about why we did what we did in school (since most of us are academic students), it was always about long term benefits. We studied because we wanted to get a good grade. And we wanted to get a good grade because we knew that somehow - even if we weren't completely sure exactly how - it would benefit us in the future. We recognized that not doing well in school was a bad thing, not because it was detrimental to our IMMEDIATE lives - after all, we were pretty sure our parents would feed us and house us regardless of how well we did (some of us at least) - but because we knew it would be detrimental to our future.

This doesn't just apply to the simple drive to do well in class. It also contributed to our ability to understand WHY we studied what we studied. For example, I can tell an academic class that aside from "getting a good grade," it's important to be able to write well because they'll need these writing skills for cover letters, resumes, and written applications, and they will be able to accept that as a reason to write well. I can relate a theme or idea presented in a novel or a short story to a fundamentally important principle like respect, compassion, and open-mindedness, and they will recognize how these principles might be important in the future - even in the immediate future.

Applied students, in my experience, don't think long-term in quite the same way. They tend to be very now-centered. Anything that doesn't affect them in that precise instant, they have a greater tendency to discard as either impractical or something that they'll learn "when they get there". And when you ask them, "but why not just learn it now?" they'll say, "Because I don't need to know it now." And from their point of view, that makes perfect sense. I mean, why learn something now if you don't need it now? Who's to say that we'll definitely need to know it in the future. And even if you were to prove, conclusively, that they'll need to know it in the future, you can still run into a brick wall because the mere fact that it will occur in the future means that it's not important to them at this immediate time.

So there are two basic things I've found that work in an applied class. Material either has to gratify immediately, or it has to be entertaining. The problem is that not everything can be immediately gratifying and entertaining. I mean, this is SCHOOL after all. If it were possible to make every second of every class immediately gratifying and entertaining to every student, we wouldn't have applied classes.

One caveat I've always considered when I teach an applied class is whether or not it would be a different story if it were MY class. Because when you're a student teacher, it almost feels like you're a guest in somebody else's class. That class already has its set way of doing things; students have already formed set impressions about school and work; and you're following somebody else's annual plan. I won't truly know the answer until I actually have my own applied class but for now, these are my thoughts on the nature of the applied class.

Bursting Bubbles

2009-10-16T18:36:00.002-04:00

Psychologically, something has happened in terms of the way I feel about being on prac. And up until today, I was having trouble making sense of it. But I think it makes sense now thanks to some clarifying discussion with a friend.

As an ex-Con-Ed student, prac was always something I did from May to June. I mean, there were many ways you could have gone about getting your prac done but it made the most sense for me to do it after the university school year. And because of this, prac has always felt like... an extra-curricular of sorts. Right? Because I'd go to Queen's, be a student for 8 monthes, and then after the year was done, I'd turn my attention to prac - in a lot of ways, it was just the first part of my summer job (minus the pay). Now, I'm seeing it a little differently.

Now, prac is actually part of my school year. Instead of being something I did "after school," prac IS school (in more ways than one). And leaving aside how much this has made me miss being at Queen's, the experience of being in schools has taken on a radically different meaning. As my friend Pearl succinctly said, in years past, prac was something I did as a step towards completing my program whereas now, while it's still something I'm doing as a step towards completing a program, it's far more of a step towards the real world.

I never realized how true this was until now - that in years past, I was a student, first and foremost, and prac was something I did in preparation for the future. And for some reason, that made it seem like something I was doing because I was choosing to be responsible (i.e. preparing for my future), not because it was something I NEEDED to do in order to cater to the present (which at the time, was simply being a student). Now that teaching is something I NEED to do, because it takes on immediate significance, it's morphed; in my mind at least, it has.

I was never very good at taking a huge amount of pride in something I HAD to do. Some people have disagreed with me on this before. They tell me that even if you HAVE to do something, you can still take pride in doing it well. While I understand why people feel this way, I don't know that I necessarily do. I always felt that if you have to do something, there is an implicit understanding that it meant you had to do it well. I've only ever felt a truly positive reaction from doing something by choice.

What this has all amounted to is me realizing that I might lose my love for teaching once it becomes a necessary component of my life. Now, that doesn't mean I won't be able to be a good teacher. After all, as I said above, I feel that even a necessary component of my life is worth doing well. But that means that I'm being a good teacher on a principle (that if you're going to be a teacher, you have an obligation to be a good one) not on an innate love for the profession itself. That in itself opens up a whole new problem. In some ways, I had always counted on teaching as being a driving force behind why I do what I do. In other words, it gave meaning to my life. What if I find out that teaching can't do that for me? And I end up in some Zach Braff-like state of Garden-State-esq existence? Like he says, at the end of the film,

So what do we do? What do we do?

A Note on Teaching African-American History and Culture to Canadian ESL Students

2009-10-14T21:18:00.000-04:00

My lessons all went fabulously well today. I got everything done in good time and I felt very comfortable teaching. I’m currently up to teaching 3 classes a day regularly, and while it still feels daunting, I’ve learned that it is manageable. My habit of planning more than one 75-period can handle comes in handy, because now I’ve always got something already planned to use for the next day. It can be a good thing to structure lessons like this on purpose if it curbs your stress level, as long as the students are still getting a balanced, logically-structured class.

In my afternoon classes, we are beginning the study of A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. The book is about a teacher in 1940s Louisiana, who is charged with the responsibility of preparing a fellow black man to be unjustly executed. It’s a very moving novel, rife with ideas about racism in the American South.

To understand those important ideas, a reader needs to have some sort of background on African-American history and culture. As recent immigrants to Canada, my students are unfamiliar with many of the events and people in history who have shaped the Black identity in the United States. It was (and is) my job to make sure they begin to understand what it might have been like to live the way the characters in the novel do.

I began with a brainstorming session to assess what my students already knew about African-American culture. This is a really good activity for ESL students, because it shows you what background they have in a subject coming into a lesson, and it helps them visualize the ideas you’re discussing. As well, the shyer students know they won’t be judged and are thus more likely to speak up.

Our brainstorming sessions resulted in answers such as racism, President Obama, human rights, slavery, torture, hip-hop/rap, and discrimination. All of the terms brought up issues we will be exploring in the coming weeks, and I was able to address most of them almost immediately. It also showed me that the kids had some idea of what being African-American meant, which I will be building on for the rest of the unit. Remembering the ideas brought up in the brainstorming session is helpful when planning the rest of your lessons, since it builds on your students’ pre-existing knowledge—classic scaffolding a la Vygotsky!

After brainstorming, I handed out a timeline that my associate teacher had prepared in a previous year, and we went over it together in class. I made frequent reference to concepts that the kids had studied before (we recently read a poem about the segregation of Chinese-Canadians on trains, so that helped) and did by best History-teacher bringing events to life schpiel. If I had to do it again, I would show them a video on Black History. It’s much more exciting to see the pictures and video than to listen to the teacher talk, and the issue would have automatically become more vivid for them. A potential problem with a video is their comprehension rate—I do try to speak slower than usual, so a video might be too fast. But nonetheless, I think the video would be more powerful. Even if a few terms were missed, the images would speak for themselves.

Tomorrow we’re going to go over terms and discuss the use of language in the novel (the n-word is used fairly frequently, plus the author uses phonetic spelling for black Louisiana accents). I think I’ll spend part of tonight trying to track down a comprehensive video about African-American history. If I find something I like, I’ll show it in class tomorrow to enhance my descriptions.

Got any good African-American History resources? Share ‘em!

Updates on Prac: Unit Planning and Teaching for ESL

2009-10-14T21:15:00.001-04:00

We've reached one of our first milestones of being a student teacher-- having an overly optimistic bubble burst. Namely, that we'd be happily blogging away about new information every night, or at least twice a week. We figured even in the stressiest of times, we'd still manage to eke out a few scattered lines about this or that educational theory.

Turns out that doesn't happen so much. Instead, I sit here on the bus home, laptop sliding all over the place, trying to write an update on my life with only 12 minutes of battery left. So real life doesn't exactly go according to plan-- a good lesson to learn early!

I'm feeling a lot better about my lessons now that I'm beginning my unit. I've broken down my classes into more manageable parts (for the students and me). I'm including time for reading in class, since we're sort of racing through a book in less than 3 weeks. I'm including a lot of group work and fun(ish) comprehension activities so I don't feel like I'm quizzing them into oblivion. I'm sure they'll appreciate that.

The group work and individual activities are crucial for an ESL class. My associate teacher has a great relationship with his students and is able to have mostly conversational-style lectures, but he's an anomaly. I need to focus on tailoring my lessons to students with a strong, but not perfect grasp on the English language.

On Thursday, my prof is coming to sit in on one of my classes, so I'm gearing up to make the lesson extra-thorough for him. I've also got a formative assessment on Friday, where my associate teacher and I both evaluate how I'm doing so far.

Overall, I'm learning a lot and I'm enjoying being able to learn and experiment with my teaching strategies. I'm still not sure whether I'll have an ESL practicum again in the second and third blocks, so I'm going to take advantage of this experience while I can.

Anyone have any tips for ESL teachers? My students are transitioning into an Academic English class next semester, but they still have challenges with learning in English.

More reflection on prac

2009-10-09T11:38:00.000-04:00

Something’s not clicking with my teaching, and I’m not sure what. I certainly don’t know how to fix it.

I’ve thought of myself as a teacher for such a long time; I’ve always gotten positive feedback from teachers, students and profs, and I’ve never found lesson planning or execution all that difficult.

Nothing’s changed, really, except the feeling I have when I finish teaching. It jut doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel like a success.

Admitedly, today’s two lessons both came up short on time, leaving me with a game as filler. I wasn’t unprepared for the possibility of extra time, but it still looks a little dodgy when you’re starting a game with 10 minutes left in class.

The fact that I was left with all this time is a little baffling, since I was initially worried that I wouldn’t have enough time. I had so many interesting activities and things to discuss that I rushed through them and ended up going faster than I should have.

I also think I may be planning too much and relying too much on my lesson. My associate teacher just sort of walks in and does his thing, and it works perfectly for him. He has way more structure than I do, and he usually decides what he’ll teach on the spot. Of course, he has a unit plan, while so far I’ve just been teaching filler lessons while my associate teacher marks papers or goes to meetings.

I think another problem with my lessons is that I’m using the same techniques that have worked so well with the kids I’ve taught before. ESL is a completely different medium of teaching, one I’m beginning to be familiar with, but one that I certainly haven’t fully figured out yet. I lecture too much, but then I try to have discussions and it just doesn’t take off the way it would in another class. I’ll be shifting towards more visuals as much as I can, but I also have to be careful about group work, because these classes have the tendency to get out of hand easily.

It’s not all bad, though. My goal for this lesson was to have one or two kids leave the room with a real sense of how beautiful poetry can be, and how their own thoughts and experiences ultimately determine what the poem means to them—and I did that for at least four or five kids. While it’s great to have that handful of kids in the class who thrive off the things you’re teaching and how you teach them, sometimes those other blank (or sleeping) faces overpower the memory of the few students who really got it.

I’m not trying to be too hard with myself; I’m trying to get a better perspective on the skills and strategies on which I can improve. I’m starting a full 3-week unit on Tuesday (since Monday is a day off for Thanksgiving here in Canada), and I want it to benefit from these practice lessons. I’ll have a nice long session with my associate teacher, pick up some specific things to work on, and hopefully become more confident that I’m going in the right direction.

I know we’ve all had (or are currently having) some setbacks in the realm of teaching—share with us in the comments!

Re: First Impressions - The Prac Edition

2009-10-07T20:15:00.002-04:00

Well, my ridiculous commute put me through the wringer in a big way the past two days, but things are finally starting to get ironed out now. As of today, I'm proud to say that I didn't return home wanting to collapse in a puddle of exhaustion! Thank heavens for small victories.

I've started leading extended activities, marking presentations and doing one-on-one essay help already, but tomorrow will be my first full official classes as a teacher candidate. I'm teaching a lesson on poetry analysis, specifically looking at e.e. cummings, and I couldn't be more excited about it. e.e. cummings is real, rich poetry, the kind of poetry that makes you cry and makes you appreciate all other poems, and I want the kids to see that. My only goal for this lesson (it's actually two sections of the same class, which is helpful for honing my skills and strategies) is for my ESL students to leave the room feeling that poetry matters, that someone out there took the crazy, confusing, impossible feelings they feel every day and turned them into something beautiful.

I'm got some good creative activities and I'm working around their reluctance to participate in class discussions by giving them time to write down their thoughts before they have to share them, so we'll see how that works tomorrow. I do find that I'm my own harshest critic when it comes to teaching, but I also think that by identifying my mistakes I can learn from them right away and modify my teaching. When you have the same course two periods in a row, learning from your mistakes becomes very convenient!

I did initially feel like my prac was just a repeat of being in a ConEd placement, but that feeling is fading as I'm getting more responsibility. I also wish I could stay a bit longer in the afternoons and come in earlier in the mornings, but alas, I'm bound by the bus schedules. I definitely could not survive this month without my wonderful boyfriend and his support, coffee-making, dinner-cooking, etc etc.

It does look like there's a possibility that I might be at another school for my second and third blocks, since History is my main teachable and apparently there may not be anyone willing to take me on at my current school. That's another game of wait and see, I suppose. On the one hand, I would loooove to be somewhere closer to home; on the other hand, I really like my school, my associate teacher, and the ESL program-- and the ESL experience is what will really make or break the job hunt.

Anyway, those are the crazy things that have occurred in the last three days! In the next three weeks I'll be teaching a unit on Fast Food Nation, which should yield some really fun resources and activities.

First Impressions - The Prac Edition

2009-10-05T18:14:00.002-04:00

I was supposed to leave the house at 7:15 this morning. I woke up at 7:30. A rather dubious start to what amounts to be a rather important segment of my professional career. Fortunately, I still managed to get to school 20 minutes before the bell rang so there's "the first glitch" ticked off my "things that will inevitably happen to the best of us" list.

As with every school I've taught at, the first day has made me extremely tired due to the large intake of new information. We also coincidentally had a staff meeting after school so the day was prolonged even further than one might expect. The good news is that I've pretty much got my English plan laid out: I'm teaching the entire poetry block this round, followed by Lord of the Flies in November/December. I'm probably going to sprinkle in some grade 12 philosophy here and there. Music, apparently, will have to wait until the winter term so this means I won't be doing my third block in a grade 7/8 class. Slightly disappointing but something I can live with.

I also never really know exactly how much we're supposed to do during the times when our host teacher is conducting a lesson. I usually stick to the "just sit on the side and observe" tactic because I worry that I might cramp his/her style if I say anything. This also usually means that when it comes time for me to teach my lessons, my host teachers tend to stay off to the side as well. At the same time, I then worry that I should be doing something useful with myself. I mean, I am doing something useful: I'm following the lesson because I want to ensure that I understand what I can expect from my students as far as prior knowledge when it comes time for me to teach. But that's not really observable. So far, I've not actually had any problems with what I've been doing but you never know.

All in all, it was a fairly typical first day (minus the fact that I didn't arrive notoriously early like I am wont to do on first days). In fact, it went almost exactly like how my other practicums have gone. And it's kinda funny that way. The faculty of education made this year's practicum sound so different from the ones we've had in the past - all that stuff about formative and summative assessment, having a strict progressive schedule, the three-hour team meetings - but now that I'm actually in the school, it feels exactly like every other prac I've ever had. In fact, I daresay it sounds like my workload for this first block will be even lighter than my workload in previous practicums. Second semester, when I'm full-on teaching grade 12 English and Music, 3 periods a day... that might be a different story.

Teaching Philosophy

2009-10-03T14:33:00.002-04:00

We'll panic about the upcoming practicum tomorrow. But for now, I thought I'd post something a little more positive. One of our recent assignments for teacher's college was to write up our teaching philosophy. Here is mine followed by an explication of it:

I once wrote a précis on what I considered to be my educational philosophy and this is what I came up with:

“I want my students to recognize, and strive for, what is truly important to them without forgetting to be compassionate, tolerant, and open-minded along the way.”

That statement still holds true for me and I believe that even a lengthier exposition will ultimately have that statement at its core. In many ways, I would like to consider myself a moral educator inasmuch as I am an educator in my actual teaching subjects – English and Music – because I believe that it is important for students to be good people, regardless of what they study.

I think students are capable of amazing things. Part of my teaching philosophy is to facilitate and inspire students to speak up if they have something to say and to express themselves in such a way that is clear and interesting. I hope to model this behaviour by being as clear and interesting as I can when I express myself in the classroom. Furthermore, I want my students to discover what is important to them because I think everyone needs to believe in something. There is saying that goes, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything,” and this is something I take to heart. I believe that the world can be a better place; and it starts with my students. That is why I’m a teacher.

In a lot of ways, my teaching philosophy relates very easily to my teachable subjects: English and Music. The study of English, in a very compact nutshell, is about how we communicate. It is about how we use the English language to convey ideas – through dialogue, poems, speeches, essays, and plays – in ways that are both affective and effective. I also think that we study Music because it inspires us and I also see it as an opportunity for expression, only through sound rather than words.

The more you know, the more interesting you can be. That is as good of a reason for lifelong learning as any other. I hope to focus my teaching on making connections through everything my students learn so that they understand why it is important to keep informed. But as stated in my précis, all the knowledge and drive in the world won’t be anything to be proud of unless my students are fundamentally good people as well. To respect and support one another; to empathize; to trust; to forgive; to be compassionate, tolerant, and open-minded… these perspectives are central to the kind of educator I hope to be, as idealistic as that may sound.

Now that I read it again, it reads a little funny. But I think that that's mainly a result of me writing a philosophy in response to certain topics they wanted you to touch upon. The general gist of it is this: I want to teach my students good principles. See, there's so much talk going on in all my classes about "what we should teach our students" and then arguments ensue over why we need to learn Shakespeare or how the world is changing so fast that a lot of what we teach our students will lose relevance by the time they hit "the real world". Even if that's true, I feel like there are some things that don't change with time. 20 years from now...

You should still strive to be interesting.
You should still strive to be clear.
You should still strive to be respectful.
You should still strive to be kind, compassionate, tolerant, and open-minded.
People will still appreciate music and it will still inspire us.
A V-chord will still sound nice when it resolves to a I-chord.
Spelling mistakes will still make you look like you don't know what you're talking about.
Being a parent will still be the hardest and most important job in our society.
We will still want to be accepted.
You will still fall for anything if you don't stand for something.

Maybe our job isn't so useless after all.

Dress Codes, Part 2

2009-09-28T22:13:00.006-04:00

I had a short discussion with my friend on dress codes for practicum. Here is what we came up with.

Tie = Dress shirt with a tie
No tie = Dress shirt sans tie
Polo = Polo shirt

Being at prac for 4 weeks, 5 days a week (4 days for the week post-Thanksgiving):

Week 1 (Mon-Fri): Tie - tie - no tie - no tie - polo
Week 2 (Tues-Fri): Tie - tie - no tie - polo
Week 3 (Mon-Fri): Tie - no tie - no tie - no tie - polo
Week 4 (Mon-Fri): Tie - no tie - no tie - polo - cat/bear/witch/costume

Thanksgiving threw off our rhythm a bit. So did Hallowe'en. The point is that we were shooting for getting progressively more lax horizontally (day by day) and vertically (week by week).

Resource Round-Up!

2009-09-28T18:20:00.002-04:00

We're at T-minus 7 days until our practicum starts, and odds are many of our readers are in the same boat. As you're scurrying around making pesky phone calls, packing your stuff for a month, and frantically grabbing books off of the Education Library's shelves, take a few minutes to scroll through the incredibly useful links we've managed to track down in the past few weeks. And of course, comment if you've got great websites to add!

Still worried about your first-day outfit? Check out these Top 12 Fierce Fashion Tips for Teachers on a Budget. (Sadly, those of us in Canada can't take advantage of Target's great deals, but try Loblaws' new Joe Fresh line for comparable styles and prices)

Planning on studying primary sources in your history class? The Canadian Letters and Images Project has a huge collection of letters and photos from real Canadians from within a variety of different time periods.

Make a good first impression in the staff room by reading up on some networking tips from successful blogger and avid conference attendee Latoya Peterson. Though this article isn't tailored specifically to teachers, it'll help you to break the ice during the first few days and make lasting contacts that will be useful your entire career.

Teachers of tweens rejoice: our wonderful English Curriculum professor's daughter, Adrienne Kress, is the author of some seriously empowering, adventurous, butt-kicking books for young readers. Read an excerpt of Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, the story of a girl on a quest to find her kidnapped (by pirates, no less) teacher, and don't blame us if you find yourself booking it (heh, puns) to your nearest local bookseller to finish the whole thing!

Whether you're looking for props for drama class or a history simulation or just wishing you had supplies and decorations for your classroom, look no further than Freecycle.org. Once you join the network, just ask for what you need and wait for generous strangers to oblige.

Need a game for that extra class time? Try these sites: Boardgames.com, Discovery School, Out of the Box Games, and, if you're teaching English Language Learners, try Dave's ESL Café--you'll even get other resources there too.

So there you have it folks, go to it! And please feel free to share your fear, excitement, anxiety, anticipation, etc etc about Practicum (or wisdom from having been through it all before) in the comments!

A Small Tribute

2009-09-25T01:03:00.002-04:00

When we first started blogging here at class-dismissed, we promised that we would take time, every so often, to honour some of our own teachers. So I thought I'd take some time now to do so. Interestingly, this first tribute is actually to a peer rather than someone like Dr. Morrison (though I should probably find some time to pay tribute to him at some point). This is how it came about:

I've always enjoyed singing as a recreational activity. I mean, I never deluded myself into thinking that I was all that good. I knew I wasn't tone-deaf (obviously, being a musician in other capacities) but I also recognize a good voice when I hear one and I know I don't have a spectacular voice by any stretch of the imagination. I always wondered about whether or not a good singing voice is something people are born with or if it's something we learn. So as you can imagine, my music ed teacher piqued my interest when she told us we would be partnered up, one-on-one with one of our classmates, and that we would practice our teaching technique by teaching each other. Enter Kate, who would teach me some beginner techniques in singing; I, in turn, would teach her some beginner techniques in playing the drums. Yeah, that last part was interesting - I didn't think I would be called upon to put my drum-playing skills into use in music ed class.

We've had 2 lessons so far (and we're going to have our last one next Tuesday). To be honest, I think I'm getting more out of her lessons than she is from mine. I know that she's definitely getting better at playing the snare but if she wanted to truly utilize what she's learned, she'd have to do a lot more practicing, just to get to a point where playing the snare would be of any practical use to her. Such is the learning curve of learning an instrument. 3 short lessons won't be enough to be of any practical benefit except maybe in the sense of inspiring someone to continue learning/practicing.

Vocal training, though, is a little bit different. And that's mainly because I've been "practicing" all my life, in the sense that I've been "singing" - to use a refined term for what I do when I chant along to songs I like - for years and I will probably continue to sing for years to come. And in these 2 short lessons I've had thus far, I have noticed a marked improvement in my voice, just from applying certain techniques Kate has taught me. From breathing correctly, to posture, to sound-generation, to embouchure, to using my hands to mimic rib expansion... I've never had anyone point these things out to me before. But man, what a difference they make.

Now, I'm not saying I've suddenly turned into a great singer, but I have definitely made some strides, and I think that Kate deserves a lot of credit for that. There's a term in education called "scaffolding," where a teacher is always challenging you in such a way that calls for you to improve without making you feel like you're called upon to do too much at a time - and she has done exactly that in the 2 lessons I've had so far. When I think about everything I've done at the faculty of education, those lessons were definitely the highlights of this past week. When you look forward to going to a class at 6:30 PM on a Thursday night, that says something. So I take my hat off to you, Kate, even though you didn't really have a choice in the matter.

Teacher Burnout

2009-09-22T13:20:00.003-04:00

Due to a very nasty viral fever this weekend and four, yes FOUR big assignments all due on Thursday which I have yet to find time to work on, this will be a pretty intensely hectic week. I do have my lesson plan from "The Drum," which makes a very interesting juxtaposition to Jon's lesson plan from the same short story, but I won't have any time to post it until Thursday afternoon. Same goes for two consecutive Gleecaps (*sob*) and several other interesting discussions I had in mind for this week. Boo!

Anyway, that's what real life is about, especially for a teacher. We just have to roll with it. So in the meantime, I'll ask you, dear readers: What do you do to prevent yourself from burning out? What techniques do you use to get twenty different things done in one week, and how do you preserve your sanity in the process?

I'll post the best of the best in a collaborative list next week-- and I might try some of your tips while I'm at it!

A lesson plan in 30 minutes or less

2009-09-21T12:11:00.003-04:00

A few days ago, Courtney and I (as well as the rest of our English class) were instructed to plan a lesson in 30 minutes based on a short story (which I can't seem to find on the internet) we were given. So no prior preparation or knowledge of the text. And did I mention we had 30 minutes to do this? I think our professor wanted to see how well we could do in a pinch. And how well did we do? I'll let you be the judge. Here is a verbatim copy of what I wrote down:

A Short Story Lesson Plan (in 30 minutes or less)

Title of the story: The Drum

Motivation: What happens when we give meaning to something? When something, big or small, becomes important to us or holds significance, we tend to notice details about it. And the way we think about these details can oftentimes reflect the overall significance it holds for us. For example, if you showed me a car, I might just see a car. But to someone for whom cars are a hobby, he or she might notice details about the finish, the model, the year, the hood ornament or anything other number of things. What are some other examples? What are some things you take a particular interest in? (10 minutes)

Procedure:
1. Read the story silently (5 minutes)

2. Read aloud (2 minutes)

3. Generally speaking, what's actually happening? (2 minutes)

Nothing much, actually
The narrator's unexcited about practicing
He's bored in Calculus
He notices a drum

4. If nothing is really happening, why is the story so long? (3 minutes)

5. Close reading, in groups, partners, or self. Look for adjectives, descriptors, metaphors, and other fun parts of speech. How do they contribute to the story? (10-15 minutes)

6. Reconvene: What did you discover, if anything? Was it boring? Interesting? Why or why not? Would it be any different with a different subject, i.e. a pretty girl, an iPhone, a concert? (10 minutes)

7. What happens in the last paragraph? Why is it different? (pending time constraint, this might be considered extra material)

Substantiation:

The importance of personal meaning, i.e. what happens when something takes on significance for you.
Respect for what other find important, even if you don't understand why. There will be times when you will want others to respect the things you find important, even if they don't see things the same way.
A reminder to search for, recognize, and understand, what's important to you. Maybe you'll begin to feel for certain things/people/ideals in the same way the narrator does for his drum.

Assignment: Write 2 short stories/paragraphs. One about something you find like or find important, the other about something you find absolutely no interest in. Synthesize the differences.

More on teaching English

2009-09-19T14:23:00.003-04:00

Awhile ago, we posted on reasons for teaching English: Part 1 and Part 2.

Our English professor made a comparison between students' reactions to a science class vs. their reactions to an English class. And the thing that struck me the most about the comparison is that English students very often learn "about" something. It was interesting to realize how often the preposition "about" seems to find its way into descriptions of English class. And it's interesting because it indicates that what often happens is that we simply slide into providing factual knowledge [when we haven't got a clue as to what else we're supposed to be doing]:

"We learned about short stories."
"We learned about Shakespeare/Hamlet."
"We learned about Lord of the Flies."

Well that is just fantastic. Because we all could use a little more knowledge "about short stories".

But for those of them who don't really care "about short stories" or "about Shakespeare," it might be important to remember not to fall into the trap of vigorously teaching content as if it were the be-all and end-all of knowledge. As educators, we'll be teaching subjects that, presumably, we take a personal interest in (or at least, took enough interest in for us to be willing to devote 4 years of undergrad to its study), and oftentimes, we forget that just because we thought it was "fun" to memorize Hamlet's entire 35-line soliloquy, doesn't mean our students will find it equally "fun" (shocking, I know) or meaningful in any way. It's probably important to remember that content is good, but what's more important is how you use content as a vehicle through which you teach skills and other areas of knowledge that are more universally applicable.

A few tips we got from our professor were:

1. Remember to teach for a reason.
2. What do they get to keep?
3. How will they benefit from what they are about to learn?

It might also be helpful to think about other types of responses that you hope to generate when your students are asked what they learned in your class. For example...

"We learned that..."
"We learned how..."
"We learned why..."

Students should be able to take something away from your class aside from a general and temporary increase in knowledge about a subject they probably don't care very much about. I mean, that's what substantiation is isn't it? When we ask ourselves and our class, "Why is this important?" It might not be a bad idea to ask ourselves that question at the end of every class, just to check that what we've taught actually carries importance beyond our own egocentric opinion of stuff that interests us.

Overheard in the Classroom

2009-09-16T21:41:00.002-04:00

One of our much-lauded favourite bloggers, Duke Fandango, recently reminded me of one of the unique joys of being a teacher. Though we are authority figures, the kids we teach often tend to kind of forget we're human beings with functioning ears sometimes. They'll say anything off-the-cuff or totally out of place right in front of us because, in their amygdala-dominated brains, they sort of assume we either don't listen or don't understand them. This leads to many moments of hilarity for us.

Many of us teacher candidates will be going into the classroom in about two short weeks, so we want everyone to get in the mood for anonymous comical comment-sharing from the get-go! When you hear your students say something truly ridiculous or so clever you choke with laughter, send it to us at class.dismissed.blog@gmail.com. We'll collect them all and publish a collection as often as we can!

For now, we'll leave you with a nice big heap of comedy from Overheard Everywhere:

History Teacher: "Ah, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Well, I definitely did the rock 'n' roll bit. Not the drugs, though. And uh... Hm. So did you all do the assignment?"

Student: "Is there anything I can do to make this grade better?"

Teacher: "Uh, do better work."

Teacher, incredulously: "You never read Harold and the Purple Crayon?!"

Student: "Well, sorry, I was reading Machiavelli."

History professor, lecturing on the early 1900s: "I mean, the problem of being the only person with a telephone is, well, who you gonna call?"

Class, in unison: "Ghostbusters!"

History professor: "You kids scare me."

Teacher: "Jordan! Can you tell us the answer to the problem on the board?"

Student talking in back of class: "Um... no sir."

Teacher: "You are interrupting the class! What were you talking about?"

Student: "Petroleum lightsabers."

More teaching blogs

2009-09-16T10:55:00.002-04:00

Check out Scholastic's list of Top 20 Teacher Blogs-- they've organized it by category, making it even easier for us to find interesting, relevant blogs about teaching. I know I'm going to check out the Best Student Teacher blog first!

Lesson Plan Assignments

2009-09-14T14:35:00.003-04:00

This week, we're gearing up to start completing and handing in lesson plans in some of our curriculum classes. For half the Teacher Candidates, this task is simple. Those of us in ConEd have written many lesson plans before. All we really need to do is continue tweaking our strategies a bit and practicing writing lesson plans for different subjects. Consecutive students, on the other hand, may never have even seen a lesson plan before they walked into class last week, let alone have written a plan or executed any kind of lesson.

I've been writing lesson plans in some form or another since I was 15 years old. When an Air Cadet decides to take the Leadership route instead of becoming a pilot, he or she begins a series of classes, evaluations, even entire summer courses on how to effectively lead and instruct young teens. My first lesson plans were written on loose-leaf paper with a myriad of colourful markers, and the lessons themselves sometimes taught in large tents or even the middle of the woods. My methodology has become more sophisticated, but I still retain the foundations of lesson planning that I learned from Cadets.

Now that I've convinced you to trust my experience, I'm going to provide an example of how a lesson plan might look. The following is my original work, and I do require that you obtain my permission before reproducing in anywhere in any form-- but it can be helpful as a jumping-off point for your own lesson planning.

Remember that your lesson plan will be your only guideline when you're actually teaching your class. We already know how catastrophic reading off your papers will be in the classroom, but if you write down everything you need to know in a coherent manner, you'll be able to recall that structure in your head and use it to your advantage when you're in front of the class. So include anything, anything that will help you when you're up there teaching. When I print out my lessons, I'll go back to my beloved markers and write some reminders and encouraging words in the margins. When I find myself unsure or stumbling during the lesson, those scribbles and doodles catch my eye and help me get back on track.

So, without further ado, here's one of my sample lessons:

(Note: This lesson was an assignment for a class on teaching for equity. It is designed for a mature, thoughtful group of grade 12 students. Unfortunately, to be cautious, this lesson would need to be reviewed and approved by the principal. I intended this sample to serve as a lesson plan template-- the issues within the actual body of the lesson are legitimate but will need to be explored in a different context. In other words, focus on the structure of the lesson, not the sex ed. Thanks!)

Lesson Plan: Achieving Gender Equity in Sexual Education

PPL 4O - Grade 12 Healthy Active Living Education

Purpose: To address the assumptions, stereotypes and double standards often present in sexual education for students.

Goal: To promote students’ awareness of the issue and help them develop strategies to avoid making sexist or heterosexist judgments in relation to sex and sexuality.

Focus: Questioning the images being promoted by popular culture; critical analysis of prescribed gender roles; self-reflection and self-awareness in relation to sexual identity and sexual activity.

Specifics: 75 minute class. Include review of last week’s lesson. Assign project. Leave 5 extra minutes in case discussion gets carried away.

Part A: Review and Introduction 15 MINS

Review

- Name 4 methods of contraception and describe their function

- How is HIV/AIDS transmitted? (2 or 3 examples)

- What are some factors that contribute to healthy pregnancy and birth (2 or 3 examples)

- What is Canada’s legal age of consent to sexual activity? (http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb993-e.htm#CURRENT%20LAW(txt)

Quote of the Day (for discussion)

“Sex education may be a good idea in the schools, but I don't believe the kids should be given homework.”

-Bill Cosby

Discuss:

-What does this suggest about the attitudes towards sexual education?

-What sorts of arguments would you make to convince someone that sex ed does not encourage promiscuity?

*Play devil’s advocate in this situation. Remind students of adults’/parents’ concerns and that they may be having trouble recognizing that their children are becoming adults. Emphasize the fact that mature behaviour and decisions in other aspects of their lives will show adults that they are trustworthy and responsible.

Introduction

Now that we’ve covered the facts of contraception, pregnancy, and STIs, we will be examining the more abstract and complex issues connected to sex and sexuality.

Main Teaching Points (write on board)

Sex Ed in the 20^th Century
Abstinence-Only Education and Sexism
Heterosexism in Popular Culture
Assignment!

These are pretty big topics to tackle in only one class, but a good background in these issues is crucial. I encourage you to explore further on your own! Your project will also provide you with a more extensive study of your chosen focus.

Part B: Sex Ed in the 20^th Century (The Crazy Stuff Your Grandparents Were Taught) 10 MINS

We’re very lucky to be living in the time and place we do. Canadian students are given access to scientific, correct information about sex and taught about relationships in addition to the biology of sex. However, this is a fairly new phenomenon.

As recently as the 1990s, students were taught that they must conform to specific gender roles and given little to no information about sex and forced to glean their knowledge from television, magazines, and hearsay.

*Ask whether any students have anecdotes about the misleading information their parents, grandparents, etc received as youth.

*Be sure to explain that a lack of sexual education did not mean that no one was having sex back then or that most people didn’t know how it worked, but that they believed some silly myths and there was more of a risk of preventable STIs (VD, to them) because they did not have the same access to or knowledge of contraception.

Show examples of the seemingly ridiculous myths about sex and sexuality that were perpetuated throughout the 20^th Century.

ü Time Magazine, “Kids, Sex, and Values.” May 24, 1993. Nancy Gibbs.

§ “Nowadays sexuality is the way you look, the way you wear your hair. It’s all physical, not what’s inside you.” (53)

§ “Parents have told Miedzian that they will not let their boys watch TV’s Mr Roger’s because of his gentle demeanor.” (54)

§ “Other parents have told me that they’re afraid not to have their sons play with guns because they’ll grow up gay.” (54)

ü Pamphlet from 1973 - “Growing up: facts about sex for boys and girls” : Family Planning Federation Canada

§ “If continued long enough, the habit of masturbation may make it less easy to enjoy a full sexual relationship later on in married life. But most people stop the practice once they are married, if not before. They find it is a poor substitute for proper loving.” (10)

§ “Usually the boy is more easily stimulated to sexual excitement and his feelings are more difficult to control.” (11)

§ “[A woman’s] climax is not very easily reached and often it does not occur until she has settled into marriage for some time—sometimes not even then. But it makes little or no difference to whether she becomes pregnant or not.”

§ “But most people grow out of [homosexuality] as their relationship with the opposite sex develops. Homosexual conduct between men is against the law in this country.” (11)

Final Question: Do you think any of these myths, misrepresentations or stereotypes still exist today? Even remnants of them?

Part C: Abstinence-Only Education (The Double Standard) 20 MINS

(Short Lecture Portion)

Unfortunately, the answer to those questions is yes. One of the most disturbing examples of this is the double standard that exists for boys and girls when it comes to expectations surrounding sex and sexuality.

You would have noticed from the pamphlet especially that girls were perceived as more rational and less concerned with personal pleasure. For the boys, it seemed that they could not control their “urges” and should be excused them. Essentially, this sets up a system of blaming girls for things like rape.

Even now, it’s a widespread belief that boys think about sex more often, look at porn more often, the list goes on. Many girls think they’re abnormal for thinking about sex too much, and many boys think they’re abnormal if they feel they’re not thinking about sex enough!

Most strikingly, however, is the fact that women, especially those in U.S. States that teach abstinence-only education, are being taught that their sexuality is a commodity and that their virginity doesn’t belong to them. Abstaining until marriage is a personal choice that many teens do choose, but it is being marketed almost exclusively to girls. The decision not to have sex should be one made by examining personal beliefs and values and weighing benefits and risks, not because young women think they will be damaged goods, blemished, or unwanted otherwise.

Watch video clip. Ask the students to jot down a few of their impressions of what is happening in the video, paying particular to the gender roles being shown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC2VqOXZd84&eurl

Divide into pairs. (Students choose, so they can feel comfortable with their peers)

Discuss the impressions you wrote down during the movie. How is a purity pledge beneficial to a student? How might a purity pledge be detrimental to a student?

Present different perspectives to the rest of the class (write them on the board). They will probably bring up a lot of important points, but make sure certain issues are mentioned if they don’t think of them, for example:

- the effect on girls’ self-image: when/if they do have sex, they may feel that it is shameful and wrong.

- Males are also receiving subliminal ideas, especially about their roles as the “active” participant who must take charge and even be having a lot of sex to be considered a man.

No matter what you choose, make sure it is an informed choice that is physically and emotionally healthy for you. Remember that stereotypes and outdated ideas about the roles of men and women are just that- outdated. We now live in a society that should be able to accept the same behaviour in men and women. The next time you are about to gossip about someone, ask yourself whether you are treating the situation differently because of the person’s gender. Always look critically at the things that you take for granted!

We’ll get back to the issue of sexism for your assignments, but first we are going to all-too-briefly discuss heterosexism in popular culture.

Part D: Heterosexism in Popular Culture (Your Role Models) 15 MINS

Activity

Brainstorm as many famous TV/Movie (heterosexual) couples as you can in 1 minute. Shout out examples in 1 minute.

Then, name as many famous TV/Movie gay/lesbian characters as you can in 1 minute. Shout out examples.

We simply don’t see very many non-normative (in other words, people who seem different from the majority) images of love and sex in our day-to-day lives. That doesn’t mean it’s not a perfectly natural and acceptable thing not to ‘fit in.’

I want to show you a quick, wonderful video clip now before we go on to the assignment. This video was produced by two women in the Midwestern United States in response to what they felt was inadequate sex ed in schools. A lot of kids in the States have only this show to turn to. There are a lot of other episodes they’ve done in response to viewer questions, but we’re going to watch their show on homosexuality:

http://midwestteensexshow.com/2007/09/26/mtss-episode-7-homosexuality-part-1/

(Approx. 8 minutes)

Sometimes adults don’t give kids enough credit- there are certainly a lot of kids who, faced with inadequate information, go looking on their own. However, there’s an even bigger number who, since they’ve been told that birth control doesn’t work so don’t have sex, forgo contraceptives altogether and wind up with babies, diseases, and (especially for girls and queer individuals) a powerful sense of shame.

Part D: Assignment! 10 MINS

Due: Next class

Media Critical Reflection

Overview

In this class, we have discussed the sterotypes and assumptions made in relation to sex and sexuality. In order for you to get a broader idea of how these misconceptions are at work in society and to encourage you to question what you take for granted in popular culture, you will write a 3-4 page response to a representation of teen sex or sexuality.

Curriculum Expectations

In this assignment, you will:

ü Identify the stereotypes and assumptions being made in your chosen representation.

ü Identify instances where this representation subverts assumptions of teen sex and sexuality (in other words, when it didn’t conform to the stereotype)

ü Discuss the impact this representation has on teens.

ü Pay special attention to how characters communicate in relationships, how teen sex and sexuality is treated by adults, and how things are different for men and women.

Process

1. Choose a representation of teen sex or sexuality. It can be an episode of a television show (ex. That 70s Show, Ugly Betty, Family Guy), a magazine article (ex. Seventeen, Maxim), a book, a song, a blog, anything you feel you can effectively respond to.

2. Jot down your initial impressions.

3. Consolidate these impressions into a clear, critical analysis of the factors described above.

Product

As mentioned, you will hand in a 3-4 page (double spaced, 12-pt font, standard margins) critical response. Feel free to write informally (using “I” and personal anecdotes is fine) but keep in mind this is still an academic assignment.

Resources used:

Midwest Teen Sex Show

http://midwestteensexshow.com

Feministing.com

http://feministing.com

Moran, Jeffrey P. Teaching Sex: The Shaping of Adolescence in the 20^th Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2007.

__________________________________________________________________

Is there anything you feel I missed in this lesson plan? I'm sure those of you who are real, live teachers rarely use a lesson plan this formal, but do you have any tips from your Teacher Candidate days? Let us know!

Post-Glee Recap #1

2009-09-11T11:34:00.006-04:00

Now that Glee has finally starting again, we're going to fulfill our promise and start doing recaps of each episode. Like I mentioned earlier this summer, the show touches on a lot of issues that are familiar to teachers and we wanted to add those issues to our discussions on this blog. As well, we'll be doing recaps of Tony Danza's new reality show, Teach, when it premieres later this year-- mostly because I love Who's The Boss, but also because he's going to be teaching in a Philadelphia high school. Another show about teaching, the animated Sit Down, Shut Up, might also make an appearance here, though it is a lot more on the satirical side so it may not be quite so relevant to us. Either way, it's a banner year for teacher sitcoms!

Today's Glee recap-- Gleecap, if you will (I totally thought of that in the shower this morning. Man I'm hilarious)-- is a bit late, as the episode aired on September 9th. Thursday mornings from now on won't be too busy for me, but this week is the first official week of classes so I've been running around buying books and dodging frosh week festivities. Who could have guessed that TV wouldn't be my first priority?! (That's sarcasm, my friends, in case it doesn't translate in print).

I enjoyed this episode for two main reasons-- one, it called out some of the myths of abstinence-only education; and two, it portrayed Will as a regular, fallible human being who made the mistake of putting his needs and desires first and ignoring his students' valid and important ideas. Let's add a third reason just because it was so darned hilarious.

In this episode, Will and the Glee kids are trying to recruit more members. Without more singers, they will not be eligible to compete in regionals, so they need to find a way to appeal to the rest of the school (the students of which are more preoccupied with tossing Glee members in dumpsters and port-a-potties than joining them in three-part harmony). Will decides that the best way to attract new members is to perform the same Disco number that was such a hit when he was a Glee kid-- in 1993. Needless to say, his already unpopular students are horrified about performing "Le Freak" in front of all their peers. Instead of listening to their concerns, Will insists that everything will work out fine. He's so preoccupied with making sure New Directions is a success that he forgets about the perils of high school.

It's a lesson we can be glad Will learned for us. No matter what's going on in your personal life, no matter how old you are or how little you understand your students, always remember what it's like to be a teenager. It's a minefield out there, and those kids don't have the benefit of experience and hindsight to remind them how little those high school dynamics matter in the real world. This kind of stuff does matter to them-- it matters a lot. So when you find yourself thinking of a good-natured joke about a student's outfit or assigning a mandatory rap performance of Romeo & Juliet, consider how your students will feel and react. They're still going to have to do embarrassing things, things they don't like, in your classroom, because sometimes we have to do that in life. But try not to make your class too traumatizing-- they'll thank you for it.

Notable Quotes:

Sue: "I'm not sure there's going to be anyone else who wants to swim over to your little island of misfit toys."

Will: "I believe in my kids."

Will: "Hold on a second, Sue."

Sue: "I resent being told to hold on to anything."

Sue: "There's a very clear beaurocracy when it comes to photocopies."

Will: "Contrary to your beliefs, it's not always about you... or, I've realized, about me."

Check out the pamphlet titles in the guidance office!

Also, Will thanked a student for bringing him an apple? Kids still bring their teachers apples?

A bit of psychology

2009-09-09T21:11:00.004-04:00

We learned a few interesting things about the human brain last week so we thought we'd share some of the more interesting bits here.

So apparently, they isolated the parts of our brains that are responsible for instinct and reason. Instinct is generated from this little bit of your brain called the amigdala while reason comes from the part of your brain called the frontal lobe:

*photo source: http://mural.uv.es/teboluz/index2.html

You'll have to excuse the fact that it's not in English. But as you can see, there's that little red bit there - the amigdala - that's responsible for most of your more instinctive urges and behaviors. Not exactly the biggest part of your brain but, then again, we as humans tend to stifle that part of us from a young age so I guess it shouldn't come as a complete surprise. Nor should it surprise anyone that that frontal lobe bit - known as "lobulo frontal" in, I think, Spanish - is so large, considering how much we put into reasoning things out.

So apparently, part of the reason why teenagers are so bad at controlling their emotions is because our frontal lobe doesn't fully develop until we're much older. The amigdala, on the other hand, is one of the first parts of our brain to come online so it's been around and kicking for much longer than the frontal lobe.

You might ask, then, shouldn't younger children have even less developed frontal lobes than teenagers? Well, that's probably true. That's why young children sometimes behave in ways that indicate a blithe disregard for self-preservation. But I think we're less fearful of younger children because their amigdala is probably telling them more consistent things. Teenagers, on the other hand, what with having hormones and all, probably fluctuate wildly when it comes to emotions so their amidgala is probably working harder than usual. And with their frontal lobe not in its peak form, it probably can't keep up with the rapid changes in what the amigdala is telling the rest of your brain to do.

So there you have it. An oversimplified precis of what we learned in our short psychology lecture on the brain. So just remember: the next time your students act out in your class or in the halls, blame their underdeveloped frontal lobe!

We also learned that people are incapable of taking in more than 10 minutes worth of information before needing time to process it and that the human brain doesn't function well as the day goes on. But they also scheduled a 3-hour night-class into my week so I don't know whether they actually believed what they were saying about that stuff.

More Impressions

2009-09-03T20:21:00.002-04:00

Ever since I decided to study music (and by extension, teach it), I always felt that I was in way over my head. Music Ed. was no exception yesterday. The only thing that kept me from launching myself into a flurry of self-doubt was the knowledge that I have gotten this feeling before every single music class I've ever taken in university. This is not an exaggeration. I don't think there has ever been a music class I have taken where I was able to walk out on the first day and think to myself "I think I can handle this course."

So you may ask, how did I manage to survive my undergrad? Well, it was mostly a product of first year impulsiveness. Back then, I knew that the simple fact that I was a bachelor of arts (not music) student meant that I would always, to some extent or another, start off a few steps behind everyone else. And being an impulsive (and, some might argue, idiotic) first year student, I must have decided to approach it as a challenge to overcome or some zealous variant of the "we will prevail!" mentality.

Also, I like music. Have I mentioned that? High school music was one of my favorite courses.

Anyhow. To my surprise, I actually managed to prevail, not only through first year, but in every year after that! And by fourth year, it was too late to change my second teachable subject, even if I had wanted to. I mean, to say that I was "stuck" teaching music would be a misnomer because it's not as if I don't like music and don't desire to teach it. I just always had doubts as to my ability to do so effectively. But I suppose this year will be telling.

Check out these tips for new teachers!

2009-09-02T23:08:00.004-04:00

Nothing from us until tomorrow evening, but I wanted to point you all toward one of our favourites, Duke Fandango. He's just written a fantastic post on tips for the teacher trainee.

Based in the UK, he's a teacher mentor himself and he's got a lot of great suggestions-- not to mention his quick wit and hilarious pop culture references. Let us know what you think of his list!

RE: First Impressions

2009-09-01T22:39:00.004-04:00

I found the day exhausting too, and not only because I wound up falling asleep sometime after 2:30 this morning and then woke up on my own at 6:30, an hour before I had to be awake.

No, I found it very overwhelming for many reasons. I didn't notice it right away, but as I left campus this afternoon, I felt incredibly drained. Which I guess is to be expected on the first day of such an "emotionally challenging" (or so says my prof) year.

I was definitely not expecting to be met with 749 other Education students this morning, that's for sure. There were so many people that Jon and I didn't even run into each other once, which was kind of disappointing. I'm not great with huge crowds, and I found myself missing the days of being one in 120 in ConEd. Once we left the auditorium for our classes of 25 students, I started feeling more comfortable.

I met the 7 other students who will be joining me at my placement school this year, which was quite a relief. I'm the most nervous about that practicum, so it's good to know I won't ever feel alone there, especially since I don't know the area well. The professor that teaches what is essentially our Practicum class seems really great-- funny, smart, and very reassuring. He told us in no uncertain terms how tough our placements are going to be, but also let us know that he was there to help us succeed and that he'd do everything he could to ensure that we have a positive learning experience.

The other big thing I did today was attend an optional lecture on teaching abroad. I've sat in on meetings like it twice before, but that was in my undergrad when I still wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do. Now that I'm thinking more seriously about teaching internationally, I felt like I would have a different perspective. The two-hour session was very informative and interesting, but it definitely contributed to my general feeling of confusion and indecisiveness, which probably wasn't the best idea on the first day. Basically I'm left with no clear idea of whether I should stay in Ontario, go to another province, teach in an international school in a non-English speaking country, or work in a public school in an English-speaking country abroad. I want to choose a situation I'll thrive in where I'll have a good chance of being hired, but so far I have NO IDEA what that situation might be.

I keep reminding myself that my mantra needs to be, "Calm. Down." I have to quiet the frantic voice in my head that stresses me out and tries to convince me that I need to have everything figured out right away. There's no way I could make any decisions on the first day let alone before my practicum starts and my classes are underway. So I'm going to focus on taking things one day at a time and try to make the most of my time here.

Do you remember your first day of teacher's college? (for some of you, it was probably today!) What was it like? Did it all work out in the end? Got any words of wisdom for us new kids?

First Impressions

2009-09-01T18:55:00.002-04:00

I had one class today... and I'm exhausted.

I also helped a don put up the 12 zodiac signs on her floor ceiling using paper stars and tape. This may have contributed to said exhaustion.

I also recognize, though, that a lot of the exhaustion just comes from the fact that today was the first day and that we were all taking in a lot of new information. Nothing was really all that unexpected except for the registration process (where I was told I needed a new student card and then informed that I didn't). I've been racking my brains, trying to think of something else to say that would be interesting but I'm drawing a blank. But I also thought I should at least drop a line to say that the first day went as expected. I did not react in any sort of extreme fashion, which I suppose was good. No arms were waved.

The Beginning of the Beginning...

2009-09-01T01:51:00.004-04:00

We start our very first day of teacher's college tomorrow! Eeeep!!

As is my nature, I have been unable to sleep as yet because I'm too wired. Whether that's from nerves or excitement is anyone's guess, although I imagine it to be a bit of both. It's now very very close to 2:00am though, so I'm really not looking forward to tackling the first day on less than 5 hours of sleep. Lucky for me, it's mostly a welcome-to-Queen's, here's-your-student-card, hey-why-don't-you-check-out-a-few-workshops kinda day. Which really makes me wonder exactly what is keeping me awake right now.

It's the symbolism though, right? It's the fact that starting tomorrow, our last 8 months of school begin; and after those 8 months comes real life, for better or worse.

We'll check back in tomorrow night with our thoughts on how the first day went-- until then, wish us luck and think best-first-day-of-school-ever thoughts!!

The Life Photo Archives

2009-08-27T21:58:00.005-04:00

This woman is one of my biggest teaching inspirations. Not because I knew her, or even because I know of the good work she's done-- I know absolutely nothing about her except what is contained in this picture from 1955. She's an inspiration because this picture of her embodies what I believe about being a teacher, and it reminds me how I should approach each day.

I found Miss Buske in the Life Photo Archives, recently made available on Google. Just search a name, date, or keyword and revel in what gems appear. If you find a photo you particularly love, you can order a framed copy with a click of a button.

Since I'm hoping to teach History, the Life Photo Archives are a big help to me. I'll use them as visual aids of my own, and they'll be invaluable to students doing research projects and presentations for my class. I also plan to have many historical photos and documents mounted on the walls of my classroom-- not to mention my own home, where I have gorgeous 1940s Life ads just waiting to be put up!

What kinds of things are a must-have for your classroom walls?

RE: Dress Codes

2009-08-27T20:24:00.003-04:00

Here comes the usual mea culpa and explanation for our absence: School starts in 5 days and we're both in the process of packing, moving in, and unpacking. Chaos abounds!

It's funny that Ashley and Jon should bring up the subject of dress codes, because that exact issue has been plaguing me all summer and especially in the last few weeks as I took advantage of the back-to-school clothing sales.

I remember once scoffing at a teacher of mine who seemed to cycle through the same six to ten outfits all year long. When I told my mom about it, she reminded me that to teachers, school was a job and not necessarily the place for self-expression. She suggested that the teacher in question might have dozens of fabulous outfits, but that she clearly wouldn't be wasting them on her students.

Now that I'm preparing to become a teacher, this concept defines my attitude towards my work outfits. School is not the place to try out new trends or show everyone who I truly am as a person. As a rule, I dress far more conservatively for school than I would anywhere else, including an office building, because I am an authority figure for my young students. I wear things to church that I wouldn't wear to school, because at school I need to be taken seriously, and sadly, an ill-thought-out outfit could jeopardize that.

When I stocked up on professional essentials this summer (on a limited budget, of course), I added the following staples to my wardrobe:

- tailored black suit jacket

- plain black skirt, past knee-length

- two crew-neck sweaters

- soft white button-down shirt

- two cardigans

- two plain shell tanks

- wide-legged, dark-washed tailored jeans

- khaki dress pants

I got most things from the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic, the go-to stores for teachers. They're classic, affordable, and still cute. I don't completely stifle my personality, of course, but I make sure that any personal touches are subtle and appropriate. For example, one of my sweaters is in my favourite dark, bright pink, and I'll wear vibrant turquoise beads with the white button-down. Anyway, that's pretty much an idea of my teacher-clothes style. Non-fashion people, you can zone back in now.

My biggest issue when it comes to school dress is looking age-appropriate. Ok, not age-appropriate so much as older than the students. Every time I tell someone that I'll be teaching grades eleven and twelve, the reaction is always the same: "But you look like YOU could be a grade eleven or twelve!" I hate being asked for a hall pass or looked at funny because I go to the front of the class instead of sitting down in the back. Usually it's the adults who mistake me for someone younger, since the kids know I'm not dressed anywhere near cool enough to be one of them.

My amazing hairdresser recently helped me out on the looking-professional-and-not-seventeen front. She gave me a stylish, sophisticated (but low-maintenance) haircut, suggested a mature approach to eye makeup, and advised me to take more care with my accessories to make a thoughtful, put-together outfit. I'm not really the kind of person who makes much of an effort with any of those things, save my usual plain necklace/bracelet combo, natural-looking makeup, and occasionally-straightened hair, so being able to bring my look up a notch age-wise is important to me. I don't want to look overdone, but I do want to be taken seriously.

It seems a bit ridiculous to me that as our entire society shills "age-defying beauty," botox, viagra, etc etc, all with the goal of making the user look and feel younger, here I am struggling to do the exact opposite. So I'm making every effort to smile wider and laugh harder, if only to hasten the crows feet and prevent double-takes on Parent-Teacher night.

We don't start our placements til October, but sometime after we've started in our host schools, we'll post pictures of our teaching clothes to see if you approve or have any tips.

Dress Codes

2009-08-22T23:10:00.004-04:00

Ashley, from Canadian Chalkboard gave me the idea of posting about dress codes. I'm a little surprised that we haven't touched on this topic yet but hey, we're doing it now.

When you think back on teachers you've known or seen, you can probably see a large range between what they've worn to school. I, personally, have seen teachers go anywhere between jeans and a t-shirt, to full out business attire (complete with suit and everything). So what does that mean for us young and upcoming teacher candidates?

From what I've been told by various principals (who are normally the ones responsible for the dress code), elementary school teachers have the privilege of having more lax dress codes than high school teachers. I mean, that makes sense; one of the main functions of dressing professionally as a high school teacher is to distinguish yourself from the students so obviously, this is less of an issue in elementary schools.

I've been told that for the most part, as young teachers, we should always err on the side of professionalism. As a guy (Courtney could probably tell you more from the girls side), the most casual attire I wear to prac is a polo shirt and khakis. I have, on a few occasions, worn jeans to teach but those days have always been accompanied by a professional-ish looking sweater. I don't recall ever having worn jeans and a T-shirt to teach. Most teachers/principals would probably tell you that it's not such a good idea, particularly if you're young looking. Generally, as a guy, khakis and a polo shirt is probably as casual as you want go get if you're a young teacher.

On the flip side, I have never been able to bring myself to wear a jacket (of the suit variety I mean). I know some teachers like to do this; I honestly think that it's unnecessary if all you want to do is look professional. If suits are your thing then go right ahead; no one is going to criticize you for looking too professional. I also don't like wearing a tie. That's not to say that I don't wear them during prac. I just don't like them... which translates into me forcing myself to wear them maybe once or twice a week. I personally don't see anything wrong with wearing dress pants, belt, and a dress shirt, sans tie but some people will also say that it looks sloppy.

So for the most part, here is what I've done (and I've yet to hear someone criticize me on my system). Mondays are almost always business attire, sans jacket - that is to say, dress shoes, dress pants, belt, dress shirt, and tie. Fridays are almost always casual - that is to say, polo and khakis. And the rest of the week falls somewhere in between, following in a natural progression. Sometimes I wear a tie on Tuesdays, sometimes I wear a polo shirt on Thursdays. BUT, the one rule I have (if you haven't noticed) is that I always go from more professional to less. It just... works better that way.

Winter/cold weather makes things easier (for me) because professional looking sweaters are more comfortable than ties and you can pretty much substitute one for the other. Right? Because when the weather gets warm and, understandably, you want to wear a short-sleeve dress shirt, I feel like I have to compensate by wearing a tie.

And really, all this is just what I've found works for me. The point is just to make sure you, a. don't look like a student, and b. look like you're a professional. Your demeanor and the way you carry yourself is part of that too. If you walk professionally and talk professionally, no one's really going to notice that you're not wearing a suit. And while we're still young and we're used to caring about fashion, the truth is that you could probably wear the same 3 to 4 sets of clothes every week for the entire year, and nobody would notice. Seriously, the students don't care enough about us to notice what we're wearing. The only exception is if you wear literally the same thing everyday. Then they will notice. And even then, it won't really matter either way.

I should probably stress the demeanor part. Except I don't really know what to say except to reiterate what I said above. Professional behavior is just as much a part of appearing professional as the actual clothes you wear.

I would also like to point out that I'm pretty sure Dr. Morrison wore a suit to every class.

Re: Teen Angst Prevention Methods

2009-08-17T21:44:00.004-04:00

I also have an interesting story! It took place during my practicum last year. One of the benefits of having 2 teachers in a class (host teacher + candidate) is that it really allows a lot of flexibility. One such occasion occurred when for some unknown reason, a student in grade 10 Essential English got placed into Ms. V's grade 10 Applied English. He wasn't even doing the same thing as the class... he just had instructions to work quietly at the back of the room. I have no idea how or why this happened but there it was. Well, here's where having a second teacher came in handy. We reworked the seating a bit so Ms. V would teach the Applied class while I worked with this student in a corner.

This is obviously never going to happen but I would just like to say how beneficial it is to teach students 1-on-1. I was "briefed" about him before I started working with him; I can't remember exactly what I was told but something about him not having a great attendance record and not putting in enough effort or some such thing. But here's what ended up happening. He would walk into the class, sit down, and the first thing I did was casually say, "How are things?" and whatever follow-up prompt seemed necessary depending on his reply. Sometimes, he would talk for about 10 minutes before we even got down to work. But I found that once he had said his bit, he always worked very diligently... AND, he never skipped that class.

Now, the point of that illustration was not to toot my own horn. But what I did learn from this experience is that, as Courtney says, it's not that they actually don't want to pay attention. And a lot of the times, it's not like they have some deep, dark secret that's plaguing them (although this does happen). I mean, this student... sometimes he just had some fairly simple stuff on his mind, like what to get his friend for a birthday present. I was convinced, though, that being able to just discuss this birthday present for 5 to 10 minutes meant that he wasn't thinking about it during our actual work period.

I knew I was onto sometime there but I didn't realize it fully until I taught another class under a different teacher. What he (Mr. H.) always did was for the first 5-10 minutes of class having an open discussion at the beginning of every class. I think his first words were always "So, first things first... any news, ideas, going-ons, etc," and I really do believe that that contributed not only to classroom management, but the well-deserved respect he got as well. Now, obviously, his method never elicited any personal issues. But like I said, it's not ALWAYS about personal issues. And it also made his students feel like he cared about what they had to say about anything THEY considered important or interesting. And as Courtney says, that is key. Not only that, but you just may learn a thing or two you didn't know about. And don't think of it as 10 minutes you could have spent cramming in more curriculum stuff. Think of it as the 10 minutes you just saved that you would have had to have spent getting your kids to pay attention. Because I also never had any classroom management problems in Mr. H's class.

Because it really makes it seem like a trade off. We care about what they have to say so they should care about what we have to say. High expectations are important, but you have to let them know that you understand what your high expectations mean. It's not just saying "I expect you all to do well because I 'know' you can" (<-- teachers must be psychic... the things that my teachers claimed to "know" in high school astounded me), it's saying "I expect you to do well because I believe that you have the ability to participate in extra-curriculars, be a good friend, daughter/son, citizen, have a social life, deal with the cosmic natures of life, love, and the universe, and STILL excel in my class".

Eesh, just looking at that list... I'm amazed that they CAN do all that. But they are teenagers. Teenagers can do amazing things.

Teen Angst Prevention Methods

2009-08-17T20:19:00.007-04:00

We're in that weird limbo-y time when summer's not quite done and we're beginning to see the new school year on the horizon. We've got a big collection of ideas for future posts, but in a lot of cases we've chosen to hold off on posting until we've started to attend our education classes. We'll even keep a few for the first few days of our practica (not that we'll have any shortage of things to chatter about then). All this to say, we probably won't be having too many "big question" type posts in the next two weeks. But never fear, the challenging stuff will return eventually. Think of it as a last little vacation for your brain.

For now, we wanted to address the topic of teen angst and discuss some strategies to keep it from hijacking your lessons.

Jon is planning to teach middle school, and I've got my heart set on the senior grades of high school (though we'll see what we end up with in a few years...). You remember my post awhile ago about teenagers being world champion whiners? ("But miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss, nobody CARES what it felt like in the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar. We just want our cellllllllphones baaaaaack!")

Well, teens and tweens may be prone to over-exaggerated complaining, but it's important to keep in mind that they do still have completely legitimate problems and causes of stress. You remember what it was like to be in grade seven, not sure whether your outfit was trendy or just completely tragic, still figuring out this whole deodorant concept, wondering why fractions just fly out of your head when that cute girl with the sparkly nail polish walks by your desk... and in high school it's even worse. The hormones triple in intensity just when you think you're starting to manage them, you're now having to take on extra-curriculars so you'll get into university, and your boyfriend doesn't understand why you can't talk to him for three hours every night. And I am just scratching the surface of worries and issues that will plague our students and keep them from doing their best in our classes.

It's important to hold your students to a high standard of achievement in your classes, because high school and middle school are the times to learn how to handle several conflicting commitments at once. Think of the struggles you're having in your life right now-- you're nervous about starting a new program, you're juggling your friends and significant others, you're trying desperately to stick to a reasonable budget-- this stuff will always pile up. What you want to do is equip your students with the tools to evaluate and overcome the stresses of adult life.

The most valuable thing you can do as a teacher is care about your students. Help them, teach them, but above all, care about them.

I took a particularly demanding English theory class in my second year of university. It was interesting, though, so most days there was lots of class participation and we all tried to raise our points, even if it was just a question or a statement about our first impressions. One day, as exams were looming, our prof just kept asking questions only to be presented with a sea of blank faces and dead silence. So instead of presenting us with yet another leading question about Lacan, she simply asked, "Are things ok with you guys?"

Tentatively, a hand went up.

"I stayed up all night finishing a paper for another class, and my housemate disturbed my two short hours of sleep this morning by arguing with her boyfriend."

"My parents want me to come home in between exams but I really need to stay here and focus, but they don't understand."

"I'm pretty sure I'm failing stats."

"My boyfriend just broke up with me."

We spent a half hour discussing all the things that were preventing us from focusing during class, and then our professor let us leave early. She later published an article in a journal for university instructors (I couldn't find the link, sorry!) that described that day as an epiphany for her-- when the students aren't responding, it isn't necessarily your material; instead, they could have any number of problems that you just don't know about.

For us, it felt so liberating to get those worries off our chests, and so comforting to know that one of our profs actually cared to listen to our stressed-out rantings. She didn't give us any extensions on our paper or any less readings, but she gave us a small, meaningful hour of mercy when we felt we could barely keep our heads above water.

Now, as a high school or middle school teacher, you can't turn your classroom into a public forum for airing out complaints (cue the whining). But if you see a student really struggling, take them aside and ask them if anything is bothering them. You'll have to be careful to stay professional, but a referral to a counselor or even lending an ear for a few minutes will not only alleviate stress for the student, it'll show them that they're not just another annoying kid to you-- you care about their success.

Re: The ESL (ELL) Question

2009-08-16T09:44:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure what the accepted term for learning English as a foreign language is at this very moment, but since my host school calls their courses 'ESL' and I will be teaching some of those courses, I'm just gonna go with ESL for now.

You will have noticed that I'm a few days late in posting my response to Jon. This is not because I'm exceptionally busy (though I am), but because I needed to take a little more time to think about the ESL question. I've never had any experience with teaching ESL before, but now that I'll be spending 3 months teaching it, it's taken on a whole lot more importance for me. So I wanted to do it justice.

I'm fluent in both English and French, and though I can't exactly be said to have a knack for languages per se, I do find it interesting to explore other cultures-- and language naturally becomes a part of that exploration. When I visited Portugal last summer with my best friend (who is Portuguese), I learned a few basic sentences and words before I left and picked up a lot of little things once I was immersed in living with her crazy Portuguese family. I found, to my surprise, that after less than a week I was able to pick out a phrase here and there while they were talking. I couldn't get by on my own with my 100 or so Portuguese words, but I had made a start.

To expect every ESL teacher to be fluent in all the languages of his or her students is nigh on impossible. It would be ideal, certainly, but it's not a very practical expectation. In my opinion, though, you don't have to be fluent to show your students that you appreciate their language and the effort they're making to learn English.

It's really easy (and quite fun) to reserve one or two periods each semester to have your students teach you. You'll then be able to draw comparisons between the grammar/vocab in Korean, Russian, or Farsi and English to facilitate their understanding. So by all means, research as much as you can on the language and culture of your students-- your teaching will improve by leaps and bounds. That willingness to learn from your students even as they are learning from you is the difference between a good teacher and a great one.

I agree with Jon that another possible roadblock to your students' fluency is that they won't be fully immersed in the English language. It's your job and your responsibility to find ways to bridge those little gaps. Kids love challenges, especially if they're fun, so make a point to assign 'alternative' homework at least once or twice a week. Instead of giving them a worksheet on verb tenses, for example, task them with watching a popular English sitcom and looking up every word they don't understand. Rather than memorizing vocabulary, have them teach their parents and siblings how to call 911 or order a pizza. When you get your students started with exercises that are both fun and useful, they'll keep doing them regardless of whether you've assigned it.

Like Jon, and perhaps some of you, I'm very, very new to the world of ESL. I'm so excited to be learning more about how to work with students who are learning English, and I can't wait to share my experiences on this blog.

Has anyone else taught ESL before? Got any tips or tricks for us?

The ESL (ELL) Question

2009-08-13T20:27:00.007-04:00

I'm not sure exactly when ESL got its abbreviation changed to ELL (English Language Learners for those of you who, like me, were late to receive this memo). I remember being told something about ESL being politically incorrect because it presupposes that ESL students only have one primary language before English... even though "English as a Secondary Language" actually doesn't presuppose anything of the sort. As far as I know, you can have a whole plethora of languages that are secondary as long as they're not primary. Or maybe it was actually "English as a Second Language" and that presupposition really was there. In which case, we could have just added the "dary" and it would have worked out without changing the abbreviation. Cue obligatory How I Met Your Mother reference.

ANYHOW!

No, what I really wanted to talk about was the question of ESL (as I shall continue to refer to it, having proved that it's not really politically incorrect). Or at least, some of the thoughts I've been having about it.

You see, I've been reading one of the books for prof 191. "A Letter to Teachers," not to be confused with "Letters to a Young Teacher" (I think they deliberately did this to test our literacy). The author, Vito Peronne, sounds like he'd get along with Alfie Kohn. They're both ultra-progressive educators who are proponents of grand ideals regarding how education should be. But he mentioned something about other cultures that ties into the whole ESL question.

"There is an enormous shortage of bilingual teachers able to meet constructively the growing numbers of non-English-speaking children in the schools. 'English only' is not an acceptable answer. Support for diverse languages is absolutely essential. Otherwise, we place severe limits on more generations of young men and women."

I haven't yet actually had the experience of being an ESL teacher. And when I do, I don't know how I will feel about the whole issue. On the way hand, it's not like I want to stifle diversity. And I do have a great deal of respect for people who are fluent in more than one language. I often wish I myself were fluent in more than one language (no, I am not deluded enough to consider my Mandarin "fluent"). So to that effect, I do understand where Peronne is going with it.

At the same time, I remember sitting in on an ESL class back in high school during my spare. And I could not help thinking to myself how terrible it must be to be Ms. Brooke, who was also my own grade 12 English teacher (and a great one at that). I don't know if I'd still feel that way now, but that is definitely how I felt back then. Because I realized what was happening was that most of the students were making extremely slow progress; and the REASON for this was because ESL class (and other classes taught in English) was the ONLY time they would ever use English. They wouldn't use it at home, they don't watch English television, all their friends speak the same first language as them. There were 1 or 2 exceptions who had friends that spoke English; their proficiency with the language got so much better simply based on that fact alone. And to me, that has always demonstrated that in order to learn any language, you have to use it, not just in the context of a classroom, but in your daily life as well.

Here's the thing. As an ESL teacher in Canada, your job is to help your students become proficient in English. You can talk all you want about diversity but in the end, this is an English speaking country. And there are students who are simply not proficient enough at English to pass a basic, grade 10 literacy test. When I say "English Only," even if I were teaching a History class or a Civics class, it won't be because I want to stifle their culture, it'll be because they don't need practice with their native language. But they need to practice their English if they are going to live in an English-speaking country. And yes Peronne, the ministry of education sometimes has some crazy, militant policies about what students should or should not know, but basic literacy in English is not unreasonable.

Celebrating diversity is good. But I think there is a risk of forgetting that there's a reason why students are not celebrating their own culture in the country from which their culture originates. If they're here in Canada, part of the education system requires them to be proficient in English (and French to an extent!). It is, as they say, part of the deal when you choose to study here. And as an English teacher, I have already accepted the fact that many of my ESL students will make no effort to improve their English outside the classroom. The least they can do is make the effort within it.

Re: The Phys Ed Question

2009-08-11T08:25:00.006-04:00

Ok, full disclosure: I hate gym. I hate gym now, I hated gym in high school, and I feel confident that I will always hate gym on principle even though I'll never have to take it again. I'm bad at every sport imaginable, I was never one of those kids who went off to the park on the weekends (when my mom kicked me outside on nice days, I would sit on the front lawn and read), and I don't really see the point of running around in circles chasing a ball. I played rec soccer for most of my young life, and I have a solid, fairly intense fitness routine in my adult life, but Phys. Ed. classes were always the bane of my existence.

Though I still (clearly) have some pretty strong feelings about the class, now that I'm several years past the mandatory Phys. Ed. age, I can boil that hatred down to three causes:

1. The teachers' attitudes
2. The class content
3. The student hierarchy

Obviously my opinions are based on my own experiences, and I do know that there are many, many exceptions to the negative aspects of gym class. I certainly agree that Phys. Ed should be mandatory, at least in grade 9, because the point of grade 9 is to get a good foundation in as many subjects as possible so students can make an informed choice about what elective subjects to pursue in the future. However, the experience of Phys. Ed. would be much less painful, and the students far more likely to continue to take these classes, if a few changes were made.

1. The teachers' attitudes. I've had a couple of great gym teachers, but the majority have just been grown-up versions of those annoying jocks in high school (to clarify, not all jocks are annoying, but the annoying ones are. I'm sure you know which ones I'm referring to). In an English or Science class, when a student doesn't have an aptitude for the subject, the teacher works with them to help them improve and guides them through activities and assignments that will make the class more enjoyable and relatable. This isn't always the case, but I've never encountered a classroom teacher that showed actual contempt for the students who struggled with their material. Most of my gym teachers, on the other hand, either acted openly disdainful of non-athletic students, or gave up altogether and just ignored the weaker kids. Perhaps this is because Phys. Ed. is not considered to be a class where at least some degree of success is imperative, since half the kids are going to stop taking it as soon as they can. But let me tell you, I wouldn't have stopped taking it so early if I hadn't heard audible sighs of disappointment from my gym teacher every time I attempted the high jump. Really, kids are not stupid. They can tell when you think they're a failure.

2. The class content. You know what I hate more than gym class? Dodge ball. Dodge ball must have been invented by some sadistic, power tripping former bully, because it is one of the most torturous academic experiences for anyone ever labeled as a 'geek.' Seriously, dodge ball? Who in their right mind would ever think that allowing 14-year-olds, with all their teenaged issues and drama, to throw balls at each other as hard as they possibly can is a good or even appropriate idea?? And football? Volleyball? Track? To me, they're all either hopelessly boring or completely impossible.

3. The student hierarchy. I did take gym as an elective in grade 10, to get another French credit, and by that time it wasn't so bad. By grade 10, the bullies had learned that their middle school tactics just didn't fly in this new environment, the awkwardness of puberty was starting to balance out, and we had all had plenty of time to see that our fellow classmates were actually sort of interesting, nuanced human beings. I still didn't love sports, but going to Phys. Ed. was dreaded slightly less than in previous years. On a few occasions, I even had fun. But in grades 6-9, everything is the opposite. Kids are cruel, and in gym class they're given far too much power. There are few things more crushing than having to stand against the wall, stared at by all of your peers, praying that you get picked even second last. Ugh, that horrible pause as the team captain du jour decides which of 3 nerds would be less disastrous to have on their team-- you felt so ashamed you could vomit. I appreciated it when the teacher allowed me or some of my fellow gym-failures to pick teams, but everyone knew he or she was only doing that because we were always picked last. That humiliation, bad enough on its own, was always picked up by the bullies, who made life even worse afterwards. The very nature of Phys. Ed., with it's competitiveness and clear indication of who is skilled and who is not, takes all the awful pre-teen teasing that happens surreptitiously at desks and lockers and brings it out into the open-- even encourages it in some situations.

Alright, that little rant probably told you all as much about my own insecurities and neuroses as it did about the state of Phys. Ed., but if this is still my reaction years afterwards, that's a problem. That being said, I'm just one little nerd with my own nerd opinions, so I'd welcome the perspective of anyone who thinks I'm whiny or lazy or bitter that I'm not perfect at everything. Because yeah, I am all of those things, to a certain degree.

But here's what I think-- to really improve Phys. Ed., give the kids:

1. A supportive, encouraging teacher with a positive attitude toward all students;

2. A curriculum that teaches teamwork and healthy exercise not only through traditional Phys. Ed. sports like football and baseball, but other activities like yoga, pilates, archery, cycling, cricket, rowing, dance, weight-lifting, etc etc etc; and

3. A zero-tolerance policy with regards to bullying or student hierarchy. Pick the teams at random, for heaven's sake!

That's all they really need to make Phys. Ed. not only tolerable, but actually fun-- whether you're a jock or a nerd or somewhere in between.

Since I took a very subjective, personal approach to this topic, I would love to hear dissenting opinions. Or, you know, if you agree that dodge ball is the worst sport imaginable, or if you happen to have anecdotes about how hilariously awful you were in gym class (remember the 20 different times I hit myself on the head with the volleyball? Those were some good times), let me know in the comments.

The Phys. Ed. Question

2009-08-10T20:09:00.007-04:00

Ah, the age old Phys. Ed. question. First, a story!

When I was in high school, I was twice involved in a debate over the question of whether or not Phys. Ed. should be a mandatory subject past the 9th grade. The first attempt was a complete and utter disaster. Why? Because it involved a bunch of 15 year olds sitting around in an English class, who preferred debating over curricular academia. You can probably guess what happened but I'll say it anyway: the entire thing devolved into a giant shouting match between the athletes vs. the non-athletes.

So much for that attempt. The second one was better. It occurred during a Model (Mock) UN practice session. It was an exercise (<-- ha!) designed to force us into defending views we don't necessarily agree with. The theory being that we're assigned countries at random for the Model UN conferences and although we might not agree with said country's foreign policies, we had to be able to defend them or else face penalization for not being consistent with reality. For example, I was assigned Zimbabwe once. You know that Mugabe character? The one whose policies have been condemned by, oh, THE WORLD? Yeah well, I had to, essentially, be him. So it was a good exercise. Even then, it was an interesting debate. So I thought I'd take today to write about it a bit. I'm sure many of you have already formed your opinions about Phys. Ed. way back in high school. But I thought I'd put forth the essential positions (as I remember them). For and Against Phys. Ed. to be mandatory past the grade of 9 (grade 10 or 11, say).

For:
Exercise is good. There isn't really any debate as to whether or not it's beneficial for people. It improves circulation, concentration and health.

Against:
Exercise may be good. But shouldn't that be our choice to make? After all, there are lots of things that are good for us that we aren't forced to do. There aren't very many subjects that are mandatory past grade 9. Why should Phys. Ed. be any more mandatory than French or Geography?

For:
Instead of comparing Phys. Ed. with subjects that are not mandatory, let's look at some that are. English, Math, and Science are the three subjects that are mandatory, to some extent or another, past grade 9. Without getting into a debate as to why these subjects are mandatory, it's fairly safe to say that they're mandatory because they're regarded as "universally" important and thus require further studies beyond grade 9. Is good health and exercise not universally important? Aside from English - mandatory because we acknowledge that being able to communicate is universally important - you would be hard pressed to build a case that says that Physical Education is less universally important than, say, knowing how to factor a quadratic equation. And we stress "universally important" because one of the reasons why certain subjects are no longer mandatory past grade 9 is because we recognize that at that point, students should not be forced to study subjects that they aren't interested in; that certain subjects are useful only to those who are interested in studying it further. But this is not the case for Phys. Ed. No matter who you are, exercise is beneficial to you.

Against:
That doesn't change the fact that that should be a choice that is left up to the students. These are decisions about their own lives that they should have a right to make.

For:
Then why have mandatory courses at all? Why not just let them take whatever they want to take? Don't want to learn French? Fine, don't take it. Don't want to learn English? Math? Science? That doesn't work. The reason why we have mandatory courses is because we recognize that certain subjects are important, regardless of whether or not the students are "interested" in learning about them. Just because Phys. Ed. emphasizes physical well-being rather than mental well-being doesn't make it any less important.

Against:
And what about the competitiveness in the Phys. Ed. program? It's easy for an athlete to say "Oh, physical health is important so we should have Phys. Ed. past grade 9". They're not the students who are forced to feel self-conscious when they can't keep up with the rest of their classmates.

For:
You're going to have strong students and weak students in every class. Phys. Ed. is not an exception.

Against:
It's an exception insofar as it's a class where these differences are most visible to others. There's a reason why we don't publicize everyone's mark in our class. Unless a student chooses to share his/her mark, their achievement in class is strictly confidential. Phys. Ed. is different. You essentially publicize every student's mark every class.

For:
You're honestly convinced that the students in your class don't know where they rank on the academic ladder?

Against:
It's not so much that as much as it's not openly publicized. Furthermore, it's less of a social stigma to be weak academically than it is to be the last one in a race or the one who can't score any points in basketball.

For:
That isn't something we can ever know for sure. And even if that were true, then the argument really should be that the faculty of Physical Education needs to undergo reform in order to meet the needs of all students while helping them maintain a healthy, active, lifestyle; that it should be less competitive and stigmatizing, but mandatory nonetheless.

END

That is the gist of what I seem to recall from high school, diffused among the yelling, screaming, and name-calling (Jock! Nerd! Lazy ass! Muscled-megalomaniac!). That was simply a demonstration, not my own opinion on the matter. For those of you who are dying to hear my opinion, I am secretly of the opinion that Phys. Ed. should be mandatory (not a secret any longer I guess). I recognize that I'm biased, being of the athletic variety, so I'm not a heated proponent of it either way. But if I was forced to choose a side, I do think exercise is important to our general well being and I do think, sometimes, that we need to be forced into doing it until we develop the good habits to do it on our own (<-- this is a sign of a good gym teacher). As usual, I think it's a question of principle. If Phys. Ed. were mandatory and if I were a Phys. Ed. teacher, I think I would try and inspire students into making exercise a part of their life. It's the same thing with English. It might be a mandatory subject but I will be doing my darndest to make my students feel like they would elect to take it anyway if it were optional.

More Comments on 100 Tips for New Teachers

2009-08-06T20:12:00.006-04:00

“Don’t hit the kids and don’t hit on the kids.”

That is brilliant. It's apt, concise, and clever. While Jamie Huston posted his first set of tips right before the beginning of the school year, his second set comes at the end of that school year. So it's interesting just to note that these are 50 more tips he's learned simply by teaching for a year.

One thing I do want to note about this list is that while Courtney and I don't agree with everything, Jamie has at least made it clear that these are his personal opinions and that we should take everything with a grain of salt. So the fact that he is open-minded enough to acknowledge this instantly strikes me favorably and I would like to make a similar reminder to anyone who reads our blog. That being said...

A Response to 50 More Things New Teachers Need To Know

3. Always remember: administrators are politicians. Many, perhaps most, are personable and caring, and try to support you and help students, but nobody ever became an administrator for those reasons. No, people get office jobs because it offers more salary and authority, and any administrator’s first priority will always be protecting their own career. If you ever end up having a serious problem with a parent or student, your administrators might defend you…but don’t count on it. You can like your leaders, but don’t ever trust them. The risk to yourself is too great.

I found this interesting because it's the first time I had ever really heard this kind of comment. I don't have enough knowledge to agree or disagree either way (maybe some of you do) but I think it's something we should keep an eye on during our upcoming year of prac. Or at least think about.

5. Make copies of good and bad examples of student writing (anonymously, of course–scratch out any visible names) that you’ve corrected, and use them in class to show how papers should be edited. Students love this, and it’s a powerful, practical lesson (also, a good routine). Make transparency copies, or see if your school has those new projectors that display normal papers.

This I also find to be a point that could either way. I had a university prof do this once and I do agree, it was helpful. But I wasn't the poor sod whose essay got ripped apart (albeit anonymously). I suppose, even if I was, I'd be ok with it. But I would be. I don't know how other students would respond to seeing their essay on a transparancy and then hearing "Now this... whoo boy... this is how NOT to write an essay!" (<-- don't say this).

8. Be careful about missing days of work. Any plans you leave for a sub will probably be ruined, and if you purposely leave busy work to avoid that problem, it’s still a wasted day for the class.

This I agree with - and I'm sure anyone who's ever experienced having a substitute teacher, either as a student, or a student-teacher, will agree. There have been times when I have simply volunteered to cover my host teacher with an actual lesson during her absence and this has worked just fine. But I have also, in earlier pracs, experienced a class in which the teacher simply left busy work... that did not go over well. This is not to say that you should never take sick days. You know, you gotta do what you gotta do. But the point remains; your absence is not good for the class.

17. Don’t volunteer to be an adviser for any clubs, activities, or teams your first year. These are a lot of work. Schools like to take advantage of new teachers and sell them on running things, but you need to focus on your classroom before investing time in other stuff. I knew one guy who went to a bad school his first year and was given the yearbook and the student newspaper to do. That was a ton of work, and it nearly smothered him. If you have an activity or sport you love, feel free to throw your hat in the ring to run it…your second year teaching.

Eh... I don't know about this one. We've spoken about this before. No, it's not good to overload yourself with work your first year. But I mean, if you really enjoy something, I don't see why you shouldn't go for it. It'll give you a chance to do something with your students that you both enjoy, it might give them a chance to know you as someone other than their heinous English (or Math or Science or whatever) teacher who won't stop trying to get them to write in the active voice.

18. When students come into your room before or after school, the first thing you need to do is prop the door open.

Fact. Let's not forget this one.

24. When a male teacher sees a female student obnoxiously out of dress code, he needs to ask a female colleague to talk to her and take the appropriate action. Men, do not approach this yourself and open yourself up to potential problems or accusations by “noticing” a tube top or short shorts or whatever. Women, please don’t resent having to pick up the slack on this. Actually, you’ll have a better chance of impressing better choices for appearance on these girls than any man would, anyway.

This one is also interesting. I have never been told this before but when I think about it, it's actually probably a good idea. Teaching is one of the only professions I know that can be a lot more difficult for men - and it's because of this kind of stuff. I remember someone coming to talk to us in prof class and she was like "Statistics show that 33% of male teachers get accused/charged with a sexual offense in their lifetime". The guys in the class (all 6 of us) look at each other and we were all like "Hmm... I wonder which 2 of us it'll be". The advice I have always been given, no matter who I talk to, is always better to be safe than sorry.

27. If your room has an intercom or speakers for the school to ring bells or make announcements, see if you can muffle them by taping some foam or padding over them. Those things get loud and they’re irritating.

So I'm supposed to muffle important announcements and the bell that indicates when the class begins and ends. Seriously, how irritating can that actually get? I don't know if I'll be doing this. I... simply see no reason why it's necessary.

32. Don’t be a gum Nazi. It isn’t worth it. Yes, this means there’s a slightly higher chance that some will end up under desks or even on the floor, but that risk just doesn’t justify constant vigilance on your part. You have too much else to do. Yes, get on their case if they blow bubbles or play with it, but the vast majority of kids never will.

There was one time, when I was in high school, where I was "caught" chewing gum. I wasn't chewing it obnoxiously, I wasn't talking with it in my mouth, I wasn't blowing bubbles or anything, I wasn't even chewing with my mouth open. It was the period after lunch and I simply forgot it was there. My teacher (who happened to be a gum nazi), gave me a lecture and I had to clean his boards after school. Before this incident, I always considered him a pretty good teacher. I lost all respect for him. He asked me the next year (grade 12) why I wasn't taking any of his courses (since I was probably one of his best students). I told him I couldn't fit it into my schedule. The real reason? Yeah, the gum incident. Moral of the story. DON'T BE A GUM NAZI. The bad kids do it anyway and the good kids hate the fact that you're an anal retentive. But by all means, if your students are being obnoxious with their gum, hammer down.

35. PC Myth #6: “Multiculturalism is important.” No it isn’t. Maybe minority cultures play an important role in your subject, or a certain part of it, and maybe not. Whichever way happens to be the truth, your subject is what it is. Don’t warp it to suit anyone’s agenda.

Yeah it is. Why? Because when he says "your subject is what it is," what he's really saying is "your subject has been written by the dominant culture/ethnicity that claims to be objective when it really isn't". The agenda has been warped. We are merely unwarping it. Definition of multiculturalism: making sure that each culture gets credit where credit is due. Just because they haven't historically been given credit for the part they play doesn't mean that's how your "subject is".

44. Trail mix, nuts, granola bars, and bottled water are your friends. Keep a stash in your desk.

Every year when I teach, I always forget to bring a bottle of water with me into my first class. I always regret it. Ms. V. says that when you do it for long enough, your body naturally produces a saliva surplus that you automatically use to quench your thirst. I personally prefer a bottle of water. But that's up to you; if you want to salivate into a mug and use it as a fluid reserve... whatever floats your boat.

46. Avoid or be very strict about student presentations using PowerPoint. I know “technology is the wave of the future,” but most of these presentations are mind numbingly dull. Students come to rely on clip art animation and just read text from the screen.

Disclaimer for using Powerpoint in my class: your marks are not based on the number of times your text rolls around the screen before finally coming to a stop.

50. Take all advice with a grain of salt. Though there are simple, established things that are more effective than others (read Marzano’s Classroom Instruction That Works), teaching is still more of an art than a science. Everybody thinks they’re a good teacher, but not everybody’s right. Be skeptical about all experts and even “research” (which is rarely as objective as proponents would like you to think). Yes, this includes my lists. All fifty (or 100 total) of these things will not work for everybody. But many will. Your only two sure guides are common sense and experience. Take good notes, always be open to change, be flexible to responding to the needs of specific classes, and pay attention to everything. You’ll do great.

See, he even includes this in his list.

So in the end, I do have to say that he's less... crotchety after a year of teaching. Either that or he got all his crochety tips out of the way first and these are more learning experiences. But the point is, like he says, we're all going to encouter things that work for us and things that don't. Courtney is right, though. It's only by examining other people's teaching styles do you really understand the strengths and weaknesses of your own.

Our Comments on 100 Tips for New Teachers

2009-08-06T19:22:00.004-04:00

Alright, it's time for us to make our opinions known. I'm going to look at Jamie Huston's first 50 tips, and Jon's going to examine the last 50 (mainly because I know he quite enjoys the opening quip).

Before I start though, I wanted to address our habit of encouraging comments even though most of the people who visit our blog prefer to remain solely readers. We don't want anyone to feel like they're being pressured to comment-- we're just as happy for our blog to be a source of information or further discussion with friends as we are to have our comment section as a forum for discussion. So we are going to keep writing posts that allow for outside input, but we'll never take it personally if you'd rather keep your thoughts to yourselves! (that being said... we do love comments if you choose to make them, so don't be shy!)

Since it would be way too time-consuming to mention all 50 of Jamie's tips, we're both going to choose a few of our personal favourites (or least favourites) to comment on. Feel free to mention ones we miss!

50 Things New Teachers Need to Know: Courtney's Two Cents

4. Keep any positive notes from parents. This is such a great way to build your portfolio. And if you've having a particularly bad day, you can open up this file and remind yourself that you're a fantastic teacher.

8. Provide written directions for assignments. I know I preferred to have written directions to an assignment, so this is a good tip. To take it one step further, consider creating a class website where you can post homework, instruction for assignments, and even host a forum to discuss issues relevant to your class outside of school. You might want to try using a resource for creating a class website, like http://www.classjump.com/

10. Don't ignore your smartest students. I could not agree more. I hated this when I was in school, and though I was pretty much the definition of a goody-goody, I did act out on occasion if I wasn't being challenged. Instead of having to devote more time to the students who are more advanced, take a quick moment to assign them a specific task or provide them with extra materials. They'll appreciate it and your class won't be disrupted.

12. Inspirational posters are worthless. Ok, this is where Jamie's no-nonsense teaching style clashes a bit with my own more upbeat approach. You should absolutely leave lots of room for student work on your walls, but it is my firm belief that the aesthetics of your classroom can play a supporting role in your efforts to provide a safe, engaging, challenging learning experience for your students. I also think grade twelves should be allowed to indulge their kindergartner side once in awhile. Anyone else agree? Disagree?

16. Hold students accountable to higher standards. I do, however, agree in principle that students should be held to a high standard. I won't necessarily implement this in the same way Jamie has (for example, I do think students should be comfortable in their environment), but I really do think that high school prepares kids for the real world. A corporate executive would never accept a sloppily-written report, and a contractor is going to lose clients if they don't complete the work in a reasonable amount of time. I'd rather my students get penalized for these types of mistakes in high school and avoid risking their careers in whatever field they may choose to work.

18. Whenever possible, segregate boys and girls. To borrow a word from Jamie, this seems like "horsefeathers." Unless you have a specific academic purpose in separating by gender (i.e., you're doing a simulation on the contrasting roles of men and women in 17th-century Quebec), this is unnecessary and ill-advised. Separate kids by interest, ability, or at random, but not by race, gender, or any similar category. That's not to say girls don't work well in an all-female environment, but if that's what you prefer, look into teaching at an all-boys or all-girls school. If you're in a co-ed school, you should be teaching a co-ed class.

20. Every subject should require a lot of memorizing. I disagree. It's fun and useful to have a few poems or facts to trot out 10 years from now at a party, but in the grand scheme of things, it's far, far more important that your students can analyze complex situations and think critically than that they can correctly recite the exact dates of every battle in the War of 1812.

22. Keep blank greeting cards on hand to encourage students. Positive feedback for students? Spectacular idea and something they'll really appreciate. However-- Thomas Kinkade? Surely you can be more creative than that. What kind of 16-year old thrills at the sight of a rustic country cottage? Instead, go for something really cool, like Roadside Diner Greeting Cards or, if you're an English teacher, Jane Austen Note Cards!

25. Avoid group work. I think this is all up to the teacher. I plan to become certified in the Tribes method of teaching, so personally I think group work can be incredibly beneficial. It also goes back to my point about #16, learning to function as an adult in society. We'll agree to disagree.

41. Students don't have to relate to content to learn. Another fundamental teaching style difference for the esteemed Mr. Huston and myself. I guess I fall into the category of "PC" teachers he has little respect for, but I think it makes learning more fun if a kid can make a connection between something he or she might see as stupid or pointless and their own life, which one assumes he or she considers neither stupid nor pointless. I'll still make my students study things they claim not to relate to if it's part of the curriculum and my lesson plan, but I'll make an effort to present things in a way that makes learning fun as often as I can.

47. If you have problems with a student, confer with his/her other teachers. This is smart, and something I might not have thought of myself. You're not alone in your classroom-- the other teachers are there to help you out. Even if a problem student's math teacher doesn't have the answers to your questions, you'll be able to collaborate to find a way to improve the situation and present a united front if parents and administrators become involved.

49. Collect homework as soon as the day starts. I could not agree more. I've pulled the old "I handed it in, you must have lost it" before (very long ago), and I'm not going to fall for that with my students. In my classroom, students will hand in their assignments when they walk in the door and I will make note of who has submitted work within 15 minutes of the class starting. Anyone who has failed to hand something in will be spoken to quietly before the period has ended to inform them of the consequences of their late assignment.

50. Never, ever take any work home with you. I just don't think this is realistic. I'll still have to take work home with me, it's the nature of the job. I'll be volunteering with extra-curriculars and planning lessons for the first several years, so I'll need some time outside of school to do marking. That being said, I'll be very careful to separate my work and home life. If you're stressed at school, the worst possible thing to do is to bring that stress into your only relaxing hours. Do anything you can to preserve your sanity!

I must say, having read through Jamie's tips again, I found more things that I disagreed with than I remembered from the first time around. I appreciate that though, because I really do feel like I have a coherent view of myself as an educator; I know what works for me and what doesn't. Did you have any especially positive or negative reactions to Jamie's first list? Let us know!

100 Tips for New Teachers!

2009-08-04T20:36:00.005-04:00

Phew, a week of panic is over-- our blog has been restored! Thank you, good people of Blogger. (we won't get into the fact that it is also their fault it disappeared in the first place...)

We decided that since we're a day off schedule and we've had a busy weekend, we'll do something light today.

But let me tell you, "light" does not mean useless. This is us, after all. During our forced hiatus, we tracked down a gold mine of teaching resources that we can't wait to share with our readers.

To start us off, here are the links to Jamie Huston's teaching blog, Gently Hew Stone. He's been teaching in Las Vegas for 9 years, and his "50 Things New Teachers Need to Know" and "50 More Things New Teachers Need to Know" posts are huge hits on the Internet.

Jamie has a very well-honed teaching style that he's obviously very comfortable with, and it seems to work. His style is quite distinct, and that's why we want to know your thoughts on it. What did you like, what had you never thought of, what struck you as off the mark? Will you implement any of these tips in your classroom? (we guarantee you will!) And given the difference in environment between Nevada and [insert your place of residence here], which of these are particularly well-suited or inappropriate for your future classes?

We'll be back on Thursday to sort out everyone's opinions and analyze Jamie's tips a little more closely. For now, take a close look at the links above and let us know what you think.

PS- And to get you through the rest of the week, here's a little collection of teacher-funny:

Cultural Studies, Part 2 (Books for Students)

2009-07-31T12:56:00.004-04:00

"So welcome to YouTube
You don't know what you're missing,
Just try searching women kissing,
It's YouTube
It's what this country's been needing,
A generation of kids who don't waste their time reading..."
-- Bo Burnham at YouTube Live

As teachers going into final year, I'm sure there will be LOTS of books we're required to read, all in the spirit of professional development. Courtney's talked a bit about these books in her post. But I thought I'd share some books that certainly, most of you probably won't be required to read. Not so much books that are meaningful to us as teachers (directly) but books that many of our students may find meaningful. And since our focus will always be on the student, these books might be indirectly significant to us as well. And if your students haven't read these books, these are some you can recommend. Curiously, I always consider it to be a sign that English, at least, is progressing, when some of these books actually find their way into the curriculum at some schools. That's not to say that 1984, A Brave New World, Shakespeare, The Chrysalids, Death of a Salesman, and The Lord of the Flies aren't solid academic books in themselves but you know... always good to read new books.

Books for Students

1. The Catcher in the Rye. One of the aforementioned "books that have made it into the curriculum," I was a little surprised to find it on the required reading list for an ENG3U class I was teaching. But that might just be me since I never considered this book to be particularly good. Certainly, though, it deals with some of the things many teenagers go through at some point or another in their life. It's a rather emo book in that sense. Bitter, emo, and the feeling that the world around him is fake and phony, it might not be my favorite book but I understand why a lot of teenagers will find themselves drawn to it.

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Another book that has made it into some curricula, this book is good for teachers to read simply because it's a real and meaningful look into the autistic world. It might be a stretch to assume your students will ever get around to reading this (unless it's part of the English curriculum at your school) but it's worth a read nonetheless.

3. Go Ask Alice. This is a tough read. But don't think for a minute that that means your students will never read it. This seems to actually be a rather popular book among the teenage circles (or it was a few years ago). Alice provides a real-life look into what it's like to be rejected by society and descend into a world of drugs and degeneracy. Particularly powerful because it's a true story.

4. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4. Sadly no longer as popular as it once was, this is still a book I would recommend to every adolescent. It's funny, it's neurotic, and it does a very good job at making you empathize with Adrian Mole without making you feel sorry for him. And it's a not altogether inaccurate portrayal of what a lot of boys go through when they're 13 3/4.

5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. I remember reading this and finding it much better than its adult counterpart (something about 7 habits of highly effective people). I haven't read it in years but from what I remember, it manages to be a pseudo-self-help book that's actually interesting to read. It also provides a pretty good insight into the teenage mind (shudder), from a teaching point of view.

6. Tuesdays with Morrie. This book is to teachers what A Walk To Remember is to hopeless romantics. Lessons we learn from great teachers that extend beyond the classroom/academia.

7. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Someday, I hope that this book becomes a part of the English curriculum. From a personal standpoint, this is like the perfect book. But I think a lot of teenagers will enjoy this coming-of-age tale. This is definitely something you can recommend to your students if they haven't already read it and I think it's safe to assume that a good portion of students who are even remotely interested in reading will pick this up at some point in their young lives.

I'm sure there are many more books that I, as a young, angst-ridden teenager missed. I think Jack Kerouac wrote one that was fairly popular. But as teachers, it's always good (especially as we get older) to read some of the books that are definitive of the generation we're teaching. It helps us remember, I think, what it was like to be young and why sometimes it's a miracle that kids even show up to class, much less pay attention.

Cultural Studies, Part 1 (Films for Teachers)

2009-07-30T20:42:00.008-04:00

Because seriously - teachers could do with seeing more films... and we all know students could do with reading more books. That's not to say that teachers are all huge bookworms and students are all film fanatics but you know... probably more likely that way around than the other. I'll likely add to this as I see more films/read more books but I thought I'd take the time to highlight some films that made me think about teaching in a different way, and some books that really influenced me when I was a student.

Films for Teachers:

1. Dead Poets Society. Carpe Diem! The definitive "this is why we should study English" film, it's very obvious why I think it's a great piece, not just for English teachers (though they will be able to appreciate it more), but for all teachers in general. Superb acting and dialogue, and some very interesting ideas we might integrate into our own lessons.

2. August Rush. A music teacher specialty. I might have trouble making music education as ultra-progressive as the ideas in this film. The idea simply being that "The music all around us. All you have to do is listen."

3. The Girl Next Door. No, this is not just my undying love for this film finding its way into every list of recommendations I make. We've written about moral education right? This is it. At its finest. I have a feeling this film will creep into my lessons here and there simply because it encapsulates one of the most important lessons I learned as a student. While we try to uphold the general standards of right and wrong in school, I think it's important to help our students understand that in real life, things are rarely defined that way; that sometimes, you've got to find out what it's like "to cheat, to steal, to lie, to live and die." If the juice is worth the squeeze...

4. Accepted. Highly highly unrealistic. But also highly entertaining and oddly revealing. The idea behind this film is valid. Accepted pits 2 very different ideas of "college" against one another. And while most real life colleges are somewhere in between, you have to give this film credit for trying to point out that while the pursuit of knowledge if all good and well, practical application SHOULD have a place in academia. As a teen comedy, Accepted would, of course, take this to the extreme (otherwise it wouldn't be FUNNY and then people would find it boring and then it wouldn't sell...), but the fundamental point is there.

5. Big Fish. All teachers should appreciate the value of storytelling. And that is exactly what Big Fish is about. Oftentimes, it's not so much what happens that's worth hearing; it's the way we present it. And we teachers will be presenting ideas all our lives so it's definitely a skill to practice.

6. V for Vendetta. Aside from being an excellent companion film to 1984 (and Guy Fawkes Day), I always liked some of the ideas presented in V for Vendetta: symbolism, politics and the relationship between the government and its people... and of course. there's the very excellent speech by Hugo Weaving as to why language and words are such powerful tools. As an English teacher, I always point out, if you can master the English language, you can talk like Hugo Weaving in V for Vendetta. And who doesn't want to have that kind of charm, charisma, and linguistic fluidity at their disposal?

7. Take the Lead. Aside from its cool dance moves, Take the Lead is also good because it shows that once you get students interested in something, they very often take their own initiative. The willingness of one teacher to sacrifice what Antonio Banderas sacrifices for his students is also inspiring to watch. Oh yeah, did I mention it's a true story?

8. The History Boys. An... interesting film to say the least. I don't think I can do anything better than to quote what flixster says about it: "The film centers on an unruly class of bright, funny teenage boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a college degree. Bounced between their maverick English teacher, a young and shrewd professor hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to sift through it all to pass the daunting university admissions process. Their journey becomes as much about how education works, as it is about where education leads."

9. Good Will Hunting(?). Apparently, this is good. I personally did not think it was all that impressive but enough people are convinced that it's a good teaching film that I feel obliged to put it on this list. And what do I know about film anyway?

Part 2 coming soon! Books for students, a.k.a. books you might consider reading/recommending to your own students.

Book Recommendation - The Film Club

2009-07-30T19:28:00.004-04:00

I love to read anything, but I've really gotten into books about teaching since I started ConEd. In fact, I just put in a rather hefty order with Amazon and the various (used) books are trickling in from bookstores all over the country. Two have arrived so far-- Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol, which I chose for an upcoming assignment, and The World is a Class: How and Why to Teach English around the World by Caleb Powell which Amazon recommended to me after I chose a book about teaching ESL which has yet to arrive on my doorstep. That Amazon recommending feature really works, since I bought about 4 books as a result of its suggestions. I'm not spending as much because I buy used, so I don't need to worry about feeling too guilty. It's professional development, after all!

Anyway, it's funny these books should arrive today, because I just started re-reading one of my favourite gems of teaching wisdom, The Film Club by David Gilmour.

This isn't a teacher's guide, or even a traditional memoir about a teacher's life. This book is about a man who allows his son Jesse, who is utterly disengaged from academics, to drop out of high school. Gilmour gives two conditions for this deal: His son is not to do drugs, and they must watch 3 films a week together. The Film Club chronicles a father's journey to educate his only son in a way that won't bore him or push him away.

There is so much to take from this book. First of all, it's great writing, straightforward and quirky. You are immediately drawn into the lives of these people. Secondly, the entire structure of the book revolves around the amazing films that David and Jesse watch. This book would keep your Friday movie nights stocked for months, even years.

But mostly, this book speaks to me as a teacher looking for new insights on how to motivate the unmotivated. And it gives hope to those of us who might plod along, trying desperately to reach those sullen teenagers.

I don't feel I can do The Film Club justice will my meagre descriptions, so you'll just have to go out and read it yourself. You can buy it used or new on Amazon for about $14, or grab it at your local library-- it won the Governor General's Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction (not sure how it can be both, but whatever), so if you're Canadian you'll definitely find it.

To conclude this nice light Thursday evening post, I'll include some quotes I found particularly gripping. Let me know what you think of one, some, or all of them.

On The Bicycle Thief (1948):

"... we sometimes calibrate our moral positions, what's right, what's wrong, depending on what we need at that particular moment."

On appreciating a story:

"You need to know how it ends before you can appreciate how beautifully it's put together from the beginning."

On university:

"'You know what I think,' I said. 'I think you belong in university. That's what they do there. They sit around talking about stuff like this. Except unlike a living room where there's just your dad, there's a zillion girls.'

At that he cocked his head. 'Really?'

And like that first day-- it seemed like ages ago-- with The 400 Blows, I knew to leave it there."

On film:

"There's a certain effect films have on you when you're very young, I explained; they give you an imaginative experience in a way that is hard to recapture when you're older."

And my very favourite:

"How little I can give him, I thought, just these little apple slices of reassurance like feeding a rare animal at the zoo."

And since I know Jon adores films of all kinds, I'll let him have at it.

RE: The Homework Question

2009-07-29T21:17:00.006-04:00

When I sat down to think about this issue and what my opinions on it were, I found that my reaction boiled down to one specific viewpoint: Yes, of course children should have homework. Homework is and always has been a part of life and they need to learn to do it just like everyone else.

My initial thoughts on the situation, which I am still inclined to stubbornly defend, must be challenged and questioned. That's what we're here to do, right?

So, is it really so important for kids to have homework? What are the benefits of homework? Is homework essential to the furthering of in-class studies, or is it simply an exercise in building character? And, since most adults don't actually bring work home on a regular basis (except teachers, woohoo), is homework really essential to a smooth transition into responsible adulthood?

In the end, I have to agree with what Jon and our amazing lone commenter, Ashley (we love you!) have pointed out. Yes, Alfie, in your wonderful world of unicorns, rainbows, and lollipops, kids should not have to do any homework. But in the real world, which tragically contains far fewer rainbows and lollipops than 5-year-old me could ever have anticipated, and NO unicorns at all, this just doesn't fly (much like those aforementioned non-existent unicorns).

Teachers in Ontario (and I think it's fair to assume virtually everywhere else) just don't have the time and resources to cover everything they need to in class. And honestly, I really don't think they should. Yes, it's frustrating to go home with an assignment and not know what's going on; this happens to kids often-- but that's why teachers mark homework or do in-class reviews to ensure everyone's understanding. Ultimately, isn't there a value to retreating into one's own space and drawing one's own conclusions independent of the classroom and teacher? As any former student could attest, you think about things differently in different environments. Something might occur to you while reading at home that will dazzle your teacher the next morning. Personally (though this may just attest to how great my family is, not the quality of my homework), I enjoyed bringing up an issue we had studied in class at the dinner table and learned of my parents' experience and opinions on it. It gave me a different perspective and honed my debating skills. That's learning right there, isn't it?

I don't think that we or any other truly caring teachers out there would assign homework for no reason at all. Teachers are as psyched as the students when they get to announce, "No homework tonight!" It means less marking and (probably) less resentment from the kids in the morning. A break from homework is important, if only to give all involved a much-deserved break. If the kids have done exceptionally well during school hours, it's fair to reward them with a night off. And if the students finish their homework in class, naturally there is no justification to pile them with more homework for the sake of character-building.

I do agree with Alfie that certain situations should be tailored to certain learners. In the Ontario high school system, students who are not planning to pursue a College or University education are not given the same amount or type of homework as those who do plan that particular future. As teachers, it is our responsibility to be aware of our students' strengths and weaknesses. Fair does not necessarily mean equal. But we're not superheroes, and we're going to assign homework where we see fit in order to meet the challenges of the curriculum standards.

This debate is never really over, especially not with only three voices contributing to the discussion. I can think of about twelve more arguments and anecdotes relevant to the homework question, but you've all still got summer-brain and we've gone on long enough! We'll revisit this subject as often as we can. It will be particularly interesting to see whether our opinions change when we're the ones responsible for marking 97 grade 10 essays...

P.S. - I've already dibsed "MOR HMWK" as a future vanity license plate, so no one's allowed to steal it or I'll hunt you down. I do know your license plate number, after all.

The Homework Question

2009-07-27T19:00:00.007-04:00

Read this link: "Breaking the Homework Habit"

I've read Alfie Kohn before I think in one of my previous prof classes. He's one of the big names in ultra-progressive education. So it really came as no surprise to me that he's a proponent of the "homework is largely unnecessary" school of pedagogy. Rather than write a long post about "homework" as a general idea, I think it'll be easier if I take some of his points one by one.

1.
"There’s no evidence that homework causes higher achievement. Nor are there any data to support the claims that homework builds character, promotes self-discipline, teaches good study habits, and so on."

This, I think, is mostly true. I don't know that there is any intrinsic, non-academic benefit to doing homework. I don't think homework builds character OR teaches good study habits. Good study habits are a unique brand of skills that don't come simply from the fact that you are doing homework. It's also true that it doesn't promote self-discipline since really, self-discipline is the art of doing something because it's good for you, not because it's bad for you NOT to do it (we call that "fear") and for the most part, I seem to recall homework being a product of the fear of failing, not because I, with some sense of heightened grandeur, was getting satisfaction out of "doing the right thing". The higher achievement part, we'll get to.

2.
(On addressing the question, "Doesn’t homework reinforce what students learned in school?")
"The kind of homework that’s supposed to “reinforce” can’t do anything more than make a behavior occur automatically. So, for example, after finishing umpteen worksheets, the stimulus of being asked to divide one fraction by another triggers the response of flipping the second fraction upside-down and multiplying the two fractions together. At best, this does nothing to help kids think, to grasp the mathematical principle involved. At worst, it actually discourages thinking."

This, I'm not so sure about. The first part is true: that rote memory - the kind of memory you practice from doing worksheets - does generate a trigger reaction to being asked certain kinds of question. But I think there's a failure here to distinguish between grasping the mathematical principle involved and actually performing the mathematical procedure. Because once you RECOGNIZE the kind of mathematical procedure you need to apply, who wants to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do about it? No, worksheets might not help kids think. But isn't that kinda the point? That's like saying that performing drills during baseball practice is bad because then the kids don't have to think about what they're doing during the game. The whole point is to get them to a point where, when they're given their bill at a restaurant, they don't have to be like "Hmm... so I'm supposed to give 15%... now how do I do this? Well, I know that 10% means I move the decimal point to the left... and then 5% is half of that... so..."

Also, it isn't true that all homework we assign can only help kids do something automatically. Even if I were to stick to "math" that seems to be the subject most suited to this kind of attack, the math textbooks I've seen have always had word problems that required you to think about how to apply the mathematical concept you've just learned. By assigning these problems, you "reinforce" the concept that you're taught in class by applying it correctly to certain hypothetical scenarios. Hardly seems like rote memory to me.

3.
"Most of all, we should be discussing the idea of regular homework, which is a bizarre idea when you stop to think about it [...] The premise here is that the very idea of homework -- regardless of its content -- is valuable. [...] My view is that we shouldn’t just have less homework or even better homework. Rather, we should change the default to 'no homework except on those occasions when it’s really necessary.'"

This is true. I think the idea of having homework for the sake of homework is silly. But I'm not so sure of how many teachers subscribe to this idea. I once had the same teacher teach me both math and computer science. We got homework everyday for math class and practically none for computer science. I really think that when he says we should change the default to "no homework except on those occasions when it's really necessary," that that is already more true than he thinks. It's just that these occasions are more common than he thinks. I mean, take English class as another example. Is he proposing that I give my students time in class to read The Lord of the Flies? Is he proposing that there should be enough class time dedicated to getting the books read in their entirety without having to assign the readings for homework? We're barely given enough time as it is to cover what we need to. In English, it will always be necessary for students to read books for homework. With science? Is he proposing that we give them enough time in class to type up their lab reports? With math? Is he proposing that we give them enough time in class to practice the mathematical concepts until they understand how to apply them? Is he going to amend the curriculum requirements to allow us the TIME to do this?

4.
"Even if you thought that practicing skills was more important than helping kids to understand ideas from the inside out, and even if you thought that this had to happen after school, the reality is that one size doesn’t fit all."

There is a sarcastic tone in this statement. As if practicing skills that require the application of a certain idea doesn't help kids understand the ideas from the inside out. As if we were given enough time to do this IN school.

5.
"Any educational practice or policy should be judged according to the effect it’s likely to have on kids’ desire to learn."

This is a rather unjustifiable statement to be putting forth as a maxim. Of course, it would be nice if everything we taught increased our students' desire to learn. I would hardly go as far as to say that we can only judge any education practice or policy based upon whether or not our students take kindly to it. Just because one of my students loves science and isn't driven to learn more about Shakespeare after I've taught Hamlet doesn't mean he didn't learn anything while studying it. Rather than saying "Any educational practice or policy should be judged according to the effect it’s likely to have on kids’ desire to learn," maybe it should read more like "Any educational practice or policy should be judged according to the effect it’s likely to have on kids’ ability to learn." This seems to me to be a much more noble and attainable pursuit.

So you see, homework might be a little more necessary than progressive educators, like Alfie Kohn, think. Now, keep in mind he's not saying that there should be no homework at all. He's merely trying to point out that we shouldn't assign homework just for the sake of it. And I know this and I really do respect this notion of only assigning necessary homework. I'm just of the opinion that homework is actually more necessary than he seems to indicate.

Say the AMOUNT of homework our kids got remained the same but it all suddenly became meaningful. Would that be a justifiable compromise? Or is the very idea of having to do work at home somehow intrinsically bad? That we should be getting all the educating we need during school hours? Something to think about.

More Thoughts on Practicum

2009-07-23T22:29:00.003-04:00

Some first thoughts about practicum:

I think someone (some important, official-looking chap) at one of our final year meetings mentioned that it's no longer called practicum in final year. Not that the name makes a whole lot of difference, but I think the main purpose was to differentiate between the "practicum" as we've known it in Con-Ed and the "practicum" (as I shall continue to call it, lacking the correct terminology) of final year.

The main difference is, of course, length. Final year prac isn't merely a 3 week block (out of which the first is spent getting acclimated, a.k.a. getting sick), it is a good 15 weeks total, 12 if you wish to discount alternative prac in order to stick to "traditional" practicum. Still, 12 weeks. And for those in Con-Ed, remember our practicum assessment form? The one with a list of questions upon which we are rated from "Needs Improvement" to "Excellent"? And the small set of lines underneath for additional comments? That very important piece of practicum assessment paper (note the singular)? Imagine that but multiplied by like 50 so that it forms a booklet.

The reason why we are taking this opportunity to share some practicum tips with you is because practicum is very very important. It is the final step between being a student and being teacher and in those 12 weeks, you have to prove to the world that you can make the transition. For many of us, this can be an extremely daunting task (yes, even for us Con-Eddies who supposedly have done this before). I can only imagine what it can be like for those haven't had actual in class experience. Undoubtedly, there will be times when you make a mistake or trip over a part of your lesson and think "ZOMG, that's it, I'm done... I'll never be a teacher... they'll never pass me now!" Before you throw in the towel, try to keep some of these ideas in mind (seriously, don't throw in the towel):

Tips for Practicum:

1. You can always make up for a blunder. This was a very important thing I learned from Ms. V. back during third year prac. I remember blundering something. I think I was trying to ask the class a question and couldn't get them to understand it, no matter how I rephrased it. I talked to Ms. V. about it after, she gave me some tips, and I went back at it the next day with a different approach. And it worked (thankfully)! She told me the most important thing about teaching is that you can always make up for your mistakes. In fact, your host teacher might even be impressed that you're improving.

2. Try new things. Don't be afraid to try something creative if you think it'll help your lesson. The students always enjoy new things. Best of all, not only will your host teacher (hopefully) enjoy seeing something new, they might incorporate it into their own lessons (that's a sure sign that you've done something right).

3. Talk when you're given the opportunity. Obviously, we don't mean blather on endlessly as if you knew what you were talking about. But one of my host teachers in first year told me that she didn't think I talked enough. I mean, it's good to listen when other's speak. That should be a given. But it also doesn't hurt to share your ideas or reflect aloud with your host teacher or other candidates. If nothing else, it shows that you ARE constantly thinking about your job.

That's all I have for now. This is what happens when Courtney posts first. She's so comically thorough that I can only fill in the gaps. Oh yeah, one more thing...

Enjoy Yourself!

Remember why you got into teaching in the first place! Ask any Con-Eddie what makes it all worth it. Why do we spend hours and hours planning lessons and marking papers? Why do we pull ourselves out of bed at 7 (in Courtney's case, I imagine something like 4:30) in the morning? What makes it all worth while? The fact that you can stand up there and deliver a lesson worth being proud of, even if it flops here and there. The fact that you can engage with some fascinating young minds on a daily basis - minds that will sometimes think of things that blow you away. The fact that you get to make a difference in people's lives everyday, every period, every lesson. How could you possibly ask for a more meaningful job than this?

Easy Tips to Make the Most of Your Practicum

2009-07-23T20:38:00.005-04:00

Now that I have my practicum locked down, I've started thinking about some of the little things I can do to take full advantage of the experience and prepare myself for... *gulp* the future (we have vowed not to mention the h-i-r-e word in this post series. This is not about the job panic, it's just about building a foundation while avoiding that familiar sinking feeling).

I've spent hours on different teaching websites and forums to track down advice, and in the end I've come up with this simple list...

10 Easy Things You Can Do to Make the Most of Your Practicum

1. Be professional. Make a real impression on your associate teacher by acting in an exemplary manner. Arrive even 5 minutes earlier than your associate teacher every day, and they'll be surprised and pleased by your preparedness and enthusiasm. Bonus points if you arrive a half hour before them and set up the classroom for the day. You're also setting a big example for the kids. They'll look to you to dictate the way they behave in your classes, so make sure you comport yourself accordingly.

2. Stand out from other teacher candidates. You know in How I Met Your Mother, when Barney suggests to Marshall that he needs a "thing"-- like Food Guy, Toy Guy, or Creepy Back Rub Guy (ok, that guy not so much)-- to make himself an asset to the company and keep him from being laid off? Like Marshall, you need to find a way to make your mark. As Jon mentioned awhile ago when talking about his best teachers, everyone can't be good at everything, but everyone is great at one or two things. If you're not queasy, be the "I don't feel so good" teacher candidate. That's a sure hit with associate teachers because it means they avoid being vomited on (you don't). If you don't have an iron stomach, you can bring cupcakes to the staff room every week or devise really ingenious activities to go with your lessons. Though catching barf in your hands requires less prep time... just sayin'.

3. Smile. Your practicum can be stressful, but you don't want to be known as that teacher candidate who could turn onlookers to stone with one glare. What you do want to be known as is the teacher candidate who was always in a good mood and never let things get them down. You may not be feeling it on the outside, but fake it for a few hours and save your foul mood for the ride home. Happiness is infectious, and people love to be around (and will remember) colleagues who can pass on the good will without even trying.

4. Take on as much as you can. This is a no brainer, but it's worth repeating. The key part of this tip, though, is "as much as you can." So obviously don't burn yourself out (we covered that in an earlier post). However! If you feel you can survive teaching entire days from the beginning instead of just a few classes, or if you know you can juggle your lesson planning while helping coach the cricket team (my placement school has a cricket team!), DO IT. You'll get experience, you'll stand out-- honestly, you know all this already so I won't even explain it. But if you feel shy about doing this, do whatever you can to work past it because this will be a huge help to you-- and people will notice.

5. Take part in professional development. When the teachers have PD days, you get to go too. It doesn't even cost you anything. Though a day off might be tempting, the things you learn will improve your teaching, and you can put the PD in your portfolio. Not to mention you'll be able to interact with your associate teacher in a whole new environment. All in one day, where usually all you have to do is sit and listen.

6. Soak up information. Carry a journal with you to document every tiny tidbit you pick up from someone else or observe on your own. To enhance your learning, sit in on other teachers' lessons when you have a free period. You can find out even more from a different teaching style. One of my host teachers actually got photocopies of my notes so she could see what she sounded like and what I picked up from her lessons. She appreciated the feedback and she was very aware that I was thoughtful and observant even when I wasn't teaching or helping students.

7. Keep track of the work you do. This is such an easy thing to do and it will seriously come in handy for your portfolio. Hours spent on crafting the most marvelous bulletin board in the history of bulletin boards will be wasted if you don't document it. All you need to do is keep a small camera in your bag and remind yourself to grab examples of inspired ideas you've put in place. It's so simple! Make sure you have permission to photograph the kids (and try to photograph them from the back, unless they have huge smiles on their faces) if you're taking pictures of them completing an inspired assignment you came up with. Don't just get snapshots of yourself in front of the blackboard-- any schmuck can do that. Your portfolio will be used to emphasize how skilled, passionate and creative you are, so make sure your photographs, photocopies and samples reflect this.

8. Get feedback from your students. This takes the proof that you're an awesome teacher and jacks it up to a whole new level. Pictures of happy kids are helpful, but words from happy kids are like gold for your portfolio. Pass around a survey every once in awhile (say, at the end of each practicum block, before you start a new phase of a unit, or after you've done a particularly unique lesson) and have the kids tell you what they think of your teaching. If the kids are younger, have them write simple statements or draw pictures that tell a story about what it was like having you in their class. Not only will you have fun reminders of your placement to use in interviews, I guarantee you'll learn a thing or two and be able to improve the way you teach.

9. Network with other teachers. Go eat lunch in the staff room, introduce yourself to everyone, and offer to help out. You'll be in other classrooms to observe anyway, as per Tip #6, and if you get to know the teachers you observe instead of fading into the back wall, you'll have two or three other people clamouring to recommend you. If you know other teachers and they like you, they'll be more likely to share resources and offer tips, too. And you never know, they may wind up in a position to hire you someday. My very favourite host teacher is currently working on her principal qualifications-- think that might be helpful for me in the future? ;) I hope so! (No pressure though, Ms. H., no pressure)

10. Get to know the principal. This is the most important of these tips, and potentially the trickiest. Here's the thing: in Ontario, principals' recommendations are what get you on supply lists and what snag you those interviews. Your recommendations and evaluations from associate teachers get you hired, but the principal gets you considered in the first place. If your principal isn't too busy, have him or her sit in on one of your lessons. Schedule a meeting to talk about how to get into that school board. If they think you're a capable teacher, they may just skip the official schpiel and offer to recommend you. Personally, this is going to be tough for me. Being in a huge school where there might be up to a dozen other teacher candidates doesn't make it simple to be besties with the administrators. That's where Tips #1-9 come in. I'm going to use those strategies religiously and hope I make enough of an impression to merit a meeting with the principal.

Your practicum will be the hardest thing you do in teacher's college, but it'll also be the most fun. Though the time spent learning the theory behind education is important, nothing prepares you like being there and experiencing the real thing. Stay calm, be confident, and have a great time doing what you love.

Practicum Woes, Part 2 (of 2, hopefully!)

2009-07-21T20:18:00.007-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I am no longer a placement orphan! I am instead the proud recipient of a practicum in a very good school in the Toronto District School Board. I've been in just about every corner of this high school's website and I'm so pleased and excited to start there in October (and hopefully get to know my host teacher a bit before then-- who also seems pretty cool, according to ratemyteacher.com).

Someone with a better memory than mine might realize what the catch is with this good news-- no, the TDSB was not one of my original choices. And no, it's not very convenient for me to get to. But it's not impossible, so I'm going to do it. The truth? My one-way commute is 2 and a half hours long, give or take.

"TWO AND A HALF HOURS?!" you are probably screaming at your computer right now, "IS SHE NUTS?!?!"

Well, probably. I've decided to spend October at least (and probably December and February/March, depending on how things go) living with my boyfriend in Guelph. Obviously I wouldn't live there if it was utterly inconvenient and insane to get in to the city. I'm in love, but I'm not stupid. Luckily, there are great inventions like public transportation, laptops, and iPods. And very very luckily, I have a fantastic boyfriend who's so happy to have me around that he's willing to make me dinner every night when I get home from school. (You hear that boy, now there are witnesses!)

I've worked out the perfect, practically minute-by-minute schedule to get me out the door/back in the door on weekdays, and I'm happy to report that because of my longer commute, I have 5 extra hours a week devoted to lesson planning, 5 extra hours a week for marking, and 5 extra hours per week to write blog posts and personal reflections! That definitely makes up for the whole putting-on-makeup-on-the-bus thing. Plus after all the commuting, I get to curl up and fall asleep in front of the TV with my boy and his adorable puppy. So yes, I may be nuts, but I'm a nut who gets to feel incredible love and have tons of fun every day. Undoubtedly worth it.

Now that I've described my whole (slightly sappy) practicum situation, I need to tell you about my experience speaking with Nadine in the practicum office.

Let me tell you, this woman is A.MAZ.ING. She works so hard for us and she really does care a lot about getting everyone into a placement that will be the right fit for them. It's a good thing she seems to enjoy tackling a challenge, because this is a very stressful time for the practicum office. Not only is she having to liaise around the clock, trying desperately to get teachers and schools to agree to host a teacher candidate, but she also has to deal with flak from unhappy students who decide to take their frustrations out on her.

Consider this: Recently, Nadine took her little one to a soccer tournament in Toronto and, while there, convinced a fellow parent (who happened to be a teacher, naturally) to take on a Queen's B.Ed student. That's some supreme dedication right there, not to mention masterful powers of persuasion.

Oh, and the student who was placed with the teacher Nadine recruited at the soccer tournament? Apparently not satisfied with the arrangement, he sent her a nasty email that called her and Queen's "useless." NOT the kind of thanks she was expecting, I'd imagine. I mean, I was mad at Queen's in general, but I always knew it wasn't the fault of those working on the front lines in the practicum office. And I would never be rude or ungrateful toward anyone who is obviously going above and beyond for me and my fellow students. It's pathetic. I hope the person in question withdrew from the program, because I really don't think I want to spend a year with him.

If you're still waiting for a placement and you're willing to be flexible with your school board preferences, try giving the practicum office a call at around 3:00ish. They're done lunch, they're not panicking at the end of the day, and hopefully they can do something for you. Of course this isn't a guarantee, but it's better to call and ask than to just sit by the computer waiting for an email. In my case, Nadine pulled up my file and a list of placements students had withdrawn from, and my teachables fit with a few host schools. She was able to pop me in the most convenient of the lot while we were still on the phone. Since I was summarizing environmental policy analysis at the time and was waaaaay overdue for a break, we had a lovely chat as she processed my paperwork.

So please, when you're looking to take a small break from your work projects or leisurely fun, go ahead and write the practicum office a little thank-you email. Or do what I plan to do and make them a pretty and heartfelt card. I'm sure it'll mean a lot to them to be recognized for all their efforts. And if you have practicum woes of your own, let us know in the comments and we'll do our best to be of assistance!

Sidenote-- we're planning a bit of site maintenance as we're still sort of playing around with the format of Class Dismissed. Soon you'll be able to find posts by topic as well as by date. Let us know if you have any other suggestions!

The world has lost an inspiration...

2009-07-19T21:44:00.016-04:00

You may have guessed by now that I'm always on the lookout for anything that will make me think more about teaching and thus help me become a better teacher. That much is obvious, since it's the main reason we started this blog.

I was incredibly saddened to learn that Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man and one of my very first sources of teaching inspiration, died today at the age of 78.

I read his first two memoirs in high school, but when I decided to enroll in ConEd, my mom gave me Teacher Man for Christmas. Like his other books, I adored every word of it, but this one really hit home. This man was truly passionate about teaching, and he had such a hard but fascinating life, the lessons from which he used every day to teach his classes.

Here's an idea of why I think this man was so amazing: (from his obituary in the LA Times)

"We were all storytellers growing up," McCourt said of his family in a 2000 interview with the Toronto Sun. "That's all we had. There was no TV or radio. We'd sit around the fire and make up stories. My dad was a great storyteller. We'd mention a neighbor, and he'd make up a story."

"But I also had to be a great storyteller to survive teaching. I spent 30 years in the classroom. When you stand before 170 teenagers each day, you have to get and keep their attention. Their attention span is about seven minutes, which is the time between commercials. So you have to stay on your toes."

And if that's not enough, he also said this: (from an Op Ed he wrote for the NY Times)

"They wanted to know why was asking such crazy questions. I told them to figure it out for themselves. The last thing a writer needs is answers — the end of thought and the dream. But I could have told them what they sensed already: they were beginning to notice what they had previously taken for granted, ritual or the lack of it, the dance of the family dinner.

Where are the dreams and fantasies of childhood? The heads of adolescents are clogged with media images and sounds. The teacher, then, is the Knight or Fair Maid of the Imagination and the battle lines are drawn. Pull the plug, cut off the juice, let the batteries die. Just sit there and dream."

If you haven't read Teacher Man yet, I strongly urge you to find a copy at your local library.

Teachers on TV

2009-07-18T22:27:00.005-04:00

Let's preface this post by admitting that I'm a giant nerd. Who isn't, right?

My sister recommended a new TV show called "Glee." I thought it was a High School Musical rip-off and scoffed at it, but upon seeing a preview for it this morning, I decided to give the pilot a try.

Little did I know that Glee is actually funny, well-written, relatable, and-- best of all-- it's about teachers.

Well, it's about one specific teacher and the Glee Club he runs, but he and his fellow teachers are main characters and treated like human beings and everything!

Check out this sneak peek and you'll see what I mean:

This will be a show I follow closely when it premieres this fall. We've already written about teachers who go above and beyond for their students, and Will could be the poster boy for that kind of commitment. He pays their $60/month club fee out of his own pocket and does unpaid detention duty to reserve the auditorium, for heaven's sake!

There aren't many shows out there that teachers can watch and think, "Ha, that is SO my life." As someone who really enjoys the medium of television and uses it as a jumping-off point to an analysis and appreciation of my own life (yes, I already mentioned that I was a nerd...), it's exciting to find a show I can really relate to.

How about you, dear reader? What TV shows have you enjoyed from a teaching perspective? Can real value be culled from these diversions, or do shows like Glee, Boston Public, and Sit Down and Shut Up just remind you of work? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

RE: Young Teachers and Idealism

2009-07-16T20:11:00.004-04:00

Ok, I'm almost caught up on posts! Come back Sunday and Monday for more brand-new posts from me. This is what happens when you have to put things off, kids.

I imagine that Jon and I will look back on our posts, maybe even as early as this fall, and laugh at how idealistic we were about teaching. We know that as ConEd students, we do have a much better picture of what teaching in a public school is like than someone who has yet to do a practicum. We've had a few bubbles burst, we've gotten a lot of very valuable advice, and we've confirmed for ourselves that the traditional path of an Education grad is something we are both passionate about and good at.

Despite our experience, though, we're still a little wet behind the ears. Jon has taught a full courseload, but I haven't yet. Jon's taught more frequently in schools he was familiar with, but my placements were always in totally new environments. We've definitely got a lot of learning and adjusting to do in the next year, and we're taking you, the reader, with us on our road trip of growth in teaching (it was gonna be cheesy anyway, but I figured 'road trip' instead of 'journey' or 'voyage' would make us all gag a bit less. You're welcome).

Being idealistic is essentially having faith that everything is great, or at least that everything has the capacity to become great. How is this a problem in teaching? Unless you allow your idealism to remain naïveté, having faith in your students, your lessons, and yourself is exactly what you need to make a difference. It's the cynical teachers, the ones who have given up caring and prefer to phone in their classes and fail to improve their craft, who are such a disappointment to students. We all had quite a few of these teachers, I'm sure you can remember one or two very vividly.

The moment I decided to pursue teaching as a career came during a conversation with one of the worst, most apathetic teachers I have ever had. She didn't so much seem beaten down by the constant excuses and rough-housing of her students-- instead, she seemed to be the kind of person who had given up before she had even started. As I concluded a presentation for her class, she seemed enthusiastic for the first time in the three years I had known her.

"That was excellent," she said. "You should really think about becoming a teacher."

If this woman, who I strongly doubted would ever be willing to transmit information in the way I felt a teacher should, could recognize that ability in me-- well, of course I should become a teacher.

In first year, our prof had us write down the attributes of our very best teachers since kindergarten. He also asked us to write the same list for our least favourite teachers. The point of the exercise, to paraphrase Hamlet, was to decide what to be and what not to be.

I challenge you to do the same, whether you're just starting your career or you've been teaching for decades. Write about those amazing teachers, and write about the ones who made you want to scream. Then write your own list: the pros and cons of you, the teacher. Think about making some little post-its or a full inspiration board with quotes and encouragement to build on your strengths and overcome your weaknesses. That way, no matter how tired or discouraged you become, you'll have a piece of that idealism to help you keep the faith.

Jon and I will make our own lists and helpful reminders, and we'll post them here for you to enjoy and think about soon. We'd love to see what you come up with!

RE: Disciplinary Measures

2009-07-16T19:30:00.003-04:00

Apologies for my lack of posting this past week. Jon has been very patient and accommodating while I sorted out my personal life a bit. All is well, so now I must get down to responding to his brilliant musings. And post at least one of my own! So stay tuned.

A good chunk of my teaching experience before I started university came during my time as an Air Cadet. By the time I was 15, I was teaching classes and learning how to instruct effectively. I spent a lot of time with 12-, 13-, and 14-year-olds, who in turn spent most of their time squirming around in their uncomfortable uniforms, wanting to talk to their friends or test paper airplanes instead of learning about citizenship and drill. Being that Cadets is a military-esque organization, well... let's just say I didn't take a lot of (for lack of a better word) crap from them.

The summer before university, I was an instructor at an Air Cadet summer training centre in Bagotville, QC. I was responsible for one group of 25 kids, aged 13-15, for three weeks, and when they left another batch took their place for the last three weeks. I taught them classes during the day, but I also played the role of camp counsellor, rounding them up to go to the beach, making sure their beds were made and uniforms spotless, and marching them in formation from place to place.

Put a bunch of early teens in a remote location, miles and miles from any parental contact, with 24 partners in crime at their disposal and not much to do in the evenings, and you've got a 'classroom' management situation that would terrify even the toughest of teachers (aka middle school teachers). Aside from the usual angsty drama, my kids also did the following, in no particular order:

- tortured a kid so much that he peed in a bottle rather than face leaving his tent

- vomited on my boot

- accidentally shot a staff member during archery (no one was seriously hurt, thankfully)

- had a fight with Axe body spray in an enclosed area

- ate so much candy that one kid had headaches that made him scream and cry the next day

- crushed up Tylenol and snorted it

The list goes on and on, but those are the highlights I can remember right now. Oh, and the Tylenol thing? The incident was reported to myself and my supervisor right away, but the boys vehemently denied it and my boss felt that they were being honest. The next summer, I ran into one of my former cadets, and he informed me that several kids actually had snorted the Tylenol. The kid who initiated it all? He was given an award for leadership and exemplary conduct at the end of the summer.

Anyway, all this to say-- I'm fairly no-nonsense when it comes to discipline. I will do my utmost to make my classes interesting and to engage all students, but sometimes that's not enough. I firmly believe that even older students still need routine, structure, and a certain degree of authority in the classroom.

If I had to describe my disciplinary style, I would invoke Mary Poppins. She's ingenious, always thinking of unique and interesting things to do and making ordinary things seem extraordinary. But when it comes down to it, she's in charge. She'll use humour or mild sarcasm to get her point across, but the point gets across, no exceptions.

As long as I provide my students with a stable, open, and safe classroom environment, it is within my rights to expect them to provide me with their cooperation for 75 minutes a day. The students I plan to teach are learning to be adults. I will treat them with the respect I treat adults if they act with adult-like maturity in return. Is that too much to ask?

Probably. There will be many students who don't keep up with their end of the bargain. I'm still fleshing out my disciplinary style and have yet to decide what steps I will take when particular students consistently cause serious problems. As Jon said though, once you figure out how to engage a kid, how to make him or her WANT to learn, the problems seem much less daunting. So I guess I'll start with that.

Please comment if you have any personal insights on classroom management and disciplinary style-- or if you have equally horrific camp-counsellor stories!

Young Teachers and Idealism

2009-07-14T22:00:00.008-04:00

I was having a discussion the other day about my worldviews/outlook on life and somebody pointed out that I manage to be very realistic while strangely maintaining a very idealistic outlook on life. And I wanted to take some time to outline why I think this brand of realism/idealism hybrid is important to being a good educator.

William Blake once wrote two sets of poems titled The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. As you may be able to guess from the poem titles, Blake writes about different things/ideas/themes from the viewpoint of what we might call "Innocence" and "Experience." The most notable thing about the comparison between these two sets of poems (to summarize something that took Dr. Morrison something like 2 weeks to illustrate in full) is how idealistic the songs of innocence are compared to the realism in the songs of experience.

I use Blake in this case because these two sets of poems are perfect to illustrating the gap that I think we, as educators, need to realize we are bridging (also, I like to reference Dr. Morrison wherever possible). As The Songs of Innocence demonstrate, there is no question that there is something amazing and hopeful about being young and innocent (like some of our students). There are many things that students learn in school (and from home) that are good and right and wholesome because they're sheltered. They learn to play fair. They learn that hard work pays off. They learn that it's important to be polite and respectful. They believe that they can do whatever they want if they put their mind to it. They learn, in fact, some very important principles about how to BE a good person. And if our education system is any good, they are taught that they can succeed based on these principles alone. They learn about how things SHOULD be and they are taught they if something isn't as it should be, that they have the power and responsibility to put it right.

The other side of this is the harsh reality that these principles do not always hold true in real life. Corporate life is particularly notorious for this but life in general will probably be enough to eventually show them that reality is far closer to the ideas that Blake writes about in The Songs of Experience. Not to say that real life doesn't have components that abide by the principles they learn in school, but we also know that in real life, you're sometimes rewarded for cheating; for stepping on people; for ignoring those in need.

As teachers, then, we have a very very thin line to tread. We're responsible for preparing our students for the harsh realities of life without extinguishing the fire that can sometimes, even if it only happens once in a million times, lead to the type of change that revolutionizes the world for the better. In a sense, we have to be able to say "Life isn't fair, but it should be." We have to be able to teach them "This is the reality of the world" while at the same time telling them "You have the power to make it a better place." Because, like Dr. Morrison said, we can't just float them through school and thrust them into the real world without preparing them for what the real world is like; they would get eaten alive. But at the same time, it's important that those students who have the strength, the drive, and the ideas that lead to positive change, aren't discouraged by the possibility that they might fail.

One of the greatest fears I have of growing old is the possibility that I might lose the ability to balance these two perspectives. It's no secret that "idealism" is almost always paired with "youth" when people talk about being "young and idealistic". And I always consider that to be a very sad truth about being in the workforce for a long time. So to my fellow teacher candidates, I am outlining this to you now, in hopes that we will all be able to look back on the days when we were young and idealistic and remember that, while the world will constantly be looking for opportunities to convince us that it will never get better, there's a reason why we continue to allow our students to think idealistically, and why we embrace the innocence of youth. It's because these are the parts of us that are worth being proud of and deep down, we understand that it's important:

To love
To trust
To forgive
To apologize
To take chances and give chances
To take responsibility for what you've down and the people you've affected
To be considerate of other people's feelings
To think critically and intelligently
To be interesting
To adapt
And, in the eternal words of Dr. Morrison, to be compassionate, tolerant, and open-minded.

Maybe your students will change the world for the better. Maybe they won't. But as educators, we have to do our part in convincing them that they all have the ability to make a difference. In the eternal words of Norman Cousins, "The starting point for a better world is the belief that it's possible."

Disciplinary Measures

2009-07-09T21:11:00.004-04:00

So I recently read this article: "Yes, these children can"

Followed by this rebuttal: "KIPP Schools and What Can We Do For Urban Poor Kids?"

I've always thought the authoritarian method of teaching a class to be an interesting line. And I mean that insofar as the question of how discipline contributes and affects our ability to teach.

There's no question that an attentive class makes it easier for you to teach and for them to learn. And there's no question that it can be supremely frustrating to teach a class when you're constantly interrupted by a few students. We just posted about "keeners" and how it's important to make your class as relevant and interesting as possible so that, at least, you as a teacher have nothing to reproach yourself about as far as effort, patience, and aptitude...

But as all teachers know, sometimes, there are students who simply don't care. I've heard some teachers tell me that it happens more in Applied classes. I myself have seen it enough times in Academic classes to know that it's a little more universal than that. Every so often, you'll have students that, try as you might, just don't care to be in your class and refuse to see any value in anything you teach. When that happens, the issue is no longer a question you "dealing with a problem kid" to quote a popular catchphrase. The question becomes, is it fair for the rest of the students that their teacher's attention is constantly being diverted towards a particular student?

I have never been able to come up with a good answer for this. On the one hand, I have 1 or 2 students that I can't seem to hook into my class. We talk a lot about "classroom management" in our own education classes but I have yet to hear one good solution for dealing with 1 particular student who just seems like he/she couldn't care less about you, your class, or their peers. And on the other hand, I have 20 other students in my class that deserve better than what I am able to deliver when I have to constantly attend to a troublemaker (or two).

I know people are against the KIPP method of teaching/private schools because they find that authoritarian style of classroom management stifling. And to an extent, it's true. But at the same time, you have to strike a balance somehow don't you? If you have a school where a student that's sent down to the principal's office simply gets a slap on the wrist and sent back up to your class... I can't see how this is very good for you, the student, or his/her peers. As parents, we enforce a set of rules regardless of what our children think because it's for their own good. Should the same principle not apply, to some extent, to a class as well? I constantly worry that, in an effort to get away from control and stunted creativity and all the negative things about a harsh disciplinary system, we might have moved too far into student-driven learning where a teacher is only there to teach/guide the students that *want* to be taught/guided. Is there a point where our lack of disciplinary measures results in an actual inability to curb students who are literally unresponsive to everything else?

Being able to teach is one thing. Being able to teach despite students who don't want to learn is something else entirely. It's the reason why I've always thought that university professors don't really have any excuse not to be good teachers. I mean, think of how many elementary/high school teachers there must be who would LOVE to teach in a class where their students either pay close attention, or at least keep quiet if they don't?

RE: Keeners

2009-07-06T22:33:00.006-04:00

I've given some thought to the idea of being keeners. Courtney's post has outlined pretty much what it means when we define ourselves as such. We do crazy things like worry about placements that are out of control. We woke up - this is true - at 7:30 AM on the first day of pre-registration in order ensure that we got into the education courses we wanted even though the actual pre-registration period extends for over a month. And we are endlessly talking about cool articles we read that pertain to teaching and what they might mean (stick around for Thursday's post when we will likely do more of this).

But like Courtney says, we also recognize that we're... a little different. No one in our program would ever nominate us for Mr. and Ms. Con-Ed of the year (should such an award exist). While we are friendly with people in Con-Ed, it would be a stretch to say we "know" people in our program (aside from each other and some other select people who are probably oddballs like us).

This got me thinking about being a "keener" in school. I mean, what does that really mean? I was faced with this question during one of my practicums when my host teacher was telling me about the differences between two separate grade 11 English classes. The school I taught at was a non-semestered school (i.e. Day 1/Day 2) which is why the English classes were up for comparison - I saw each class, every other day, which not only made comparison highly convenient, but also made lesson implementation highly interesting since you use the same basic lesson plan 2 days in a row but with completely different responses.

But I digress. I noticed that when I first started teaching, my host teacher would often refer to her classes (privately of course) as her "good" class and her "bad" class. Although this classification system lasted only briefly - soon to be replaced with a possessive label, dependent upon the first 1 or 2 names I managed to learn within my first day of teaching, i.e. "John's class" vs. "Jane's class" - it gave me furiously to think when I began teaching both classes. Her "good" class was, indeed, better behaved, and contained a larger quantity of "keeners" so to speak; students that were attentive, respectful, and concerned about their marks. Her "bad" class was... admittedly less well behaved, louder, and less concerned about their marks...

About that "concerned about their marks" part... see, I found that because the students in the "good" class were more concerned about their marks, they also tended to fish for the "right" answer to my questions. The desire to be interesting and - at times - truthful, was overshadowed by their desire to be rewarded for telling me what I "wanted" to hear, or what they thought I wanted to hear. Not so were the students in the "bad" class. Their lax attitude towards marks meant that they had a greater tendency to simply answer as they genuinely believed and as a result, gave rather more interesting answers - gratifying since I had asked what I considered to be interesting questions. Like I said, this gave me furiously to think.

Keeners, I realized, are actually rarely any more keen than their peers. We/they/their peers/years of educational stereotypes have merely called them this because they are keen upon what we want them to be keen about. This is the exact same thing that happens with Courtney and I. We are keeners about education. We weren't nearly as keen about, say, our undergraduate subjects (at least, I know I wasn't). We are keeners when it comes to education because we care. And this is something that I think we need to realize as educators. The students that are bored in our class are usually bored because they haven't been given any reason to care. And the kids that are "keeners" in our class are sometimes keen for completely wrong reasons.

Even the laziest among us are keeners if they are confronted with something that they consider important. So it's not a bad idea to constantly ask yourself, "Why am I teaching them this?" whenever you plan your lessons. Keep in mind that if your answer is "Because it's my job," this is the equivalent of your students saying "Because I want good marks" when asked why they should pay attention to, and respect, what you teach them. And if that's the case, those who don't care about good marks shouldn't have to pay attention to, or respect, you. But if you say "I'm teaching them this because it's important" and provide the right reasons for why this is true, then you have every right to expect their attention and respect because its importance is universally applicable to every one of your students.

All students are keeners. It's our job to give them the right reasons for directing their energy, passion, and creativity towards the right things. And yes, we know that you won't always manage to convince every single student that what you're teaching them is important (even if it really is). This is why you need to be interesting too.

Keeners

2009-07-06T21:47:00.005-04:00

Here are three things we can say for certain:

1. We are both keeners. As illustrated by this blog's very existence, we often go above and beyond in any endeavour that will make us better educators.

2. Despite this, we haven't been extraordinarily involved with ConEd at Queen's. We are friendly with most of our classmates, attend several of our program's events every year, and enjoy all of our classes immensely. That being said, for various reasons, we haven't made ConEd activities the main focus of of our university experience.

3. Our keenness, though it's not specifically directed towards our program, still causes us to freak out more than is typical for pre-B.Ed students. We panic because we care.

What these three things mean for us is hard to pinpoint. It may mean that we get a teaching job right away. It may also mean that we overthink ourselves sick before Christmas. I don't know what will happen to us in the next year or so, but I do know that being keeners is the only way we know how to function. So if it's somehow damaging to worry about placements, to get up at ungodly hours for class registration, to agonize over every detail of a lesson plan-- we're just going to have to find a way to cope. Because when it comes to doing something with less than every ounce of our energy, passion, and creativity, I don't think either of us know how.

RE: Practicum Woes - Part 1

2009-07-02T20:32:00.005-04:00

I had my own practicum woes last year. Con-Ed practicum during years 1-3 are either arranged by the student or the practicum office, depending on the school board. York Region (my home school board) was one of those "arrange your own practicum" boards that require students to make their own arrangements with the principals at whatever schools they wish to teach. So I did. And nobody was willing to take me in. Eventually, I had a teacher at Markham District High School who accepted me and even he passed me onto another teacher within the first day of my prac (for some reason...). Needless to say, I was feeling unloved by all! But I'll always remember those days in between January (when I began my search for a host school/teacher) and April (when MDHS and Ms. Valencia finally took me in) when I was basically being told repeatedly that nobody was willing to take me in.

It's an uncomfortable, depressing, and discouraging feeling to know that nobody wants you. So I can fully empathize with what Courtney is going through right now.

It's tough. And like Courtney says, it's a product of supply outweighing demand. And assuredly, some of you will run into this problem at some point, whether it's being unable to find your own placement (like me) or being told by the school that they've been unable to find you a placement. If you don't, consider yourself fortunate. It's all par-for-the-course when you're able to find a school, but realizing that you have nowhere to teach can be a very discouraging thing.

And we admit, part of it has to do with us being in Con-Ed. I have a friend who also one of the 100 students Courtney mentioned who was told that she didn't have a school in which to teach. She didn't seem particularly perturbed about it (despite, if she will forgive me for saying so, being the perturbable type), which leads me to believe that being in Con-Ed might have made us more susceptible to these hiccups that invariably happen along the path to being full-time professionals. But that is just my hypothesis. I could be completely wrong...

But to all of you (including Courtney) who encounter this problem - particularly the ones who run into the same problem Courtney has - I would encourage you all to remember that sometimes, these things happen despite all your efforts and hard work. Certainly, Courtney's situation has come about through no fault of her own. And I would encourage you all to remember that in the grand scheme of things, this is NOT the thing that will determine how good of a teacher you are or how successful you can be. Do remember that no matter what, they will find you a place to teach, and that you will only be required to teach there for a year. Remember that you've gotten this far for a reason; you've succeeded because you are a good teacher, not because you've taught in good schools. Some of us might not have a great relationship with our host teachers. Others might have a easy, problem-less placement experience and then break down during their first years of teaching because they haven't encountered enough adversity.

To all our fellow candidates. Remember: in the end, the only thing you can control is the effort, enthusiasm, and inspiration you bring with you and into your class. If you are someone like Courtney, who is certainly not lacking in any of the fine teaching qualities I just mentioned, please believe in yourself enough to know that you possess these attributes and understand that as long as you are cognizant of this, you will be able to transmit this into your teaching style, no matter where you end up. Learn; adapt; and most importantly, trust in yourself. Maybe your placement will, indeed, end up being far more challenging than you thought it would, but this is the time to rise to that challenge and prove to yourself, and the rest of the world, that you're the kind of teacher we know you can be.

Practium Woes - Part 1

2009-07-02T19:25:00.010-04:00

"Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, it's not the end."

Well, stumbling block #1 in my quest to become a teacher has arisen. I'm trying to tell myself that a test of my resolve is important, that frustrating set-backs will just convince me even further that teaching is my passion and my life's work. But all that is hard to believe when you hear bad news that seems, at the time, to be catastrophic.

We had all be impatiently awaiting news of our practicum schools since we first filled out applications back in February. Without this knowledge, it's hard to plan things fully because you don't know where you'll be living for half the year. For some, especially those whose parents and relatives live outside of Ontario, it's pretty crucial to be placed in a school board that is within driving distance of somewhere you could live without paying double rent.

My four choices, in order, were school boards in Kingston (where I have an apartment), Ottawa (I could stay with family friends), Peterborough (I would live with my grandma), and Mississauga (my best friend's family has kindly offered to adopt me). Then when my boyfriend got into vet school in Guelph, completing my placement there became another possibility.

Well, it came to the end of June and we still hadn't heard anything. Then, on June 30th, we all got an email. Finally, I would have some answers (I'm not the type to cope well with a lack of control over anything). I open my email from the Practicum Office, and here's what I see:

"Welcome to Queen's Faculty of Education.

At this time, we have been unable to arrange a practicum for you in

any of the district boards you requested.

Please do not contact the Practicum Office, and do not contact any

schools or principals to try and secure a placement on your own. We

work only with Associate Schools that have been chosen in specific

district school boards. We will contact the boards within our

catchment area in the fall, to try to secure additional

placements. All Faculties of Education throughout the province are

having difficulties in securing placements due to the sheer volume of

teacher candidates admitted to the education programs. You are one

of over 100 Queen's teacher education candidates who do not currently

have a placement. We will be working on arranging a placement for you

over the summer and into September. If you do not receive an email

over the summer, informing you of your placement, come to the

Practicum Office after Monday, September 8 and we will work with you

to secure your placement for October."

Once I got over the whole brain-exploding-with-rage-and-disbelief thing, I... actually, I don't think I've quite gotten over it yet. But once I'd at least processed the information, I was left with this overwhelming dread-- all I could think was that I'd get a crappy placement (or worse, no placement), get less than ideal evaluations as a result, causing me to have no job, and leading me into a life of perpetual homelessness and degeneracy.

Ok, so clearly I'm overreacting. But it's a hugely unsettling feeling nonetheless. I don't know who these "over 100" candidates are, because I only know of three other people in this situation, but the Practicum Office has got some serious work ahead of them if they expect to fix this colossal bung-up.

Now, one of my very awesome friends/classmates who is in the same boat contacted the Practicum Coordinator for a more thorough explanation. Our Practicum Coordinator claimed that the form is time sensitive, which is not very plausible since most of us got our applications in almost immediately after they were circulated. However, he also suggested that the province just has more teacher candidates than they have willing host teachers, schools and boards. That I can believe. There is apparently the potential that our practica won't be confirmed until August or even September, as schools become more confident of their numbers and if other students drop out of the program. So that's that. While it's nice to have a bit more information, that information is making me want to tear my hair out.

I did call the practicum office (I'll be damned if I listen to their orders not to contact them) to ask if I might be placed in a school in Guelph, but it turns out that Queen's doesn't place any students anywhere in the Upper Grand District School Board. That's another university's territory or something. It's all very discouraging.

I think a discussion of why established teachers should or should not become mentors and hosts to teacher candidates requires a separate post, a post which I am anxious to hash out but wish to approach with a more nuanced understanding than I currently possess. I will say that in this case, I think the problem is a culmination of shortfalls from all directions-- too many students, not enough host teachers, uncooperative boards, and the fact that Queen's is either unwilling or unable to expand their placement possibilities.

And who is the unfortunate recipient of the fallout from all of that?

I am. I and some of my fellow Concurrent Education students are, we who have been in this program for four years and have so much to give to our potential students and host teachers. We're left disillusioned and disappointed and deeply concerned about our future, and there's nothing we can do about it.

RE: Why we study English

2009-06-29T22:47:00.003-04:00

I recently came across some old journals my mom kept from when I was a baby until I was about 4. She originally used them when I had a nanny and my parents weren't around to see everything I did all day, but she kept at it even when she started to stay home with us. At one point, in 1990 (I was 3), she spends numerous entries chronicling the challenge to get me to vent my frustration "in words, not screams."

Eventually, she records, I could be heard from afar yelling, "I am very angry!!" This was a victory of sorts for my parents-- I had learned to express myself.

Things get a little more complex for kids once they reach the Intermediate/Senior level. You kindergarten teachers out there will no doubt have the rare privilege of gently encouraging your students to use their words and occasionally moving sharp-edged furniture aside as a child gives in to an ear-shattering, limb-flailing tantrum.

Those of us in the older grades, however, have a different kind of challenge. We get to wheedle and cajole teens and tweens into writing their thoughts on paper, collecting their opinions for a speech, and heaven forbid, remembering it all for an exam. Teenagers whine-- it's what they do. There's always going to be at least one kid who says, "But Miiiiiiiiiiiiss, WHY do we have to doooooo this? Why can't we watch a movie/play a board game/go outside insteaaaaaaaad?" (the key to whining is the elongated vowel. High school students have perfected this.)

Luckily for us all, English teachers have been trained in the art of persuasion. We learn how to argue in a dissertation, and how to paint a picture with poetry-- great English teachers are able to translate this to convince our students to go along with our wacky reasoning for reading Shakespeare.

When it comes to teaching English, a subject that is (as Jon mentioned) mandatory in every year of school in Ontario, I tend to fall more along the flexible side of things. I want my students to learn to appreciate great works of literature, and I'll tailor the way I teach in order to ensure that this is achieved. I'm not going to give them fluffy or meritless subject matter in hopes that they'll understand better-- it's my teaching methods that will be modified, not the topic of study.

There's nothing wrong with creating a Facebook profile for Mercutio and Tibalt (been there, done that, the kids went nuts for it), or chronicling Atticus Finch's Tweets. If you have to create a virtual Big Brother in your classroom for the kids to truly grasp 1984, go for it.

The problem many kids have with studying English is that it's stale, it's old, they can't relate to it. Your job is to make it come alive. And once you've cultivate a passion (or at least a passing interest) for English in your students, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how they can begin to express themselves.

Why we study English

2009-06-29T21:21:00.007-04:00

We're going to use today's post to indulge our egos a little bit. And by "indulge," I mean we're going to post on something that is perhaps not relevant to every teacher. But Courtney and I are both English teachers. And this is a question that we come across time and time again, whether it was when we were high school students ourselves, university students trying to figure out why exactly we're studying English, or when we had students ask us during prac.

It's interesting. Because nobody ever questions the value of mathematics or science or economics when talking about academia. Tell people that you're a chemistry major or studying linear algebra or business management and people rarely give you the "So what are you going to do with that?" look. Of course, on the other side, English isn't the only subject that falls into the category of "subjects that the majority of grownups question in regards to practicality". As someone who took a good slew of electives in philosophy and sociology, I know that these subjects come under the brunt of scrutiny as well. And we do sympathize with our friends in these subjects, who have to constantly defend their choice of study.

But English is different. And I am almost positive it has something to do with the fact that English is a mandatory subject throughout all of high school. If you're an English student/teacher, not only do you have to constantly defend your choice of study from colleagues and grown-ups, but you have to defend your subject in school too! Unlike every other subject, which stops being mandatory at some point in high school, you must take ENG4U (that's grade 12 English) to graduate. The next closest subject (in terms of being mandatory) is mathematics, which you need to take up until grade 11. In grade 12, people only take subjects they WANT to take so they obviously don't question the classes that they themselves choose. But everyone - from aspiring doctors to lawyers to mathematicians - needs to take ENG4U.

So why is this? What is it about English that the government deems important enough to force everyone to take it, even in grade 12, regardless of their chosen path? What would YOU, fellow English teacher, say to a colleague/friend/parent/student, when questioned upon what could possibly possess you to study the language you speak everyday?

Why we study English

1. Verbal Communication. English students express themselves well. Studying English (if done properly) teaches you that when you say something, inflection, intonation, and clarity go a long way towards being convincing. Ever hear someone give a presentation in which every sentence ends with an upward inflection? Or listen to people who keep repeating themselves when they try to explain something? It tends to be difficult. Some people have natural knack for speaking. For those who don't, understanding what makes a natural speaker, a natural, goes a long way towards improving your own ability to communicate your ideas.

2. Written Communication. Think you'll never need to write an essay after grade 12 English? Well, maybe you're right. What about a cover letter? A love letter? An email? See, the thing about writing essays is that practicing formal writing improves informal writing. This has a lot to do with clarity. Writing essays forces you to write clearly. And when you can communicate clearly in the written word, this can be a powerful tool no matter what you do. This is particularly true because...

3. You realize that every word has a specific meaning. Still on the communication strand, this is one of the greatest things I learned when I studied English. There are a lot of words in the English language. But they're not just there to replace each other. Word choice is important to communicating clearly. Many of the problems we encounter and generate are due to a lack of communication or misunderstanding. Just because you don't need this kind of communication in your job doesn't mean you don't need to communicate clearly when you're interacting with everyone else outside of it.

4. You learn that things aren't black and white. A lot of criticism I get from people who are "forced" to study English in high school, against their will, is that we spend all our time interpreting and reinterpreting things that we can never full understand entirely. And my response to that is, "Isn't that what LIFE is all about?" English teaches you why you should always be careful when you read a newspaper. It teaches you how "Call me sometime" can have a hundred different meanings. And how real life is never as objective as a mathematical equation.

5. You learn to think outside the box. I was discussing a question once with my engineering housemate. And the question was "If an object were to be dropped into a lake, would the lateral (sideways) current affect the rate at which it descended." The answer, to him, was "No." I said, "That depends on the object. If it's an airfoil, then yes." This is not to say that there's no value in looking at problems strictly from a mathematical/scientific viewpoint. I'm just saying that English does encourage you to examine problems more holistically.

These are the 5 main reasons I'm glad I studied English in university. The big one is communication. You'll find that almost everything you study in English is geared towards thinking critically and being able to present your critical thoughts in a way that people will understand and respect. I once told an English class that writing an essay is like baking a cake. You take everything you've learned, throw it into the oven that is your brain, turn ON said oven (this is key), and turn out something that's both clear (looks good) and interesting (tastes good). English is how we relate to one another. It's how we share our ideas. It's the way we ensure that we're understood and that we've communicated. It's why we're able to put these ideas we have into a format that you, as readers, can understand when you read this blog. And it's why we will continue to teach English, all the way up through grade 12, for the benefit of our students.

RE: Extra time for extra curriculars and more...

2009-06-29T16:50:00.004-04:00

I tend to look at my teaching career as an opportunity to broaden my horizons, extra-curricularly speaking. I spent my own high school career totally immersed in my involvement with Air Cadets, leaving me with almost no free time to join clubs in high school. I was a Student Ambassador and went to Leadership Camp, but I never found the time to join the debate team or Reach for the Top, help with our school's charities or apply to be on our Student Council. So, barring anything that requires me to be athletic (I can lead and participate in exercises and figure out strategy, but I'm by no means coordinated enough to be seriously considered a team coach), I'm enthusiastic about becoming a staff advisor to any number of clubs and student initiatives at my future schools.

When I filled out the application form for my B.Ed practicum, I made sure to mention my desire to help with anything LGBTQ- or gender studies-related and any kind of charity fundraisers. I also cited my interest in and experience with studying the First and Second World Wars as proof that I would be ideal to plan a Remembrance Day Ceremony. As you can see, I'm a joiner. I love to throw myself completely into interesting activities, and I love to feel like I'm making a difference. This is part of the reason I decided to become a teacher in the first place.

So tell a person like me that they should volunteer to help out with every activity possible, and they will be the first to do it, 100%. The only thing that worries me about my practicum location next year is that I might be placed in a school that doesn't need me to supervise 6 different clubs.

But putting every ounce of your energy into something can be as much a hindrance as it is a boon. I know I, like every other new teacher, am in great danger of burning myself out, especially if I spend all my nights and weekends at school and my few hours outside of school thinking about school. I've already sort of planned that my life will be on hold for my first two years of full-time classroom teaching, but life doesn't just stay on hold because you demand it. Complicated stuff happens, and it can and does happen when you're a first- and second-year teacher, regardless of what you try to do to keep the chaos at bay.

So what am I going to do to make myself invaluable to my school (so they'll keep me on staff) but still not burn out and make myself miserable in a job I actually love?

I'm not sure. I don't think I have a list for this yet, but I do have some abstract ideas. No, you know what, this is me-- of course I have a list!

How To Get Involved Without Burning Out

1. Find your passion. Instead of donating your time to every club that comes your way, stick to things you really love. If you live and die for volleyball, you probably won't resent spending a weekend at a tournament the way you might for a Mathletes competition. When you've identified your passion, make it your priority. You won't feel as bad turning down the captain of the debate team when you know you're giving your all to the Relay for Life committee.

2. Set limits. Sit down at the beginning of a school year and decide what amount of time and effort you're willing to put into your job. Make sure you subtract time for marking, lesson planning, and other administrative duties in addition to regular school hours. Of course include time for errands and tasks in your non-work life, too. Once you've subtracted these necessities, you'll have a better idea of how much time you can devote to extra-curriculars.

3. Leave time for you. So you've decided to spend Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings helping out with activities at school. Assuming you've devoted all of Wednesday night to marking papers, do you still have time for your yoga class, a date night, time to grocery shop? What about a night to just sit with a glass of wine and a good book? Don't underestimate the importance of a few hours a week set aside to do nothing. Even if every other hour of your week is spent on the go, that you time will give you back your sanity. So maybe cut your extra-curriculars down to two nights a week instead of three.

4. Find a guide. Whether it's your teaching mentor or a bible like The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide, it helps to get advice from someone who's been there. When you feel totally swamped, turning to your guide will help get you back on track.

5. Commiserate. Keeping in touch with fellow B.Ed students is important! Grabbing a beer once a month with your former classmates will give you a chance to compare notes, get a fresh perspective, and feel like you're not as alone as you think. Hey, you know what else is a good source for all of the above? This blog! Keep reading about our experiences and chime in with your two cents-- I promise it'll make us all better teachers.

It's not very long, but those are my thoughts so far. If you think of other tips, use the comments to let us know!

Extra time for extra curriculars and more...

2009-06-26T17:26:00.003-04:00

Courtney recently directed my attention to this: "Girls in Urban Areas Face Unique Challenges in Playing Sports"

However, being the difficult people that we are, we're not actually going to use this week to talk about how girls in urban areas face unique challenges in playing sports (we might address this later... stick around to find out!). So why the link? Because Courtney had this to say about the article:

"What I was most intrigued by in this article was the teacher/dean of students, who sacrifices so much so that his students can be involved in sports. I think we can talk about this as being one of the marks of a really great teacher, but also discuss the limits that a teacher might impose on themselves in order to preserve a balance in their own life."

There are two ideas I want to take from this (I might not get to my second idea in this post). The first is the idea of limits. I was talking to my host teacher last year during the first week of school and one of the first things she told me, on the first day of prac, was "always take your lunch break". See, especially as young, upcoming, teachers, there can be a tendency to go into a kind of overkill mode when we start teaching. We want to plan the perfect lesson each day; we want to make very sure we don't fall behind; so we spend every waking moment marking and lesson planning. And while admittedly, I might have been guilty of this during my prac, I also recognized that I wasn't going to be called upon to sustain this otherworldly effort for 10 months. And even then, I took my lunch breaks. Because as Ms. V told me, this is the number one cause of the number one pitfall for beginning teachers: burning out.

It's like sprinting at the start of a marathon. You cannot do this; you'll find yourself limping at the finish line. And it all gets even more complicated when you factor in extracurricular activities. It's always good to get involved in extracurriculars. The students appreciate it, you feel good about it, and it shows that you're taking an active role as a faculty member. At the same time, that's one more thing you have to factor into your schedule. And you can't forget that your number 1 job is still in that classroom (assuming you don't have kids; if you do, your number 1 job is being a parent and being a classroom teacher becomes your number 2 job).

Dr. Morrison once told me that the most important skill in life is learning how to balance. And in order to do this, you first have to know your own limits. Part of this limit is how much rest you need. It doesn't matter how well prepared you are to teach your class or how many great ideas you have; everything boils down to execution and you simply cannot execute well when you're tired. This is a fact. And surprisingly, I'm fairly certain that most people know this; they just can't seem to find a way to do it. See? Balance. When most people find that they don't have enough hours in a day to do what they want, sleep seems to be "the odd man out" so to speak, even though we know it shouldn't be.

Another part of balance is understanding that there are many ways to be a great teacher. And you don't have to hit them all. Dr. Morrison was a great teacher because he inspired me to think critically and believe in the good (to condense what could easily be an entire post, all on its own, on why he's amazing). Mr. T was a great teacher because he was a great coach who took extra time to manage all the sports teams I played on. Mr. Currie was a great teacher because he took the extra time to mark our assignments quickly (but with care) so we didn't have to wait 3 months to get our marks. Mr. Fisher was a great teacher because he was willing to go off on a tangent during his lecture if we were all particularly interested in something that might not have been directly related to the lesson.

I could go on and on about some other great teachers I've had. But goodness knows, Dr. Morrison has never coached me in a sport; Mr. T has never gone off on an interesting tangent; Mr. Currie never inspired me to change the world; and I got most of my assignments back at the end of the YEAR when Mr. Fisher taught me. Does that make any one of them any less great? Of course not. The fact that there are so many different ways to be an amazing teacher means you can PICK an area you want to be particularly amazing in. Sure, Mr. Currie never did that many extracurriculars... but that's because he was using all that time to mark our assignments so we'd get them back soon (sometimes, literally the next day!).

This is why knowing your limits is so important. It's better to be known as an amazing teacher for one thing you do that's particularly good than attempt to be known as an amazing teacher by covering all the grounds. It's not possible. You'll burn out or get sick. Trust me on this one. You need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. So pick one thing at a time. Don't worry about running out of years to implement your ideas (seriously... this is your career after all). Set your limit at, say, 1 amazing thing a year (or even two years). And if you find that you can handle more, then add more as you go. I'm sure Courtney will have more ideas on balancing oneself (and she'll probably present to you in a cool list).

I might say more later. I am being hailed.