Good days, bad days, warm days, cold days

Mood, Frustration and the Challenge of Consistency

When I get into my car at the end of each day I try to pay close attention to my mood. Sometimes I feel so invigorated from my day that I can’t wait to become a full-fledged teacher. And other times I feel low and frustrated, like I didn’t make a difference at all, almost as if some students are worse off because of my time with them.

I really try to bring the same temperament to school each day. I make a conscious effort to remain consistent in my approach and maintain the same level of attentiveness and patience to each student. But sometimes I’m allowing the mood of students on a given day to really affect all my efforts and my mood. There’s a lot I’ve learned during this short experience, but this is certainly at the top of the list.

I’m learning that I really need to pace myself, to not take things personally and, most of all, to not hold the actions of a student today against him or her tomorrow. Consistency is so important and this is a lesson I won’t forget.

Time, Attention and the Wallflower

I was a wallflower in school. So it’s not surprising that I was ignored by teachers for most of my primary school days. I want to say that the clingy, teacher’s pet and the kid with behavioral problems receive the most attention from teachers. This was the second thing I heard in Chestnut Hill education classes (the first was stay out of the teacher’s lounge your first year).

So I wasn’t shocked when I witnessed this gap in attention first hand at New Foundations Charter School. The first day I walked in I thought that I’m going to be different. I’m going to be an adult who pays attention to everybody, gets everybody involved in games and basically sticks up for the wallflower.

Easier said then done. First of all, there definitely were wallflowers. Secondly, it really is tough to manage because the more boisterous kids really do require more time. And that’s what it’s all about- time. I’m learning that the quicker a teacher can either anticipate a potential problem or dispatch a solution/method of discipline for that problem, the better it is for the entire class. A minute here, a minute there- it really adds up and time is precious. It takes a minute to ask a probing question, check a long division problem, start a lively discussion or just ask about weekend plans.

It should be noted that I realize these quiet, wallflower-type kids may exhibit introverted behavior because they do indeed have their own behavioral problems. These kids may have learning disorders, problems at home, hearing or sight deficiencies or any number of assorted exceptionalities.

That being said, it is even more important to not ignore these kids. It’s even irresponsible, in my opinion, to give wallflower students less attention simply because they don’t interrupt your lesson or “rock the boat.” I may be an idealist but it’s a good place to start.

disciple is to discipline as...?

When you can build something and then sit back and watch it run exactly the way you intended, all the while planning the next thing to build and adding little drops of oil to the first thing, then you're really living.

I'm not excited about posting a bunch of quotes or inspirational messages here, mostly because I rarely read that kind of shit. But it's national teacher appreciation week, whatever that means, and I came across a really good one by Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross in the mid 1800's...

...the surest test of discipline is its absence.

C.M.

Giving Commands and Offering Choices

There are authoritative teachers.

There are permissive teachers.

I want to be somewhere in between. Easier said than done. So I'm trying to practice the art giving commands and offering choices. I think it would be nice of us if we included those 1st graders in our game. Thank you for sorting and putting the cards back in the box. You can share the football or you can take a two minute break on the bench. You can play cards with us or you can sit quietly on the stage for two minutes.

It's not quite second nature; far, far from it, in fact. But giving commands and offering choices to students is something I'm deliberately practicing. This afternoon my cup runneth over...

Today we played softball for 2 hours. The first challenge was walking fifteen 2nd, 3rd and 4th-graders five blocks down the street to the field, over a bridge with a creek below, and crossing the street where there was no crosswalk or light available. That part went okay. And later in the afternoon the walk back to school was easier because everyone was so hot, sweaty and exhausted.

Once we got to the field there was a lot of stick waving, dust kicking and a few heat exhaustion fueled shouting and pushing matches. We didn't bring any water, what were we thinking? One student, I'll call him R, show real hot and cold behavior. Often he wanders off by himself but he'll grab for my hand just as much. This afternoon R provided me with a study in choices.

R collected over a dozen discarded water bottles from all over the park. He then emptied (or married) all the bottles, dirty water and all, into a large-sized Gatorade bottle. Clever if disgusting, although he didn't drink the water, R suddenly had an enormous pile of dirty, crushed water bottles behind a tree. That was nice of you to collect that trash, now please put it in that trash can over there. It took him a few trips but R threw out the trash.

During stretches on the pitcher's mound, R kicked dust at G, another student. Right after he did it, R turned and looked at me, he knew he did something wrong. I'd like you to either brush the dust off G or take a 2 minute break on the bench starting now...and I started my stopwatch. R jogged over and plopped down on the wooden bench.

While waiting to bat, R picked up a very large tree branch and started waving it at other students. After one of the students screamed, R dropped the branch and went to pick up a bigger one. If you want to hit next then come and pick out a bat or you can take another break on the bench. When R came over to the bats, I asked him to find the lightest and the heaviest ones and he began his search.

After batting, R refused to get a glove and play the field. He wandered slowly across the outfield waving a small stick across the long, unmowed grass. R stopped to the side of the softball field to watch some kids play basketball. He turned back to our game and discovered a car tire in the weeds. My partner called to R several times but he din't really respond. When R began to play with the car tire, ignoring our calls, I stood up. I need you to sit with me on the bench. R didn't join me on the bench but he did come over and sort of mill around behind the bench. This was a frustrating moment, mostly because R just didn't listen.

R took my hand for most of the walk home. He talked to me in a very friendly way, showed me a quarter he found in the park, explained we were walking over the deepest part of the creek and pointed out a walking trail he liked on the side of the road.

Still a lot to learn.

Soon I need to discuss my observations on anticipating student actions, reactions and potentially volatile behavioral challenges.

To yell, or not to yell

During homework help today I yelled. One particular table was getting a little rowdy and wasn't even listening to me when I calmly asked them to settle down 'please.' I yelled and scared both the students and myself. But I did not yell out of frustration and I did not yell any louder than any of my co-workers. I simply got close to the table and yelled, 'Why am I yelling?!' And they got the point. It was pretty cool.

So after about two weeks I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable, but there are obvious challenges ahead. The challenges I have in mind deal more with personal teaching pedagogy over the course of my teaching career. I really feel like I'm just getting my feet wet in the surf of a great ocean I am bound to cross. Is this what they mean by sink or swim?

Adjusting to different learning levels is going to be a major challenge when I'm a teacher. Different learning levels affect the pace of my lesson, the diversity of my activities and the extent to which I activate prior knowledge. I'm also learning that it is not that far-fetched to tailor instruction to different learning styles or multiple intelligences. I am witnessing these during homework and playtime, e.g., a very well-spoken or linguistic third grader, a spatial fourth grader who is drawing and doodling while instructions are given but is able to follow along, and an amazingly coordinated, bodily-kinesthetic second grader who is designing elaborate obstacle courses for himself on the playground.

I'm not happy with the Organization of assignments and homework so far. I see students that are in the same class with the same teacher and they are publishing homework in different ways. My classroom vision is to maintain very specific guidelines for writing and completing assignments. I see the pride students feel when they complete a particularly difficult assignment- they should have a specific and special place to put that assignment like a 3-ring binder or a red "completed" folder. Besides, this practice will make it easier for me to grade, to catalog and to compare nine months of student work.