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New Teachers

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 10:30:30 PM
I was just reminded today how nice it is not to be a new teacher. No matter what anyone says, that first year is awful. The dedicated new teacher stays up late almost nightly trying to get work done. At the same time, most struggle with discipline, correcting, teaching methods, and learning that line between personal and professional.

At the same time, the new teacher is bombarded by everyone. Parents, students, and other teachers alike all either think they can "push around" the rookie, or they offer all kinds of unsolicited advice that the new teacher isn't ready for.

The new teacher gets bombarded by the teachers who seem to hate kids, the teachers who still don't know how to teach, and, worse, the consequences of their own mistakes. New teachers make a lot of mistakes and, in a lot of schools, all they hear is criticism. Very few are there to help them fix their mistakes or learn from them.

This makes them more insecure when dealing with the inevitable criticism. They know they made mistakes and have a hard time defending themselves.

At some point, the transition happens. Some become the eternally bad teacher who does not improve beyond survival level. This type will be the old "bat" down the hall who is always complaining about "kids these days."

Others discover time management, learn from their mistakes, develop confidence, and realize that they will learn and improve every year. These are the ones who come to school ready to work and, when they get old, become the legend that all new teachers look up to.

I know I've been through my transition. I like to think that I'm more like the second type, but I'm realistic enough to know that I am imperfect and human. There are days when I have to force myself to be happy. Then there are the days when I go home from school glad to be a teacher. I know I manage time much better. When I started, I would not have blogged (had their been such a thing). I wouldn't have had the time. My hope is to keep improving.
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Bill Clinton Erupts on Fox

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Sunday, September 24, 2006 6:16:07 PM
I didn't see the interview live, but I did click on the YOUTUBE link on the Drudge Report. The interviewer attempted to ask Clinton a reasonable question. Clinton went kind of "crazy" with it. End of story? No.

Clinton's reaction was definitely over the top. When he asked why no one has attacked the Bush administration in the same way, it was more like the kind of paranoia conservatives show in dealing with the media. He was using physically intimidating body language: forward in his seat, tapping the interviewer on the knee repeatedly, in the interviewer's face, etc. In Clinton's defense, the interviewer did have a "smirk" on his face, but I'm not sure if it was satisfaction at provoking a ridiculous overreaction or if it was a nervous expression as he attempted to seem calm in the face of something unexpected.

I don't like Clinton much, but I have to take his side a little bit. "Gotcha" interviewing is unfair. Of course, Clinton should have expected this question. As I listened to the question go on and on through several interruptions, I had the feeling that it was designed to place Clinton on the defensive.

My take is that Clinton fell into the trap and his overreaction will be great fodder for all the conservatives out there. However, this interview was not designed to inform or get information. Rather, it was designed to get attention and play "gotcha." Clinton should know better than to fall into that trap. As he went on and on in excrutiating detail, he opened himself up for criticism. Short answers are best for that sort of question.

This kind of journalism is boring. I don't care whether liberals or conservatives do it. It's boring and does not inform. It sometimes reveals character, as it did in this case. However, was anyone surprised by Clinton's reaction? How about some reasoned debate or polite, informative discussion? I suppose it's not "entertaining" enough. This is one more reason I prefer to read rather than watch my news.
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A Teacher's Personal Life

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Friday, September 22, 2006 6:23:11 PM
Since it's Friday, this is going to be positive, honest!

Last night, I read and responded to a column called Back to School -- Back to the Trenches. In it, there was a description of a transexual now teaching in upstate New York. The personal life of this teacher was allowed to enter the classroom in a big way.

A few years ago, I read another book, this one called One Teacher in 10. This book explored the stories of homosexual teachers.

What these have in common is the way in which teachers bring their personal lives into the classroom. I don't want to do a negative review of these teachers. What I want to do is explore how most teachers bring their personal lives into the classroom.

It should be non-disruptive. After all, the students are not our friends. They don't come to school to hear about our troubles or our romantic adventures. Of course they do act interested -- especially if it gets them out of class. The amount of interest can easily be gauged by their behavior when the bell rings.

Despite what some idealists say, the personal life cannot be eliminated from the classroom. I go to school to teach science. Nevertheless, my students know I'm not married, approximately where I live, and sometimes even when I'm dating. They also know I didn't play sports in high school, that I grew up in a small town, and that I have a very intelligent brother. His experiences relate to my Biology class quite often. A lot of this comes from being in a small town. Some comes from my mentioning things in class.

My students don't know when or why I might break up with a girlfriend, my financial situation, the "crazy thing" I did over the weekend, or anything sexual.

Anything mentioned to students is something that I'd also feel comfortable mentioning to my sweet, elderly grandmother. It's even more restrained than that.

To give students too much personal information is to lose their respect. To many students, the teacher is the only mature adult in their lives. It is important that we remain there instead of descending to the level of some of the "trash" that call themselves adults. At times, it is like being a preacher.

Of course, students will also lose respect if their teacher is a complete cipher. Students should see teachers as human beings. This is part of the human dynamic in every classroom. I do not lecture while my students passively take notes. I interact a lot. If I'm not a real person to them, we can't do that.

Nevertheless, that line must be drawn. I set the line down clearly by saying, "That's my personal life." After some initial tests, the line is clear.

My Friday, "positive" blog is not the place to analyze the examples I gave at the beginning, but I will say that these teachers must look at whether they are bringing too much personal life into the classroom.  The transexual certainly is.  The gay teachers in the book are harder to categorize. Some are crossing the line, some aren't.

I'd say that if we live a personal life that is nothing to be ashamed of and we are careful about setting limits, then we are doing all that can reasonably be asked.
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Technology in Education

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Friday, September 22, 2006 1:03:04 AM
I enjoy technology. Daily, I switch between Apple, Windows, and Linux operating systems. I own 3 graphing calculators of my own (and one that doesn't work), and I regularly use a digital projector in my teaching. Of course, I do not yet own a cellphone, I still have a rotary dial phone, I don't own an i-Pod, and my TV is older than me.

I was thinking about technology this week because my school is pushing several technology initiatives. So where does technology belong in education? Is it a frill? essential? harmful?

Education loves fads. Technology is a fad, but it has useful elements. I disagree with the fad that says technology eliminates the need for students to learn basic computation. I have Chemistry students who cannot handle conversions because they did not adequately learn basic multiplication of fractions.

On the other hand, technology does take out a lot of tedium. I will not go back to the era of data collection with tape timers. What a lot of wasted time that was. Data collection was as fast as a motion detector. However, students then had to measure distances between hundreds of dots, run the same calculation over and over with each set of numbers, and then make a graph. This could mean 2 or more wasted days.

Now, my students have the graph immediately. They lose the "hands-on" feel, but they gain because they can run a new trial if there is a mistake, they can investigate patterns, and they don't "fudge" data just to get the tedium over with.

I've met teachers who don't believe anything good comes of technology. Their teaching methods would be familiar to a teacher of another era. I've also met teachers who embrace it whole-hog.

Like many things, the most successful implementation takes a middle road. Technology saves students (and teachers) a lot of tedium. It should not replace learning. It's a tool. For example, in other years I've had my students do a lot of graphing with spreadsheets. This year, my Chemistry class will not. They're quite weak with graphing. Technology would inhibit their learning this valuable skill. I suspect that, next year, these same students will be ready to move on and use the tool. They will then understand the importance of an appropriate "window" and the reason why the dots on a scatterplot don't line up beautifully.

Soon, I'd like to talk more about some specific applications of technology. I don't really know my audience, but I like to think that my audience wants to hear a conservative perspective on the classroom. Education policy is fascinating, but of very little help to the teacher who feels isolated as the only conservative in the school.

When I see the hostility with which public educators are greeted on Townhall.com, I see a need to provide a friendly voice to let those teachers know that there is a community of conservative teachers out there trying to make public education work.
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Education Standards Step on Toes

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Friday, September 15, 2006 1:24:51 AM
Debra Saunders wrote an article called Fuzzy Memory on Fuzzy Math, posted elsewhere on this website. It  made for an interesting read because I'm quite interested in  standards.

I assisted in writing the North Dakota Science Standards. I won't claim any exceptional excellence in this document. The process is quite eye-opening. If we want students to actually learn and not simply memorize for next week's test, we have to spend some time on a topic giving it a little depth. The consequence is that we must cut certain topics from our program, even though we know that they are important.

I happen to love the topic of fluid mechanics. My interest was first awakened by the study of turbulent versus laminar flow. I particularly enjoyed the connection to Chaos theory. It just made sense. However, with limited time in my Physics course, most of this topic was dumped from my curriculum. The other authors on the committee made similar sacrifices until we collected what we believed were the most important topics.

Some toes were stepped on. Some topics were probably dropped that should not have been, and some were probably kept that should have been dropped. Fordham Foundation certainly didn't like what we did.

NCTM was forced to make similar choices. We don't agree with all of their choices. As a math teacher (I'm diverse!) I find it shocking that the multiplication tables would not be memorized. Certain algorithms, such as long division, will not be discovered intuitively by elementary students. They must be memorized.

NCTM did have some good ideas. Mathematics education went through a period of being quite rote. It didn't emphasize the practical applications or understanding. It had become a process of repeating algorithms until they were internalized. This was a failure. This behaviorist method of education has unfortunately been associated with Christian fundamentalists and conservatives. This association is false, but the perception is real.

It seems NCTM took the pendulum too far the other way as a reaction. This has been the story in education. It works in extreme fads. They certainly stepped on toes and always will, no matter what they do.

What I find interesting (and noted in my response to the article) is that older textbooks are not the "drill and kill" books that some current educators would have us believe. They have an impressive mix of progressivism and traditionalism. What many of us forget is that these books were written for a student who was expected to be more intrinsically motivated than we expect now. These students were expected to do their investigating and experimenting outside of school. Part of our confusion over education is that we do not precisely define the terms we use and so raise false associations.

The standards movement is a boon for education. We are finally talking about what is important, how to teach it, and how to ensure that students actually learn it. We will have false starts, mistakes, and success. The discussion is started. Let us stay engaged with it so that we can finally start to change education in this country.
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Passing around the Garbage

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 10:34:16 PM
A few days ago I read an article about California teachers. A new bill is being discussed in the legislature about hiring teachers. At the moment, schools are forced to give preference in hiring to teachers who have left other schools. The issue with this is that these teachers may be someone else's "garbage". This would make a great link, but I didn't think of this blog until now!

It is very difficult and expensive to fire a teacher. However, it is a common misconception that a school cannot get rid of poor teachers. One way to do it is pressure. The administrator has to be somewhat careful. However, regular checks in the classroom, regular documentation, regular "checking up" on lesson plans, curriculum, etc, are pressure. Additional pressure can be created by not defending teachers from parents, not filling requisitions, starting the firing process, and other ways.

Teachers often leave of their own free will. The high-profile firings get the headlines, but these are the exception.

Teachers do need to eat. Many leave the profession. They are aware that they are poor teachers and were most likely as unhappy in the classroom as the school was having them there. A few move on to other schools. This is where the problem comes in California. The poor, more desperate schools are forced to take these teachers. This bill would make it possible for these schools to choose the applicant they want.

I like this bill, but I do see a problem with it, at least in perception. I'm a teacher who has "wandered" a bit. I like to believe I'm not someone's "garbage." I do know I haven't been pressured anywhere, at least not beyond the normal pressures of the job. My long resume most likely cost me a job I really wanted.

In California, I would have gotten that job due to preferential hiring. I suspect that, in addition to the length of my resume, the school had some other concerns with me. I don't coach (which they needed). I am very academic and tough (which would not work well with their population). I'm also poorly suited to a large special education population, which this school had. In the interview, I cited a lot of academic statistics about the school and asked for explanations.

I was disappointed not to get the job, but I was not the right match for this school. My interviewers saw that. In California, their hands would have been tied. Even if we put aside the issue of poor teachers getting passed around, it is quite obvious that this bill is important to California. Schools need to hire the best teacher, not the one with seniority.

As an addendum, I want to note that, while I was disappointed not to get this job, I was able to get a job at another, quite good school later in the summer. It makes me think of the song that goes, "Thank God for unanswered prayers."
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Getting Enough Sleep

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:59:56 PM
This week, the EIA (Education Intelligence Agency) had a reference to an article that claims teenagers aren't getting enough sleep. Of course, it was played up for laughs. I agree, however, that they aren't.

When kids (or teachers) don't get enough sleep, they nod off, their attention wanders, they become irritable and short tempered, they have trouble retaining information, they feel hungry, and they don't put the priority on school. I see this in my classroom. My students are not getting enough sleep.

The typical argument is that kids have a body clock that keeps them up late. As a result, they need to sleep in. Of course, the reason they stay up late is that there are temptations. They are on the phone, on the Internet, watching movies, or, more troubling, away from home "hanging out" with friends. They don't have parents that care enough to insist that they are home by a certain time.

I teach farm kids who do no have this problem. First of all, they live 30 (or more) miles away from school. Secondly, they have to get up early to do chores. These kids seem to be more well rested, even though they get up early.

Although there is Biological truth to the concept of the "body clock", we have a certain amount of control over it. Tired kids are mostly tired by choice. They are kids and do not always make intelligent choices, especially if they have been allowed to stay up late since early childhood. Their parents need to set some reasonable guidelines.

Adults are responsible in some ways. I do not like kids playing in sports during the week. My school is somewhat remote, so my students travel quite late, even on school nights. However, this isn't just a problem in rural areas. Even in more densely populated areas, kids are up late because of sports. I would like to see games held on weekends, not during the week. Football has successfully done this.

Sleep is important. However, we're allowing kids to go without sleep. In some cases, we're even encouraging it. The adults need to be adults because their kids need them.
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Union Predators

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Friday, September 01, 2006 12:41:38 AM
During lunch, I went into the teachers' lounge. When I entered, one of the union members was leaning pretty hard on one of the new teachers.

This poor woman is fresh from college. As I've described earlier, new teachers are easy victims.  I just could not believe how the union member's tactics exactly matched my blog from yesterday. The new teacher kept repeating that she wanted to think about it a little first.

I jumped in then and let her know that I was not a member. I gave a succint description of the alternatives that are out there. I followed this by noting that most of the teachers are union members and that, if she were not a member, she would miss out on being part of collective bargaining.

I think I offended the union members at the table, even though my approach was more balanced than that of the union members.

This woman needs to make up her own mind and cannot do so without being presented with all of the facts.
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