Tag Archives: Teacher

We ain’t payin’ for no stinkin’ master’s degree!

Perhaps I am being hyperbolic, but, it’s what I perceive as being the tenor of this article. While I agree that there are various types of master’s degrees, advanced degree work that a teacher completes beyond the bachelor’s degree should be regarded as valuable, and the time and expense devoted to the endeavor as worthy.

A story: Several years ago, when I was residing in upstate New York, and teaching at my third independent school, my Dear Mom and I were having a telephone conversation. She asked me if I felt that my master’s degree – which, by the way, is an M. Ed. in curriculum, made me a better teacher. Without reservation, I responded, “Yes – absolutely.” My particular master’s degree has embued me with the skills to not only create and implement experiences which promote learning, but also to evaluate those experiences. In essence, I am not only a curator of learning, but also a constructor of learning.

The argument for not supplementing teachers for their advanced education degrees is just another move to place the fiscal shortfalls of states and municipalities on the backs of teachers. Moreover, it is a subtle plug for that train wreck of a policy called, pay for performance.

For the record, I earn an additional $500.00 per year for my master’s degree, courtesy of my current employer. That might pay for a half of a credit of a three or four-credit graduate course.

Five Days Versus Five Weeks

I really ought to be punching the treadmill clock.  However, a tweet on Twitter this morning inspired me to post a quick one.

The tweet reads as follows: “Does five weeks of training make a teacher, ‘highly qualified’? How is this still even a question?!?”.  The tweet included a link to this article.

My response? “No, but it was more than I got at the ‘progressive’ predominately White prep school where I started my teaching career.”  In fact, if memory serves, I received exactly five days of “training”, if one wants to call it that.  I was shipped off by the all-knowing leaders at my former place of employ from long ago to a summer-school type teaching institute sponsored by another likeminded prep school.  Did I learn how to be a teacher? Of course not.  If anything, the experience made me even more confused and anxious.  I spent those five days learning about Spanish culture, literature and film.  I had spent the previous four year of my college career engaged in the aforementioned pursuits. Therefore, I really didn’t need more of it.  On the other hand, what I did need was training and support in how to be an effective teacher, e.g. lesson planning, classroom management, interacting with parents, which I didn’t get until I completed a teacher certification program part-time while employed in college student personnel work.  The five-day experience was so effective, I left teaching for seven years.

I am not going to engage in a diatribe in this post about the failings of TFA, also known as Teach for America; many others have spoken on the topic.  However, what I am speaking on is that, even in 2012, there are those who still have no notion as to how to properly train the newly-birthed Ivy League, Seven Sister and Little Ivy college graduates, of which Yours Truly was one.  Many prep schools now rely on the five-day ‘new teacher’ institutes to “train” the youngsters, along with mentoring from the veteran faculty. The problem is, many of the veterans in most prep schools started out just as I had. Furthermore, they have survived only by their wit and instinct, along with in-house professional development, and attendance at conferences and workshops.  Again, this is far more than I ever received during those most difficult and critical first two years.  Those years were such a disaster, and left me feeling angry and bitter.  But, like all experiences, even bad ones such as that first teaching experience, taught me this: I had to become independent.  In other words, I had to take charge of my own learning instead of relying on others, for I had no others on which to rely.  Ironically, independence is a worker characteristic many prep school administrators don’t favor very highly.

This will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy: When I met with my department chair at the school from so long ago to discuss lesson planning, she told me the following, in a most exasperated tone: “All you have to do is look at the Table of Contents of the textbook.”  Wow…I hope no new teachers today are being told that by their department chairs.

So, five weeks, while by no means sufficient, is progress where the vast array of independent schools are concerned.

I think of this commercial when I reflect on my first teaching experience:

Waiting to Exhale Before I Choke

For the next two weeks, I am on March Vacation.  Like most independent schools, my place of employ follows a traditional prep school calendar.  Thus the reason my place of employ breaks in March for two weeks. Independent boarding schools take three weeks off, essentially closing things down for the month of March. I’ll admit: When I drove away from the campus, I was as happy as a runaway slave.

What are my plans? To rest and relax, enjoy the company of family and friends, and re-charge my intellectual and creative batteries.

But, we earn it – every precious minute of it.  As a colleague said recently, teaching well requires a lot of time, and a lot of mental energy.  So, not any geek from off the street can walk into a classroom and teach.  Yet, many hold and maintain this most ignorant perception of teachers and of the teaching profession.  Furthermore, time is exactly what teachers don’t have.  In addition to teaching, we are encumbered with a plethora of tasks which really have nothing to do with teaching, and, which de-professionalize teachers.  If you or someone you know is a teacher, I don’t have to create a list; you well know about that which I speak.

Many years ago, my cousin, who is a sped. teacher down South, said this when I was a re-entry teacher in my early 30s: “You have to have something left at the end of the day for your family.”  Honestly, I didn’t fully appreciate her words until fairly recently.  But, how, exactly, does a teacher accomplish this when he or she is being de-professionalized at school and then has to contend with the teacher-bashing in the public sphere?  I can tell you, it ain’t easy.  The truth of the matter is, it all sometimes makes me want to cry tears of anger and frustration. It’s simply just too much.

At one time, teaching at an independent school was the jewel of the profession.  However, given today’s economic climate, high tuition rates are justified by teachers at independent schools having to deliver, and that often means doing more with less, and being expected to fulfill the unrealistic expectations of parents, students, administrators and the board of trustees.  It also means having to contend with the ever-increasing degeneration of a bankrupt culture, fraught with disengaged parents, apathetic students, and and an overdose on consumerism.  Thus, public or independent, all teachers are poorer on some level with respect to morale.

This week, MetLife released its Survey of the American Teacher, and the news isn’t good.  There have also been responses to the aforementioned.  But, who is really reading? And, more important, who is really listening? I know that there are many dedicated, committed, hard-working teachers out there, including Yours Truly, who, in spite of it all, still think that getting up every day to teach the children is still worth it. However, given the state of things, how many of us five years from now will feel similarly?  And, will anyone really care?

It Depends On How One Views the Situation

Tablas de Lotería (Lotería boards).

Image via Wikipedia

or…a teachable (anti-racist) moment for teachers.

I’ve recently become a fan of a teacher blog, whose target audience is language teachers.  I enjoy most of their posts and ideas.  But, the one promoting a Mexican Lotería app isn’t one of my favorites.  The reason?  Some of the game board images are stereotypical, even downright racist.

My point? Some think along those lines, those like me, and others, well…do not think along those lines.

My second point: If a teacher is going to use the traditional Mexican Lotería game, laden with its stereotypical and even downright racist images, then a teacher should be well-equipped to use it as an opportunity to teach students that stereotypes and racism exist in every culture, even in Mexico.  After all, Mexico produced this as well.

If I were teaching Spanish 4 or 5, I might use the app.  And, I am well-equipped.

Now, before anyone gets all agitated, and accuses me of having called the bloggers of the blog in question racist: STOP.  Given my orientation, such things are more obvious to me.  Perhaps by my having pointed out the issues with said Mexican Lotería game, there will be greater awareness for the bloggers in question.

That is all.  You may proceed.

A Cultural Visitor

My school has a cultural exchange with Venezuela.  So, every year in early January, a small group of students and a teacher from our partner school in Caracas visits our school for about a month.  The students are usually in grades six and/or seven, and have been learning English from a very young age. They attend classes from 8am-3pm, and go on cultural excursions on the weekends.

I invited the teacher to visit with my seventh grade Spanish Onesies.  But, instead of the usual, one-way dialogue between presenter and students, or, even the use of the standard, “students create questions in Spanish” and presenter answers them, I made the experience more interactive for both my students and the presenter.

1.  Students spent some time in the Tech Lab conducting research on Venezuela.  Thirteen students were divided into groups of two or three, and assigned a topic.  The topics included: history, currency and economics, government and politics, geography, food, and tourist attractions.  Two additional students devised questions for the presenter.

2.  On Presentation Day, the students delivered their findings, to the delight of the visiting teacher.  She then spoke with the students, in Spanish, using lots of comprehensible input.  She gave them something of a history lesson about Venezuela.  Several of my students translated nearly every word, with their confidence increasing with the confirmation of every correct response.

3.  The questioners used Google Translator to translate their questions from English to Spanish, which was fun for them and for me.  But, mind you: It did not occur to me to instruct them to use Google Translator.  Actually, one of the students assigned to ask questions took the initiative to do so.  It was great to see the students to see not only such active engagement, but also the direct use of technology – on their own initiative.

Why the above lesson worked:

1.  As I mentioned from the outset, the lesson did not constitute the traditional one-way dynamic.

2.  High level of engagement

3.  Us of technology in a meaningful way, i.e. to facilitate communication in the target language.

A great way to end a unit. :)

I’m Done

Are you able to recall an incident which greatly disappointed you, but, logically, it really should not have greatly disappointed you?

My eighth grade Onesies greatly disappointed me recently, and, the situation is one that I really should not have taken so personally.

The Situation:  Approximately 50% of the class (there are 13 enrolled in said class) did not fully complete the assignment due, or completed none of it at all. The culprits: Two major assignments for two other courses due on the same day.  But, the larger issue, at least to me, is ineffectual time management, organization, planning, initiative and follow-through.  This particular group of students as a collective seems to be weak all of the aforementioned areas.

The Problem, #1:  I allowed The Situation to impact me to such an extent, I took it personally.  I really should not have, because, at the end of the proverbial day, it its the academic progress and results of the students in question that is going to suffer.  Until they get tired of low scores, perhaps at that time they’ll raise an eyebrow and make the necessary changes.

The Problem, #2: Where are parents in all of this? Learning support specialists cannot do it all, no more than the subject area teachers can.  Mel Levine once said, and I paraphrase here, getting the schoolwork completed is the job of the parent, and not the job of the teacher.  Naturally, I am in whole-hearted agreement with this statement, but frankly, too many parents are not doing their jobs.

I discussed the situation with my Dear Brother, who said that the reason I took the situation so personally is because I care.  But, at the same time, he agreed that the students in question need to get their ish together.

Anyway, short of after-school homework detention club (which doesn’t currently exist at my place of employ, but ought to), and communicating with parents when the work is completed (I send so many homework-related emails that it isn’t funny), the situation is really beyond my control.

So, short of what is within my power to control. I AM DONE. And, it is only January.  ::SIGH::

The Culture of Expectation

I was talking with a friend recently – my asthetistician, to be exact, but I also consider her a friend – while getting my monthly professional facial treatment.  We talked about the recent days-long power outage, our parents – hers about the same age as mine- and life in general.  We then somehow got on the topic of high school, class reunions, and school life back in the day.  She and I are also about the same age.  I mentioned to her the struggles that I have with providing students with extra help.  There seems to be no culture of extra help at my place of employ.  I am constantly telling my students that there is rarely a time when I am not available to them for extra help.  However, students typically don’t seek me out on their own initiative.  Instead, they come by way of teacher or parent fiat.  Additionally, there isn’t time built into the school day for extra help, or after school for that matter.  Conversely, when my asthetistician and I were in high school, life after school was bustling with clubs, extra help, sports and band practices, and students doing research in the library or hanging out with their favorite teachers.  The “late bus” – the bus that served those who stayed after school – was even a culture all to its own.

Perhaps extra help just doesn’t happen in so-called, self-identified, progressive schools.  My previous place of employ was a progressive school, and there was no culture of extra help, or after-school activities, for that matter, save play rehearsal and sports, the two things which seem to dominate after-school life at my present school.  Mind you, my asthetistician and I attended garden variety, albeit good, public high schools, and extra help was a constant and regular part of the school day – before, during and after.  So, one would think that at an expensive, private, college-preparatory school, the same would be true.

Extra help, given the competing forces, seems to be offered on the proverbial catch-as-catch-can basis.  Do individual teachers offer extra help? Of course they do.  However, when there is no culture of extra help, how does this impact the culture of expectation for students and teachers?

Jaime Escalante, the great Bolivian-American educator who brought AP Calculus to an East Los Angeles high school populated largely with economically-disadvantaged Latino students, reportedly said that students will rise to the level of expectation that teachers set for them.  Mr. Escalante clearly had extremely high expectations for the students, despite the immense barriers the students faced on the basis of their race, ethnicity, linguistic heritage, and socio-economic status.

So…what are the barriers for well-to-do, predominately White, upper-middle class students who attend a very expensive, college-preparatory school? The dominant culture, i.e. White male culture, is a bankrupt culture in many respects.  Despite the immense privilege such a culture offers, it is fraught with a compromised value system, misplaced priorities, and ineffectual parenting which values neither education nor personal responsibility and accountability.  Therefore, extra help isn’t seen as  a way of doing better because it is the right thing, but more as a safety net for when things become so bad that extra help is the eleventh-hour solution.  Schools reflect the culture of the society in which they reside.  Private schools, despite the bubble shield they evoke, are not as immune as we may have been led to believe.  All of society’s ills exist with us as well.

I realize that my school isn’t going to resolve society’s many problems.  However, I would like for my school to find a way to make extra help part of a positive culture of expectation.  I would like to see more personal responsibility and accountability on the part of the students, and, to that end, we may have to teach these things to the students.  Additionally, I would like to see a school day that supports and values extra help so that teachers and students alike feel that it is not only an important part of the school day, but that it is also a necessary component to teaching and learning.

Without a culture of expectation, nothing else truly matters.

Exhausted, But Still Thinking

Students learning about vermicomposting

Image via Wikipedia

As I typed my last comment report this morning at approximately 10:22 am, my face crashed down into my laptop keyboard.  I was overcome by mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion.  Although I am relieved to see the year end, I feel good about the things I was able to accomplish with students. I made some significant inroads with tech teaching and project-based learning, and combined them in meaningful ways to help my students demonstrate what they know and are able to do with the grammar structures and vocabulary they had learned. Specifically, with my Spanish 4′s, I orchestrated a project using Voice Thread with the future tense, an idea I adopted from a teacher and colleague on the ‘Net, and a multi-media digital autobiography, also adopted from yet another teacher and colleague on the ‘Net.  It’s great having access to colleagues beyond one’s brick and mortar edifice.

This year, to be certain, has had its peaks and valleys.  On the personal tip, My Dear Dad was diagnosed with a very serious health condition back in January, which, by the way, seems to have stabilized, following an initial round of treatment, which was going well until he had a nasty reaction to one or more of his medications. I am hoping and praying that this will be the trend for a long time to come.  I also encountered formidable challenges with my Spanish 4s. The students represented a very wide range of goals, abilities, learning styles and motivational levels, for which I was neither prepared, nor received much support in remedying.  However, after much reflection about what I wanted the students to accomplish, their learning and my teaching became richer and more meaningful, but not necessarily less complex, and, at times, complicated. In as much as I like alternative assessment and project-based learning, I need to become more skilled at using and developing rubrics.

Thus, one of my goals/tasks for the summer is to create/identify project-based tasks for my 8th grade Spanish Onesies. I read something recently which said that students want to accomplish two essential goals during the school day: 1. Have fun; and 2. Feel a sense of accomplishment.  That statement resonated strongly with me.  While I am a task-master and a disciplinarian for sure, I am not adverse to fun engagement in learning. Moreover, learning is about demonstrating mastery of skills and content, i.e. what one knows and is able to do.  For this reason, project-based learning seems to be a good and effective learning and teaching solution. So, while I am not throwing away my paper and pencil tests and quizzes, I am coming to the realization that this is neither the only way, nor the best way.

Four more days until I am officially off of the school clock.  Until then, I will strive to be collegial, engage productively, and not roll my eyes or make faces.

Related articles

Voki?

Perhaps I am late to the party, as it were. But, it has taken me some time – perhaps longer than most foreign language teachers – to feel the Voki love, and to jump on its wagon. Just today, I expressed in a tweet to a colleague that beyond creating a wacky avatar, I considered Voki to possess limited teaching and learning value, compared to some other online teaching and learning tools.

Well, I ate a bit of proverbial crow today. I relented, and spent some quality time familiarizing myself with Voki. Moreover, I created an avatar, and, recorded something that my students might do. I admit: Voki is fun, engaging, and promotes speaking, writing, reading and listening skills. However, the platform presents some considerable limitations, which are deal-breakers for me. They are as follows:

1.  The slowness of the website. It takes a long time for avatars and other data to load. In some cases, the site may time out, just as it did on me several times today.

2.  One minute recording time. This might be enough for most students. But, if a student, say, were talking about himself or herself, and a friend, there wouldn’t be enough allotted recording time to accomplish the task.

3.  No ability to type foreign language characters. ‘Nuf said.

4.  No tech support. For me, this means a link which takes me to a group of folks who are able to trouble-shoot and answer tech questions. There is a Teacher Forum set up for this purpose, but, I need more than that when working with online teaching and learning tools.

I realize that the good folks at Voki want to maintain a free site, thus maximizing access for all. I get that. However, if paying even a nominal fee would enhance the speed of the site, allow the use of foreign language characters, increase the recording time to, say, a maximum of five minutes, and, provide bona fide tech support, then, I could give full buy-in. For now, Voki may not be something that I will use in my curriculum.

For some more information about Voki, check this out.

My PLN

China, Hong Kong: Self Direction

Back in 1989, I was not sure that I even wanted to continue being a teacher.  My two-year stint at an independent boarding and day school had been largely unsatisfying: The hours were long, the pay was poor, the duties were insanely numerous – teaching, coaching, advising, and dorm proctoring,  and there seemed to be little respect for young, newly-graduated teachers (I was 24 years old at the time).  I was bored, frustrated and unsupported.

I shared my thoughts and feelings with my Dear Dad via a telephone call.  I told him that I felt that there was nobody at school, i.e. a seasoned colleague – inspiring me, or giving me direction. Dear Dad listened attentively and affectionately, and then said, “Sometimes one has to inspire and direct oneself, and that it cannot always come from others.  In fact, it often won’t come from others.”

Admittedly, it took me many years – from 1989 to 2005 – before I fully and completely understood my Dear Dad’s counsel.  In 2005, I found myself at a new school – my fourth  - and I was really struggling.  Despite the fact that I had been teaching for 11 years at that point (I had taken a hiatus from teaching, which included five years in college student personnel, and two years in full-time graduate studies), I felt like I had been teleported back to that boarding and day school, for I certainly was feeling the same way in 2005 as I had felt so many years prior.  After having had several email and telephone conversations with two members of my newly-christened online Personal Learning Network (PLN), I began to take charge of my professional growth and development.  I read books and articles, and researched workshops pertaining to foreign language teaching.  In the summer of 2006, I attended the two workshops I had identified via my research.

Perhaps the aforementioned is the reason why when I want to know something related to teaching and learning, I get online, and research it.  Sometimes I ask colleagues for assistance if I am really stuck, but, for the most part, my efforts are largely self-directed. Although I have found the information and support via my PLN extremely gratifying, I find it immensely empowering to do my own research, to find my own answers, and to inspire and direct myself. :)

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