Keeping Fun in Education

During the many years that I have taught, I have tried to keep fun in my instruction.  This does not always have to be what you are teaching or even how you teach it.  Each day, with each class period, I have one goal that remains constant: I want each of my students to smile or laugh at least once before they leave my classroom.  This does not mean that I have to entertain and do a comedy act or be a clown to hold the interest of my students.  Students must know that I am in control of my class and that I do want, and enjoy, student involvement. I must be able to steer the ship in the right direction.  This takes a little practice to have the students smile or laugh and still maintain a purpose or direction to meet goals and objectives.  Inexperienced teachers can lose control of the class when they joke around sometimes.  It takes a lot of practice to keep things light and funny, but also be in control of the class. 

Some students can take a lot more than others when joking around with the class, and until you can figure this out caution should be used.  Once you get to know your students you figure out which ones can laugh at themselves and which ones cannot.  Most students like to laugh and have fun, but some like to do it from the sidelines without being directly involved.  Each class has its own chemistry which takes effort to figure out.  This being said, I still have fun with each of my classes. 

I believe that if students are comfortable with me as a teacher and my classroom they will give me more effort in the academic part of class.  I want my students to think I am funny, but they must be respectful to me as their teacher and to their classmates.   I like to laugh and have a little fun as we do the things that we must do in class and I think my students enjoy the same thing.  I think most of my students have fun in my class, but at the same time I think I am a hard teacher with high expectations.

Merit Pay

There has been a lot of speculation around the country and here in Utah about doing away with teacher unions and basing teacher salary on merit pay.  Northern Utah had one of the school districts sign new contracts during the summer for this very thing, to which if they did not sign they would lose their job.  On the surface this does not seem that bad.  I mean if you perform your job well you get more money, and if you do not you get less money.  Scratch the surface, and I believe this is a very negative thing for education especially for teachers.  First of all, who decides who makes the rules and regulates this?  How can this be fair to every single teacher?  Are some very good teachers going to leave the teaching profession?  Will prospective college students be steered away from the teaching profession because it is very uncertain and unstable?

There has been a big push for PLC's (Professional Learning Community) with teachers working together, sharing information and strategies, and helping each other.  I think with merit pay being put into place the PLC concept will fade fast.  Why would teachers help other teachers do better so they might look better on paper and get more pay, which could result in a drop in pay for yourself.   I can see teachers isolating themselves from each other with no communication or working together.  It could turn into a very hostile work environment with coworkers stabbing each other in the back, throwing each other under under the bus (all figuratively speaking) to get a leg up on the competition.  The counselors, administrators, and special education department are going to be in constant battle with teachers over lower scoring students being placed into classrooms.  I mean, if your pay is based on test performance, teachers will keep close tabs on how many of these low scoring students are in their class compared to other classrooms.  If teacher pay is based on test scores there will be a constant fight about this.  Are these students going to feel welcomed or believe that the teachers like them?

It will be interesting to see what happens to the educational system if the pendulum swings this far.  It may get a whole lot worse before it gets better for the teaching profession.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

School Scedule

Most of us went to school on the traditional school schedule, where the months June, July, and August were taken off, while the rest of the year, school was in session.  It is what we know, and what most people are expecting.  About 10-15 years ago there was a push for elementary schools to go into a year round school schedule.  There was the same number of days both for students and for teachers when compared to the traditional schedule, but stretched out over the entire 12 months.  My wife taught on this schedule for many years and enjoyed it very much.  She thought that she recharged and was ready to go back each time.  She also thought her students did the same.  I cannot remember the rationale behind doing away with the year round schedules, but there are currently no schools in Washington Country still using them.  There is a third type of schedule called modified traditional.  With a modified traditional schedule, a week or more is taken off after each term, holidays are usually extended, and the summer is much shorter.  If it were up to me I would put the modified traditional schedule in place for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I think it would cut down on student absences.  In my 17 years of teaching I think dealing with students being gone and trying to catch them up is my biggest gripe.  Almost all of my "D" and "F" students have one thing in common; a high absent rate.  A big reason students get good grades comes from actually being in class.  Students miss school for a lot of reasons besides being sick (there will always be sickness no matter what the schedule is).  Families going on vacation is always a big one, but also activities, family emergencies, and just not wanting to show up to school.  I believe there are enough open days throughout the year that most of these things should be taken care of during these open days.  I would be interested to see if there is a study out there that shows what happens to the truancy rate when schools go to a modified or year round school schedule.  I would bet this rate would decline with more students attending class.  I think another positive thing about the modified school schedule is that there is time to take a break, recharge, and come back with a better attitude.  

PLC's

The latest and greatest in education is PLC's (Professional Learning Communities).  I can remember when I first started teaching some 17 years ago, and some of the older faculty members would always make comments that I didn't understand until later in my career. There always seems to be a "theme" or "direction" our district wants us to work towards, and this has remained the same throughout my teaching career.  Some of these "themes" or "directions" were better than others (and yes, some were a complete waste of time).  These veteran teachers I mentioned before would make comments each time we shifted gears in a new direction.  Most of the comments were things like: "Here we go again," "the pendulum swings back and forth," "I wonder what we are doing next year."  As the years roll by these comments are being validated by the "shifting of the gears."  Most of these veteran teachers may have rolled their eyes and been sarcastic, but at the same time, almost all of them would jump on board as team members and do what was needed to be done even if they didn't like the "hoop jumping."  The latest "theme" or "direction" for the last several years has been PLC's.  This one has hung on for longer than most of them, and may be here to stay in some way, shape, or form.  I would have to say I completely agree with the concept of PLC's.  Working collaboratively with faculty members, looking at data to adjust instruction, common assessments, working with the end in mind, etc.  It is extra work at times, but it makes sense and is what is best for the students.  There are also some things I don't like.  I hate the paperwork involved.  We seem to waste (I hesitate using that word) a lot of time in meetings as departments (PLC's) filling this stuff out on the computer so our school and the district can make sure we are doing what we are being asked to do.  It always seems like I have a load of stuff to get done and not enough time to get it done.  Then we have to add this seemingly busy work on top of everything else that I can't seem to fit in.  Life as a teacher...so much to get done and not enough time to do it.  Even though I don't like the paperwork part of it, I can at least understand why.  So now it seems I am developing into one of these older teachers with sarcastic comments, but also on board as a team player getting things done.  Once we are administrators, things like PLC's will be viewed much differently.  How do we get our staff members excited and on board with a new "theme" or "direction?"  Whatever it is that we do, it will be in the best interest of our students to help them be as successful as they can be.

Block Schedule With Science Classes

     I must admit that I do not like change.  That is, if I think that things are going well, I do not want to deviate away from something that is known to work well into something that may not.  The block schedule was one of those things for me.  I had worked with a traditional schedule where each class is hit each day for 45-50 minutes for the first 14-15 years of my teaching career.  I had developed my curriculum and my labs for each unit to fit into 45-50 minute classes.  I had several concerns with going to the block schedule.  How was I going to change my curriculum to fit 70+ minutes of class time?  Would I have to start from scratch?  I also was very concerned that middle school aged students could not sit for that amount of time in one class period.
     After the shock of moving into the first year with the changes I had to make within my curriculum, I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the block system worked.  The extra time in each class period was a total benefit for science classes.  I could get more done, have my students work on more complex labs and lessons.  It made me realize that when I would look at doing a new lab within the traditional schedule, and I thought it was difficult lab, I would skip it and find something comparable that was more simple.  I would do this because of trial and error of doing such things over the years.  The extra time of the block schedule allowed me to attack some of those labs or lessons that I didn't dare to tackle before.  As far as the extra time that was required for students to sit in each class, it was not a factor.  As long as lessons are meaningful and students are busy, it made no difference if the class was 45 minutes or 75 minutes. 
     I hope we never move away from the block schedule.  Sometimes change is good, and this was one of those times.  Sometimes it also feels like those in charge always want to bail ship and jump on the next latest and greatest only to bail ship again and again.  This was one of those times where I felt it was beneficial and feel glad our school made the move.

Classroom Management

I think that as a teacher, classroom management is not a "one size fits all" in how you manage your classes.  Before I was teaching in the classroom and was attending college, it seemed some education classes we took did not really prepare teachers for the reality of what the classroom was really like.  It was more like a fantasy classroom they painted for us.  It was always a matter-of-fact attitude and instruction given by the professor stating things like, "if this happens in the classroom, this is how you should respond", or "when you get into the classroom, this is what your students will be like", or "when you are a teacher you should do this."  I do not claim to have all the answers for teaching incoming teachers, but the reality is that each teacher will conduct themselves in a different manner.  Each teacher will handle situations in their own way.  Teaching styles vary from teacher to teacher.  Even though teachers are so different from each other, each one can be just as effective at teaching and doing a great job as any other teacher.  I think variety is needed from classroom to classroom.  Procedures can be the same (from department members, or entire school), but teaching styles will vary.  Just my thinking to get this assignment started on a blog.