I have found little use for teaching as it’s depicted on t.v. or in film. I decided long ago that teaching is just too weird a profession for the literal screen treatment, something like chasing a rhino with a butterfly net. My practice has been enriched far more often by t.v. shows and movies which have nothing directly to do with teaching.
Tomorrow’s episode excerpts the t.v. show which has done more for my classroom management than any other.
Motivating Questions
- From my experience, new teachers hear one maxim for classroom management at the expense of all others, one which is as irrelevant as it is prevalent. Any guesses?
- If you had to put a new teacher’s fate in the satisfaction of a single maxim (“Never wear green,” for one hypothetical example.) what would it be?
Recommended Reading
- Unfit For The Grind, concerning Chalk, possibly the best teacher movie I have ever seen. Which, of course, is as faint as praise comes around here.
- Career Crisis #2 (of 2), concerning Freedom Writers, which I didn’t care for one little bit.
- The Truest Stuff I’ve Ever Watched or Written, concerning a scene from The Wire which has nothing directly to do with teaching but which has somehow formed the core of my interactions with deeply confrontational students.
- David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Commencement Address, my favorite author in a walk, to whom this next episode owes a debt.
21 Comments
Rick
July 1, 2008 - 6:25 am -1. Don’t smile until Christmas (or Thanksgiving…or Halloween…)
2. Show respect to everybody at all times. It won’t guarantee a teacher’s success, but it will give them a chance of being able to bounce back from some blunders.
Gina Marie
July 1, 2008 - 6:42 am -1. Be hard in the beginning — you can always loosen up, but you can’t be loose and then harden. (Along the same lines of what Rick said, but I think a little more “realistic” in terms of sound advice)
I just finished my first year — and man, did I screw up the classroom management. I don’t know — my class wasn’t out of control, but I don’t know that I had their full respect. I am young (24) and look even younger, so I think I had a hard time being an “authority figure” to these kids. Not sure if I wanted to be an authority figure. As I mentioned to Dan before on a comment left on Vimeo, I had a hard time enforcing rules that I didn’t believe in myself.
2. I want to say, “Fly under the radar until tenure. If you’re not known, that’s a good thing,” but I think that’s crap.
I didn’t fly under the radar this year. The administration seemed just find and happy to know who I was and what I was about, but my colleagues didn’t like it so much. Don’t know if they felt threatened or insulted or what, but it really put a strain on my relationships within my department.
Rick
July 1, 2008 - 6:48 am -Gina, I was interested in taking a quick peek at your blog. Did you misspell something? The link here just takes me to the wordpress.com front page.
Gina Marie
July 1, 2008 - 6:59 am -Hmmf — had the url backwards. It should work now. Maybe it’s for the best. I blogged about four times since September 2007. Seems my first year of teaching got in the way of my leisure time to sit and contemplate intellectual issues.
Rick
July 1, 2008 - 7:02 am -Your comment hits on a really important issue in teaching: We often don’t have the time and/or energy for self-relflection in the classroom, something that I think is vital to the professional development process.
Dan, sorry to hijack your great post here.
dan
July 1, 2008 - 7:20 am -Love it. Gina, your distaste for the Crushing Authority Figure role will serve you well so long as you can supplant it quickly with the role of Interesting Content Facilitator.
Both will find you at the same destination of actualized, non-disruptive, hardworking students. One of those roles is a lot more satisfying than the other, though. Lot harder, too.
Mr. K
July 1, 2008 - 9:17 am -1) Make your lessons interesting. While it’s true, no one ever tells you how to make them interesting. At best, you’ll get advice like “Use computers – kids love technology” or “Make a game out of it!”.
2) Listen more than you talk. This will let you learn what your kids need, and find ways to connect to them, which will lead much more naturally to the goal than the above advice. It’ll also be good for relations with staff and administrators.
Gina Marie
July 1, 2008 - 9:35 am -@Rick: I agree. I and other teachers spent a loooot of time discussing this in an online course required as part CFF: Classrooms For the Future – a statewide technology initiative here in PA. The course, 21st Century Teaching: The Need for Change, emphasized heavily the theoretical side to technology initiatives, while sort of leaving the actual implementation and practical use up to us teachers. (Which, I guess, makes sense. Except that, as a first year teacher, I couldn’t handle another task I was supposed to implement into my classroom.)
Where is the time to actually reflect on the pedagogy and whether this “tech stuff” is actually making a difference in our teaching? There is none. Everyone knows it, but nothing is getting done to change it.
@dan: that is both what I fear and what I look forward to.
@Mr. K: Love both of these points. Particularly #1. Speaking here as a recently completed first-year teacher, it’s too true.
Mindy
July 1, 2008 - 10:48 am -1) Don’t try to be their friend and start out tough are the two that I hear most.
2) The one maxim I wish every teacher would understand: Remember that those “students” are human beings with the same motivations and feelings as other humans, including yourself. Believe and hold this truth fundamentally in your core, and it will guide every decision you make to create a classroom where kids are happy to be there. And it won’t take much to get them back on track when they veer off course.
Peter
July 1, 2008 - 11:25 am -1- Give and demand respect. Say hi, show interest (know their name), admit failure, … do those things you do to people you respect and demand from them to do the same with you.
2 – Teach them. That’s your job. It’s what they expect. Don’t try to impress, please or entertain. You can spice up a lesson, but remember the main dish. Get to the spices if you have time left.
@ Rick: I kind of smile all the time.
Mark Barnes
July 1, 2008 - 1:07 pm -The most useless maxim would have something to do with rules or a school handbook.
The best advice for any new teacher is to make the most of the first day and the first week. Mess this up, and you may blow the whole year. Throw out the handbook and the list of rules that many bad veteran teachers post.
Tell your students you have one simple rule — Respect everyone at all times. I find that when I tell them that I won’t waste their time spouting the same rules they’ve heard all day or will hear all day, they gain instant respect for me. I tell them to treat me and others around them the way they want to be treated, and we’ll all get along just fine.
After that, I let them ask me anything — nothing is off limits. In most cases I tell them anything they want to know; this builds trust.
And, yes, that’s any question.
Do I drink? Yes, responsibly. I’m an adult.
Who will I vote for in November? Barack Obama.
“But my dad’s a Republican,” they often say.
That’s fine. He and you should make the choice you feel is best for America. It won’t affect our relationship in any way.
Where do I live? In the neighborhood; see you in the grocery.
Are you in favor of abortion? No, I’m in favor of a woman’s right to choose.
I’ve often been told my personal life is none of my students’ business. Ridiculous. I know a ton about them, so why can’t they know about me? I have nothing to hide.
Try this week one. You’ll be shocked at the rapport you build.
Jason Dyer
July 1, 2008 - 2:16 pm -I can’t think of any maxim that seemed particularly outrageous, other than perhaps trying to apply maxims in the first place. There are techniques I’ve seen given as mantras by freshmen teachers that would work horribly in a senior class. I believe teachers often underestimate how different both other levels and other student populations can be.
James White
July 1, 2008 - 2:34 pm -I remember the “don’t smile until Xmas” and found I don’t have to worry about it anymore as a more experienced teacher. Maybe younger teachers need to come down hard and then lighten up as it is an easier way to learn consistency. And I do mean “younger” as I have observed that the closer the teacher is in age to their students, the harder it can be to set good boundaries. By boundaries, I mean like the rules of the game so everyone can play fair. As an older person who came to teaching professionally in the past six years, I have found that I can be a bit more mellow by saying things like “let me think about it and get back to you” for questions about rules and policies. I can more easily turn on the “now I’m not kidding” face than I could when I first worked with kids at a summer camp at the tender age of 19.
Now, if I could advise a new teacher it would be along the lines of “be honest.” I have found that no matter what, when I am strait with students I get cooperation and collaboration instead of mere compliance. If the comment from the floor is “this lesson is stupid,” and I explain the one purpose of the lesson is to teach them how to work together as well as how to look up supporting details from Shakespeare’s work, then they are more likely to see value and not feel hoodwinked.
I will give the advice one of my best teachers gave me about teaching Fencing and I find it is sound for any kind of teaching:
1. Remember to breath
2. Keep it simple
3. Start at the beginning
4. Break down the difficulties
5. Don’t ;et what you don’t know interfere with what you do know.
Cheers!
James White
July 1, 2008 - 2:40 pm -I remember the “don’t smile until Xmas” and found I don’t have to worry about it anymore as a more experienced teacher. Maybe younger teachers need to come down hard and then lighten up as it is an easier way to learn consistency. And I do mean “younger” as I have observed that the closer the teacher is in age to their students, the harder it can be to set good boundaries. By boundaries, I mean like the rules of the game so everyone can play fair. As an older person who came to teaching professionally in the past six years, I have found that I can be a bit more mellow by saying things like “let me think about it and get back to you” for questions about rules and policies. I can more easily turn on the “now I’m not kidding” face than I could when I first worked with kids at a summer camp at the tender age of 19.
Now, if I could advise a new teacher it would be along the lines of “be honest.” I have found that no matter what, when I am strait with students I get cooperation and collaboration instead of mere compliance. If the comment from the floor is “this lesson is stupid,” and I explain the one purpose of the lesson is to teach them how to work together as well as how to look up supporting details from Shakespeare’s work, then they are more likely to see value and not feel hoodwinked.
I will give the advice one of my best teachers gave me about teaching Fencing and I find it is sound for any kind of teaching:
1. Remember to breath
2. Keep it simple
3. Start at the beginning
4. Break down the difficulties
5. Don’t let what you don’t know interfere with what you do know.
Cheers!
Tim S.
July 1, 2008 - 3:25 pm -Interesting topic. My thoughts on this won’t be popular. I am also sure they will be misinterpreted. Here goes anyway…The maxim of the first kind, the overused, trite, no-help-at-all one I always here has to do with the word respect. “The students feel you don’t respect them”, “to get respect, you must earn respect”, even the students themselves get into it. Often at the unprofessional encouragement of other teachers, “Man,…Mrs. Whatever don’t respect nobody!!!!”. What does respect really mean, anyway?
The maxim I would give to new teachers, again, this won’t be popular on this board and might be misinterpreted is IT’S JUST A JOB!! Teaching is one of those professions that defines people and who they are. However, being a lousy teacher does not make one a lousy person. All during college future teachers hear”Make a difference”, “the future of the world depends on you”. Teacher movies don’t help. When I was in college in the early 90’s, everyone wanted to be Robin Williams from Dead Poets Society. Probably still the case. Once your a teacher, when you crap it is no longer suppose to stink. Once you get in the classroom you realize your day, week, month, school year, doesn’t quite follow a Hollywood script. That’s OK. Some administrators, students, fellow teachers, etc will tell you your crap stinks. Not everyone is Mr. Keating. Again, IT’S JUST A JOB!!! Don’t personalize it. When I started out, as a 22 year old kid, I did. Now let me duck for cover.
Gina Marie
July 1, 2008 - 4:34 pm -@Tim: No, I really appreciate this advice. (I am looking at this whole post as sort of professional advice for myself since I am a new teacher.) I think it’s important to remember it’s just a job. I came into the game WAY too idealistic, and I got slammed hard by the reality of teaching. Now I’ve taken on a healthy dose of cynicism for my job, and I am pretty happy about it. Don’t know how my colleagues feel about it. My fiance, who used to teach high school but quit after a year and a half, reminds me often that it is JUST A JOB. Don’t bring it home with you. Let it go at the end of the day. My goal now is to make it as easy as possible (and as much of a 9-5 as possible) without losing all credibility as a teacher. And still enjoying myself. Truth is, I might not make it.
IMH(new teacher)O – I think this is about the best advice anyone could give a new teacher.
Peter
July 1, 2008 - 7:02 pm -1) Without a doubt, I believe it’s, “Don’t smile until January.”
2) While almost all teaching advice is vague and nearly impossible to apply to your own classroom, I think the best one-liner is: “Hold students accountable for everything”. Too big of an idea to be encapsulated in one sentence, but it would have helped me a lot my first year. If the kids do work, collect it, stamp it, check it off, put it on the board, do anything to let them know it matters and it ain’t optional. A parallel exists for student behavior, homework, tests, really everything.
dan
July 1, 2008 - 8:44 pm -“It’s just a job,” is, of course, Freedom Writer’s fork in the road, the moment where you either draw nearer to Erin Gruwell or to her father, who is correct about teaching.
Per
July 2, 2008 - 1:04 am -Reflect on and question what you do. This wont help you start as a good teacher but it will give you a steeper learning curve. Talk to others to get input, try to find time to visit other teachers and have them visit you.
/Per
Paul B
July 2, 2008 - 2:12 am -It took me three years to get this part of teaching right. When I reflect on it at a really high level I think getting it had more to do with my emotional well being than anything else. Here are my stages….
My first year I was intimidated by the kids. This made me reactive. I was always putting out fires, some of which were my own making.
My second year I was determined to put the first year’s mistakes behind me and I was competitive. I was not going to be bested by their behaviors. I had charts and rules and became a control freak. It drove me nuts trying to keep track of all the crap I had created for myself.
In the third year a strange thing happened. It sounds kind of trite for me because I’m not a touchy feely type but in my third year I began to love them. Sounds kind of freaky doesn’t it? What I mean by this is I started to have a genuine affection for them and an appreciation that they carry around a lot of baggage that you have to work through. From that came more respect from me and them.
I still do all the little things that add up to classroom management but they mostly flow now from this fundamental premise. I think kids, especially distressed kids, can sense where you’re coming from in a heart beat and this sets up the entire relationship for good or ill.
Susan Morgan
July 2, 2008 - 4:24 am -David Foster Wallace’s Commencement Address: I am sitting here, feeling grateful to have read it and, once again, amazed at the synchronicity of events and ideas that intersect in my life. After 30 years in schools, I am still inspired by great thinkers who talk about what education is (should be), and the choices we can all make. I needed that today-thanks.