Falling Behind is Fun

Slacking off on blogging, living life a little more.  Surprise visit from friends, time with hubbie-lovey, bowling and photo booth pictures this weekend, so I've been catching up on work. Sometimes the little things are the big joys in life.

Here is what is going on in teaching world:  Emily has hit a wall.  Let's hope it's a wall of sound.  My motivation is tanking.  This is what happens when you attempt to do projects like this at the winding down, end-of-year instead of the beginning when all is fresh and your students are not used to your ways.  But, I'm looking at it as a chance to practice and iron out some kinks before next year. I wish my school would do the same and everyone would just take a collective breath and relax a bit.  Wow, can adults be serious.

We're going to have to come back to #13, because it's a bigger one to digest.

Here are the easier techniques to catch us up...

#14:  BOARD=PAPER
Teach kids how to take notes.  Teach them that what goes on the board is what they should write in their notebooks.  It sounds simple, but if you've ever looked at what some kids do to a power point presentation, it's an exercise in minimalism.  They need to be shown explicitly HOW to become students.

#15:  CIRCULATE
Get on your feet teachers.  Get up and make it happen.  No more lazy-bones behind the desks.  I walk my rectangle back and forth daily, like an animal in a cage.  I really want a bigger room, can't you tell?  Why does the caged bird sing?  Because it wants the hell out!  Here are some useful tips for circulating the room.  This means owning the space and having access to every kid, fully, without tripping over backpacks or having to apologize as you step on their toes.  It means breaking the plane from the front of the room to the back within the first five minutes of every class.  This helps!  It really does.  It shakes the habit of hugging the board.  It's claiming territory, like a cat marking turf.  Only less smelly and offensive.  Just walk.  As you work the room, engage with kids, get them to sit up, check work, and reinforce what is good.  Move systematically and unpredictably so that kids don't necessarily know what you are going to do.  Position yourself for power so you can face most of the class most of the time.

All these things are wonderful, but not possible in my school.  I am working on modified versions of the above--that's the best I can do, folks.  It's like reading an abridged version of the book, this teaching in my teeny classroom.

Okay, so if you are still tuned in, here is #13:  NAME THE STEPS
Real mastery, as Kurt Vonnegut said, is being able to teach anything to an eight-year old.  Breaking down instruction into identifiable steps (under seven), making them easy to remember, and then applying the steps to problems is key to supporting student learning is important, important!  This teachnique (my new word for this book) has got me thinking about questions like:  How do you answer a question in literature satisfactorily?  How do you spot a key event in a story?  I am thinking about the thinking process and breaking it down into something I can teach students.  I don't recall having many teachers in my lifetime after Montessori school who would do this.  I'm the student now, and enjoying it.  Contrary to what everyone seems to think, those who can do cannot necessarily teach.  Mastery teaching is a skill set akin to that of a Top Chef Master.  So, dig that, a la flambé.

Being a Champion

Talking to my husband yesterday, he pointed out that it is kind of ridiculous how much I am underselling my abilities as a teacher in this blog.  Both of us tend to do this to ourselves, as we set our sights on mastery.  A noble goal, but there also needs to be a celebration of successes achieved along the way. 

So, I've been reflecting on what it means to be a champion and how that differs from trying to obtain perfection.  Here are my thoughts this morning: being a champion teacher for me would feel like my authentic self was present and expressed in my work; it would also mean that I would be an effective and inspiring teacher for the majority of my students the majority of the time. 

Champions are not pussy footing around.  They are training to go all the way, and this requires much sacrifice of ego, self-discipline and dogged determination.  Champions have to train body, mind and spirit (on this note, I am seeing my health challenges of late as a wake up call to take better care of myself).  All of these elements work in harmony with that extra ingredient that seems to come from some higher place--a flow, a connection, the za za zoom.  There is something about a champion that is akin to star power.  Hard to say what the "it" of that presence is exactly, but it can be tangibly felt.  

True star power, contrary to what many may think, is not egotistical.  In my world, it reminds me of what my spiritual teacher, Sri Harold Klemp writes as a method of building self-confidence...putting the full force of who you are spiritually behind your replies, thoughts and deeds.  That presence can light up a room, and it uplifts everyone around.  Watching a play with Annette Bening at the Geffen Playhouse this winter, I saw just that.  The second she entered the stage the "it" emanated from her.  It made everyone around her greater.

Pour moi, the techniques in this teaching book are like the ingredients in a recipe (I really do just want to blog about food, food glorious food).  The quality of spiritual force or champion energy that goes into teaching with these techniques is like the quality of the raw food ingredients.  Then, of course, the intention, skill and gift of the chef is what makes the true transformation happen.  Bolstering skills and practicing them time and again are key to becoming a better teacher.  A final secret for all truly good cooking is to sprinkle with love.  So this is the one technique that I would add to Teach Like a Champion and to any "how to" book: GIVE LOVE.  Serve warmly and enjoy.

Hook 'Em

#12 The Hook

Start lessons that need to excite your students into learning with these categories of hooks:
~quick stories
~useful analogy
~props
~media (picture, music, short video)
~status (give props to the chops of whomever you are studying)
~challenge

Hooks are supposed to be short, able to yield quickly to the lesson at hand, and energetic and optimistic.  Hooking students into learning is something that I need help with!  Often I just lack the dramatic presentation skills and am going to be more aware of this from now on.  I'm also debating on taking Improvisational Comedy lessons out here in Lala land.  It's definitely the place for it.  Searching for props tonight for Animal Farm.

Double Plan & Draw the Map

Cold sore almost invisible, actual onset of cold present.  Part of a new environment is exposure to new germs.  I've been sick way too much this year.  Time to clean up my stress level and my food act (no more coffee, too much acid, waaah).

Technique #10 is about visualizing how you, the teacher, are going to be in the room, and not only what your role in the lesson will be, but what the students should be doing while you are busy being teacher.  Seeing through students' eyes.  Double planning is planning for both parties.  This one is more obvious.

As an empathic person, I am pretty used to thinking about things from other people's perspectives.  Finally, a cookie for Emily.  However, I still need to have help in hooking students and pacing.  Even though I can sense what is going be a problem spot, I'm still working on finding ways around the potholes.

#11 Drawing the Map is about creating a classroom that functions on a physical level.  The layout needs to maximize on task student work and be structured for learning, not just socializing.  In my little rectangle of a room, I've come as close as I can to the book's model.  The model, you ask?  Yes, it's rows.  Good old fashioned rows of tables or doubled up desks.  Three wide and five deep with big aisle ways.  Not glamorous, but highly functional.

A lot of classroom management depends on a teacher's ability to work the room and access all students.  You should come see how limited my space is at my school--I've lost the battle before it's even begun.  Tripping over backpacks and having to butt check students to get access to the inner seats is not ideal.  Our building was designed for Salvation Army wayward pregnant teens, and I think my room was a dormitory room.  It seems perfect for bunk beds, not a classroom.  Note to self and administration: new room next year.  Let's hope.

Shortest Path

#9: Shortest Path quotes the principle of Occam's razor: "All other things being equal, the simplest explanation or strategy is the best" (64).

Direct routes, less clever, less cutting edge, less artfully constructed IF it will yield a better result.  Hmm, sounds boring, but effective.  Like an assembly line.  Here is where I fundamentally wonder about how I view education as a Montessori-reared kid vs. the demands of urban schools where poor kids are failing.  The shortest path seems contradictory to integrated, deep learning, but maybe it doesn't have to be.  Part of me does really value the clever, artfully constructed, cutting edge lesson plan.  What to do now?

I don't think I can always ascertain what the shortest path to meeting a learning/teaching objective will be, especially when student interest, motivation, and a change in pacing/tone has to be accounted for.  Need some examples to show what this would look like to really understand what they are driving at here.

The Two in One Blog

Technique #7 & 8: 4Ms and POST IT 

I've spent more time reading and revamping curriculum these past few days, less time blogging.  The next series of techniques have to do with planning.  Finding ways to create manageable, measurable, objectives that are getting students prepared for the path to college.  Then posting them in the room for all to see (administrators, peers, students), in plain English.

This seems like common sense, but if you take a look at the California Language Arts Standards, it's not always easy to figure out how to make these objectives manageable or measurable.  But, lo and behold, along will come state testing to make sure that these deeper level skills somehow boil down to multiple guessing testing.  Am I a little disgruntled about upcoming tests in May?  Nah.

What I appreciate about these two techniques is that they call for teacher accountability, and if I really am getting clear on what I want my students to understand, it frames the question better than, "What should we do today?"  Trying to find the harmony between engaging students and challenging them.  

 

Here's a quote for the day, courtesy of Henry David Thoreau:  "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." 

With that said, I'm going to go rock out to Glee and watch Rachel kick some ass.

Begin with the End

Another day, another dollar.  Back at work on an overcast Monday (an anomaly in LA).  Nursing this cold sore which led to an interesting discussion with my students who thought that :
1) I got in a fight.
2) I had a sexually transmitted disease.

Gotta love teenagers.  I finally started every class with, "Yes, this is a cold sore on my lip and you get them from stress.  This is only the second I've had in my life, so be nice today."  Better than the alternative: "What's wrong with your face, Miss?"

The next few techniques of Teach Like a Champion are about restructuring lesson planning.  I am an organized, but not structured person is what I've been realizing.  And, an important part of creativity is understanding structure, so I have more to chew on.

I plan out activities and try to mix the methods to reach learning styles, with goals in mind from the State Standards, but I am not creating enough of an infrastructure in my teaching such that each lesson builds on the next moving toward mastery. Trying now to find the objective first, activity second.  Does this sound like life?

Moral of the day: It's never too late to start again.  Just going to act as if I know what the end will be.

No Apology

So, I have a cold sore in the corner of my lip (it's crusty, rustic red, and only the second of my life–hello, stress?), and the more I read this book, the more I feel like a total loser.  The title of technique #5 is to teach with No Apology.  This is not an apology, just a judgment.  I am judging myself, judging myself, and feeling like a crappy teacher in a crappy state in a crazy school with chaos all around.  That's the honest truth.  By the way, if only my family are reading this, I might as well tell them how I really feel.

I started this blog because I was watching Julie & Julia on the same day that Teach Like a Champion arrived.  If I wanted to have more fun, I'd quote Julia Child and start cooking cannelloni and lobster.  At least there would be some good swag from readers and some fattening foods to cheer me up at the end of the day.  By the way, when I figure it out, I've decided to add a Paypal account to my blog, on my sister's suggestion, because she owes my parents an undisclosed amount of money.  Stay tuned...

Format Matters

Kids speak in fragmented sentences all day long. Trying to coach them into whole sentences takes work, lots of work. Some were getting the hang of it, and remembering for later turns. Overall, the quality of speaking is going up.

FORMAT MATTERS means setting an expectation for students to speak in complete sentences using correct syntax at an audible level. Sounds easy, not so much. Especially when they are unaccustomed to this level of accountability.

Here's my biggest issue--my 9th and 10th graders talk over each other like crazy. Interrupting is normal, cutting off even better. Steal the floor, steal the show. How do you create a discussion that flows? It's either too stilted when I try to wrangle them in, or breaks down into chaos when I don't. Only my Honors class seems to get the hang of this, most of the time. I'm hoping this will get smoother with more practice. In many schools, the classes that seem the calmest are often the ones where the teacher just dominates. I'm not a big fan of this, but know that participation needs to be more orderly and meaningful than I have it structured.

If you look at the videos for Uncommon Schools (the schools that inspired Teach Like a Champion), those teachers have their elementary kids whipped into shape with the classroom expectations. Their high school classes had only seven students. How does that work with bigger classes funneled into a small room? My room is a disaster for instruction. I have little access to students and we are all cramped into a small space. Questions, questions. If only I had a mentor to answer them.

Warning Label

This book should come with a warning label that reads: Do not attempt to utilize all these techniques too quickly or you may experience severe indigestion, disrupted sleep, frazzled nerves, and an overall sense of exhaustion. I'm stretching myself as much as I am using STRETCH IT to get my students to talk more.

I've been doing an overhaul and reading ahead while doing these daily techniques and trying to change too much too fast! I just read an addendum chapter on Reading (reading on reading, yes this is a teacher's life) last night and am integrating these ideas as we start Animal Farm. I am still pretty shocked by how my students struggle with reading aloud. Supposedly the gap in vocabulary between kids of privilege and kids of poverty is 10,000 words, and I believe it. This is the one area that I feel I have some strength; we read a lot in my classroom. If they did nothing else in school ever again, continuing to read would be vital.

Oh yeah, and if that wasn't enough, I have long realized that my planning is most definitely not organized enough. I have spatial relationship challenges, and mapping the year makes me feel lost in the desert with goat heads in my feet.

I'm like a first year teacher all over again. New school, new city, new grade levels, new books, new tests, new everything. It reminds me of my brother, a professional trumpet player who recently discovered that his embouchure was wrong. This was after almost 18 years of playing and performing this way. He had to start all over again, to learn it right. That's mastery. I'm taking his dedication as my inspiration. STRETCHING IT. Let's hope I don't injure myself.