Why would you want to be a teacher?
I have heard that question many times. The easy answer is that I love it. Why I am a teacher is different than how I became a teacher. When I was younger, I wanted to professional baseball player and at one time a plastic surgeon. I also thought about going into marketing but during high school that changed. Surprisingly, I was a nerd in high school*. I was also nice so a lot of people would ask me for help with their work and I really enjoyed helping people understand something that they previously did not. It was the best feeling. My senior year of high school, I was the teacher aide to my golf coach. He let me grade and help people in his class. That cemented my decision to become a teacher. I attended the University of South Carolina and completed the five year Master's of Teaching program. My bachelor's degree is in history which was an easy choice for me. I have always loved social studies and I hate math. It is lame. The further I got into my degree program the more I fell in love with teaching. I was even able to go back to my high school and do more student teaching with my golf coach. Coach Poole was the reason that I wanted to become a teacher and is a major influence on me. His way of teaching was much different than anybody else in my mind. KP, as he was sometimes called, taught US Government, which in South Carolina, is a senior year course. He taught us like we were in college. He always mentioned that his lectures would be about 20 minutes or less. His reasoning was that if you went to church, the preacher would not preach more than that or the old men would fall asleep and the old ladies would get antsy. KP also allowed us to do our work together and gave us plenty of class time to work so he was there to help and guide. These are still things that I use in my room today. Being a teacher has been my dream for more than half my life at this point. I can not really imagine being in any other field than education. -Kyle *This is a joke by the way. If you know me, it is no surprise that I am a nerd.
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What the _ _ _ _?!?
That was my exact thought as I walked down in to my kitchen a few weeks ago and saw the microwave clock. It was a Saturday morning and I figured it was 6:30; wrong. The clock read 4:45. I almost turned around and went back upstairs to bed but I had come to far. Even the wife came to check on me and she does not leave bed until the numbers start to get more round. I have never been a good sleeper. Even as a kid, I hated nap time and to this day will nap only if I am sick. Starting in sixth grade, I had trouble going to sleep. It would take me forever. I got a new bed that year and did not like it so I slept most of the year on my bedroom floor rolled like a burrito. I never really understood why I sucked at sleeping. Over the years, I have tried every sleep aid and trick out. I tried no screens an hour before bed, reading, writing a to do list for the next day, yoga, meditation, sound machine, no caffeine x number of hours before bed, melatonin, ZMA, ZZZquil, and on and on. I eventually resorted to just resting which is what I called laying in the bed with my closed but still being awake. It was not until about the time I turned 30 that I started going to sleep easier. These days I sleep pretty well but recently I have been waking up early every day. I have always been a morning person. If my eyes open once, my brain fires up and away we go. I like getting up and starting my day. With this new extra time, I get up, have my coffee, check social media, watch YouTube, read, and sometimes write. Then if it is the non-work day then I will work out and do other adult stuff. On a work day I am up and at school by 7. We do not have to be in until 8 but that hour before is great for uninterrupted work and I usually get more done then than any other time of the day, I do not have to go to bed early for me to be up at the crack of dawn. Bed time is usually about 10 or 10:30 and I get up at 6:20 (or sooner). For the longest time, I wanted to follow the science of 7-8 hours of sleep per night but as I have gotten older I have come more and more to the conclusion that you need to listen to your body. Your body will tell you what it needs. I just do not need much sleep. What do your nights and mornings look like? How much sleep are you getting? Does it feel like enough? Let me know! Happy short week!
We made it to Thanksgiving! School districts handle this week differently but we have to go to school Monday and Tuesday with Wednesday-Friday off for the holiday. How does your school handle this break? I like going two days; it is an easy week and we do not get too far off track. I make sure we are busy from bell to bell so they do not have time for their brains to wander. I also like to mix up the activities. I want us to do something new so that they kids are a little surprised and a little more engaged. I also like to mix in holiday related activities. This week in US History we are reading primary source materials about the first Thanksgiving. We are past this in our standards but the kids find it interesting and they practice their reading and analysis skills. What do you do to make it through the short week? Any tips would be great. Happy Thanksgiving! Yesterday as the wife and I were playing the "what do you want to watch" game on Netflix, we scrolled past The Godfather. Now I've suggested my wife watch this oh so many times but for whatever reason it caught her eye and she suggested it. I've seen this movie countless time but in watching it, I noticed more than the oranges.
Lesson 1: It is not personal, it is business. As teachers we can be a little put out when we get observed. We tend to dwell on the negative and think that we will be exposed as terrible educators. This is not the case! Observations should be seen as chances to grow. Now sometimes a quick pop in will miss a lot but at times observations might offer an opportunity to really reflect. Lately I have been doing more and more of this. The better the observer, the better the feedback but no matter what it is business not personal. The same rings true with kids. Most kids aren't jerks on purpose. They have a lot going on behind the scenes that we may or may not know about. Especially as the age and the hormones rage, things are tough. Kids will be kids and it is our job to love and guide. It is not personal it is our business. Lesson 2: Favors People love when you do them a favor. If you want to win friends, be seen as an integral part of your school, and feel more connected to both colleagues and kids then do favors. But do favors because we all need help and do them without the expectation they be returned. Vito always said he may need a favor someday and that day may never come. He did favors as insurance and he never forgot a favor either. If someone helps, say thanks, grab them a coffee, a donut, something to let them know it was appreciated. Lesson 3: Protect the Family Throughout the entire Godfather series, everyone is always concerned with protecting and serving the family. Even the boss is subject to the family. In your room, you are the Godfather. Protect your kids as you can and provide for them. It is the Godfather's job to provide so provide the best experiences you can for your kids. Prepare them to stand on their own and not need you. If you notice in the films, Vito does not deal with the day to day stuff, he has become the big picture guy and the lower tiers work toward a common goal he has set. Teach your kids the same. Lay out the expectations and outcomes and then guide them to success. So today, remember it is not personal, do someone a favor, and protect your family. And if you ever think about getting out... -Kyle What are you bad at doing? I am not terribly athletic but I am a pretty good reader.
As far as teaching is concerned, when I first became an educator, I felt I was terrible at classroom management. All the advice I ever got about classroom management was to not smile and just be really mean. That is not who I am at all. I struggled trying to teach like others before I realized that was a losing battle. You have to be authentic to yourself. I strive to foster a classroom environment where the kids know the expectations and strive to meet them. Most kids are not bad kids they are just kids. I correct them and reinforce the expectations throughout the year. Another thing that helped improve my classroom management was understanding the difference between "bad" behavior and kid behavior. Kids are silly and immature and sometimes say and do things they should not. A lot of times this is not malicious but a form of discovery as they sort themselves out. This is especially true at the middle and high school level. When it is "bad" behavior I address it and follow it up through the appropriate channels. Kid behavior needs little more than look sometimes and maybe a few words but what is the proper way to act/speak. Now in my tenth year in education, I find myself struggling with writing tests. I feel comfortable and confident in creating lesson plans and reflecting on the activities we do. My classroom management system seems to be working but creating assessments that are appropriately challenging and cover the material. Social studies is so expansive that comprehensively covering the coursework creates a challenge. The tests are monstrously long in their first run. I struggle to edit them down. Especially for my courses that have end of the year tests, I'd like include some review on my tests but this adds volume and then I also have difficulty deciding what needs to be added and what does not. Creating assessments is really raking me over the coals this year. Do you have an tips for writing assessments? What are you bad? How do you improve yourself? -Kyle Any kids with technology access knows what the game Fortnite is all about.
In Fortnite, you can play solo or with a group. You build and try to outlast your opponents as they also try to build and destroy you. You also have other events like poison rain to contend with and survive. This game has taken hold of many a young life. And while it may distract from our teaching and learning it may also offer some lessons for us. #1 Make it a game. This does not apply to all lessons but if you make it game and a challenge with rewards kids will be more engaged. This applies double if you make it a group effort. As we were learning about the US westward expansion, I had my juniors play Oregon Trail in their pods. They loved it. This "old" game held their attention and made them want to play more. It also then opened us to great discussion on the necessitates and hardships faced by the pioneers. #2 Make it a group effort. Learning is not really done in isolation. Humans are social animals and we need to embrace this fact. Working together allows kids to be pushed beyond what they may be capable of doing independently. It also exposes them to different ideas. They learn social skills which screens seem to be degrading rapidly. If it can build teams in Stamford, it can work for you. #3 Make it a challenge. Kids like to pushed and to struggle. They do it all the time in a video game setting. They keep trying different methods until they solve the puzzle. The class should be the same way. Keep pushing them down the right path and if even they fall of the rainbow road, pull them back up and let them correct themselves until they get it. Ask them what they did wrong and how could they do better. The success lies in the struggle. -Kyle |
AuthorKyle is a 34 year old teacher that loves James Bond, history, donuts, and sneakers. Archives
February 2021
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