And Thus It Ends
Today was the last possible day I could have been asked to substitute in Mahomet. Champaign and Urbana both ended earlier this week. I didn’t work, because none of the teachers or administrators in Mahomet are sadistic enough to ask a sub to come in on the last day of the year. This is also true of those in Champaign and Urbana. Just one of the many reasons I love these districts!
And thus it ends. My third year as a substitute teacher.
Year one was a decent year, with assignments a few times a week. Year two was dreadful, with an average of one assignment a week, and then only when a teacher at Robeson Elementary had requested me. So I began this year with the desire to expand my opportunities. I officially entered the sub lists for Mahomet, Urbana, and Rantoul. Rantoul called me about four or five times, but always late in the morning when I already had an assignment. I spent a total of two days in Urbana, although they, too, had called when I was already working.
This year, on the other hand, has been a very busy year. It had a slow start, with about three assignments a week, but by the beginning of the second term, I was working just about every single day possible. My reputation had spread, and many teachers wanted me in their rooms. It was exciting to have multiple requests come for the same day. Hopefully no feelings were hurt if I selected one teacher over another.
This was also the year I decided to blog my experiences. My one regret is that I didn’t start doing this three years ago! I think I have learned more about my craft by writing about it then I possibly could have just doing it. Reflection is such an important element of teaching. I remember my cooperating teacher from my first student teaching experience complimenting me on my natural desire to reflect and evaluate myself. I am glad that I have kept it up.
This summer will bring new adventures. I am on the list to sub for summer school teachers in Champaign, and I will be looking into whether or not Mahomet also uses subs in the summer. I have also applied for a variety of summer jobs, including evening custodial work, pharmacy/convenience store jobs, and small boutique firms. I will most likely be swabbing toilets again, which is a return to my first summer job after graduating from the University of Illinois. (It was a part-time temp job that turned into a full-time vocation as I ended up running the company with my wife for about a year and a half!)
And, of course, there are the scores of full-time teaching positions to be sought. I have spent the past two days applying for several dozen already, and there will be many more to go.
So, what of Adventures in Substituting over the summer? Well, the poll results are in (thank you to the six people who seem to actually stop by and read), and it looks like I am going to be writing about whatever education-y things that pop into my head. But, no fear, Laurie and mystery vote! I will also blog about books I’ve read and about my philosophy! So I guess I’ll be doing an all-of-the-above blog.
Please keep coming by! You can also follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook to find out when I update!
Cheers!
Summer Posts (A Poll)
Today was a day that I have spent (and will continue to spend, for those noticing that I am updating around noon) applying for teaching jobs all over Illinois. I am also going to be applying for jobs in the community for summer work. Which leads me to an all-so-important question:
What should I do with my blog until August comes? If I get a full-time teaching position, I will no longer have any adventures in substituting to share. I will, of course, create a new blog to track my adventures as a full-time teacher. If I don’t get a full-time position, I will have brand-new adventures to share when school starts up again. But that gives 12 weeks, at least, in which I won’t have much to write about. My wife and I share a personal blog, so there’s no need to make personal updates here (besides, that’s not really what I want this blog to be). So, I’ve thought about a couple of things I can do, and thought I’d post them here as a poll to see what you all suggest. (Note: I still don’t know who “you all” actually are… I know a few of you, but I seem to have far more site visitors than commenters, so either I have web crawlers all over the place, or I just have people who come read, and then run away.) (more…)
Memorial Day
Today is Memorial Day here in the United States of America, and so it is that all government buildings are shut down, including the schools. It is a day to reflect upon the great sacrifices made by men and women throughout history in the defense of our nation. I tend to avoid any overt religious commentary on this blog, for the simple fact that I wish to focus on my work as an educator, more specifically so as a substitute teacher, but I thought I’d make an exception today. I figure that if we truly believe that we are “one nation under God” then it is totally okay for me to bring up my own faith every now and then.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–a church commonly known to many as “the Mormon Church” because of our belief in the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon as an additional book of scripture, similar in purpose to the Holy Bible. I give this introduction because, on this Memorial Day, I have been thinking of one of my great military heroes. There are some, even within my faith community, who do not value him for what he represents, but I am not one of those. This man was named Moroni, and he was the chief captain of the military forces of a group of people known as the Nephites. As the chief captain, he had to lead his people in war against those who sought to take away their freedoms.
There is an account in the Book of Mormon that tells of him rallying the people together under what was known as the Title of Liberty. This was a flag or banner made from his own coat that had written upon it these words: “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.” It was with this that he raised an army and conquered his people’s enemies.
But what I love most about Captain Moroni is that he did not glory in battle. He understood that his purpose was not to conquer, but to protect, and he trusted always in his God. As the Book of Mormon says about him,
11And Moroni was a astrong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect bunderstanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;
12Yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the awelfare and safety of his people.
13Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had asworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.
14Now the Nephites were taught to defend themselves against their enemies, even to the shedding of blood if it were necessary; yea, and they were also taught anever to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives.
15And this was their afaith, that by so doing God would bprosperthem in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger;
16And also, that God would make it known unto them awhitherthey should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; bnot in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity.
17Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto aMoroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the bdevilwould never have power over the hearts of the children of men.
And so it is on this Memorial Day that I give honour to the men and women who “labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of [our] people.” To all the families of all the slain of our battles, I give thanks for your sacrifice, and for the sacrifice of your loved ones.
Interview!
Today I was a candidate for a teaching position at Lincoln Grade School in Washington, Illinois. As such, I did not accept any assignments for today, so that I could focus on preparing for the interview. Regarding the interview, I will only say at this point that it went very well, and that I was given many opportunities to share some of my fundamentals beliefs about education. Ironically, though, I was not asked the standard “tell us about yourself” question that I have been stressing out about for weeks. Maybe next time!
I had been preparing for this interview for several weeks now, and was very excited about the opportunity. For those who don’t know, I grew up in Washington, and it was at this very school, when I was in fourth grade, that I first knew that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. My fourth grade teacher is still at Lincoln Grade School, although she has been teaching third grade for several years now. The open positions at the school are first, second, and fourth grade (one of each). I officially applied for the second and fourth grade positions, but I may be considered for the first grade one, as well.
The interview was very brief; only about fifteen minutes. The purpose was to allow the superintendent and his two principals to screen roughly 10% of the over 530 applicants for the positions, so the fact that I was selected at all says much. I will find out on Friday if they would like me to come back for a second, longer, interview. Needless to say, I would be delighted to do so. It has been a childhood dream to teach in the very building that first started me on the path I am on now. I love the school, I love the district, and I love the community. There is much I have to offer, and much I can learn.
Thanks to everyone who has kept me and wife in your prayers and thoughts! I’ll be sure to let you know what happens next!
Recovering from Tests
Today I was an English teacher at Mahomet-Seymour High School. This was a return assignment, specifically requested by not only the teacher, but also the secretary to the principal. For those who don’t know, I recently subbed for this teacher and reportedly managed to teach in one day what two other subs had been unable to do–as the teacher herself told me a week ago, “[I] did three days’ worth of teaching in one day!” I am going to be with these classes again tomorrow, as the teacher is away on an overnight student council retreat (I didn’t really catch what was going on).
If you know any students or teachers within the public education system, you are surely aware that standardised testing has been underway throughout the nation. Many teachers with blogs have been writing about this. For example, there is this teacher in New Jersey or this teacher in Texas. As a general rule, I have avoided the stress of high-stakes testing, mostly because few teachers are out of school when the tests are being administered. However, today was the day that the Advanced Placement English exam was administered, so the students in two of my four periods were busy all morning sweating bullets while hoping and praying they will score high enough to get credit for a university-level course. They have been working hard all year in preparation for this test, so their teacher promised them that there would be no work for them this afternoon.
As a result of this, my afternoon went something like this: After taking attendance (and noting that half the class had left school after the test), I told them that they could watch a movie, vent about the test, or just talk. I further suggested that they could really do anything they wanted, provided they didn’t: a) set the room on fire, b) throw anything or anyone out the window, or c) go all Lord of the Flies on me. Both classes readily agreed to this plan.
The first class looked at the movie selections left by their teacher, and decided none were satisfactory. (Their choices were Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, a different Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, or Their Eyes Were Watching God.) So they took the pass, went to the library, and found a copy of Pride and Prejudice (the new version, starring Keira Knightley).
The second class spent the first half of the period watching videos of Man Cooking on YouTube–I didn’t quite figure out how they were accessing the Internet through the laptop, but I think one of them was using his phone as a wireless hotspot. Bright kids, the lot of them. (I should point out that it isn’t really a very appropriate video…) Eventually they got bored with that, and decided to watch Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff.
I should insert at this point that they had just recently finished reading the book, and so there was quite a bit of confusion during the movie, since it doesn’t really follow Mary Shelley’s book at all.
Still, they had a fun time and they definitely enjoyed having time to recover from the high-stakes testing they did. Tomorrow we will get started on their final project of the year but for today, it was a relaxing time for all.
Word Origins
Today is Sunday, but I felt like making a brief blog post about something I recently learned in one of my vocational texts. I am reading about balanced literacy, in terms of philosophy and practice, and one of the sections discusses the mechanics of teaching writing. In so doing, the author makes this point about spelling conventions:
Some words are phonetic. Several are not. And there are some words that used to be phonetic but, due to being truncated, they have acquired silent letters that are purely semantic, rather than having any syntactic relevance. For example:
- The g in sign is silent for no other reason than sign is a truncated form of the word signature.
- Likewise, the silent b in bomb exists simply because the word is derived from bombardment.
I don’t know why I didn’t know this before, or, rather, why I wasn’t aware of it. Ah, English, what a strange mistress you are.
Book Review IV: The First Days of School
Today is Good Friday, so there is no school in Champaign, Mahomet, or Urbana. The official name for the day off is “Spring Holiday” but I don’t think there is anyone who believes that it is merely coincidence that this day off occurs each year on Good Friday. And thus it is that I have spent my day taking care of things around the home, like washing and bagging fresh fruit and vegetables for my wife and I to grab for snacks while at work and cleaning up around the house.
As is my policy now, if I have the day off and have recently finished reading a vocational book, I write up a review. I don’t know how many people actually read the reviews or find them useful, but I do know that, by far, the most popular post of mine (based on specific page views and search terms), has been my review of The Dreamkeepers. The two other books I have read and reviewed so far have been Setting Limits in the Classroom and The Internet and the Law.
The next book in this series is How To Be an Effective Teacher: The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong. This is billed as the best-selling book in the education field. While it is ostensibly about the importance of the first days of school, it is much more than that. It is a book that emphasises the need for teachers to stop being workers and start being professionals. While I find that parts of it are outdated (I have a copy of the 2nd edition, though, so it is possible that the 4th edition is up-to-date), it is an excellent source for information on not just how to start the school year off right, but why the thing suggested are suggested. (more…)
Book Review III: The Internet and the Law
Today was the first school day in over a month that I did not work. As much as I have enjoyed working every single possible day, I guess it was inevitable that I’d eventually catch a day without an assignment. It probably didn’t help that my phone died last night while I was out celebrating three of my in-laws’ graduation in taekwondo (mother-in-law and sister-in-law are now green belts, brother-in-law is a 1st degree recommended black belt). So I am spending my day catching up on things, cleaning the house, and applying for jobs. And, though it has been a while, a day off during the work week means it is time to review another one of the education-themed books I’ve had lying around for years and never actually read completely.
Today’s book is the 2002 printing of Kathleen Conn’s The Internet and the Law: What Educators Need to Know. This is a relatively short book (only 111 pages in my printing), but it covers a wide area of topics relevant to, yep, you guessed it, laws about Internet use in schools. However, one of the strengths of the book is that it takes us back to the foundational laws that set the bounds for those currently in place. I was quite pleased to learn more about the limits on Constitutional rights in the classroom (for example, freedom of speech does not grant a student the freedom to say whatever he wants if, by so doing, he disrupts the classroom and/or prevents another student from experiencing a safe learning environment; in other words, the purpose of schools is to teach, and if teaching is being inhibited because of something someone says, the school can ban the student from saying that).
Dr. Conn, an educator and an attorney, does an excellent job balancing “legalese” and layman’s terms in such a way as to neither overburden with unusual vocabulary nor talk down to her audience. It is clear that she has had a lot of experience with this topic and she handles it quite well. I came away from the reading with a better understanding of what all must be considered when crafting Acceptable Use Policies, limiting student Internet access at school, and even why websites require users to be at least 13-years-old in order to sign up (even if scores of young people simply lie about their ages in order to gain access, anyway).
There are a couple of weaknesses in the book, though. One big issue is actually not Dr. Conn’s fault. It is the issue of cyber-bullying. I am keenly interested in this topic for a wide variety of reasons, and would love to know what modern case law has to say on the subject. I have thought about contacting her to see if there are plans to print an updated version of the book to address this issue. As it is, the law as of 2002 said that there was not much schools could do about bullying outside of school grounds and even little that could be done within unless there was an actual legitimate threat of violence. Laws are slowly being amended to acknowledge that harassment among young people is serious and needs to be punishable under the law.
The only other major weakness comes from her concluding chapter, entitled Where Do We Go from Here?, more specifically, the sub-section called What the Future Hold. I actually posted several quotes on my Twitter account that, to me, were absolutely ludicrous. Perhaps it just goes to show how far we have come in our integration of the Internet into our lives, though. Here are a few of the nuggets that I pulled out:
Web domination by megacorporations threatens the very fabric of unfettered communication symbolized by the Internet. Technology giants like Microsoft threaten to put small-scale HTML programmers out of business.
Cyberschools are becoming the wave of the future in some states. Pressured by rising enrollments and inadequate physical facilities, school districts in population hotspots like central Florida are turning to online instruction, with teachers reaching out to students sitting at home in their sneakers and sweatpants… But will two-dimensional social interaction via computer screen encourage children’s social and emotional development and growth? What will American society be like when children no longer remember how to play outside in the sun, or when they fear to leave home because the computer screen is their reality?
One of the most potentially frightening technology tools is the hand-held device, such as the PalmPilot or similar devices. Will well-meaning administrators require that each teacher carry one throughout the teaching day, using delicate styluses to input minute-by-minute letter grades for student behavior? Will administrators sit in classrooms evaluating teachers by pecking numbers on a little screen? Will teachers and administrators sit at faculty meetings pecking out grocery lists? Will everyone be so attuned to accountability and organization that all spontaneity and fun are lost from education?
Administrators and teachers alike need to work hard to ensure that technology helps rather than hinders our educational efforts. If they are to succeed, school leaders must also become technology leaders… Technology in K-12 schools must become teachnology.
So other than the Ludditish fears of scary new technologies and silly portmanteaus at the end, The Internet and the Law: What Educators Need to Know is an excellent resource for understanding the basics of a very complex topic.
Finally Taking a Break
Today is Thursday. I have one more day remaining of my days off for Spring Break, then the weekend and I am back to work on Monday. So I am taking a break today and tomorrow from blogging about anything teaching-related. I have books to read, episodes of The X-Files to watch, hair to get cut (I’m about two months overdue for a haircut now), a wife to spend time with, and an intense desire to actually take a break, be lazy, and maybe even get some more sleep than I have lately.
So I’ll be back on Monday. Feel free to come back and read through the archives and find any typos that may have snuck by editor.
Cheerio!
Teaching Strategies: Hump Day
Today is Wednesday. For reasons not quite clear to me, this day is generally known as Hump Day. I find it a somewhat annoying term, and yet I see it all around me. Perhaps that is why I find it annoying. Who knows for sure. When I was serving a two-year mission for my church, there was a common way of describing periods of the mission: first entering the mission field (as we called it) was the Bump. Six months later was something or other that was never defined often enough for me to remember. One year in was the Hump. 18 months in was the Slump, when the missionaries began to think about going home. And at the end was the Trunk, when the bags were packed and the missionary went home. Fortunately, we don’t break down the work week that much. Our society is content to focus on the middle of the week, which we seem to dread while also looking forward to it.
I guess I am fortunate enough to find myself in a profession that allows me to enjoy what I do every day. Yeah, I get tired at times, but I still love my job. I look forward to each day. I hope someone will smack me when I start counting down the days until the end of the week. I don’t have a problem with counting the days until a break or until the end of the school year. But spending all of your time looking forward to the weekend? That seems a bit counter-productive.
Which is why I write about this as a teaching strategy. The strategy isn’t actually Hump Day, of course. Nor is it the recognition of the concept or the use of the term. Rather, it is the opposite. One of the most important things a teacher can do is to simply love coming to work, each and every single day. I’ve met the teachers who are their to do their jobs, as they think of it. And I’ve met the teachers who understand that their jobs are a lot more than what the contract says. I watched Mr. Holland’s Opus yesterday, and I think that this scene captures beautifully what I am talking about:
Fortunately for the music students at John F. Kennedy High School, Mr. Holland learned:
So the next time you find yourself thinking of Hump Day and then looking forward to the weekend, just remember: the teachers who rush to the parking lot with gusto as soon as their work day is over are rarely the teachers for whom after-school assemblies are planned and former students come back 30 years later to celebrate.
Teaching Strategies: Games
Following the topic I used yesterday, I have decided to devote this week to discussing different teaching strategies, which, for my purposes, are being differentiated from pedagogical methods. Yesterday was the use of videos, particularly those found on YouTube, to complement and/or supplement classroom lessons.
Today I’ll be talking about using games. Believe it or not, this was actually a major focus of a unit of student in one of my curriculum and instruction courses during my last year at the University of Illinois. Each class was begun with a student sharing a game that can be used in the classroom. Games have many different uses. Through my work with the Illinois Teen Institute and Operation Snowball, we regularly use games as a teaching tool. As the saying goes, we strive to have fun with a purpose. Every game, every activity, every silly song we sing shares the purpose of helping those involved progress toward the goals of the program. And so it is with the use of games in the classroom.
Some games are used as ice breakers. They help the class get comfortable with one another or to get to know each other. Some games are used as energizers. No matter how exciting the lesson may be, there are times when the students are going to start dragging. They need something to get them up and moving around. Other times the students are too wiggly and they just need to expend some energy. There are also the games used as closers, although they are not used as often in the formal classroom setting. These allow the group to prepare to move on to whatever comes next.
But there are two categories of games that are most important, in my opinion. They are the team builders and the self-awareness builders. Team building activities have been around for a long time. I love them because they allow those involved to learn to trust each other. As an educator, I strive for a classroom that is truly a cohesive unit. I want my students to rely upon each other, to help each other, to teach each other. This is very much an aspect of my egalitarian views of education. Team building activities provide opportunities for small successes, which in turn set the stage for improvement through scaffolding and supports.
Those activities or games that develop self-awareness are not used as often, but I find that I use them most often when it seems like the class is not paying attention. My favourite is the hand on the chin activity. This is how it goes:
I tell everyone in the class that we are going to do an activity, and I need everyone to stand up by their chairs. Everyone stands.
I tell the class that I want them to follow my directions as I give them. They give consent, wondering what I’m going to have them do.
I tell them to extend their right arms, and I show them what I mean. Everyone extends his or her right arm. (If someone uses the left, I will point this out, and they switch.)
I tell them to take their thumbs and index fingers of their right hands and make a circle. Again, I model this, and they follow.
I then tell them to slowly bring their arm in and place the “O” on their cheek. As I do this, I slowly bring my arm in and place my “O” on my chin. 9 times out of 10, every person in the class will do exactly as I did. Occasionally I will have a student who catches what I said and chuckles. The rest of the students are standing with their hands on the chins wondering what is so funny.
I repeat the last instruction. Slowly, realisation dawns: the chin is not the cheek. My response to this is that it is important to follow directions and to listen closely. We need to be aware that those in our lives may say one thing and do another. We should be confident enough in our classroom setting, and in our lives, to stand tall doing what is right, even if everyone else is doing the wrong thing.
I love the change that comes over the classroom when we do this. For a brief while, I have a room of students who are paying attention, working hard, and helping each other. And I’ll admit it: it is really funny to have a room of 25 boys and girls all place their hands on the chins after being told to put them on their cheeks.
Presidents’ Day
Today is Presidents’ Day in the United States (and, possibly coincidentally, Family Day in many parts of Canada), so there was no work. While I have typically used my days off to work on my philosophy of education, I’ve decided to make this a real holiday. (I did spend a goodly portion of the day working on job applications for five positions in four counties.) Anyway, here’s a video to amuse you on this day when we theoretically honour the many men who have served as presumed leader of the free world:
Skip ahead to 3:45 to hear the actual tribute.
Happy Presidents’ Day!
Philosophy of Education Part IV
There was no available work for me today, except for a few short-term assignments (a couple of hours in length) and an assignment that was available just after my wife left for work. Due to the fact that we have but one vehicle, she takes me to work then picks me up each day. So when there aren’t full-day assignments, there is simply no way for me to get to work in a timely manner. And so it is that I spent today taking care of a few minor projects, cleaning the house, and reading.
As is my new custom, I am going to take advantage of these non-work days to write about my educational philosophy. I want to emphasise that this is my own personal philosophy, and it is meant as a personal guide to explain why I do the things I do. I am curious to know if I do have a method to my madness. I believe I do, but I am learning as I go that there are many areas where I’ve never really examined my reasoning behind them. I also want to emphasise that I do not particularly expect others to adhere to my philosophical views, which have been shaped by a wide variety of educators, philosophers, religious leaders, laypersons, and just my own experiences. Thirdly, I am happy to provide an opinion on a particular topic, but I am in no way claiming the expert status on that topic unless specifically stated. Which is just a roundabout way of saying that we all have opinions and I am glad to share mine, but my opinions are mine and mine alone. Fourthly, there are many ways in which I believe the education system in general can be improved upon.
In the United States, we have a system of formal public education available to all without qualifications from about the ages of 4 to 18, give or take. My field focuses on the education of those between the ages of 5 and 14, with my personal interest more particularly in the narrow window of 8-11. The purpose of this public education will be discussed at a later date, but I would consider the most fundamental goal to be to provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge to further their education and to be ready to contribute to society in a meaningful way. (What is meant by meaningful contributions will be a key element to this future discussion.)
After high school, men and women are given many different options: they can enter a trade school, enroll in a community college (where the student will generally work toward earning an Associate’s Degree in two years), attend a university (so noted by its typical 4-year course of study that provides a Bachelor’s Degree and opportunities for graduate and post-graduate work), or they can enter the workforce immediately. There are also service opportunities available through public and private institutions. After entering the workforce, which is the expectation of all adults, there are continuing education opportunities through specific degree programs or classes that provide instruction and/or training on particular skills. The interesting thing is that there is never any reason for a member of our society to not be continually learning.
Which brings me to my focus today: just as I believe that we are all responsible for teaching in one way or another in all that we do, I also believe that we are all responsible for learning throughout our lives. Actually, I need to rephrase that. Just as we are all responsible for how we teach in one way or another in all that we do, so also are we all responsible for how we are learning throughout our lives. For me, there is no question that we are always teaching and always learning. Yes, I realise that there are those who would disagree with me. I consider this a great example of a personal philosophical approach to a subject. If I accept that everything I say and do when interacting with others is a form of teaching, then I need to be aware of what I am saying and doing so that I do not teach incorrectly. It is impossible to teach when alone. One must have another to be teaching.
However, learning can be done alone and should be done alone on a regular basis. At some point, we each need to be able to delve into a topic and drink deeply from it without the diluting influence of other opinions. Afterwards, we should share what we have learned with others. As we teach what we have learned, we will learn from them as they respond. This was perhaps one of the most difficult things for me to learn as an educator–I need to be willing to learn even as I am teaching. There are many educators who approach their craft as if their pupils are lacking knowledge, and it is the role of the educator to provide this knowledge, to fill the cup, as it were. I do not use this approach in my methodology. I believe that each and every single person in my sphere of influence has a wealth of knowledge that is waiting to be discovered. My responsibility is to help them discover what they know and add upon it. It is also my responsibility to discover for myself what they know, so that I can take what they know and add it to that which I already know. Despite what I have been known to say on numerous occasions, and always in jest, I don’t actually know everything. I am still learning day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. Sometimes I am simply learning how not to do something. Other times I am learning what I do not believe. Frequently I am learning that something I have heard is not actually a new belief, but actually a belief that has lain dormant within me. I am always learning more about the nuanced reality that is my human existence.
It is up to me how I will synthesise this learning into my own wealth of knowledge. This is my responsibility and my burden: to decide how I will learn, and what I will do with that knowledge. I believe this is true for everyone, although they may not agree with me. Interesting how that works. We accept the reality of the world in which we live, though, as Christof from The Truman Show put it. To apply this statement to my educational philosophy, I apply the reality of the world which I know to the world in which I live. A world in which I am always teaching and always learning.
Philosophy of Education Part III
Today was another non-teaching day. The only assignments that presented themselves were for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, which are impossible for me to accept due to my wife’s work schedule. The day off ended up being fortuitous: I needed to take my car to the mechanic to get the brakes checked out, and it turned out that not only did we need new brake pads, we also needed the lower control bushings replaced. (I honestly have no idea what these are, but my understanding is that they have something to do with the control of the wheels, and, as such, is fairly necessary.)
I also spent the day dealing with financial matters while watching The X-Files. I thought I’d post another section of my education philosophy. Before doing so, I’d like to explain why I am doing this in the first place. Writing up my philosophy of education is a purely personal project. While my original draft is found in my common assessment portfolio and can theoretically be viewed during job interviews, it isn’t ever examined. Instead, this project is for me to better understand my own beliefs about who, what, where, when, why, and how I teach. I will eventually take everything I’ve written during this blog series and put it all together. It will also be subject to considerable editing. I may self-publish the entire thing when I am all done (whenever that may be).
I was recently asked this question: “What do you say to those who argue that education in this country has less to do with the transmission and evaluation of values than with the preparation of a work force?”
My answer is simply that this argument is silly. The reason is also simple: the greatest preparation for entering the work force is to have a first grasp of and ability to live according to the values of our society. A person can be perfectly qualified to enter a particular field, but if he or she is lacking in an understanding of social values, this person will not be fully prepared to enter the workforce. After all, nobody likes working with either jerks or those who are socially-awkward.
All of this transitions quite well into the realm of teaching. As an educator, the best way to teach values to students is by properly modeling these values. Students mimic those around them. I realise that they are only around me for a few hours every day, but I have seen this mimicry in action. One of my favourite experiences while student teaching was when a young boy left school on a Friday recalling a brief mention of something I’d said about the American flag. He came in on Monday morning bursting with excitement about all of the things he had learned over the weekend about the flag. He had heard what I said and wanted to show that he remembered it. The other great memory of my student teaching was my very last day. I made a decision early on that I would wear a dress shirt, tie, and slacks to school every day. This I did, even on the days when I would have much preferred working in jeans and a more comfortable top. I’m glad I did: the students all wore ties on my last day and left me notes telling me how much they’d liked my ties.
And so it is with everything: students mimic those whom they admire. They admire those whom they respect. They respect those who give them a reason to be respected. And the greatest reason to be respected is because you give respect. Yes, it is a cliché, but as I am fond of saying, clichés exist for a reason: they are generally true. So when it comes to deciding whether education should be about preparation for the work force or about the transmission of values, I believe that it is both because each leads to the other.
Philosophy of Education Part II
Today was another day with no work. After completing my application for the this year’s Illinois Teen Institute and working on updating my resume while applying for jobs and watching The X-Files, I figured it was high time to write up my revised philosophy of education. You may recall that I had posted my “official” philosophy (that was written as part of my course-work at the University of Illinois) back in the beginning of January. Since then, I have been jotting down notes and thoughts as they come to me, and I’ve decided to share what I have so far. It isn’t a totally polished document, but I would appreciate any insights or comments!
Who should teach and to whom should this teaching be directed?
A core element of my educational philosophy is summed up by the words of singer/song-writer Phil Collins: “In teaching we do learn, and in learning we do teach.” In this, I mean to say I believe everyone is a teacher at one point or another. We teach when we interact with others, but we also learn. I reject the notion that only professionally-trained men and women should teach, not only because it is silly, but also because it is impossible. We teach when we share our experiences with others, when we express our opinions, and even when we simply converse. What are we teaching in these informal settings? Well, that varies. It certainly isn’t a formal curriculum of education. We teach ideas and concepts without following a framework. There are two main components of omnipresent education: the informal and the formal.
As a professional educator, I recognise the value of and need for formal education. This need is not something that has been created by pedagogical elitists who wish to maintain their careers. This need is required for the functioning of our society. By having formal education we are better able to share and transmit our cultural values, as well accept and evaluate the values of others. Professional educators set standards one another and for those they teach. They learn, understands, and implement best practices, effective methodologies, and educational theories. They police themselves and they for professional development.
All nations would benefit from establishing nation-wide professional teaching standards and certification. Teachers in the United States are currently certified by individual states, with each state using a different certification method. This makes the mobility of teachers incredibly limited and the comparison of professional standards difficult to establish. By creating national standards and national certification, educators would be equipped to share ideas and methods across the country to improve the quality of education at all levels and in all places.
However, education cannot be provided only through formal settings. The average student in America spends seven hours in school five days a week. That means that, of the 168 hours in a week, students in the K-12 system are in school a mere 21% of the week, and that is only during the roughly 36 weeks of the year that school is in session. I am not advocating for longer school days, nor am I advocating for a lengthened school year. I value the freedom that time off from school allows to develop extra-curricular interests and the spend time with family and friends. What I am advocating for is better use of time away from the classroom. This can best be utilised through informal teaching opportunities. The United Way of America has partnered with the Ad Council, Civitas and Families and Work Institute to create the Born Learning campaign, which seeks to make everyday moments teaching moments. This campaign focuses on taking advantage of informal teaching moments, especially between parents and young children. Parents are primarily responsible for the education of their children. Formal education system are meant to be a resource, not a replacement. Parents should take advantage of these resources, but also recognise that there are many opportunities to teach all around them.
I would like to note at this point that the best education provided when the process is a mutual one. Parents and professional educators can and should learn from their children and students while children and students are learning from parents and professional educators. The quality and quantity of teaching and learning will rarely be equal, but there should always be some exchange of ideas. Perhaps the only thing we will learn from one another is how not to do something. That is still learning, and that is still teaching. I once read that there are many who are ever learning, but never come to the knowledge of the truth. This is not the only option available. When we are teaching, we are helping others to become life-long learners who are indeed coming to the knowledge of the truth, again and again and again.
Snowed In
Today was the second day without school in the area. We were snowed in, although I was able to carve out a path for the car in the driveway. Both our court and the street it connects to were not cleared as of this evening, which makes it hard for us to get out of the house. I am hoping and praying that our court will be cleared tomorrow morning, though, because I have an assignment to teach at Leal Elementary in Urbana tomorrow!
To pass the time while being snowed in, my wife and I watched Groundhog Day in the early afternoon to celebrate the holiday, and then watched the British comedy Doc Martin the rest of the day. I also spent time wandering through StumbleUpon, which I have found to be an excellent source of new sites that I will hopefully be able to implement into lessons.
And that’s what I did on my first day of being legitimately snowed in!
Snow Day
Today was a snow day in most of East Central Illinois and many other parts of the state and nation. We are at the front of a huge winter storm that is supposed to dump anywhere from 4 to 20 inches of snow. Yeah, that’s a big gap, but it is still a lot of snow no matter how much actually falls.
For the first time that I can recall, the schools in the area actually called the Snow Day in the early evening, rather than around 5 or 6 am. This was advantageous in that I was able to go to bed without wondering if I’d be working today or not. Of course, it was a bit disappointing as well because I was scheduled to teach 6th grade science today. Instead, I will be doing our taxes, updating my other blogs, and watching movies all day. Not a particularly bad way to spend one’s Tuesday, but I do enjoy working.
The crazy thing about the Snow Day is that I learned about it via two friends on Facebook. I had no idea that the schools would be making the call early in the evening, so I didn’t even think to look. I gave my mother-in-law a hard time about not telling me, but I am pretty certain she was in the class at the time, and is therefore held blameless. I had made the observation that none of the districts in the area seem to find it necessary to inform substitute teachers of school closings, but rather feel it is sufficient to let us find out through news announcements and/or friends. Yes, I know that the local radio and news stations announce it, and that it can be found on the school sites, but I would like to know when others know. Which is why I found this particular notice from one of the districts for which I teach timely:
As many of you may know, [the District] has implemented a new telephone alert system for District employees and parents, to notify them about weather-related school closings.
Many substitutes have asked to be included on this calling list as well. But unfortunately, the system is tied to an existing database that substitutes are not a part of. Given the fluid nature of our substitute pool, there are no plans to include substitutes in this alert system.
We ask that you monitor local radio and television for any weather-related closure information. We also ask that when school is held again after this weather event, please take extra caution when traveling to sub assignments. Plan to leave a little earlier, be careful on slick roadways and when approaching school buildings on foot.
I’m glad to know that, after three years, I am still considered a fluid employee and therefore do not qualify for being included in an automated telephone system. I’m not bitter about this, though. Just kind of surprised. The districts are willing to invest the money in providing an online substitute assignment system, they are willing to do all sorts of other things, but they don’t want to take the effort to include the substitutes on an automated telephone system because it would take, what, 10 minutes to put our names into the database?
Oh well. At least my friends and family let me know about school closings. Whenever there is a chance of a Snow Day, I’ll just hang out on Facebook and wait for my friends to post it on their feeds. Be safe, those of you in the 29 states being smacked down by this winter storm! And for those of you not affected, enjoy your warm weather!
Birthdays
Today is my 28th birthday. I didn’t teach today, even though there were a couple of assignments I could have accepted. I decided that I would like to have a relatively stress-free birthday, so I chose not to accept the kindergarten and special education assignments that were available. Even though this meant a loss of $90, it was my birthday present to myself. Besides, I had some errands I needed to run. More specifically, I needed to pick up my travel mug that I use to bring herbal tea infusions to school and my book that I was reading. The mug was at Stratton and the book was at Carrie Busey.
It was a nice relaxing day. I had tentatively planned to take advantage of the day off to write up the next part of my philosophy of education, which is currently sitting in a moleskine notebook in note-form (makes sense, right?), but I ended up doing other things instead, like watching The X-Files season one on Netflix and doing some research on my status as a Highly Qualified teacher.
This last is actually an important issue for me. Most of the jobs for which I have applied use an online system called AppliTrack. One of the questions asks if I have obtained a Highly Qualified status from any school districts. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, I am Highly Qualified in the following:
- Algebra (K-8)
- Art (K-8)
- General Math (K-8)
- Biology
- Drama/Theatre (K-8)
- Elementary Self-Contained (K-5)
- Elementary Self-Contained (K-3)
- English as a Second Language
- General Science (K-8)
- Geography (Middle Grades)
- History (Middle Grades)
- Instrumental Music (K-8)
- Language Arts (1-8)
- Physical Science (Middle Grades)
- Reading (K-8)
- Title I Remedial Math (K-8)
- Title I Remedial Reading (K-8)
- Vocal Music (K-8)
That is quite an impressive list, and much, much more than I expected. I thought I was only Highly Qualified in K-9 SCGE, which is what my Elementary Teacher Certificate suggests, but it turns out that, as I have always said is the pragmatic application, I am only qualified for SCGE in K-3 and K-5. Since I am looking for work at an intermediate grades teacher (4-6), this works just fine for me, and was quite a pleasant birthday present. I was able to share this information with an Assistant Superintendent in Mahomet, as well as with a member of the School Board where I grew up, which was all the more pleasant.
Tomorrow I will be subbing for my mother-in-law. Last year her students made a poster for me and brought it to the neighbouring class where I was teaching and sang “Happy Birthday”; I’m curious to see if there will be a reprise of this. Happy birthday to me, Eddie Van Halen, and Australia!
Bah.
Today I was unable to teach because I had to attend a mandatory meeting with creditors at the U.S. Federal Court Bankruptcy Division, or whatever the heck it is actually called. For those who may not be familiar with my not-to-distant past, my wife and I had taken over ownership of a small business in 2009. This was a few months before the recession hit with the banking/housing bust. After fighting mightily for six months, we finally had to close shop back in July of 2010. Too much loss and not nearly enough gain. Over the past several months, we’ve been working on closing up the business affairs, and a key element was the formal declaration of corporate bankruptcy.
It was actually a rather interesting experience, and blessedly painless. But it also took away a goodly chunk of my day. And so it was that I found myself not teaching. Instead I spent the morning driving a long distance through crappy winter weather conditions, sitting around for an hour, having a brief meeting with creditors (ironically named, as none of the creditors made an appearance), and then drove home through the still-crappy winter weather.
I will be teaching tomorrow, as well as Monday, barring an cancellations due to excessive cold (yes, they really do close the schools in East Central Illinois if it is “too cold” out). I was also asked by another teacher if I’d be available to sub for her tomorrow, but I was already scheduled. It is rather nice to be wanted by multiple teachers on the same day, though!
And speaking of being wanted by teachers…
Okay, so that doesn’t actually have anything to do with being wanted by teachers. I just saw this note on the bottom of the weekly announcements on a teacher’s desk and found it incredibly hilarious!
Also, I think I have just now set a record for the number of adverbs used in a single blog entry by yours truly.
MLK Day
Today was the annual national day of remembrance for the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As a federal holiday, there was no school in the districts in which I teach, although I heard that one district in the community was open in an attempt to make up for lost days back in August.
Dr. King is the only non-president for whom a federal holiday is named. That’s pretty impressive. There are many men and women with state holidays. (For example, in Illinois, we recognise Casmir Pulaski, a Polish military man who was involved in the Revolutionary War.) All day long there have been tributes to Dr. King and his message of nonviolence, social and economic justice, and equality, among many other things.
For those who have never watched it, or for those who wish to watch it again, as well as for my own benefit, I present the memorable speech Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave on the steps of the the Lincoln Memorial in my nation’s capital on 28 August 1963:
There is an awesome database online, American Rhetoric, that has the complete text, as well as audio and video, of this speech. American Rhetoric also shares videos, audio, and text of speeches from throughout America’s history, and from the silver screen (including the amazing speech by President Andrew Shepherd in The American President).
I hope you all had a great day, and I hope that we can all take part in not only sharing Dr. King’s dream but also in bringing it to pass.
Philosophy of Education Part I
I did not teach today, and I have been putting this off for a long time. I need to figure out what my philosophy of education really is. While I was at the University of Illinois, I was required to write a philosophy of education that was based on the framework used to guide the teacher training program through the College of Education. This is the final draft that I had submitted. I don’t think it fully embraces my philosophy, but I do believe every word that I wrote.
The UIUC Conceptual Framework operates on the idea that there are two pillars of education, Community and Inquiry, and that they are dependent upon a foundation of Service and Technology. There are many ways to define a community. It can be a neighbourhood or a city or town. It can also be a state or even a nation. In many ways, our modern society has made it possible for us to live in a global community. A community may also be defined by ideological, rather than geological, boundaries. Thus, we have teaching communities, business communities, medical communities, art communities, and scientific communities.
As an educator, one of the most important communities with which I associate is the classroom community. The classroom community is, by its very nature, extremely diverse. Each student is a unique individual with a unique way of learning, and expressing what he or she has learned. I, as the teacher, am uniquely different from any other teacher the students have had. This community must first develop within the walls of the classroom. It then expands outward to the school, and then into the political and geological boundaries within which our society has been developed.
The classroom is the most important place to help students grow. The UIUC Conceptual Framework, Teaching and Learning In A Diverse Community, has been developed to guide teachers in fostering this growth. The framework shows that learning is not possible with only one pillar and half of the foundation. Community, Inquiry, Service, and Technology are all critical, inter-related facets of the most effective education practices. I believe that those teachers who help their students learn in a way that creates life-long learners will also create in their students the potential to go far above and beyond the level of the teacher himself.
The teacher’s role of establishing community begins with the students in the classroom. As they learn to rely upon one another as a community with a common goal, they will be able to take the education process to a higher level of self-discovery. When the teacher ceases to be the definitive source of information, and becomes another member of the community, searching to attain greater wisdom, everyone in the classroom benefits. It is true that the teacher must continue in the role of setting goals for the class and guiding the learning experience. But this role does not mean that the teacher is not learning alongside his students. Each teacher must decide what his or her role will be: the guide, the coach, the manager, the dictator, the conductor, the custodian, or the leader. Each role has a legitimate place within the teaching community, but each teacher must decide for him- or herself which role he or she is best suited to adopt.
As the classroom community develops throughout the 180 days given in the school year, it should be continually expanding outward. It should also expand onward, as students move on to higher education and take the ideas they learned in the P-12 classroom and share them with their peers. The ultimate effect will be that of a snowball rolling down a hill, growing larger and larger as more and more people are influenced by the ideas that these students first encountered in the early years of their formal education.
Since 1996, I have been actively involved with Operation Snowball, Inc., an international program started in Illinois as a Community Action Plan. The purpose of this program is to create a “community of caring” in which teens are empowered to take charge of their lives by utilising the information and leadership skills needed to promote positive life-choices among their peers. First as a participant in the program and then as a volunteer staff member, I have seen first-hand the effects of creating a community and then watching that community grow. Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned through my work with Operation Snowball is the tremendous power that the youth of our nation have in creating change in their communities. In observing this, I have been able to learn ways of facilitating change and growth not by telling students what they should do, but by asking them what they think should be done, and then guiding them in the process of making it happen. This is an essential element of teaching that can and should be used in every classroom.
The best teaching methods I have ever observed are those in which the teachers ask many questions, but give few answers. Inquiry-based education is hard, for both the teacher and the student, but it has a much more lasting effect than any other method I have observed. A high school teacher once told me that the most important question she can ask of her students is simply, “Why?” When a student answered a question, she would always ask him to justify his response. If she did not feel that the student had given enough thought in his response, or if she felt that he was trying to give the answer that would “fit” her ideas, then she would continue to ask for further justification. In doing this, the students in our class rapidly understood that she did not want us to regurgitate what was found in the book or in the lecture notes. She wanted us to think about what we had learned, and be able to explain it in a way that made sense to us. If it did not make sense, then we were given the task of exploring and researching until we discovered the meaning. Inquiry-based education relies on the students’ desire to learn not just what, where, and when, but also how and why.
With today’s technological advances, this research process has become much more advanced. Students can turn to the Internet and do a search for just about any topic conceivable. Unfortunately, not all of the information available online is accurate, and it has become the responsibility of the teacher to help students filter out the junk and find the reliable information. Integrating technology in the classroom by encouraging students to use the Internet in their research will help them not only become familiar and comfortable with modern technology, but it will also help students understand how they can continue to learn about and understand the world around them long after they have left the formal classroom.
Illinois-born philosopher and educator Elbert Hubbard has been quoted as saying that “the object of teaching a child is to enable him to get by along without his teacher.” While the idea may appear contradictory at first, it is actually a very accurate description of what the goal of educators should be. As students learn, they should be developing the skills that allow them to continue on learning throughout their lives. Eventually, the well-taught student will become his or her own teacher. As British musician Phil Collins wrote in a song for the Disney movie Tarzan, “in teaching we do learn, and in learning we do teach.” These two quotes, penned by two very different men in very different times, seem to summarize a core element of my personal philosophy of education, which is that my role as a teacher is to guide my students in a journey of self-discovery; a journey that I, myself, am also undertaking. If I were to summarize my philosophy of the educational process, it would be that we should all be continually learning and improving. Teachers and students have much to learn from one another, and much to teach one another. This transactional relationship is key to true education.
A Day of Much-Needed Rest
I did not teach today, nor did I have jury service. I had been given the day off by the judge yesterday, but there were no assignments available for me yesterday. This is not particularly surprising, as it was only the third day back from the Winter Break. So I was able to get some much-needed rest today. It also gave me a chance to tackle a few projects that I had had lying around waiting for me to take care of.
I spent a considerable amount of time this morning trying to get an old IDE hard-drive to work on my computer as a back-up drive. Usually, this is as easy as hooking the second drive to the ribbon for the first drive as on the slave plug. Unfortunately, my computer’s current drive is an SATA, and while the two are theoretically compatible, I just couldn’t get the computer to read either drive when I booted up the computer. I am sure there is some easy solution to this problem, but I couldn’t figure it out.
After conceding defeat, I began work on one of many Top Secret Projects that Gretch and I have. When we are ready to announce the project, I will let everyone know. I will let you know this, though: it is going to be awesome! I also applied for a few more jobs, including one in Mahomet that would start in just two weeks! There have already been several applicants, but I am going to keep my fingers crossed. It would be a full-time job for the remainder of the semester at Lincoln Trail Elementary School, teaching 4th grade. It would be an amazing blessing in my life to get this job, but I know that there have already been several applicants for the position.
Throughout the day, I watched more episodes of The X-Files on Netflix, which was entertaining, as always. I just learned that I will not be needed as a juror tomorrow, so I am hoping to pick up an assignment for the day. We shall see what we shall see!
My Love Affair with Books
In the beginning, I didn’t know how to read. (more…)
substituting.wordpress.com 