First Year Teacher

I have a bit of a theme going lately, back to school.  I was thinking about all the first year teachers my old school just hired and was then thinking about my first year teaching.  I got very lucky my first year when I found an experienced teacher who took me under her wing.  She helped me navigate all the school politics that I wasn’t expecting and also gave me helpful teaching tips.  Now it’s time to give back.  Here are a few of the things I learned.

School Politics

• During staff meetings don’t ask questions.  Experienced teachers want to get out and will resent you.  Instead, find a teacher you trust and ask him or her.  If that doesn’t apply ask the secretary, principal, or vice principal.
• About school secretaries.  They know absolutely everything.  Be very, very nice to them and chat them up if you want to know what is going on before everyone else.
• Be nice to everyone.  This is less a political thing than a pet peeve.  It irks me no end to see teachers being dismissive of the custodians.  I loved all of our custodians, they kept my room running and watched out for my classes when I had subs. 

Teaching Tips

• You are not there to be friends with the students.  You are there teacher, it doesn’t matter if they hate you as long as you can keep them under control and teach them.  This doesn’t mean be a total jerk to them, just don’t try to make them ‘like’ you.  Just do your job.
• Don’t assign homework that will take you hours to grade.  Homework is to help children learn but it isn’t the main point.  You aren’t going to be allowed to base their grade on their homework so don’t kill yourself grading it.
• Don’t take on a lot of clubs and sports.  This may not seem like a teaching tip, but it is.  If you are spending a ton of nights and weekend time working on the extra stuff you’ll have less time for teaching stuff.  You are there to teach, it needs to be your top priority.  When done right it isn’t an easy job.  Give yourself some time to learn the ropes before you jump into a lot of extras.

If you are a new teacher do you have any questions or need some advice?  If you are an experienced teacher do you have any tips to add??

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Summer is winding down and kids are starting to think about ‘having’ to go back to school.  I can’t really fuss at the kids for this because as a teacher I felt the same way.  It is so nice to be completely free for a few months (well as a teacher not completely free because there are all of those summer workshops but mostly free at least).  There are a few things you can do to get your kids ready to start a new school year but they aren’t necessarily things your kids are going to be happy about.  I suggest them because doing them now will make actually going back to school soooo much easier for you as a parent, and for your child.

• Get back on a regular sleep schedule.
• Often children stop having a bed time and wake up time in the summer.  A few weeks before school starts implement both.
• Exercise
• Twenty years ago I wouldn’t have had to say this (or rather a teacher wouldn’t have to give this advice because twenty years ago I was a student).  Too many kids spend all summer sitting on their butt.  Once they go back to school they will be expected to jump back into the P.E. groove.  In most parts of the country it is still very warm (or if you are where I am DANGED HOT).  Make sure they start playing outside for half an hour to an hour each day continuously to get ready for P.E.
• Review
• Try to review the big concepts they learned last year so they will be ready for new information this year.  This is especially important in math because math skills build each year on the skills learned the previous year.  Trust me, your child will have a much easier time if he or she has had a chance to review.
• Go over expectations.
• Let your child know what kind of behavior and study habits you expect from them.  Some parents think their children should just ‘know’.  They don’t.  There kids, you’re the adult.  Tell them what you want.

Are there any other ways you try to help your child get prepared for the upcoming school year?

As schools around the country get ready to start many parents are worried about the expense of back to school shopping.  I have one thing to say to you.  SALES.  As a teacher I became at expert at scouring school supply sales.  I think it is actually a requirement that you be addicted to school and office supplies to become a teacher.  I’ve found that the two best times to get crazy bargains are the month before schools open and the month after. 

Before school opens all of the stores have amazing bargains on a few things.  These are the things you want to purchase.  Go to the school your child will be in and get a list of everything he or she will need. Then watch the sales papers for all the stores in town and grab their loss leaders as you find items that are on your list.  I recently saw five packs of mechanical pencils for only .o5.  The same for sharpies and notebook paper. The stores do this so you’ll come in and then see the pretty, shiny, full priced items and drop a ton of cash on those.  Your goal is to get in and out of the store with only those super cheap items. 

Don’t worry if you don’t find everything you need on sale right away.  Usually students are fine for the first week or so with only paper and something to write with.  It is after the first few weeks of school that the truly amazing sales take place.  I’ve seen lunch boxes for 80% off and they will practically give away paper, notebooks, crayons, markers, pencils, and colored pencils.  If you can hold off till these sales you will spend only a fraction of what everyone else is spending on school supplies.  Even if you do give in and buy a lot of your items before the sales, consider stocking up once the sales hit.  This will save you last minute runs to the store later in the school year and you now eventually you will use the product!

Do you have any great tips for saving money on your back to school supplies?  Share so we can all save money together

Here is an excellent site for teachers, students, and parents.  It is a great way to get the news streamlined into something students can more easily understand. 

Student News is something I’ll be using not only for my students but for myself as well.  I hope you enjoy it as well :) 

Okay, first I should tell you that the healthy school lunch isn’t to be found in an American public school.  Chef Dominique Valadier is the man who purchases the majority of the food served at the school within a thirty mile radius of the school and then prepares it with little or no frozen ingredients.  All at the cost of about $3 per student.  If you want the full story you can check it out here.  Makes cafeteria food sound yummy!

So here is what I was wondering…why can’t we do the same kind of thing here.  I mean I’ve heard the odd story about our schools getting healthier and you hear about the ‘war on obesity’ all the time BUT I don’t see many changes in actual school lunches.  At the schools I’ve worked at the usual lunches were pizza, some variety of meat nuggets, fried this and that.  Yes, we started having salads but they consisted of iceburg lettuce a few slices of tomato and cucumber and cheese.  Uhm…not so nutritionally superior in my opinion. 

Wouldn’t it be great if all public schools were required to follow health guidelines just as they are required to follow curriculum guidelines?  If the government is going to control the schools then dang it they could do something about the food while they were at it.  Or, and this is probably the solution I like better, they could privatize schools completely.  I’m pretty sure if parents were picking where their kids were going to school and had an influence in where their education dollars were going they’d be more vocal and more insistent in their cries for healthy food.

Do you think school lunchrooms should strive to make healthy food a priority?  Do you think the government should force public schools to serve healthy (and tasty, of course) food?  OR do you think the government should back off all the regulating and let the private sector take over?

This is what I’m talking about!  Some decent media coverage about putting education front and center in the presidential election.  It makes me happy that someone who can do something (as in not just me and my little blog) is trying to make this a national issue.  As a matter of fact the article says that polls are showing that education and the economy are ranking as more important than the war in Iraq. 

I was all kinds of shocked to hear that.  I mean the war in Iraq IS important and all of the men and women over there should definitely be in our minds this election season but that is what everyone is focusing on in the media.  There cause doesn’t need me to go around waving the banner.  Education on the other hand does need some banner waving. 

One last thing, I’m not by any means saying I’m with Watts on what he thinks needs to be done with education but any discussion at all is better than what I have been seeing!

Do you think education will play an important role in the presidential election this year or am I just dreaming??

As a follow up to the adverb video thought I’d post the Grammar Rock adjective video.  An excellent and cute video.  Kids (heck adults for that matter) often learn better when something is put to music.

So is the song stuck in your head?  Do you love or hate these videos?

I bet that got your attention.  You are probably either really for it or really against it.  Either way here is an interesting little story from across the pond for you.  This story talks about children who after a lesson on Islam were asked to pray to Allah.  Ummm what?  That would soooo never happen here.  Additionally, they were punished when the refused.  Can you believe that a school actually disciplined children for not wanting to recite something that was showing allegiance to a god they did not worship (never you mind that Allah and the Christian God are the same, from a historical and theological stand point anyway)?

I bet you’re wondering where I’m going…well I’m almost there :)  American schools do this ALL the time.  It is called the Pledge of Allegiance.  Does the phrase “one nation under God” sound familiar?  Hmmm??? Whose God do you think that little bit of wording is referring to?  The Christian God.  That isn’t mandatory, you say?  Oh really?? Every principal I’ve ever worked for told me to make the students say it through example or intimidation or whatnot.  Of course, I didn’t do it.  As a matter of fact I’d stand and be respectfully silent every morning as it was said.  The students finally got around to asking me why I didn’t say it and I said I had a variety of reasons.  The one I usually gave was that I once had a student from another country (in this case Canada) who at the end of one school year asked me what the pledge meant and why we said it every day.  I asked her why she’d done it all year long if she didn’t know and she said she’d been afraid not to because she thought it was mandatory.  She thought it was mandatory because in practice it is even if it isn’t in law.  Peer pressure at its best, people.  I explained what it was etc and told her she didn’t have to say it if she didn’t want to (boy would I get chewed out about that if it got back to our superintendent).  From that moment on I refused to be a part in the brainwashing/peer pressure culture of our school. 

All rambling aside, for those of you who were outraged that a child would be ‘forced’ to pray to Allah please take a moment to reflect on the Pledge of Allegiance.  How would you feel if it said “one nation under Allah” (Allah just means God, folks)  Would you be comfortable with your child being pressured to stand and say the pledge if it was rewritten to say Allah?  No?  Then why is it ok to pressure students to say the pledge now?? 

If you want some detailed information (or a general idea at least) of what I mean when I say FCAT reading camp you can check out a news article about one in Orange County here. 

If you aren’t from Florida you should know that the FCAT is our standardized test that is given to make sure students are performing at a certain standard (well, that’s what it is supposed to be for).  If you fail the reading portion of the FCAT in the third grade you fail the third grade as well.  (Hmm, well most of the time anyway..there are ways around that little rule so don’t think that means everyone who makes it out of the third grade actually knows what they are supposed to, but I digress).  If you fail the test you are allowed to participate in an intensive FCAT reading camp for part of the summer.  The curriculum is set by the school district and is different from county to county.  I’ve actually taught at one of the FCAT Reading Camps and therefor am not totally blowing steam when I tell you it isn’t worth the money the districts have to pay teachers. 

Honestly, I am quite expensive at an hourly rate and I’m by no means (not even close) the most expensive teacher out there.  As a matter of fact I live in a rural area (read we get paid less than those big city teachers) and I didn’t have decades of experience when I taught the program.  Even with all of that I was paid close to $25 per hour for this program.  I taught my little heart out and did everything in the program and bought stickers and special pencils to help motivate my kids.  I planned for hours and even got a local bookstore involved and helped to set up a little ‘bookstore’ at the school where the children got to pick books to take home and keep. (they loved this by the way).  Don’t forget that in addition to paying me the district also paid for the transportation of the children and their lunches and the curriculum etc.  Guess how many passed the test? (out of a class of oh say 6).  NONE.  And would you like to know why??  Was it the fault of the curriculum? Nope, pretty decent.  My fault?  Not in my opinion but then I suppose I am biased.  Whose fault then?  No ones. 

The reason is hinted at in the article referenced above.  The reason these kids didn’t do any better on the second test is because:

1. Their attendance wasn’t mandatory.  Many of the students went on ‘vacation’.  This speaks to a lack of parent involvement and dedication.  What is more important your child’s education or going to the beach?  The same parents that answered beach are the ones whose children wracked up record absences during the school year.  If you aren’t in school you won’t learn.
2. Many students were not native speakers of English.  Instead of getting year round intensive instruction many are tossed into the general population.  How do you think you’d do if you were plopped into a Russian school in the third grade?  Hmmm??? and if that didn’t work out do you think an extra month of ‘intensive’ instruction would fix it?
3. Students with learning disabilities.  One of my angels (and I actually mean that because this student was such a sweet heart) had an IQ that was around 70 which is classified as “extremely low”  This child will never receive a standard diploma and will eventually be on special standards.  There were other students with what I believed were undiagnosed learning disabilities but nothing I could do about them (as in I couldn’t diagnose because that is a ‘process’ that has to begin during the school year) except note the problems I saw in my end of lesson notes.
4. You then have students that had ‘problems’ throughout the school year.  These could be discipline or family related.  Again, nothing that is typically resolved by the summer.

So what is my point?  My point is I think these camps are pointless.  I don’t think they are cost effective.  If the child didn’t get it during an ENTIRE school year a few weeks in camp isn’t going to fix it.  For students with learning difficulties or who are new the English language another year in the same grade is a good thing.  It gives them a whole extra year to become proficient in the skills they are going to need in the next grade.  For students who had other “issues” bad choices should result in consequences.  If you chose not to come to school, messed around while at school, or “Christmastreed’ the test then you shouldn’t be given another opportunity, you should fail.  Period.  The idea that everyone is intellectually equal is ridiculous and offensive.  People are different and that is ok.  If it takes you two years to make it through a grade but at the end of those two years you are ready for the next step then that is fine. 

What do you think about the extra programs in the summer to help students who haven’t managed in the entire previous year to master standards move on?  Do you think it is possible to cram a years worth of information into a few weeks?  Do you think it is an effective and/or fair way to use taxpayer dollars?

I found a great series of videos that explain some grammar rules.  I love it!  If you’ve ever been confused about what it is an adverb does or how and when you are using them (because you do even if you don’t know it) This is the video for you.  For that matter it is a great little tool to refresh your child’s understanding during the summer or to help them with adverbs during the school year.

What did you think of the video?  Did it bring back great memories?  Do you understand adverbs any better?