Doors

You can find doors in most buildings.  We have hundreds of doors in our school, both exterior and interior.  You have several doors in your home. Your vehicle has doors.  Office buildings have doors.  Did you ever stop and think about the purposes of doors?  Yep, I didn’t think so.  I’ll do it for you.  The first purpose of a door is that it gives identity.  People may even identify you with the color or design of your front door to your home.  Think about that – haven’t you said softly something like this, “I never would have used that color.”  Another purpose of doors is that they give access.  When unlocked, doors provide entry in to the building.  A third purpose of doors is that they give security.  Doors help keep the things within the building safe as well as keeping the bad stuff out.  The last purpose of doors is to divide.  If you don’t have the key or the business is closed, you are simply on the outside looking in.  At that point you wonder which side of the door you should be on.

How do students see the door to your classroom?  Just beyond the door is your classroom.  How do students see your classroom?  Is it a welcoming place or is it a sterile environment where they may not feel welcome?  What is your identity as associated with your classroom?  Is  your classroom functional or an educational disaster?  How about the type of access that is provided?  Do kids have access to many resources including the greatest resource – You!  Can they move about or are they conceptually tied to their desks?  What about security?  Do you provide a safe place for them?  Not in terms of protection against fires and intruders, but a classroom where they are free to ask questions without being made to feel like a fool.  Are they safe to explore on their own and to do some individual projects?  What about division?  Is your classroom open to ALL of the students.  Better yet, are YOU open to ALL of your students?  Do they know that you care about them and really want them to succeed.  Remember that it really doesn’t matter if you like all of the kids under your direction. It does matter if you love them.  Kids need to feel somewhat like a door in your classes – they need to have their identity, they need to have access to much, they need to feel secure, and they need to know that they are on the right side of the door and not on the outside looking in.

May I Have Seconds?

Have you received a compliment for something that others perceive you have done well?  Maybe you have received a compliment because of your outfit or handbag.  Perhaps you have received a compliment on the behavior of your children or on the demonstration of athletic ability.  Mark Twain said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”  You may have heard things like, “You look amazing!” or “I love your shoes – are they new?” or “That color looks great on you.”  (A guy once told me that he knew something that was brown and black and would great on me – a Doberman Pincher) or “I like your new haircut” (never uttered to me).  What would you say to the cook of a great meal that you ate?  Would you say, “That was delicious.”, “That was tasty.”, “You’re a fabulous cook!” or “That was out of this world!”  After limited thought, I think the best compliment that you can give to a cook is simply this – “May I have seconds?”  There is something about asking for more of what you found so pleasing to your taste buds that it would warm the heart of any cook.  If you want more of what people have worked at and express that to them; well, how does it get better than that in terms of validation for the receiver?

Think about that in your own teaching.  Did a student ever tell you that they loved the lesson that you taught that day?  Did any of them let you know that they couldn’t wait for the next day?  Did a student ever tell you that no one ever taught me this before?  Did any of them ever express that they never understood the concept until you showed them how?  Did a student ever tell you that they hope they get you as a teacher next year or wish they could?  Do any of your students stay after class ends because they want more of what you are presenting?  How about “You made make boring stuff come alive!” Do kids actually run to your class because they don’t want to miss anything?  Do you have them so engaged that the end of the class period is just a guideline?  Do you leave them thirsty for more?  This list may not have an end. What does have an ending is the time that we get to spend with groups of kids.  They move on to the next class, to the next grade, and eventually to the next school.  We need to get students to the point of wanting to be here because of the people in the building.  We need to get them to mindset of “May I have seconds?” That’s what you want your students to express as we begin the second semester.

Types of Bread

I like bread.  Always have.  Always will.  There are about a gazillion types of bread made in the United States alone.  If bread is not eaten, it is pretty useless unless you own a penicillin manufacturing plant.  How many types of bread can you name in 30 seconds?  Just for giggles, I looked up “American Breads” and found out that there are more than white, wheat, rye, and pumpernickel.  Have you ever tried Bulkie Roll, a New England region sandwich roll?  How about Parker House Roll, which is made by flattening the center of a ball of dough with a rolling pin (Mom’s discipline utensil of choice in 1965) and then folding over the oval?  How about Pullman Loaf or Scali Bread?  Why are there so many different types of bread?  For the same reason that there are different makes and models of cars, different flavors of ice cream, different types of shoes, and different manufacturers of golf clubs – to meet the needs of all.  If breads never evolved, we would still be eating Johnny cakes.  I suspect that we will see more types of bread on the market as the tastes of people change.  Not everyone wants the white bread.

Here’s a shocker – there are many types of learners in your classroom.  Did you notice them?  There are four primary learning styles not including a well-placed rolling pin on the buttocks of a seven year old boy who chose not to clean his room (dang, that hurt).  Visual Learners prefer to see the content and love to see graphics within highly visual presentations.  Auditory Learners prefer recitations and hearing information rather than seeing it.  Reading/Writing Learners  learn best when reading and writing (hence, the name) and love to interact with the text and annotated sheets.  Kinesthetic Learners love hands-on and learn best by doing.  What type of learner are you?  I guarantee that in any of your class periods, you will have a mix of learning styles.  The question is – how do you provide for them?  It is vital to differentiate your methods and assessments. If not, you will never catch them all.  How do you do this?  Look at the root word DIFFERENTIATED. Do not do the same thing day after day after day!  Simply put,  attend to the learning needs of your students!   Let the student differences shape how you go about things – have multiple materials, offer multiple options for assignments and assessments, flexible groupings, allow the kids to help design products, let them express what they have learned in various ways, use tiered assignments, use a variety of assessments and throw the dang scantron out the window. Utilize rubrics, respond to student interests, encourage student investigation, find what makes them tick.  Differentiation is more than strategies; it is a way of thinking…maybe out of your own learning style.  Remember that you’re not teaching yourself, but others who may not learn like you to.  Not everybody wants the white bread.

You Have to Get Wet

There are several things that you can do in water.  You can dive off springboards or cliffs. You can play water polo.  You can snorkel.  You can do synchronized swimming or diving. You can bathe. You can throw in a Baby Ruth candy bar and watch the excitement. You can do water aerobics.  You can water ski unsuccessfully. You can go boating unsuccessfully.  You can canoe unsuccessfully. You can fly fish.  You can get baptized.  The list goes on and on.  The worst thing you can do in water is drown! Hence, the inclusion of “unsuccessful” activities.  That is why learning to swim is so important. If you want to be a better swimmer, you must improve your stroke, work on your kicks, and adjust your breathing.  There is one thing you have to do before you do any of these – you have to get wet!  Only through the work in the water can you get better. You can do all the land drills in the manual and all of the visualization that you want, but that will only get you so far.  Bottom line = you have to get in the water! There’s no way around it.  If you don’t know how to swim, don’t wait to learn.  Teach your kids as well. 

You don’t get to be a better teacher because it is easy.  You don’t become a better administrator because it is easy.  You don’t evolve into a great clerical staffer, nurse, para, lunch lady or custodian because it is easy.  I do believe that some have an innate disposition for teaching and I have learned that from giving a Teacher Perceiver hundreds of times. Having the right levels of “naturally occurring” mission, empathy, rapport, objectivity, and so forth does not automatically make someone a great teacher; only that they have the disposition for such.  Often, teachers get better through failure.  What?  If nothing negative ever happens in your classroom, if all of the students get straight A’s, if none of the kids have emotional issues, if all of the parents are your biggest supporters, if the copy machine is always functional, if all of your students are Pass+ on the ISTEP, if there are no interruptions, if no one needs Tiers 2 or 3 interventions, if there is no drama, if no one pukes in your classroom…then, well, you are living in a fantasy and you will never get better at teaching because you were never exposed to failure.  Teaching isn’t always clean.  To get better, you have to get in the trenches.  On those days when nothing seems to be going right, take a step back and be thankful because if you tackle why these things occurred, you will get better and be prepared for the next time they happen…and they will.  Just like in swimming, in this sea of education, you have to get wet.