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Here is a post from a former student about his first year of college life


The Struggle is VERY real

I just wanted to take this time to address some of the questions that people typically have when thinking about college and the atmosphere involved. Now while I can shed light from my personal experience, I do recognize that my experience is not the "common college life" nor is it reflective of what you'll find at every single institution, but there are moments that are attributable to just about every freshmen. For starters, as a kid who was taken and plopped in a new environment several times over the course of his life, I know how hard it can be to find your place in a new atmosphere, but you should know that everything WILL be okay. You'll attend those mandatory meetings with the same annoyance and frustration as your fellow classmates, but you'll also bond with people who you normally never would've considered talking to in the past. After a week you might or might not be tired of introducing yourself by name, place of origin, major, and favorite hobby, but you'll also come to the realization that everyone else has been doing the same. And when classes start, things will seem difficult because it's different from what you're used to. But remember that at the end of the day, that's all it is. Different. Nobody expected you to be Michael Jordan after picking up a basketball for the first time. No one expected you to be the next Picasso after your first art class and nobody can expect for you to pick up the swing of things as if you had been doing it all your life. College isn't easy, and high school as an institution can't prepare you for the type of work that you'll face, but regardless of where you are, you need to remember that there are people who are in the same collective struggle. Talk to them. Find commonalities in work ethic and in the social sphere as well because when you do, things become a lot easier. 

four period day part 2

One of the problems of the four period day is the fact that you are sitting for 80minutes straight at a time.  While truthfully the sitting for seven 45 minute periods is not much better the 80/85 minute block schedule is tough for most people.  When you add all of the time up students are sitting quite a bit during the course of the day.  Many students have told me that the sitting itself exhausts them.

Today, I tried to point out something that I thought I mentioned before that it was fine with me if you stand up anytime during the class.  During one period we stood during the drill, another I had two students standing and taking notes during the class. All of this is fine.

In an effort to get students to learn while they are active I tried to have human monopoly graphs today which I enjoyed watching.  It was the first time we did it and both classes used a different strategy but ended up with a good monopoly graph.  I am interested to see does this improve as we go on doing it.

WHAT I REALLY WANT from this blog is ideas that students have to get you out of your seats while learning still takes place.  So use the comments to the blog to help me think of better ways to get you up and about in the class.

The four period day

As we approach the first quarter of the year it is a good time to evaluate our new schedule.  From a teaching standpoint I see both positives and negatives to the new schedule.  There is a positive of teaching the same class on an A day then being able to modify it based on how it worked for the B day.  The time of the period also allows you to cover more in one session of 80/85 minutes than it would it the old 45 minute segment. 

The biggest problem that I see is that I do not see students everyday.  I think it is extremely hard to build continuity this way. I remember one winter when we did not have any snow the test scores for that unit were my highest of all time.  I was comparing test scores of students who had class everyday to the past where we often had snow breaks.  While I have a longer time each period over the course of the year you lose two weeks in the 85 minute day and four weeks in the 80 minute day.  So while we have longer time periods I always feel rushed to cover content and sometimes pass over or shorten discussions on certain topics. 

While I have thought about having student do work for me,  due on the day that they do not have class it seemed a bit unfair.  If every teacher did that then students would have eight periods of homework each day besides the 80/85 minutes they had to sit.  Which leads to another problem that the brain is not designed to sit that long in one place.  We humor ourselves by thinking if we put them in groups that they have moved around for (ten seconds) to then sit together for another ten minutes.  While this is better than not moving we still need a way to get the blood flowing.

So what do people think about the new schedule?  If you had a choice would you switch back or would you stay with this one?  Why

Let's make the world a better place

Just recently I finished talking to one of the best educators I have ever met.  One of the things he commonly asks his students are "How did you make the world a better place' He wants his students to explain to him each day how they made the world a better place.

One of the reasons I like to encourage students to get into teaching is that gives you the opportunity to make the world a better place each and everyday you come to work. It is a rare profession in which you can have a tremendous influence on people.

I would like to ask our community to take a couple of minutes and write down how you think you will make the world a better place in the future?  How you make the world a better place right now.

This is a time to dream, not be modest.  Share how your future goals will make this world a better place for all of us to live in

I have hired a coach

What is the role of any coach?  The role is to make there players better in what they do.  In listening to Anders Erickson the leading authority on what makes people great at something he mentions two things.  First of all he talks about deliberate practice.  Deliberate practice is practicing a specific skill which you are not very good at.  You would practice this skill enough until you master the skill. Secondly he talks about getting feedback about what you are doing.  You need that feedback to make sure that you are working on the right things and doing the right things to make the skill better.

As a teacher I get formal feedback from the administration maybe twice a year.  Hardly the amount of feedback that you would need to really improve your craft.  So in an attempt to provide a better product for my students I have asked someone to coach me.  Yes, you read that correctly, I am getting a coach.

Today, my coach is observing my teaching techniques.  Tomorrow we will sit down for our first discussion on what I am good at (hope they can find something) and more importantly what I can improve on to make my lessons better for students.  After this discussion I will try to implement the suggestions in upcoming lessons so that I can improve these skills.  I am sure at first I will be frustrated (a true sign of learning) but with the help of my coach I will hopefully master this skill and be able to move on to the next one.

I am truly excited to start this process because I can only imagine how beneficial this can be for all the students that I teach.  If I can provide them with more engaging lessons, which helps them learn the material better than it is a win for all of them.  I can not wait for my meeting tomorrow morning and it really has energized me.

Despite having this new coach I will continue to use my old coach also to mentor me.  The old coach is students who I will continue to use as a source of feedback to help me grow in my profession.  H

Is more always better

As we are approaching the first quarter of the school year it seems like a good time to evaluate the new eight period day system.  There are a couple of different factors that come into play in this system that we have extended time periods, less time with students, teachers teach more time, students have more classes, and we do not see students everyday.

Let us start off with teachers who now are teaching 25 minutes more a day than the year before without a pay increase to offset that additional time.  It has amazed me how few people understand that we are teaching more time and how fewer people can comprehend this simple fact.  Last year I taught 45*5 period for 225 minutes a day.  This year I teach 80,85,85, for 250 minutes a day.  So my workload has went up 25 minutes a day.

Now the figure up there would not be that bad, if somehow this increased workload would benefit students but just the opposite is happening.  I am now seeing students in my 85 minute classes approximately two weeks less time than last year and my students in the 80 minute periods four weeks less than last year.  So loser, loser, on both accounts.

Now on the student end to make up for lost time it seems that teachers have to give homework everyday.  I will be the first to admit that I do this and it can mean that some students are getting more homework.  Also now students have an extra class to attend to.  This can mean more homework, more exams or just more time focusing on an 8th subject that they do not really need to graduate.

In fairness to all, some students now have some flexibility in their schedule so that they can take some classes that they might not have the ability to take.  Also there are some students taking various AP classes which will allow them to enter college with many more credits.

What concerns me is the lack of continuity from day to day.  While we might hope that students will work each day on your subject the reality is that they can not.  They just do not have the time.  For our weaker students, the fact that they do not have class each day sometimes might make it harder for them to grasp complicated material.

So, why do we need an 8th period?  Does it really benefit anyone or the school system as a whole?  What do you think after one quarter of the new system?

Do you still love teaching

One of my former students who has now become an excellent math teacher wrote me an e-mail the other day.  He asked, "do you still love teaching, with the observations, SLO's, meetings etc."

I knew immediately that my response was going to be yes!!!!  What I did not realize was the analogy that I was going to use right away.  I had not spoken to him in a while so I did not know if he had a serious girlfriend which would enable him to relate to my analogy even better.  What i told him was that I love my wife but that does not mean we do not argue.  That even though we love each other we still have differences of opinion on how to go about certain things.

Education is a great field, that while it does not draw people into it because of the money, it allows teachers the unique opportunity to make a difference in a persons life.  I have seen on a daily basis how some of the best teachers in our building truly make a difference.  The impact that they have on their students inspires me to become a better teacher.  That when you peak into their rooms these teachers put aside all the other bs and just make students better each and everyday.

We all fall into the Woh me, this life is just too tough but the truth is that it is easy to be gritty when things are good.  Now we are in some tough times in education which is testing the grit of all the really good educators in the system.  It is also the time where we can not afford to lose any of our great teachers.  If we expect our students to be gritty we must model that GRIT for them.

I continue to advocate that our best and brightest students need to join the field of education.  We need to have bright people who bring about education reform that really fixes many of our problems.  Again, while education does not pay well, it is very important to the future of our country.  Ask the best teachers in your school the feeling that they get when they make a difference and you will realize that getting involved in education makes you rich.

Are we robots or teachers

It seems that the movement in education is to get everyone to do the same thing.  My boss this morning sent me an e-mail detailing the preparation needed as the assistant area superintendent was coming to visit.  So many things cross my mind with this e-mail and I will share a few.

Why would we teach any different on a day that the superintendent came to visit?  It would seem to me that the most important visitors to my classroom are the students who are there each and everyday.  Should I not being doing my best for them and not the area superintendent?

Which leads me to the first thing on the list which is to clean our rooms.  Okay, our custodial staff has been cut back in recent years, our school is old, so there is really no way to make it look clean.  Is it my job to clean the rooms for the area supt?  It should be clean for her but who cares the rest of the year when just teachers and students are in the room?  Um, there also seems no concern about when it is 90 degrees and we are given no fans or air conditioning.  That is okay the area super. is in her air conditioned office on those days.

Secondly, was to put the objective on the board.  I have probably received 3500 student feedback forms over the last ten years and never once has a student asked me to post the objective on the board.  Who again cares what students want we are here to please the area supt.  The crazy thing is lately I have been suing the objective to start class off.  As a starting place I have been asking students is the objective worth learning and will it be relevant to their lives?  Even so to mandate we all have to do something that kids do not care about seems absurd to me.

Thirdly, we have to post student work.  I am a big fan of this concept even though I do not use it in my classroom.  I tend to post the names of students who excel as well as improve on the board that stays up until the next class.  Again there are teachers who post the work and get a lot out of it.  My point is that we should be able to do things that fit our style and are not dictated by those above.

In reality, I know they are just testing my GRIT. 

School spirit

So I should start by saying that I think that school spirit can enhance the high school experience.  At our school we have many students and teachers who work hard during the course of the year to improve school spirit.  My question however, is what is school spirit?  Do things like PEP rally's and spirit week help our school spirit?

When I am thinking about school spirit, I start to think about what makes me the most proud of my school.  My first thought is always the quality of the students.  We have students who work extremely hard at their academics and those who achieve tremendously in school.  What however, impresses me the most is those students who are so caring for each other.  I am amazed at the students who are willing to help others learn, who take time out of their day to help other achieve and finally those students who just bring a smile to other people's face.

Secondly, I am extremely proud of the efforts of SGO during the can food drive.  While I wish we did not offer any incentive for bringing in the most cans and students were just doing it for the right reasons.  It still does not detract from the amazing effort of our school in helping people less fortunate than us.  Year after year we are one of the top schools in the county in bringing food to those who need.  Last year, our top class brought in more cans than some entire schools.

Our school publications also make me proud of my school.  The ability to allow our students to express themselves freely with very little if any censoring is unique to most high schools.  Our school newspaper often runs articles that investigate or question decisions made by both school and district leaders.  This is a great forum for debate among both students and faculty members

Now does something like spirit week enhance the feeling that one has about their school.  Does dressing up in similar themes enhance the feeling of community?  Does all the hard work that is done by the faculty members and students pay off in a more spirited school?  That is what I wonder when I see these students and teachers working beyond the call of duty to make these events the best that they can be.

When you actually research things you see that things do not always work out the way you would think they would.  There was a program called 'Scared Straight" that took at risk students to a prison where they heard horror stories about these prisoners life.  The theory was that you were going to be so scared to go to prison that you would not break the law.  When researchers started to compare people who went to this program, to those who did not, they found that the 'Scared Straight" program increased crime.  NOT THAT WE ARE DOING ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN SCHOOLS, but I often wonder do our best intentions create opposite results.

Can we dictate school spirit by mandating that our athletes have to go to games?  Or can we cultivate this feeling of support?  How do we get a school where the student body wants to attend games to support each other?  How do we cultivate pride in our non-athletic success?

So I will end with these questions.  What is school spirit to you?  How can we best cultivate this among our students and faculty?  Is what we are doing now improving our school spirit?  Do you think your feeling about our school has improved through the four years you have been here?

College process

I  have noticed again this year the anxiety that comes about with the college process.  From how will I find the time to do my application to will I get into my dream school these are very anxious times for seniors. 

So my advice is to take the application process with a growth mindset.  Enjoy the process and think about it as a way to reflect on your four years at the high school level.  Some of this reflection will be of joy that you did well, other parts of the reflection will allow you to grow from maybe some of the mistakes that you made during the course of your high school career.  Remember that is what high school is about a learning process that allows you to grow.

Secondly, we need to start asking ourselves more about our well-being than about our GPA.  While people are worried about the application I wish they had the same concern about their own happiness.  I truly believe that if you are happy you will be successful at any college that you attend.  That the person is more important than the college.  All colleges have students and professors, it is the job of each student to get the most out of the experience.  I have heard students and parents tell me that this will define who they are for the rest of their life.  I have trouble believing that.  I look at people like Steve Bisciotti, Ravens owner, who went to a state school.  He is definitely successful in the financial sense.  I also realize that I do not even know the colleges most of my friends, or doctors attended.

The big questions we need to ask after our happiness is do you have a passion for something.  If students have a passion they will be able to find success at any school that they are at.  The technology that we now have allows people to find information easier and allow you to pursue your passion.  Once you also find this passion it makes learning much more enjoyable and allows you to become much more gritty.  Do you love learning?  Again if the answer is yes, you will do great at any college that you attend.  There are professors in all schools that want to nurture and help students learn.

In conclusion, realize you the individual is more important than the college you attend.  Use the application process to grow so that you make the college experience better than your high school experience.  Remember your well-being, curiosity and passion will allow your next four years to be great.

So can we be a little less anxious about the college process?