Love to Teach: A Culture of Risk-Taking

The reason that I love to teach actually has very little to do with content delivery.  Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy teaching my Science and Language Arts classes, but what really gets me excited as a teacher is the continual feeling that I am forcing both students and myself to take risks and step outside of our comfort zones.

I am a big believer in utilizing the prospect of failure and risk taking as a learning opportunity.  After all, people that are willing to take risks and learn from the results are the ones that are going to truly succeed in life.  Each and every day that I walk into the classroom, I stress the importance of risk taking and acceptable failure; the understanding that feeling uncomfortable while doing something new is not a bad thing - it’s expanding yourself as a person.  

The longer I teach (I just finished my fifth year), the more I am coming to believe that teaching has very little do with knowledge of facts.  Students know that facts are easy to obtain via a quick Google search.  I have found students crave learning opportunities that mimic authentic problems in as many situations as possible.   It is this understanding which makes me excited to develop new learning scenarios that ask students to expand their horizons.  This culture of risk taking is what has allowed students to be confident enough to stream live speeches to the Internet, create a house blueprint for critiquing by local architects, and cooperatively design and build bottle rockets for launching into the air.  

These type of projects are the vehicle I choose to use to teach content knowledge while simultaneously mentoring students in learning soft skills like cooperation, leadership, and empathy.  What I love about teaching is the feeling that I am teaching more than simple content - I am teaching students how to problem solve in their adult lives.

I knew that my “life prep” philosophy of teaching was catching on with the students this past year when one of my sixth grade students gave me the best, unintentional compliment that I have ever received as a teacher.  The students had been at lunch, and upon returning to the classroom, one said, "Hey Mr. Weyers, my friends were talking today at lunch about how most teachers say they are preparing you for the next grade.  I told them I disagreed.  My teacher is preparing me for life."  

Isn’t that what teaching should really be about?

Author:  Matt Weyers

6th Year Teacher

Byron Minnesota Public Schools

6th Grade

Tell us why you love to teach for a chance to win a Target gift card for your class!

Twitter:  #love2teach

Facebook:  Haystack EDU

or submit a blog post in 500 words or less about why you love to teach

Love to Teach: Kids Are Like Tadpole Shrimp?

I love to teach because I cannot wait to open up my Biology class this September with the following summertime story.

Haystack the Tadpole Shrimp:

“One hot summer day in Zion National Park, Momma Haystack laid an egg that would become Haystack the Tadpole Shrimp.  Momma Haystack wanted to avoid fish eating her eggs so she laid her eggs in a hole on a rock that had just a little bit of water in it.  Uh oh - you guessed it - the water evaporated!!   Oh No!!

Don’t fret – Momma Haystack made her eggs extra tough - they can last up to 20 years without water and endure extreme temperature changes before hatching (208 degrees Fahrenheit to well below freezing). 

Soon some water came, and Haystack was born!  Haystack’s birth certificate says Triops longicaudatus, her scientific name, but most of her friends call her Haystack the Tadpole Shrimp.  Haystack grew up quickly reaching her adult stage in 6 days.  She has 3 eyes and is about 3 inches long.  Haystack does lots of good in the world by eating mosquito larvae (helping prevent the spread of West Nile virus).  Haystack and her Tadpole Shrimp friends have a pretty long family history too – having been around since the dinosaurs!*

Imagine if you lived a life like Haystack.  You would grow up to be an adult in 6 days!  You could lay eggs that would not hatch for 20 years!  Your family tree would go all the way back to the times of Tyrannosaurus Rex!

You and Haystack have something in common – cells.  Let’s start our journey into Biology!

Students are kind of like Haystack the Tadpole Shrimp.  They grow up quickly, are tough and resilient, yet also need the right conditions to flourish and grow.  It is our job as educators to provide the right conditions and love that enables every child to become the best Tadpole Shrimp he or she can be.

I enjoy many aspects of teaching such as creating unique lessons, coaching sports, designing inquiry labs, and facilitating student group work.  But I #LOVETOTEACH because of each child’s story.   Each child has a story full of twists and turns like Haystack the Tadpole Shrimp, and my job is to help each child continue his or her story in a positive meaningful way.  By getting to know each child’s story my classroom becomes a safe place where we can dive into Biology and truly grapple with life’s greatest questions: Who are we?  Where do we come from?  How do we work?

I love to teach because I find inspiration in my students and I hope to inspire them.

* I learned about Tadpole Shrimp during my summer vacation this year.   You can find out more information on Tadpole shrimp http://www.nps.gov/zion/photosmultimedia/ranger-minutes.htm

Author:  John Gibney

9th Year Teacher

Frankford High School

School District of Philadelphia

Love to Teach: Christina Nosek

I love to teach for one reason, explained below in two personal stories.

Years ago, on the last day of school, a father of one of my students came up to me after I said goodbye to my kiddos.  He asked if he could speak with me about his daughter Angela's math experience that year.  Angela had extreme difficulties in math that she eventually overcame.  At the beginning of that school year, Angela was shy, quiet, and rarely shared in class.  That year, I watched her grow from a reserved child into a confident student ready to take on the world!  As her father and I sat down to talk, he became teary eyed.  He told me that prior to that school year, Angela dreaded school.  She would frequently ask to stay home and cry while working on math homework.  He explained how something changed in her while she was in my classroom.  She started to love school and even love math.  With tears in his eyes, he thanked me and said that I changed Angela's life.  

Just last month, I ran into another former classroom parent at a coffee shop.  Two years ago, her autistic son, Jeffrey, was fully included in my classroom.  After a few rough initial weeks, I had a long chat with my class about autism and why Jeffrey did things differently.  My students asked many questions about autism that I answered honestly and respectfully.  That conversation changed perceptions. Students started seeking out Jeffrey to play and even to engage with during class.  They asked his opinion during writing workshop and became disappointed when Jeffrey needed to leave for occupational therapy or speech sessions.  For the first time in his young life, Jeffrey's peers accepted him.  At the coffee shop that day, Jeffrey's mom hugged me and wouldn't let go.  She started explaining that my open and honest conversation about autism with the class immensely helped Jeffrey's experience that year.  Two years later, she told me about how the kids in class still regard Jeffrey as an equal peer.    With a huge smile on her face, she told me that I changed Jeffrey's life.

Nothing in this world is more important than changing a child's life for the better.  I love to teach because I get to do the most important job in the world.

Author:  Christina Nosek

12th Year Teacher

Palo Alto Unified School District

Palo Alto, CA

Tell us why you love to teach for a chance to win a Target gift card for your class!

Twitter:  #love2teach

Facebook:  Haystack EDU

or submit a blog post in 500 words or less about why you love to teach

Spotlight on Memphis Public Schools

memphismagazine.com

Like many urban areas in the U.S., the public schools of Memphis, Tennessee have been buried in bedlam for years with failing schools, high segregation and little opportunity for graduates to qualify for college.   What was before a low-hope environment for public school students, is now becoming a place where the possibility of high school diplomas that lead to college education and greater opportunities is broad. Memphis is inviting strong leaders and educators to reveal the potential change in education that is attainable for the southern city. 

Memphis Public Schools in 2012

As of the beginning of 2012, Memphis public schools were treading water.  About eighty percent of the lowest-performing schools in Tennessee were located in Memphis. The majority of all children attending public schools lived in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty and half of these children changed schools at least once a year.  As a result of their poor education around 5,000 students turn 19 without a high school diploma each year.  

Tennessee Launches the Achievement School District

After decades of a struggling education, the Tennessee Department of Education launched the state-run Achievement School District (ASD) in the fall of 2012.   Schools that qualified for the ASD were in the bottom 5 percent of Title I schools statewide on combined math and reading/language arts scores or had a graduation rate of less than 60 percent. The ASD’s  goal for theses schools is to turn them into the top 25% of state ranked schools within five years. 

Like other state run districts, such as the Louisiana Recovery School District, the ASD will do this through creating a portfolio district of direct run and charter schools.  The ASD has plans to both expand existing Memphis charter organizations, such as KIPP Memphis, and also invite new charter operators into the state.  The new charters include Aspire Public Schools and Green Dot Schools of California and YES Prep of Houston. 

In order to reach the grand goals for its students, the ASD has high expectations for incoming charter networks.  The district has created a comprehensive team that evaluates charter applications and includes national charter school experts, local community evaluators and representatives from the Tennessee Department of Education. 

As of June 3, 2013 the ASD approved nine new charter operators to begin serving students in the 2014-2015 school year.  This will triple the number of students served within the ASD from 1585 to 6000.  In addition to the charter schools, the ASD ran three direct-run schools in the 2012-2013 school year, and will add more in the upcoming school year. 

horancommunications.com

 Be Part of the Impact

Teachers and school leaders that are joining the Achievement School District from in and out of state have the opportunity to be part of the strong and impactful shift of  a changing education environment.   Many key players, such as community leaders, politicians, parents and teachers are talking about the education system. Memphis has become one of the nation’s new epicenters for education change. 

The ASD admits that improving their failing schools and changing the lives of their students for the better won’t be easy.  But they ensure teachers that it is the toughest job they’ll ever LOVE.  

Love to Teach: Sarah Petters

I don’t love to teach because of the light bulb moments when one kid finally gets it, or to see if a new lesson lands well with third period. Though, I have to admit, those are delicious moments when you see your work paying off.

I love to teach because of what I call marshmallow moments. You’ve probably heard of the famous marshmallow study. Scientists left preschoolers alone in a room with one marshmallow. They told the child that if they didn’t eat this marshmallow, they would get two when the researchers came back. Kids who didn’t eat the marshmallow went on to have better life outcomes – higher emotional intelligence, SAT scores, educational attainment, and even salaries. They’ve since updated the study by exposing half the kids to reliable adults and the other half to unreliable adults. They found that kids who were exposed to unreliable adults, who, for example, had promised to bring them new crayons and hadn’t delivered, were significantly more likely to eat the marshmallow. Exposing kids to reliable adults makes them more likely to delay gratification and not eat the marshmallow, suggesting that they will go on to have significantly better life outcomes.

Of all of the hours that my students are awake on any given day, I am often the adult that occupies most of those ticks on the clock. My job is to be their reliable adult. That’s why I love this job, and what I consider the most important part. Regardless of how well-planned my lesson is, how there was that incident in homeroom I have to deal with, how little coffee I’ve had, how I really need to get around to that dentist appointment, how the average on yesterday’s exit ticket was in the 60s, or that I have a million unanswered emails from last night’s faculty meeting, my job is to be present, to be calm, to be reliable, and to do it all with love.

Selfishly, and I can say this because I’m an adult who didn’t eat the marshmallows as a preschooler, I get the instant gratification of watching my students grow really quickly in this kind of environment. They rise to expectations because they know what to expect. They build the stamina to sit correctly in their desks, learn the self-control to walk down the hallway in a line, and learn the citizenship of reacting positively with their teammates. Before long, those marshmallow moments start happening everywhere: they’re going out of their way to pick up after someone who has dropped something and maybe I’ll notice, they’re working quietly for 7 minutes instead of 5, and are excited to tell me about that time they didn’t get in a fight. I love teaching because there are marshmallow moments, and small victories, like this every single day. There is always something to celebrate.

Author:  Sarah Petters

5th Year Teacher

KIPP Strive Academy

Atlanta, GA

Tell us why you love to teach for a chance to win a Target gift card for your class!

Twitter:  #love2teach

Facebook:  Haystack EDU

or submit a blog post in 500 words or less about why you love to teach.

Love to Teach: Allison Kelly

When Haystack EDU invited me to write a blog about why I love to teach, I immediately started listing all of the usual suspects: the kids, those “light bulb” moments, how much fun it is to guide students along their learning paths, etc. But then something happened in class last week that put all of those things on the back-burner and truly encapsulated why I love to teach.  

Picture this: There are less than ten days left in the school year.  The kids are acting like they’re already on summer vacation, and as a teacher, I am struggling to get out of bed each morning. (Trust me, no matter how much you love to teach, the end of the school year is HARD!) But my job is to teach and, regardless of what my third graders think, their job is to learn.  

So I sat at my desk planning lessons. I realized that I still needed to hit on a few social studies standards about the history of the Native Americans.  I teach in the state of Washington, so I decided to focus on the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.  I gathered a bunch of books and narrowed down the learning targets for my kiddos.  The learning targets, while important and necessary, where not very exciting: I can use the table of contents to locate information and I can take notes on a topic.  Wheeee!!!!. . . . zzzzzzz. . . . 

But this is actually one of the best things about being a teacher – every lesson is like a puzzle: How do I take what the students need to learn and make it engaging, exciting, and FUN for them? My go-to secret weapon is almost always ART. Elementary school kids are ridiculously creative and the sad fact is that formal art classes in the public schools are an endangered species. I feel a responsibility to keep the creativity alive in my students as much as I can. 

So with the standards, learning targets, and art in mind, I crafted an experience for my students. They were to use the table of contents to find specific information in their books, take the necessary notes, and then display their learning by creating a foldable 3D pyramid on which they could illustrate what they had learned.  Not a mind-blowingly innovative lesson by any means, but not too shabby for the end of the year either.  

And here it is – the point to this whole story! As my students were working, I circulated the room for a bit and then sat down next to one of my students who happened to be working alone. She appeared to be really into what she was doing, and as she did her thing, I just sat there and watched. At one point she looked up and said, “This is really cool, Mrs. Kelly!” To which I replied, “Oh yeah? Why is that?” She responded, “Well, I’m like reading AND writing and then I’m doing art, AND I have to concentrate on everything. . . It’s like I’m a superhero! I’m doing it ALL!”

Author:  Allison Kelly

15th Year Teacher

3rd Grade

Vancouver, WA

Tell us why you love to teach for a chance to win a Target gift card for your class!

Twitter:  #love2teach

Facebook:  Haystack EDU

or submit a blog post in 500 words or less about why you love to teach.

Love to Teach: Jenna Smith

Ever since I was in kindergarten, I have wanted to be a teacher.  Every day after elementary school, when my parents asked me what I learned, I would re-enact my day as the teacher. In middle and high school, I helped my friends with their math homework because that subject always came easy to me and I enjoyed helping them. When I was a student at UW-Whitewater, I got a job at the Academic Support Center where I held study sessions for college students struggling in math. Then as a student-teacher, teaching finally became a reality! Although it was a challenging stage of my life, it confirmed my lifetime desire to go into the field of education.  Last year I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater and am finishing my first job, teaching high school math to at-risk students. I love teaching.

My students have always asked me and will continue to ask, “why do you want to be a teacher?” Each time I hear this, I look at the student and answer, “because it gives me great pleasure when you understand what I’m teaching you.” I love to see the “light bulb” go off telling me they understand the concept.  I especially love when they say, “that was a cool activity.” “It will help me remember that concept.”

I look forward to coming to school every day because every day is a new day - new lesson, new challenges, and new attitudes. The classroom will continue to change as technology advances. Technology brings new opportunities, and something more to look forward to.

I love to teach. I am excited for what’s to come in the world of education. 

Author:  Jenna Smith

1st Year Teacher

High School Math

Delavan-Darien High School, Delavan, WI

Tell us why you love to teach for a chance to win a Target gift card for your class!

Twitter:  #love2teach

Facebook:  Haystack EDU

or submit a blog post in 500 words or less about why you love to teach.