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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Love to Teach: Denali Lander

Bill Haber / Associated Press

Teachers seem to get into and stay in the classroom for one of three reasons. The first is a competitiveness with results that drives each hour of planning and execution to ensure ones’ students are performing beyond what society expects of them, approaching and becoming the best. A second is a love of content. From the most sincere passion for young adult literature to an ongoing fascination with earth history. The final is an intrinsic and inexplicable magnetism toward young people. A feeling of rightness when interacting with children and teenagers and helping them discover their purpose and develop their path for life.  Thinking back about my own teachers and the teachers I now call peers, everyone certainly has a combination of the three. But it does seem as though teachers’ natural tendencies lean in one particular direction of this triangle. An intrinsic care for and desire to work with young people has been my motivator for entering the classroom through TFA and staying there beyond my two years. The underpaid long hours are certainly on my mind, but alleviated by individual moments with kids.

What unsettles me most is knowing that, even with students I’ve spent hundreds of hours with during and out of school, I continue to question the transformational impact other teachers and I have had. How long will that unknown impact even last? This questionable effect can be, at times, maddening but is forever motivating. Success for each and every young person is possible. There can always be more, and schools can always be better. And they need people to be around for years to make them that way. I will be here. 

Author:  Denali Lander

5th Year Teacher

8th Grade ELA 

Kipp Central City Academy, New Orleans, LA

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Spotlight On New Orleans

Arranged behind the green, yellow and purple curtain of Mardi Gras, jazz and jambalaya, are hundreds of schools and thousands of students that are making leaps and bounds in their academic progress every day since Hurricane Katrina swept through the Big Easy.

washingtonindependent.com

Recent History of New Orleans Shifted Education Outcomes

The recent history of the New Orleans education system has greatly influenced its overall improvement. In 2003, two years before Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans, the Recovery School District (RSD) was created to take over failing schools within the New Orleans public school district.  For decades before, New Orleans had been known as the lowest performing school district in Louisiana and one of the worst school districts in the country.  Eighty percent of public school students were attending a failing school and the corruption within the education system was so high that the FBI set up a field office in the Orleans Parish building.  It was the storm that destroyed New Orleans that also turned around the failing education system.

While New Orleans was rebuilding itself from foundation to roof, change was brewing in schools with mission-driven leaders, and new ideas about academic achievement.  School leaders and non-profits from around the country flooded in to partake in the opportunity of a lifetime. Educators bound by public school rules and unions could work freely in the mainly charter system.  This turnaround from traditional public schools to charter schools had positive and negative effects, but the idea was that schools could make their own rules as long as they met testing standards laid out by the state.  According to the Cowen Institute, by the 2011-2012 school year 78 percent of public school students were enrolled in charter schools, and this number has continued to increase. 

edweek.org

Benefits of Teaching in New Orleans Schools

Although there are charter schools that have failed, and others that are struggling, there are several positives to working in the successful and blossoming charter schools of New Orleans.  First, teachers have the opportunity to make a large social impact and be part of an academically improving district.  Over 80% of public school students qualify for free or reduced lunch and in just three years, between 2009 and 2012, these students’ test scores increased from 37% to 51% basic or above (Louisiana Department of Education)

Additionally, a charter system with fewer rules allows for a wide-variety of schools to choose from.  For example, teachers at KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools are often required to visit the houses of their students, so that they can build a stronger relationship with families.  Enrollment at Sci Academy, a high school, is kept at an enrollment of around 400 so that the staff is familiar with most all of the students. 

Finally, an educator can live well off New Orleans’ teacher’s salary, which has increased in recent years.  Between 2005 and 2010, the average teacher salary rose from $39,000 to $47,000.  With New Orleans’ cheap standard of living, one can comfortably reside walking distance from live music, fresh seafood, street festivals and Mardi Gras parades. 

If you’re interested in being part of an education environment that is like no other, in a city that is like none other in the nation, New Orleans may be the place for you.  To learn more about schools and education reform in Greater New Orleans, check out the links below.

Resources to Learn More About New Orleans Schools

The State of Public Education in New Orleans 2012 Report 

Educate Now 

The Times Picayune Education 

Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD)

Louisiana Department of Education

Determining what you want in a teaching job

Whether you are a new teacher or considering making a move to a different school, the process of finding the right fit can be daunting.   There are a lot of possibilities out there and it can be difficult to determine the best place to start.  This inspiration for a move can be from anything such as wanting to increase your impact to having a philosophical difference of opinion with your administrator.  Alternatively, you may be in the hunt for your first job and you are just exploring the waters for the first time.  Regardless, this is a very important decision that will influence your ability to impact kids and your career trajectory.   In fact, finding the right school for you will actually likely dictate whether remain in the teaching profession.  

As I’ve mentioned in a past post, teaching is an incredibly high turnover profession and much of it has to do with teachers not finding the right fit.  Thus, before getting started, I recommend establishing a sense of what you want and care about.

While there are a number of things that you can think about when making this decision, the following are few examples of things that you can think about when determining what is important to you in a new teaching job.

Leadership of the school: making sure you have a philosophical match and can maintain a good relationship with a school leader will have a great impact on how effective you will be as well as your own satisfaction.   Do you want someone that runs a very tight culture with a lot prescribed procedures and rules or do you want a leader that allows each teacher to determine their own approach?

Values: you want to make sure you fit in well with what your school believes and their approach to operating around these values.  Think about what is important to you in culture and philosophy.

Professional development practices: how a school develops professionals will have a substantial impact on your career.  You may want to think about your 5 year goals and what experience or learning as a professional you will need to do to get to a place where you want to be.

Leadership Opportunities: you should think about whether you want to grow into leadership roles down the line.  Whether it is to become a department chair or a school leader, thinking about where you want to go will determine if a school organization will provide you with the pathways to achieve the kind of opportunity that you are seeking.

Past results:  thinking about how the school is performing will give you a good sense of what type of situation you will be walking into.   You may be inspired to help a school turn around a situation or perhaps you want a place that is already on an upward trajectory. 

Governance: The way a school is governed can have a major impact on the teaching experience.  You should ask yourself how much freedom you want your administration to give you around things like budget and hiring.

Compensation:  You should determine what your salary requirements are for a job.  Understanding this will give you a big perspective on where you should be looking

Location:  Thinking about your willingness to relocate or even how far you want to commute on a daily basis will have a substantial impact on how you think about your search.  Defining this on the front end will help you quickly narrow down your possibilities

By determining on the front end what you want will save you a substantial amount of time as you navigate the process.

Build Your Brand as a Teacher

Teachers build a reputation in school buildings.  Students, parents, administrators, and other teachers start to recognize and think of you for specific things that you bring to the table.    For great teachers, this is often the stuff that legends are made of.  As I’m sure many of you do, I have very vivid memories of this playing out in my progression through life as a student then as a teacher.  My middle school teacher was affectionately termed “Old Man Kramer” because he was full of wisdom and humor but someone you didn't want to cross.   In high school, I knew that I had to get Mrs. Roseborough for calculus because she was so good that she would pretty guarantee you a 4 or 5 on the AP test.  When I was teaching, I knew that Mr. Comeaux was the guy to go to for advice on how to establish a great discipline plan and Mr. Grady could help me get my content approach right.

These were all examples of brands that developed, both intentionally and unintentionally.  In our increasingly digital world, we now have more of an opportunity to be very intentional about how others view us both inside our current school building and the education world at large.  By creating a brand that represents the talent that you bring, you will have a better chance to both find and be found for opportunities.  Whether you are looking for a full time teaching job, moving into a leadership role In your building or applying for a teaching award, influencing your brand is important.

Here are few easy steps to do this:

Ask you colleagues how you are perceived:  This is a great place to start to get a sense of what kind of brand imagine you are currently conveying in your school.  A trusted colleague should be able to give you a great perspective on how people view you in the building. 

Identify you strengths: step back and think through the things that you really like doing in your classroom and where you are particularly effective.

Figure out how to showcase this to others: Once you have recognized your talent, you need to figure out how to convey your imagine.  If you are a great organizer and want to be considered for an open department head position, think about a project you can do for the leadership of the school that demonstrates this.  If you are looking for a new full time job and you are particularly good classroom manager, think about creating a sample teaching video or quick documented way to demonstrate your classroom management plan.

Utilize web tools: utilizing things like facebook, twitter, a blog, or creating a profile on Haystack EDU can be powerful tools to help demonstrate your talents to others.

Whether you are being intentional about or not, you have a brand as a teacher.  Take advantage of the opportunity to manage this whether you are looking to change schools and get a new job or you want to more influence in your school site.

Teachers, Show Your Stuff!

As someone who is responsible for building our citizenry and preparing our future work force, a teacher should be proud of what they do and have the ability to show the world the value that they are bringing to the table.  When talking to teachers about why they joined the profession, I often hear responses like “I want to help kids grow”, “I want to give back”, or “I want to solve a social justice problem”.  While I think these are great reasons for joining the profession, (I myself originally joined the teaching force because I wanted to help kids, who did not have certain socioeconomic advantages, to get to a position where they had choices around their future) I rarely hear a teacher say that they started teaching to increase the America gross domestic product or grow the global economy.  Yet, that is exactly what great teachers do.

Teachers are one of the primary levers we have in our economy to drive growth.  While the impact that teachers have may take some time to show in our economic outputs, our ability to prepare workers for highly skilled jobs will be key for America to remain relevant in the new information based economy.  Studies continually show that highly effective teachers have a significant impact on students’ future prospects.    Thus, for a highly effective teacher, the way to maximize impact whether you are motivated by helping individual students to grow or having a major impact on the US economy, is to be in a position where you can extend your reach as much as possible.  It is not just about getting results but it is about how many students you are able to get results with.  An organization called Public Impact has done some interesting work on this topic through something they call Opportunity Culture.  However, in order to identify which teachers are best prepared to take on this responsibility, there needs to be a mechanism to help represent teachers to the education community and the world more broadly to help differentiate the various skills that they bring.  In other words, Teachers need a way to represent themselves as the professionals that they are.

While there should be an easier way to find opportunities to grow your impact when you are looking, there should also be chances to be found.  To do so you need to establish a personal brand and distinguish yourself.  As I’ve said in previous posts, the nature of what it means to be a teacher is changing and there will be many more opportunities for teachers to grow their impact while being more fairly compensated for the value that they bring.  However, these opportunities won’t just go to the best teachers.  They will go to the best teachers that also have the ability to communicate the unique value that they bring to the table.

In my next post, I will discuss some practical strategies for how to do this.  Until then Teachers show your stuff!  You do great work and it deserves to be noticed.