How To Be An Effective Teacher

Recently in the Atlantic magazine, the question was asked, what makes a great teacher? In answering this question, the magazine turned to Teach for America, an organization near and dear to my heart, and asked what they found makes a great teacher. Teach for America is an organization that recruits top college graduates and places them in urban and rural schools in some of the most struggling districts. I joined Teach for America in 2006 and found myself teaching in Memphis, Tennessee. As a “seasoned’ teacher of 4 years, I can say that TFA’s framework for training teachers and supporting teachers is a recipe for incredible teaching. It’s a model that public districts, as well as private schools, would benefit by implementing.

Steven Farr of Teach for America identified several factors that makes a teacher great, the most successful of the TFA teachers have most or all of these qualities. As a teacher, I find embodying all the qualities to be a goal for myself, and other teachers working to be better for their students should do the same.

1.Setting big goals-

The best TFA teachers set goals for themselves and their students. Goals help to keep students (and teachers) inspired and focused. In addition, it begins your school year with the end of year in mind– effective for goal setting, planning, and teaching.

2. Constantly searching for ways to improve effectiveness

Once you’ve taught for a year, planned for a year, and learned for a year, it does not mean that you (as a teacher) are done with the planning part of teaching. We have to constantly teach, evaluate, and alter in order ensure that we are being the best teacher we can be. Daily assessments test how well a lesson went. Student feedback lets us know how enjoyable a lesson or unit was.

3. Involving students (and family) in the learning process

Student investment is the key to learning. And it makes teaching easier! Encourage students to participate in the classroom, allow them to help create classroom rules, give them the opportunity to take ownership of the classroom. The magic of teaching happens when students are invested.

4. Maintain focus

Staying focused is hard for students and it’s hard for teachers. Setting goals, as mentioned above, is imperative to be an effective teacher in the classroom. These goals help a teacher to maintain focus in the classroom. Planning, which will be discussed below, helps a teacher to maintain focus. We have to remained focused on the students. Forget school politics, forget about your personal life (for at least the 7 hours you are in school), and forget anything that’s not related to student achievement. Having a solid plan makes maintaining focus much easier.

5. Ensure everything done contributes to student learning

Students need to be at the forefront of what we are doing as teachers. We need to ask ourselves–How will this help the students? Teaching can be very easy– hand out a textbook, assign a page number, and kick back and relax. However, this type of “teaching” does not benefit the students. All we do in the classroom needs to be for the students. It’s our job.

6. Purposeful and complete planning

The best teachers are those who plan every minute in the classroom, even if they’ve been teaching for 10, 20, or 30 years. Planning isn’t just daily planning–mapping out the year, breaking it down into units, and planning for the day-by-day is vital to be as effective as a teacher can possibly be. Great teachers start with the end in mind. I can attest to the fact that I am at my best in the classroom only when I have wholly planned my lessons.

How To Become a Teacher Without an Education Major

I did not major in education when I was in college. Heck, I didn’t even want to be a teacher in college, or so I thought. I went to graduate school for International Affairs, not to be a teacher. However, after graduate school I somehow found myself becoming a teacher. How? It wasn’t that difficult, sure it required hard work, but it’s not as difficult as you think. Today, I am licensed to teach in 3 different states and I have a track record of success teaching English.

I came into teaching with a program called Teach for America. TFA is essentially the Peacecorps for people who want to stay in the United States, but better. You get paid a living wage. You are supported in the process of getting licensed. You are helping to close the achievement gap in education. TFA was created with the goal of putting top college graduates in some of the most challenging school settings in the country, with the goal of helping economically and socially disadvantaged students succeed in school. The program is amazing, because it helps people without an education background get into the classroom and they get a regular teaching salary. The TFA commitment is 2 years, but you are an employee of the district in which you work, so if you want to stay another year, 10, or 30, you can! The only downfall is that TFA is only in certain cities and you are not guaranteed to be played in your top choice– perhaps not ideal for some people.

TFA is not the only method of getting into the classroom. Cities all over the country have mini-TFA programs, like Denver Teaching Fellows, that are sometimes easier and more convenient to get involved with. Private schools do not require teachers to be licensed (though some want their teachers to be licensed).

Thousands of colleges have graduate programs for people who want to become teachers, but do not have an education degree. These are called alternative certification programs. At the end of these programs, which typically take between a year or two years to complete, you are able to become licensed in that state to teach. In some states, especially those with teacher shortages, and in some subject areas (with shortages, like HS science), people are able to teach with an alternative teaching license, or a temporary license, while also working on course work concurrently. This is how I became licensed.

The classes, at least in my experience, are pretty easy. I was working full-time as a teacher, and I took classes in the evenings. In my opinion, taking classes while teaching was the most beneficial. I was able to practice what I was learning (and truly internalize it) in my classroom. In addition, questions that popped up while I was teaching could be asked in my graduate classes.

I only had to take 3 or 4 additional classes to get my master’s degree in teaching after taking the classes to become certified. Many schools have this set-up, it’s a Master’s of Arts in Teaching degree. A master’s degree will get you more pay! Once you have your license in one state, it’s pretty easy to get a license in another state. However, you NEED TO GET THE LICENSE IN THE STATE IN WHICH YOU TOOK CERTIFYING CLASSES!!!! Even if you never plan to teach in that state, it will make the process of applying for a license in another state a million times easier. Reciprocity across states only works if you have a license from the state in which you took your certifying classes.

Merit Based Pay– What a Novel Idea!

According to this Washington Post article, the 2nd largest school district in Maryland, Prince George, is going to begin merit-based pay. I feel like I am in the minority, I am completely supportive of merit-based pay. I am especially supportive of the system of merit-based pay that PG will be implementing.

Most teacher that I have met are anti-merit-based pay. One argument is that it’s not fair for teachers to be held accountable for student success, because some students just don’t want to learn. Or some students have disabilities that keep them from learning at the same pace as other students. Or some teachers get the “challenging” classes. Frankly, I think this is an excuse. As a teacher, it is our job to teacher students, regardless of the challenges. Selling cars in this economy cannot be an easy task, yet a car salesman has to do it to earn his check.

I will agree with the anti-merit-based pay teachers on one account. I do not believe it is fair to base student success on a “Proficient,” “Advanced,” or “Not Proficient” rating. Instead, students’ success should be a measure of student growth. Using value-added data, we should measure the student growth from year-to-year. With a score of 0.0 equaling exactly one year of growth from one school year to the next. A year of growth is good, at minimum we should expect this. However, scores higher than 0 should be acknowledged (and rewarded). With a teacher’s guidance, a child was able to learn beyond a year’s knowledge in a single year. Now, this idea is assuming that value-added data (projected growth from year-to-year based on a student’s previous growth) is fair and accurate. In a perfect world…

Prince George School District’s merit-based pay is a bonus pay system. All teachers have an initial salary, guaranteed no matter what, with the opportunity to earn up to $10,000 in bonus money. That’s right, 10K!!!!! PG’s system is doing it right, the merit bonus is not based solely on test scores, 25% is for student test scores, with another 25% for teaching high needs areas, a third 25% for classroom evaluations/performance, and the last 25% for professional development initiatives. Teachers who piloted this program averaged bonuses of about $5,000 (an extra 5k, who’s going to turn their nose up at that?!?!). It reminds me of performance bonuses in the corporate world.

I may ruffle some feathers, but I think that if you are a rockstar teacher you should be compensated for it. In education, we have too many people reaping the benefits of tenure and a scheduled pay scale, without much accountability. It’s not fair to the kids, our clients, so to speak. PG’s merit-pay system allows for scheduled raises, but also gives the opportunity for rockstars to be appreciated and acknowledged. Everyone wins.

“Challenged” Books

One of my higher groups of readers was looking for a new book to read during their literature circles time. I suggested a book I loved, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. There is mature content in the story, but these girls are in 8th grade and are reading well above their reading level. As a good teacher should, I send home a letter to the parents asking if this would be an okay book for the kids to read and outlined some of the adult issues. Initially, the parents said it would be okay, but today I received an email from a parent changing her mind — she CC’d all the other parents in the group. As the day progressed, a couple more parents emailed me. One was nice, saying she thought it was okay, but understood other parental concern. The next wanted to call a parent meeting, attached a link to commonly challenged books, and then subtly accused me of being the cause of her daughter’s decreased reading level (taken in the first weeks of school). This parent linked a list of “challenged” books. I decided to search these “challenged” books further. Titles such as Catcher in the Rye, The Outsiders, BLUBBER (?), and tons of other books I’ve read have made this list. Here is the list of the 100 most commonly challenged books from 1990-2000.

Enter me in the hall of fame books!

I don’t think non-teachers realize how much good teachers actually work. Sure, the typical teacher gets out of school at 3pm and has summers off. However, what people don’t realize is how much work teachers do during their “off” time. Grading, for example, is impossible to get done within the perimeters of a traditional planning period. Lesson planning, especially in the beginning years, takes quite a bit of time. Most teachers do not walk into the classroom, open the textbook and teach. We plan out our lessons.

Last year, I was working at an extended-day charter school. The school hours were from 7:30-5. I typically arrived at school around 6:30 and left around 5:30. That’s 11 hours. A day. That does not even take into account the grading I had to do once I arrived home. Add on another hour or two there. I averaged around 12-13 hours a day of work. In addition, the majority of my Sunday was consumed with lesson planning and creating materials (I was teaching Social Studies without a textbook). Add about 5 hours there. All in all, I worked around 60 hours a week. Wait! Saturday school! Every other week we had a 4 hour Saturday School session- every other week 65 hours. Whew.

For the sake of my sanity, and academic aspirations, I moved to a more traditional education setting. Our school day is from 8-3. That’s 7 hours. I typically get to school around 7:30 and leave (when I am not coaching) around 3:30. That’s 8 hours! However, with the wonderful community and professional support I get at my current school, I have been blessed with 2 planning periods a day, 3 days a week (1 planning period on Monday and no planning on Tuesdays, which are Mass days). With that time during the school day and my weekday evenings (planted in front of the tube), I am actually able to get my next week’s planning, grade 100 essays, 100 vocabulary projects, and 100 reading logs done before the weekend. That’s right teachers, this weekend I will not have any work from school to take home. Non-teachers, this is HUGE!

A professor told me that in the USA, teachers spend significantly more time in front of full classrooms than our cohorts from other countries. In other countries, teachers spend less time in front of a classroom and more time working with small groups and individuals. The average American teacher stays in education around 10 years, I believe. We are destined for burn-out. I think I have discovered my key to avoiding burnout!

Obama’s School Speech is Shared

Between facebook and a teacher discussion board I frequent, I am up to my ears in drama about Obama’s School Address tomorrow. You can read Obama’s speech as well as speeches given by Regan in 1988 and Bush in 1991. Taking the nasty politics out of the issue, I guess there was another problem looming: the lesson plan provided by the White House. The powers that be provided a lesson plan for teachers to use relating to Obama’s speech. Apparently, there was an oddly written question, something along the lines of, “What can you do to help President Obama?” The lesson plan was released before the speech, and people were up in arms, assuming that Obama had aspirations of creating a youth collation paralleling the Hitler Youth. When reading the text of the speech, it’s pretty clear that the question is asking what the kids can do to take responsibility for their own eduction.

Now, all the drama related to the lesson plan strikes me as funny. Providing lesson plans for teachers–underpaid, under-appreciated teachers! You would think that teachers would appreciate the sentiment!

Check out funny comic I found:

Jeffy After Obama's Address to Schools

Seriously People!?!?

I work in a private school with the majority of the student body being very well-to-do (think: plastic surgeon parents and homes with movie theaters). We began to hear rumblings of concern over Obama’s address to students being shown at the school. Fortunately for us, we do not have school on Tuesday, because of a teacher inservice. However, I am finding the debate about whether or not schools should show the address is ridiculous! Whether you like the man or not, whether you agree with his politics or not, whether you support universal healthcare or not, HE IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! The man deserves some respect. Also, there is not any political motives here; he is talking to students about staying in school!

According to U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (2009) nearly 9% of high school students are dropping out of high school. Now, that number does not sound that big, but in major urban areas that number raises to almost 50%. Nationally, nearly 21% of Hispanic students drop out before completing high school. It’s ridiculous! We as a country have to do something about this scary trend. It’s tough for people with college degrees to find work; imagine what that means for high school drop-outs.

Interestingly enough, President Bush (the former) addressed schools in 1991. I would love to think that my like minded politicians supported the President’s endeavors in 1991, seeing the merit in addressing American youth. I would be wrong. Bush received scoff from the Dems paralleling that which President Obama is receiving from his opponents.

I say let the kids watch the address. I do not believe there is a political angle to this address. Kids are smart, they form their own opinions (even if they differ from their parents). In addition, it is important to teach your children to respect the President, even if you don’t always agree with them.

AWESOME Teacher Website!!!

I am a huge fan of Sprout, an online store that sells secondhand teacher supplies. Sprout has a phenomenal selection of books. It’s cheap, it’s green, and shipping is snappy! Teachers, if you need books for your class, Sprout is where it’s at!

Empowering Readers

In this New York Times article, a teacher with a novel idea is highlighted…a teacher that lets her kids CHOOSE what books they want to read! Something so simple, yet so neglected invests kids in reading. I use the same method in my classroom, kids are selecting books based on their interests and wants. In my opinion, the most important part of reading is reading. The more engaged I can get kids in a book the better. In addition, we have classrooms full of students at various levels. We cannot expect ALL the kids to be ABLE to read the same text, nor are we going to find a book that invests all students at once.

My class amazes me. On our independent reading days, you could hear a pin drop in my room (well, if I didn’t have music playing). The kids are engaged in the books they are reading. I know it’s a good day when Andrew says, “I actually like this book. Can I take it home?” I do the same with writing, the kids are reading and writing whatever they are interested in. I have one kid who writes about Kobe Bryant every single day. However, he is enjoying his writing! He’s even to the point where he makes fun of himself in his writing.

It’s amazing to me that there have been those fighting the basal readers/textbooks since the 1980s(!?) and we STILL are trying to control what our kids are reading.

Blog Title

I have attempted blogging many time, but I don’t do a very good job (especially if talking about my personal life). However, being a graduate student once again and working in education full-time, I think that I have quite a bit to say about issues related to education, literacy, and books. We’ll see how it goes.

My blog title is a play on Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian, a book that I recently finished. The story is somewhat of a sad one, gifted Native American student wasting away at a poor Rez school. He is picked on for being different. A teacher convinces him to transfer to a farm community school, which Junior (the main character) does. He is initially ignored by his white counterparts, but is eventually accepted. However, he is essentially shunned from his rez community. This whole story is told with accompanying cartoons, as Junior is quite the cartoon artist. Junior has tragedies all through the story, but he sees the positive throughout the story.

Sherman Alexie, the author, is actually coming to Albuquerque on October 10 to speak about his newest book. I cannot wait to see him. He is an all around Renaissance Man! He does novels, poetry, film, and even stand-up comedy! He played a pretty big part in the making of Smoke Signals, a movie that won several awards.

In my store time in the ABQ, two different writers I admire have come to/are slotted to come to town! First Rafe Esquth, now Sherman Alexie. Both these authors were sponsored by this amazing local bookstore, Bookworks. It’s one of a dying breed: the local independent bookstore. This one has been in business for more than 20 years; I plan to help it stay open even longer.