Sometimes we realize much more about a student, a colleague, or a friend by how our lives are when he or she is gone.
‘Too late’ is just as helpful applied to homework assignments and curfew as ‘fair wage’ is applied to labor negotiations.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Teaching Thoughts
You don’t always need to know what you’re talking about, but it helps when you’re writing a lab report, an essay, or a final exam.
Our perception determines our reaction.
School nurse talking to 5th graders: It’s important to be aware of the health risks in the foods you eat. For example, raw eggs.
Student: Ugh. Never.
School nurse: What about when your mom is baking and she offers you a beater with some cookie dough?
Our perception determines our reaction.
School nurse talking to 5th graders: It’s important to be aware of the health risks in the foods you eat. For example, raw eggs.
Student: Ugh. Never.
School nurse: What about when your mom is baking and she offers you a beater with some cookie dough?
You can teach an old or young dog new tricks, if you understand its motivation.
Age is important if we think it is important. Motivation is a much larger factor. I’m not arguing we should teach calculus in first grade, or expect college students to display the same reckless enthusiasm in phy ed class that we see with fifth graders. I mean that we need to avoid using chronological age as a yardstick and emotional age as an excuse.
“I could learn easier when I was younger and in practice.” That may be true: your brain cells may be atrophying, leaping ship to your bloodstream, or creaking at their dendrites. On the other hand, you have many more tactics and experiences that assist your learning. You have enthusiasm. You’re probably paying for your own schooling, if you are a returning-to-the-classroom student. You know that you don’t have a lot more time to go back to school later in life, because you’re already later in life by your standards. [You didn’t notice the white-haired 60 plus person in the row behind you, taking the class on senior discount.]
You have more than a better job riding on the outcome of the class. You’re setting an example for the school age children in your home, sitting down to the books with them, each doing homework. If you look over their report cards, they are likely to be interested in your transcript. You motivate each other.
Nobody’s life is free from emotional incidents. If the elementary student is struggling through best-friend situations and the high school student is surviving Romeo and Juliet relationships, the older student is out of a divorce, trying to keep his own child motivated, caring for aging parents, going to school on a moonlighting schedule. Life for the older student may have more factors; every student deals with stress.
On the other hand, young and old students who succeed tend to not use emotional and stress issues as an excuse. The semester Jan earned an A in the communications class, she also planned her wedding, worked full time for the utility company, ran a very successful community fund raising campaign, and had time for her friends. I doubt she slept. I was honored to be interviewed as a reference when she applied for her first position as a trust fund lawyer. That was shortly after the graduation party celebrating her joint graduate degrees: JD and MBA. Her husband stood next to her, wearing a T shirt with the law school logo. “I thought it would be easier to get a job if I had a law degree and a Master’s in business,” she said, smiling. I still doubted she was sleeping, especially since she edited the law journal her last year there.
What leads some of our students to this semester’s academic success and others to getting an extra hour’s sleep instead of attending class? If we could answer that question with surety, we could point to an infallible success rate in life and in the classroom. Maybe we are not meant to.
As teachers we are part of the equation. Success comes in many ways, in many parts of our lives, and generally in its own time. Motivation – ours and theirs – is an enormous aspect of the whole.
“I could learn easier when I was younger and in practice.” That may be true: your brain cells may be atrophying, leaping ship to your bloodstream, or creaking at their dendrites. On the other hand, you have many more tactics and experiences that assist your learning. You have enthusiasm. You’re probably paying for your own schooling, if you are a returning-to-the-classroom student. You know that you don’t have a lot more time to go back to school later in life, because you’re already later in life by your standards. [You didn’t notice the white-haired 60 plus person in the row behind you, taking the class on senior discount.]
You have more than a better job riding on the outcome of the class. You’re setting an example for the school age children in your home, sitting down to the books with them, each doing homework. If you look over their report cards, they are likely to be interested in your transcript. You motivate each other.
Nobody’s life is free from emotional incidents. If the elementary student is struggling through best-friend situations and the high school student is surviving Romeo and Juliet relationships, the older student is out of a divorce, trying to keep his own child motivated, caring for aging parents, going to school on a moonlighting schedule. Life for the older student may have more factors; every student deals with stress.
On the other hand, young and old students who succeed tend to not use emotional and stress issues as an excuse. The semester Jan earned an A in the communications class, she also planned her wedding, worked full time for the utility company, ran a very successful community fund raising campaign, and had time for her friends. I doubt she slept. I was honored to be interviewed as a reference when she applied for her first position as a trust fund lawyer. That was shortly after the graduation party celebrating her joint graduate degrees: JD and MBA. Her husband stood next to her, wearing a T shirt with the law school logo. “I thought it would be easier to get a job if I had a law degree and a Master’s in business,” she said, smiling. I still doubted she was sleeping, especially since she edited the law journal her last year there.
What leads some of our students to this semester’s academic success and others to getting an extra hour’s sleep instead of attending class? If we could answer that question with surety, we could point to an infallible success rate in life and in the classroom. Maybe we are not meant to.
As teachers we are part of the equation. Success comes in many ways, in many parts of our lives, and generally in its own time. Motivation – ours and theirs – is an enormous aspect of the whole.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Teaching Thoughts
If they’ve been told for years that they cannot succeed, and they’re going to argue with whatever you say, phrase your compliment in specifics not opinions: “You have 9 out of 10 correct on the spelling test,” rather than, “You’re doing a good job in spelling.”
Teaching Thoughts
Duck tape and library paste may not be able to glue everything back together, but writing about the breakage goes a long way toward doing so.
End of semester tech support perspective:
English teachers are commenting to me that whether they are reading through six vertical inches of paper or six vertical inches of file names that need to be graded, they are still doing more work (and using more words) than the other disciplines;
Social studies teachers are debating the finer points of the Middle Ages while they doth slapth Downe their LapeTOpe and tell me to Make it Work like Things did during World War II;
Math Teachers are proving to me that their laptops don't work.
Cross specialization IT denominator: “Make it work.”
Social studies teachers are debating the finer points of the Middle Ages while they doth slapth Downe their LapeTOpe and tell me to Make it Work like Things did during World War II;
Math Teachers are proving to me that their laptops don't work.
Cross specialization IT denominator: “Make it work.”
Saturday, September 13, 2008
The semicolon
I like semicolons, because they do so much in a sentence. When I tell them this, the students look at me, wondering if this is going to be a grammar lesson and they can go to a safe place behind their eyes while I talk.
Semicolons are like the iron filigree dripping off a balcony or adorning a gate; you never know how strong they are until you begin looking at the structure.
Semicolons point up the unexpected: He asked her to marry him; she fell out of bed laughing.
Semicolons note that there are more aspects to the subject than we might prefer: I can agree with your points; however there are six areas we need to discuss.
Semicolons offer several perspectives: Group work; or, stacking the group stacks the results (a chapter title from a book I wrote titled Teaching from a Positive Perspective)
The period is a full stop, the comma is a partial slide, the question mark wants the audience to participate, the colon says that we better pay attention to the enumerated list that’s going to follow; the semicolon insists that to know what’s going on we need to analyze the parts and then synthesize their relationship.
Semicolons are like the iron filigree dripping off a balcony or adorning a gate; you never know how strong they are until you begin looking at the structure.
Semicolons point up the unexpected: He asked her to marry him; she fell out of bed laughing.
Semicolons note that there are more aspects to the subject than we might prefer: I can agree with your points; however there are six areas we need to discuss.
Semicolons offer several perspectives: Group work; or, stacking the group stacks the results (a chapter title from a book I wrote titled Teaching from a Positive Perspective)
The period is a full stop, the comma is a partial slide, the question mark wants the audience to participate, the colon says that we better pay attention to the enumerated list that’s going to follow; the semicolon insists that to know what’s going on we need to analyze the parts and then synthesize their relationship.
Teaching Learning; Learning Teaching: Looking for a title
We can’t really teach learning, though we can teach tactics that may make learning easier, or less time consuming. We can share our enjoyment in what we are teaching, and ignite the desire to learn in others.
We can learn teaching, though sometimes what we learn is that the more we share the process with our students, the better we all learn.
Teaching and learning are interrelated, and though we may be “on vacation” or “doing something else,” we never leave teaching As Julie says, “Our jobs begin with a bunch of kids and a teacher in a classroom. Everything else comes after.”
We can learn teaching, though sometimes what we learn is that the more we share the process with our students, the better we all learn.
Teaching and learning are interrelated, and though we may be “on vacation” or “doing something else,” we never leave teaching As Julie says, “Our jobs begin with a bunch of kids and a teacher in a classroom. Everything else comes after.”
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