Shout It Out

Now to something you've heard many times before and probably will hear many times again, especially if you choose to keep reading this blog...

Teaching is hard. Truly, authentically hard.

I don't say that so much just because I like to complain.¹ I keep saying it to provide a consistent statement of this job. It doesn't get hard for a couple days and then go away. It is hard, always. Sure, there are definitely better days than others. But still, on those days, you are jam packed with things to do. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way -- I am the type of person who would much rather be busy than bored -- but I guess that's for another blog post. With all this being said, there's a point when teaching stops becoming busy and starts becoming overwhelming.

As I've spoken to before, there are a lot of schools out there that are aware of this fact but don't really do anything about it. I think this is a big reason why a lot of teachers hate their job. They work really hard, get everything right on paper, and are ready to go. But when it comes to execution time, things don't always go according to plan², and stress comes. Stress is a part of any job, but when it comes to teaching, it's important to manage and deal with that stress immediately, because if you don't, then you go in front of a class of little people without your mind right. Eventually, stress builds up to the point where you hear the teaching horror stories³ that dip into bitching, quitting, and even more serious cases of clinical depression and/or alcoholism. It's real, it's happened, and it will happen again.

So the question becomes, how do we prevent this? How can we turn teaching into something desirable even in the times that it becomes ridiculously hard? How can we turn from those teaching horror stories to the teaching stories that made me get into this profession, where one is able to do this incredibly trying job with ease and a smile, and where we can leave a lasting impact on children for decades and ultimately, have a direct voice in how they live the rest of their lives?

Something that my good buddy Zach Boerger⁴ wrote⁵ recently about the idea that we need to be more conscious about telling people the things we like about what they do, and not to only focus on the negative things that occur. We all fall into the trap: when things are going well, we generally don't say much, because we expect it to go well. However, when things start going in a way we don't like, that's when we make sure our voice is heard. It plays into the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" mentality. The squeaky wheel needs the grease, but the wheels who aren't squeaking sure would like to hear about how well they are doing (assuming wheels have personalities and feelings, which we will for the sake of my argument).

Teaching is the same way. Once the excitement from getting all our new little humans in the beginning of the year has died down, the realities of the job set in. No job is perfect, and teaching is not an exception. In order to not get bogged down by the pressures that this job, and any job really, creates is to make sure the adults are looking out for each other. This comes in the form of shout-outs, which we do every Wednesday at school.

Backdrop: Our school is open 7-4 every day except Wednesday, when we go 7-1:30 and then all staff stays for professional development until 5.

Before our PD starts, everyone gathers in the teacher lounge and we sing our "shout-out" song and we read off 10-15 shout-outs. Shout-outs are written throughout the week and are but in the "shout-out box," from which they are pulled and read on Wednesdays. You can tell that everyone really appreciates these, as they are proudly displayed at all of the teacher's desks. Teachers who receive a shout-out are also given a small prize when their shout-out is read, and the rest of shout-outs that are not chosen are dispersed throughout PD. Having received one or two in my time here, I can say that giving and receiving shout-outs is something I am a huge fan of and will take with me (in one form or another) wherever I go from here in my life.

Shout-outs can be given for literally anything, as long as it made some sort of positive contribution to someone or something at the school. For example: cover someone's hallway shift? Bounce back after a really tough week, or just simply keep showing up even though nothing seems to be going right for you? You got a shout-out! Simply be consistently awesome?  You got a shout-out!

Side note: For some reason, this is the one thing I could think of while writing that last paragraph...

It's easy! Watch.

Shout out to this polar bear for its phenomenal dance moves.

Now, I feel better and I'm sure if the polar bear had feelings it would feel better too. But even though it will never get my message, I feel better for sending all that good energy its way. And now I might keep sending it to everyone and everything around me.

As Zach, a member of the start-up community and co-founder of his awesome pre-release product news site Launchgram wrote, "Startups (hell, life in general) are hard, and a little praise when its deserved could go a long way towards helping someone succeed." Teaching is no different. Everyday life is no different. I would like to challenge everyone reading this to make shout-outs a personal habit of yours going forward. Even if it only starts at one per week, make a conscious effort to let other people know that you appreciate them.

When in doubt, shout it out. I have, and it feels fantastic.

--BD


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1 Unless we are talking about the Browns. Or Cleveland sports in general, I guess.^↩ 2 Insight you won't get anywhere else!^↩ 3 Happy Halloween!^↩ 4 Hey man.^↩ 5 Link to his entire (short and awesome) blog post can be found here.^↩

Carnival Bears

Part of what we do as "residents" at UTC is take classes. The math classes we are taking right now are, in a word, awesome. We are totally re-thinking math, what it is and how we teach it. I posted a little about this in the summer, but it has taken me personally from a stance of thinking math is a "plug and chug" subject to realizing it's more about logic, problem-solving and finding a short-cut. I'm kind of mad that I never experienced math this way before, and it makes a lot more sense to me now why I hated it for so long growing up (even though I was pretty good at it).

In summary, Math is really cool, and I'm really, really lucky to be in a position to teach other people about how cool it is.

Related: I've never felt like more of a nerd.

To give an idea about exactly how we approach math, I'm going to put a problem below. The problem isn't easy, but it's simple. The idea is you want to embrace the struggle that comes along with solving the problem. Once you break through, you have a "mathgasm," as some of the less mature members of our cohort like to call it.¹

Here's the problem. It's pretty standard but I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too. It took a group of 5 of us about 15 minutes to solve it completely, so feel free to kick our butts and then brag about it in the comments. All you need are 7 post it notes to denote equal space, 3 items that are exactly the same (pencils, plastic bears, moldy foods left in the refrigertar, etc.) and then 3 other items that are exactly the same but are NOT the items from the first group. So, a perfect example would be the post-its, 3 pencils and 3 paper clips. However, if you have access to bears or something more concrete, that makes it more fun. Maybe it's time to dust off those old Beanie Babies.²

Also, do this with other people. Good, old-fashioned, fun for the whole family!!³

Anyway, here's the problem:

Connie, Jeff, and Kareem saw bears do tricks. At the beginning of the trick, three black bears were on the left side of a long mat divided into seven squares, and three brown bears were on the right side. Each bear had its own square with an empty square in the middle. The bears could only do two different types of moves:

1.They could slide onto the next square if it was empty.

2.If the next square was not empty, they could jump over one other bear to an empty square. The black bears only moved from left to right, and the brown bears only moved from right to left. When the trick was over, the bears had switched places. All the black bears  were on the right side, and all the brown bears were on the left.

Can you get the bears to switch places?

BEFORE YOU START: Set up a table. Three columns. Column #1 = number of bears per side. Column #2 = jumps. Column #3 = "slides." Column #4 = total moves. You should be able to pick up a pattern after the second or third run through. If you can't figure out the first round, definitely start with 1 bear per side, then 2 bears per side, etc. until you are comfortable enough and find a pattern that solves for every number of bears per side.

Once you solve that part...

How many jumps and slides would it take for 5 bears on each side?

Next...

How many jumps and slides would it take for 10 bears on each side?

We would typically give our kids 30-35 minutes to solve. This is a grade 6-8 math problem, and doesn't really rely on any mathematical prowess at all until you get to the short-cut part, which makes the problem easier.

Guess what - that's math! Math makes things easier. Who knew.

Time to see if you're smarter than a seventh grader.

Enjoy.

-BD

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1 OK, maybe it's just me. I don't want to hear it. ^↩ 2 I always knew they'd be good for something.^↩ 3 I think I've turned a corner. Is this what a quarter-life crisis feels like?^↩

The Power of Positivity

Teaching is kind of a funny profession. There are so many kids out there that need a quality education, because after all, what is the future of our country without well-informed, active citizens? However, this requires a special type of person to lead them that way. Unfortunately, there simply are not enough great teachers out there. So the question is -- why?

Apart from all the things that you probably think I'm going to say (long hours, low pay, etc.) I think that at its core, there aren't enough great teachers because new teachers get overwhelmed. A lot of the time, new teachers can only get jobs in the worst schools because these teachers are seen as unorganized, inexperienced and naive regarding their profession. What happens is these teachers have a terrible experience teaching, with all the things that make bad schools into what they are -- bad leadership, no community, low test scores, behavior problems, and so on. What happens next is predictable: teachers hate the kids, their job, the administration, and then they quit. And a new teacher is hired in their place. And most likely, the same thing happens all over again. This, in a nutshell, is how the Achievement Gap was formed and is sustained, from my very limited vantage point on it.

One of the things that I have realized recently is that when dealing with "children who we love the most" (read: the brats) positivity can go a long way. Take for example, a scholar at APA who I'm going to call Trent, for no other reason than I'm excited about how the new Cleveland Browns' running back Trent Richardson has looked this year. OK, maybe he's on an 0-4 team but he has run with passion, strength and quickness on that team and is a source of hope, which the Browns haven't had in a long time. Yes, I'm excited about an 0-4 football team. No, I don't want to talk about it.

Anyway, Trent has a lot going on at home. He is dealing with a mother who has recently fallen ill, and it has had clear effects on how he acts in school. Every day for the first month or so, Trent has come in without any sort of regard for respect of adults. He doesn't respond well to an adult presence at all, and is easily irritated when an adult even will try to help him with schoolwork. Needless to say, re-directions and consequences are a mess. Trent often "blows up" in class, despite many discussions between Trent and his teachers about what he could do differently and how to keep small issues small issues instead of turning them into big issues. This issue is compounded by a lack of adult presence at home, that we know of. Phone calls home are unanswered so we don't even know if an adult is aware of what's going on at school.

This is a situation that would drive many first-year teachers crazy. Hell, it would throw a lot of 20 year vets crazy. It's almost a nightmare situation, although Trent doesn't yell out frequently in class. It could be worse. But still, it's not good. For the first month, Trent has always been on my mind, and I've tried to find ways to help. Still, it's so frustrating to just want to help and being pushed away, especially with everything that is on the line in these schools.¹

After about a month of pure frustration, I could tell that Trent was getting the better of me. He was changing my mood every day when I came in, and I was constantly watching him in class to monitor behavior as opposed to teaching. I realized that this was not going to fly, so I tried something different. I tried to kill Trent with kindness.

Something new that my host teacher and I have introduced into class within the past week is something called "Homework Heroes." Every day, we go through homework and pick out what we think is the "best" one. This is really just a judgement call, in which we look for professionalism, full and complete work, and clear, correct answers. There are two Homework Heroes per class, and if you are selected as a Homework Hero, you get to wear one of these AWESOME FoamHeads from my host teacher and my respective universities (Ohio State and University of Minnesota) for the rest of class.

Yes, they definitely are that cool.²

Believe it or not, this has actually been a huge source of inspiration to do homework for our scholars. Since we've introduced Homework Heroes, we have seen a lot more buy-in to homework, which is awesome.

When picking our third set of Homework Heroes, I decided to give the Ohio State FoamHead to Trent, who had won the hat deservingly, doing all the things we would want our scholars to do on their homework. Now, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nearly pissing myself as I went over to  hand Trent his FoamHead. There were a variety of things that could have happened here. Trent could have thrown the hat, spit in it, or even simply mocked it, which could have ruined all the momentum we had built in establishing these hats as desirable.

As we called our the day's HHs, there was a confused murmur among everyone in the class when I called Trent's name. I don't think anyone saw it coming. As I went over to hand Trent the hat, I saw something I hadn't all year: a smile. Trent was so excited that someone had finally focused on something positive that he had done -- or at least this is what I'm telling myself. Either way, Trent did not show ANY negative behavior for that class, stayed on task, and had one of his best classes of the year to that point. Even after class, he asked me questions about the hat, what it was and why I loved Ohio State so much. I think I might have even recruited a little bit for OSU that day, even if it was by accident.³

So many times, "problem students" are only shown negativity and re-direction from teachers, which ultimately hurts everyone and benefits no one. I think that it's so important to show scholars that you pay attention to everything they do -- not just the negative. Showing a scholar that you appreciate the things that they do well can make all the difference in determining your experience as a teacher. Notice that you have to SHOW a scholar that you appreciate them, not tell them. These are two very different things. Just something to think about.

Although Trent's behavior has started to slip a bit since the middle of last week, I now know one strategy that I can try to correct poor behavior that has worked before. It is certainly not the only way to do things, and it definitely won't work with every tough situation, but it worked for this one and it will probably work for others too. That's a minor victory that's good enough for me to keep going.

Good vibes, y'all. Keep 'em coming.


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FOOTNOTES!
1 ^↩See previous post.
2 ^↩Side note: Is a Gopher the same thing as a squirrel? I thought they looked more like Prairie Dogs? This has been bothering me way too much every time I look at that maroon and gold mess of a mascot.
3 ^↩Hey E. Gordon, let's talk commission....