Have a Good Life

I usually have scoffed at the reward instead of punish track taken by many educators who do presentations of some sort. Not anymore. Today, two of my classes were really loud and talktative. It gets that way sometimes, and it can be very annoying, especially when I have been sick and don't feel well. In one class, I kept saying, "Quiet please!" and I had to say that about 10-15 times in that class. The next class was also very talkative, so I said, "I need to be able to hear you today, so I will give RATTLE cards to students who raise their hands and wait to be called on." The room was silent in an instant, and for most of the class. If they started talking again during the lecture portion, I asked a question and as I called on a student to answer, I gave her a RATTLE card and said, "Thanks for raising your hand and waiting to be called on..." That got everyone to be quiet again if it got out of hand. I was amazed. I am going to start doing some sort of class wide reward system with the students later this week or next week. I think it will help them even more.

Today, this seventh grade girl (not my student) was in the hall talking to some ninth graders. It is "Unique You Day" at our school which basically means that kids can dress up as whatever makes them unique. She had a tiara, and theses ninth grade girls were very cliquish. They made her feel bad for wearing the tiara and didn't have time to talk to a little 7th grader. It made me sad to see that. Sometimes I am such a softie.

One thing about change is that it can be so difficult sometimes. I am trying really hard to change the type of teacher that I am. It is difficult, because habit is so engrained in me that it seems much more natural to be that way. For me, I guess it is more natural since that is what I have been doing. I do think, however that I have noticed a change. Today I jumped on a student who would not shut his freaking mouth. It was driving me insane. I was asking for participation from the class by raising their hands, and he was commenting on everything that was said or done. After I barked at him, the rest of the class refused to participate for a short time. I am sure it is because I reacted so strongly to that kid. It was frustrating, but very enlightening. It was a great reminder that changing my attitude and changing how I interact with students does make a difference. In related news, I have noticed that I am also a better husband and father. I don't get as frustrated with my daughter, and I don't get as annoyed with my wife. Disclaimer: I don't usually get annoyed with my wife. She is the greatest thing ever. I have noticed that I am more patient, less judgmental, less rude, and more understanding.

This summer I took a class from a lady named Leigh VandenAkker. She was really one of the best teachers I have ever had. I had a really hard time though because Leigh disciplines very differently than I do. Well, she used to. I used to think that I must rule with an iron fist, make students fear me, and "not smile before Christmas". Today drove the point home that what I was doing things very wrong.

Yesterday in class, one student was presenting what she had written, and another student (we'll call her Michelle) in class turned to the girl who was sitting behind her (the same girl she had been talking to all day!) and rolled her eyes, and mouthed "Really?" while the other girl was in the middle of talking. I stopped the girl presenting, and told Michelle that what she was doing was inappropriate. Then she argued with me, and I said that she needed to say sorry. Michelle reluctantly agreed, but maintained that she did not roll her eyes. It was not a good experience. After class, I told her that what she was doing signals to the person in the front of the room that Michelle does not like her. Michelle claimed that she does like the presenter and that she doesn't want to be rude. It ended better than I thought. This was a strategy I learned from Leigh. Don't argue, wait until after class to discuss it further, explain that the behavior puts people on different levels and then find a way to make sure that the person leaves knowing that you love them, but don't like the behavior, and then make sure that they understand that.

Today, Michelle was talking to this same girl again during a team meeting in our pod before she was in my class. The teacher she has before me jumped on her and embarrassed her in front of all the other students. I had her next and we went to the auditorium for a small presentation. I sat behind Michelle and her friend to make sure they didn't talk, and then when the assembly was over, I made my move. Our school has RATTLE cards. There are rules associated with each of those letters. The cards are given to students who are caught doing something good associated with those positively worded rules. The students can collect them, save them, then buy things in the student store with them, and then there are drawings for the whole school for cool things like digital cameras, gift certificates, and more. Anyway, the students want these. So, when the assembly was over, I leaned up and whispered to the girls, while handing them two rattle cards each, "Thank you so much for showing that you are mature and can sit through this presentation without talking to each other. I was going to move you so you didn't sit by each other, but I am glad that I decided to give you another chance. Thank you again for showing your wonderful sense of character." (The E stands for Exhibits Character.) The girls smiled and said thanks and were visibly touched that I did that. The next area we went to they didn't talk again, so I gave them each another RATTLE card, and for the rest of the day, they did not talk when they should not have.

This new style of discipline is much better because I am accenting their positive behaviors and helping them learn how to behave correctly. I don't think that yelling at them as I did in the past was as effective as quickly. Last year, they were always trying to save face, and I was backing them into a corner. I am very pleased so far.

My new school is very different from my last school. They are very big on Professional Learning Communities here, as opposed to my old school where I rarely even talked to any of my other teachers. One thing that is especially exciting is that there are a lot of school-wide policies. Most people probably would not think that is cool, but I do. I like that a lot of things are decided for me by the administration, but they are mostly things that I agree with. Their late policy is a little lenient for me, but that is okay. What really makes is great is that the students can't come and complain that a certain teacher allows or does not allow certain things. For instance, no iPods, mp3 players, portable gaming systems, or other types of electronic devices are allowed at school at all. The only exception is cell phones which may be used during passing periods and lunch, but not during class. This is great because if those electronic devices are seen at all, they are taken away and not given back until parents come to get them. I like these new rules so far.

The other great thing is that two of my goals that I talked about recently will be very easy to do because of some other school policies. Planning will be much easier because we are required to do curriculum mapping for the last three quarters. Also, I am on a team and my department is very friendly. The relationships are already better. I don't know if I will continue going to the faculty room each day for lunch because it is very easy to fall into whining about students. I am very excited about my new school and all that goes on.

The school I just finished the year at is not that technology advanced. They do have some technology (some that I didn't know about until the last day) but it is not that great. The computers that I hunted down for my room were eMacs 700MHz, running Mac OSX 10.2. They were very slow and many times did not work how they were supposed to. I did have a SMARTboard in my room, but I never had time to learn how to use it, so I didn't use it. I did try a couple times, but it was more difficult than I wanted. As I have mentioned before, my 9th grade honors class did individual blogs each week. That was a neat experience, but I have a different plan for next year. I want to have a blog for each class, and then each class will have one day to go down to the lab and do their blog. It will be very important for me to teach them that this is not just some other assignment. I need to incorporate research, good writing skills, correct grammar usage, and internet safety. If I don't include these things, it will be virtually worthless because they will just be doing an assignment, and not effectively using technology to better their experience. I have decided to use a class blog because it was very difficult for grading and tracking to see who did their assignment when every one of them had its own url. At my new school they have opaque projectors which are basically overhead projectors that you don't need transparencies for. They are really slick. You can put the student's paper in there, right after they wrote it and then critique it and give them immediate feedback. There are video projectors on the same site since opaque projectors are discontinued but we had those at BYU-Idaho. I didn't think they were that great.

Changes I need to make regarding technology next year:

• Use technology effectively to enhance education, not just to use it for the sake of using it.
  
• Use technology to make my job easier, not harder.
  

As part of my requirements as a first-year teacher, I have to fill out these forms that are a total joke. There is about a half a page to write about what I have accomplished this year as a teacher. They want me to reflect on my year, but only give me limited space to write it down. I have issues with forced reflection: I hate it. I see the immense value in reflection and goal setting, but struggle when it is forced upon me. I hope that in the next week, I can finish all the reflections I have on my mind, but I will just take it one day at a time. I have really learned a lot in my first year of teaching, and hope that I can take those lessons with me next year to my new school.

The ninth graders went to Lagoon today. I went with them since I have mostly ninth graders. It was a pretty fun day, and the new ride there, Wicked is just that, wicked. Not the best roller coaster I have been on, but it is pretty cool. While at Lagoon I didn't do much supervising of the kids (since that would be impossible). I just hung out with 7 other teachers who went also. A couple days ago I thought that maybe I would rather not go, and just stay at school for the day with no students. I would be able to get a lot done. I was entertaining that thought because I don't really have a very good relationship with most of the teachers at my school. There are a few that I do feel some rapport with, but not that many. I have thought a lot about why this is so.

First, I spent most lunches in my room. At the beginning of the year, it was because I had so much to do, and I never felt like I had enough time to prepare for everything. Once I got things under control better, I stayed in my room for lunch just for some peace and quiet. It was nice to be able to read the news and each lunch without the noise of my students. Not that I don't like the teachers I work with, but the faculty room was sometimes not that quiet either. Towards the end of the year, I stayed in my room still because I had not been in the lunch room all year, and the other teachers had established cliques, and the couple times I was in there, I felt left out. That is certainly not their fault, but rather mine. In addition, one excuse I made for why I didn't eat lunch with others was that the few times I was it seemed like there was a lot of complaining about students, administration, our jobs overall, etc. going on. I used that as an excuse to keep me away. Even though I love teaching more than anything else I have ever done, I still complain. I guess that is just part of the dark side that is always creeping to the surface for me.

The second reason that I didn't establish many relationships with teachers is because I was too shy to go out of my way to make more friends. This is not in my character at all. Since I got married, my wife has become my best friend and the one that I turn to for everything. She is wonderful, and is probably the greatest person ever invented, but thinking that she was the only person I needed as a friend was an incorrect assumption on my part. I have learned some amazing things from those teachers I have built a relationship with (teaching techniques, curriculum suggestions, project ideas, classroom management hints, and much more). I need friends at work, people that can help me and that I can help when needed. An excellent example of this is that there have been two field trips in the last couple weeks where I and other teachers needed someone to take the students that would not be able to go. When teachers emailed asking for help, I was reluctant to volunteer to help someone that I had not built a relationship with already. When I needed help, the only ones who volunteered were teachers that I had built a relationship with. If I had done better earlier, I would have been more willing to help others, and I think they would have been more willing to help me.

The third reason is that I haven't really felt like part of the faculty. I know that part of it is because I am new, and part of it is my own insecurities. I always feel like I have to be the center of attention or else people don't like me much. That is silly. It has taken me a long time to realize this, but there is nothing wrong with being in the background for a while. I don't have to be the most important one in a group to still be important to that group. And why do I even need to be important? I can just be there!

Changes to make regarding relationships:

• Each lunch with the other faculty members. I need some time with grownups. (And sometimes, it is okay to vent!)
• Go out of my way to make sure other teachers feel that I appreciate them and notice the good things they do
• Make sure that I volunteer to help others when they need it (within reason, without overextending myself) so that I have a way to build a better relationship with them

If I can build better relationships with faculty next year, I think that I will see some great changes in my own teaching ability, my happiness at the school, and networking for the future. Making friends is always a good idea. Making friends with teachers who care about what they are doing is even better. I am a social person. Sitting in my room during lunch when I knew I could be out making friends was totally foreign to me. I still don't completely understand WHY I chose to be lonely.