View from the Sidelines--A Paragraph a Day

Since I teach high school, I get a very close look at just how students are doing these days.  I became a teacher because I wanted to contribute to the lives of young people, in however limited a way, but I find that no matter how my contribution may grow, it continues to become less and less of a help to the young people with whom I work.  To put it in arbitrary number terms, for example, twenty years ago I might have been able to teach students twenty percent of what they needed to know about their studies.  Unfortunately, though, their needs are rising significantly and quickly, so even if I were to double what I give to students (a feat that isn't possible), I would still be giving them perhaps only ten percent of what they need.  What I mean by "what they need" includes critical thinking skills, basic grammar skills, communication skills, writing skills, reading skills, math skills, and so much more.  Students used to be much better prepared to learn some years ago, but our digital age has produced so many young people who can't even tell time on a regular clock, who can't read cursive, who can't write a single sentence without significant errors, and who can't turn off their phones for even ten minutes, for the most part.  There are, of course, exceptions, but most of my students are poorly prepared device addicts who have been sabotaged by a lack of focus in school, a lack of rigor, and a lack of discipline.  My heart goes out to them even as I try to teach them when they don't even have the most basic of learning or study skills.  I try to teach those to the students, but time is our enemy, not our ally.  For their sake, I sincerely hope that something that we do in school sticks with them so that they're prepared for success in their future.

They Like to Be Challenged--A Paragraph a Day

Teaching is a particularly frustrating art, mostly because it's so often impossible to choose who your students are.  So many young people these days are being raised to shy away from challenges that it can be very frustrating to try to teach them in a classroom, because they don't respond well at all to being asked to better themselves, to learn more, to improve their skills.  But what I find to be a pretty common phenomenon is that once I do start to challenge them, once I do start to ask them to be better than they were yesterday, they respond quite well--most students really want to get better, and they're simply hoping that someone will help them to improve their skills and knowledge.  I know a lot of teachers who really never ask young people to do any difficult work, thus dooming them to stay at their current level.  But when we ask them to stretch their limits and offer them a safe place to do so--free from ridicule and mocking--they find within themselves the resources they need to get better at what they do, to improve both their knowledge and their skills.  If we want people to be better, Goethe said, we have to treat them as if they already are the people they have the potential to be, rather than dooming them to mediocrity by only expecting them to perform at levels that they've already reached.

Not Teaching Skills--A Paragraph a Day

One of the things that constantly amazes me in school these days when I'm teaching is the extremely low number of students who take notes.  It's like it's a skill that's completely died, and that obviously isn't being taught to young people any more.  Unfortunately, it's one of the most effective strategies that one can use to actually learn the material that's being covered.  Sitting there and passively hearing what's being taught is not a good way to actually learn it--when one doesn't write things down, it's much more difficult for the concepts to make their ways into our long-term memory rather than our short-term.  But teachers don't seem to be putting any effort into teaching the study skills that help the kids to learn to learn; instead, they focus on the information that's possibly going to be on a standardized test, information that is simply learned by rote almost, rather than skills that can help them to be successful in many ways.  I keep insisting that my students at least take notes because I know that they need strategies for internalizing those things that they learn, and that they're not getting much of that in their other classes.  Some of us teach because we want students to learn how to learn so that they're more likely to succeed in the future when we're not around any more, and I'm willing to let them get a little annoyed at me now for insisting that they take notes.  Because after all, if I don't insist now, there's a very good chance that they'll actually learn this skill too late for it to make any positive mark on their educations or their lives.

A Privilege--A Paragraph a Day

Sometimes my job gets stressful--if you've ever experienced teaching high school or read anything about it, you know that this is true.  Stress is part of this world.  But that's not the end of the story.  There with the stress and the hard times is an opportunity to spend a lot of time with a lot of young people, people who have yet to find their own ways in life but who are doing their best to do so.  I have the privilege of getting to know an awful lot of young people who are facing many, many obstacles, but who still keep on keeping on, who still try their best to accomplish what they want to accomplish.  I get to know them as a teacher gets to know them, and sometimes I'm even able to talk to them about things like what they want to get out of life, what they hope to accomplish with their lives, what kinds of hopes and dreams and aspirations they hold in their hearts.  And hopefully, in a very small way that most of them won't even remember, I'll be able to contribute to their abilities to make those dreams come true.  Perhaps I can teach them study skills or writing skills or communication skills; perhaps I won't teach them anything, but I can help to instill confidence in them, and help them to be able to pursue dreams and overcome obstacles.  My work is stressful, but it comes with an incredible privilege--to share a tiny bit of the lives of some of the young people who will still be here on this planet long after I take my leave.  And that's a privilege and responsibility that I hope to live up to.

New Trials--A Paragraph a Day

 I generally hope that things are going to go well in any given situation, but experience tells me that this won't always be the case.  Sometimes, things turn out pretty poorly, and when they do, it's up to us to make the most out of a poor situation, so to speak.  I'm in that situation now, for example--I was hired at the school I'm at to teach Spanish, an area of expertise in which I have a lot of experience and training, and in which I'm quite competent.  We also have very good resources available to us for teaching Spanish, so I have plenty of materials for class.  Unfortunately, though, it turns out that I'm teaching only one Spanish class and three other courses that I've never taught before, and for which I have no resources at all.  In other words, I'm preparing every class from scratch, trying to scrape together materials and make a semester work for the students.  This is an incredibly stressful and time-consuming situation, to say the least.  So what do I have to do?  I have to do the job, of course, or leave the school--which would leave a whole lot of students without a teacher.  And when I do the job, I have to try to keep focused on the positive when I can find it.  I have to try to remember always that what I do, I do for the students, not for the administrators who have put me into this awful situation.  I have to try to find ways to make myself look forward to going to school rather than dreading it, and to look forward to preparing classes rather than hating the process.  If I don't make this shift in perspective, I'm in for a miserable semester, and who wants that?  How things turn out over the next few months really is up to me, and I'm not the only one affected--my students, also, will know if I'm miserable or if I'm enjoying the work that I'm doing.  And they don't deserve to have me at my worst as a teacher.

Another School Year Comes to an End--A Paragraph a Day

It's no wonder that there haven't been as many paragraphs a day for the last couple of weeks--after all, we've been in the last couple of weeks of our school year, and most of my focus has been on ending the year well.  For me, ending the year is different than it is for most high school teachers.  I try to end on an academic note, keeping students focused on the topic on hand until the very end, not worrying about having parties or showing movies or anything like that.  We spent the last couple of days reviewing for the final, then we had the final.  After all, my job isn't to be best buddies with my students--rather, my job is to help to prepare them for the future by exposing them to some academic rigor that actually demands something from them, including focus and work and effort.  I find that most of my students appreciate the fact that I'm one of the few teachers that actually demands some effort from them, for they find that they learn more when they're asked to push themselves.  They also find that they have abilities that they never dreamed they had when they're pushed to levels that they haven't been pushed to yet.  And don't worry--I'm not super strict on grading.  They get pretty generous grades from me, but only after they've pushed themselves and found themselves worrying about their grade.  After all, when we worry about something, we tend to be willing to push ourselves even harder to avoid negative outcomes--and I find my students pushing themselves constantly to improve themselves and their performance.  And that, of course, is what's going to help them more in the long run than anything else.

Not Happy with Me--A Paragraph a Day

I think my students aren't very happy with me right now.  We have two days left of class, and rather than giving up and showing movies and letting everyone relax, I'm pushing them through a review of everything that we've covered this semester, getting them ready for their final.  Many of their other teachers seem to have given up for the year and are content to ride things out the easy way.  I'm not.  It's more work for me and it's more stress for me, but I figure that I'm not in the classroom to entertain young people or to make life easy for them--rather, I'm there to help them to learn and to grow and even to learn how to learn.  One of the things that I hope they'll be learning over the next couple of days is the ability to review, as well as the importance of reviewing.  It's one thing to study something for a long time, but it's quite another to study it for a long time and then go over it again to make sure that you're not going to forget it.  They aren't mad at me or anything like that, and I think that there are a few of them who are actually glad that it's not all over and that we're continuing to learn as long as we're in the class.  No matter what they feel, though, I know that the best thing for them while they're in my classroom is to learn as long as they can and as much as they can, and I intend to help them to do just that.

Can We Teach Kindness?--A Paragraph a Day

Kindness is often on my mind when I'm teaching high school students.  It's one thing to teach things like English and Spanish and Literature, but it's something altogether different to try to teach young people to be kind to one another, to show each other compassion and understanding.  Most young people do their best to be good people, of course, but it's very tempting for them to say those words that will make someone laugh, but hurt someone else.  It's easy for them to be inconsiderate--or perhaps it's difficult for them to be considerate when their main focus in life is currently themselves.  It comes with the age, doesn't it?  They're growing and learning and trying to do the best they can in everything, but they're still self-centered.  So how do we teach kindness?  Honestly, I don't really try because I'm not sure that something like that can be taught.  I do model it every chance I get, which is almost all day, every day, but I don't look at it as something that I can teach to someone else.  Rather, I make sure to point out the negative results of unkind words and actions, and I leave it to them to learn it rather than thinking that I can actually teach it.  After all, they have to want to have the positive results of being kind in their lives, and the best that I can do, I think, is to help them to see clearly the positive results of kindness on one's own spirit.  I don't know how effective the lesson is, but I believe that they can learn to be kind by wanting to feel the positive feelings that come from having been kind to someone else.