Welcome to the 2008-2009 School Year

This is Janice Koch, author of So You Want to be a Teacher? Many of you may have started
classes last week; for those of you in the Northeast, the day after Labor Day, or some time that week is the traditional starting day of school. I always wondered why we celebrate New Year's at the end of December. Throughout my life, the "new year" began the day after Labor Day- so it is again this year. I love the smell of new books, pencils, pads and note paper. I anticipate with joy and apprehension the first class with my new students. For those of you embarking on a career as a teacher- I wish you much success and I hope that, in some small way, So You Want to be a Teacher? will make a positive contribution to your quest! Welcome back to school.

Remembering a teacher, half a century later!

Posted November 15, 2007

I recently read about a 57 year old man who, after recovering fully from brain surgery, began a list of things he wanted to accomplish in his life that he had not gotten to – at this point in time. High on the list was finding and thanking his first grade teacher! He not only found her – but he also tracked down many of his former classmates from first grade and they had a fifty-year reunion. It appears that this first grade teacher had made an indelible impact on many of her former charges and when they reflected about her contributions to their early lives, they explained the following:

She always made them feel comfortable and safe and never treated them like babies. Although only first graders, this special teacher had high expectations for all her students and she was strict, however, the way she interacted with them was a model of how people should treat one another and it aided student learning. Everything we know about the best conditions for learning includes an environment that is warm and inviting and carefully structured to meet the needs of the students. When students feel valued and respected in their own right, their willingness to take risks and try to solve problems expand.

I like to think back to my favorite teachers and I, too, remember my first grade teacher who sounded very much like this teacher- kind, caring, thoughtful and very well prepared! Young children can be so fragile and their first formal experiences with school need so much attention. I think this is an important issue to think about- what kind of teacher is remembered after fifty years and how do you establish relationships that last in your students’ minds for decades after you have met them?

Helping Students to find their "Creative Center"

Posted November 15, 2007

At the National Educational Computing Conference in 2007, the futurist, Andrew Zolli spoke about the challenges educators face in helping students to find their 'creative center.' There is a need to produce students who can think outside the box and become future innovators to help solve the challenges of the 21st century. As an example, he cited the need to think about our relationship with the natural world and he sees "eco-innovation" as a trend for the future. An example of this phenomenon includes "ecotiles" that use the kinetic pressure of your stepping as you walk to power the lights around a town square.

The NECC 2007 conference unveiled the new National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Students and at the top of the list of desired student traits was creativity and innovation. The challenge for education as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) sees it is to help students use the skills required in our digital age to produce and innovate using technology. That requires students to use technology, not just for communication and information retrieval, but as a tool for critical thinking, problem solving and decision making. The new NETS for students makes me think about what kind of school environment would help students to be creative thinkers, who take risks and try out new ideas. The School of the Future on Philadelphia is one such place. It might be useful to learn how they do it!

Chapter One

I think at first, it is a scary process to look back on your own education and ask yourself, what worked and what was a disaster? I know when I look back on my schooling – I see my memories as a selective rendering of my school life. Still, I struggle to make contact with these remembered experiences - because understanding what worked for me helps me to see what may work for my students. So, as I think about my experiences as a student, some instances automatically pop into my head. I share some of these experiences in the book - like getting really sick when I started kindergarten at a very young age. I would love to learn more about what pops into your head when you think about your own education.

Join the Discussion Questions:

• Did anything about your personal educational autobiography surprise you?
• For you, what is the most intimidating aspect of becoming a teacher?

Chapter Two

In my first year of teaching, the teacher across the hall from me had also just started. Her name was Sue Casey and we became fast friends. We were both teaching eighth grade and we shared our stories almost from the first week of school. The stories I share with you in this chapter are also from new teachers (and some not so new) who have lots to say about what worked and what was hard for them as new teachers. I wanted to bring them into your world in their entire candor so that you could appreciate how honestly and thoughtfully they can reflect on their teaching experiences. It is risky to be “out there” in the way they are - but their honesty propels them forward - ever seeking a better way of doing things. My friend Sue and I used to get ideas from each other and try them out.

Join the Discussion Questions:

• Whose teaching story in this chapter did you most relate to? Why?
• Which story did you find the most instructive for your own teaching philosophy?
• How do you think you will avoid burnout?

Chapter Three

When I started teaching in an urban area, I used to bring a can of bug killer spray to class with me. The building was very old and every Monday morning I was greeted by small insects that were not going to help me set up a meaningful learning environment! Still, I used to think, what were the kids like who first went to this school? It had been built in the early 1900s and it was an old majestic structure that needed re-doing. I loved teaching there because as a science teacher, I could involve the students in experiments and they loved it. They were from a really depressed area of the city and they loved science because they knew I really cared about their learning and was interested in their ideas, and they had a chance to do experiments. I was a progressive teacher and I guess I still am. I was very aware that I was a different color from my kids and I wanted to learn as much as I could about them.

Join the Discussion Questions:

• Why is it important to diversify the teaching workforce? Why does it matter, for example, that a typical kindergarten teacher is a white female?
• How would you characterize your personal teaching philosophy at this point? Are you an essentialist? a progressive? a social reconstructionist? a mix of several types? How and why?

Chapter Four

It always struck me that teaching would be easy because I am a “talker.” It took me awhile to see that teaching and learning is a lot more than talking and listening. When I realized that teaching and learning is a conversation between you and the students, I began to really listen - I mean to be really invested in what the students were saying or asking. When I shared my story of my mother and my mail delivery theory in this chapter, it was an example of how demonstrating the ideas to your students are so much more effective than telling them. I had lots of personal theories about how things worked and some are too embarrassing to print here. I have come to learn, over the years the importance and significance of a teacher’s words for her or his students. When school started this year, I visited this principal’s blog and liked what he said when he talked about the wet weather that deluged the neighborhood of his school just prior to the first day. He thought about rains and floods and used this allegory.

I hope that whatever your new school year brings your way - the challenges, joys, triumphs and doldrums - that you approach each day with the thought that you are the best hope that your students have. They are flooding your school and in need of your leadership. They come to you excited and ready to go. Their future success depends on whether you get them to higher ground, and your colleagues who share your experiences understand how important you are. Here's to your best school year ever. Enjoy it!
http://www.leadertalk.org/2007/08/fighting-the-fl.html

Join the Discussion Questions:

• What did you think about the mailbox story?
• Did you find that you had naïve conceptions of your own as you were growing up—misconceptions about how things really worked? Talk about them. How did you begin to revise these notions?

Chapter Five

I like thinking about the ways in which we are the same and the ways in which we are different. As the youngest student in every grade I attended, I always felt different - like people were wondering - what are you doing here? Of course, when I look back on my school life, I did not appear that much younger, but when people were celebrating their 12th birthday, I was just not yet eleven years old! By the time I was 16 years old and kids were having “Sweet Sixteen” parties, I was in college :) Diversity has lots of faces and the part of this chapter that I enjoyed reflecting on the most was the part that talks about the dual language immersion programs. I was always sorry that I never learned another language fluently. I studied French in high school and college, but never really had the chance to apply what I knew. When you are student who feels different, having a trusted adult to talk to is a big help! I think it is exciting for non native English speaking students to have a teacher in their school, class or grade who can converse comfortably with them and help them to bridge the gap between the language spoken at home and “school talk.”

Join the Discussion Questions:

• Which areas of student diversity pose the most challenges for you as a future teacher?
• How will you meet those challenges?

Chapter Six

I love to visit inclusion classrooms where the general education teacher and the special education teacher have planned and implemented lessons together for a while and are now like a finely rehearsed chorus. They know how to bounce ideas off of each other and function together in the classroom so that the needs of all the students may be addressed. For me, the most successful inclusion classrooms are the ones in which I cannot tell who the students are with learning or other non-physical disabilities. That is when I know that the teachers have worked hard to ensure that the class functions as a group and the students who are there with a special teacher to support them contribute to the climate of the classroom in the same way as the regular education student. When you are in a classroom with two teachers who work well together – it is like a song sung in two-part harmony. It sounds good!

Join the Discussion Questions:

• Do you think you would like to teach in an inclusion classroom, either as the general education teacher or the inclusion specialist? Why or why not?
• The charter school movement and the home school movement are both gaining students. Why do you think that is so? What might be done to stem the exodus from conventional public education?

Chapter Seven

Being online is an important part of my daily life. If I am home or in my office, I am constantly checking email, seeking answers to simple questions - like what is lemon zest?- an ingredient I recently needed for a noodle pudding I was making. I try to remember the last time I used a dictionary or sought a telephone number of a restaurant from a phone book. I cannot remember.

Recently, I was disappointed because I was not able to attend the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta this summer. I decided to attend it virtually by accessing several of the speakers online at the NECC web site. The information on the web site read as follows:

The following educators have invited you to join them as they blog and/or podcast their NECC experiences! You can lurk quietly, or jump into the fray by posting comments of your own.

I sat on the couch opposite my desktop computer - the one with the large flat screen - and first watched several featured speakers. I felt like I was at the conference. Then I jumped in as I read their blogs. Before I knew it, I had spent an entire afternoon “at” the NECC experience in Atlanta. I sometimes wonder if it will ever be possible to ignore the technology that is so much a part of our students’ lives. I could not ignore the fact that you are online and hope that we will all learn from your contributions to this site.

Join the Discussion Questions:

• Are you a digital native? a digital immigrant (someone who did not grow up with technology)?
• In your opinion, what is the greatest promise of technology for teaching and learning?

Chapter Eight

For me, one of the most exciting experiences I had as a teacher was my semester at Central Queensland University in Australia. I was teaching future teachers who had grown up a world away from where I lived my entire life. I was struck by how many questions the students had about my life in America and the ways that preparing to be a teacher in Australia was the same or different from preparing to be a teacher in the United States. Despite the fact that we lived worlds apart, the students and I had a great deal in common - our desire to make a contribution to the social good; the capacity to plan and work hard on behalf of our own learning and the hope that our work would make a difference. When I visited the schools in which they student taught, I was reminded about how traditional schooling has become embedded in the culture of western democracies. A more conservative culture could be seen in this part of Australia with the teacher front and center and the students in rows with hands clasped! I learned so much from the students and so much from my surroundings. Technology has made it possible to connect with people from all over the world. I have been able to stay in touch with my students and learn about their careers in education. Before I left to go home, the students had a cake baked in the shape of Australia. It was huge and delicious…. I loved learning new expressions - when I thanked them for the wonderful cake, they said “no worries”- an often-used Aussie expression that means everything from “you’re welcome” to “no problem.”!

Join the Discussion Questions:

• At this point in the text, how, if at all, has your image of teaching and learning changed?

Chapter Nine

My favorite high school teacher taught 11th grade English and ran the Drama Club. The year I had drama, I fell in love with acting and became part of the school play. The best feeling for me was to be part of the entire cast and the support people – the stagehands, the costume people, and those in charge of the props and setting. We were a very tight community and I had a strong sense of belonging and feeling special. Wanting to put on a really terrific show required that we work together, memorize our parts and arrive to rehearsals on time. It was a wonderful feeling to belong to this community. It became part of a cherished school memory and reminded me of how important being a part of a community is to setting a supportive tone for learning.

Join the Discussion Questions:

• How does a new teacher establish a sense of authority in the classroom?
• In your judgment, what is the most important thing you can do to establish classroom community?

Chapter Ten

When I was a young girl, I started keeping a reflective journal. It kept my thoughts, hopes and dreams and I would usually write in it when I hiked to the top of a hill in a nearby park and sat by myself. I did not know it at the time, but my ability to be reflective turned out to be a quality that helped me as a teacher. Teaching is often a misunderstood profession. When you teach, you are “on” all the time and you need to be in touch with your feelings in order to act and respond thoughtfully as you work with youngsters. I remember being “scared” to go to school in third grade because I had a mean teacher who yelled a lot. I had frequent stomachaches and my mom had a hard time getting me to school. Then, in January this teacher was awarded a sabbatical and the new teacher who took over the class was kind, respectful and caring. That was the year I began to believe in God :)

Join the Discussion Questions:

• How did you assess your aptitude for teaching after responding to the inventory of questions early in this chapter?
• What do you think of the INTASC standards? Which one(s) are you most confident that you have already achieved?