I, along with over 11 million other people, read the the blog Humans of New York. (In case you haven't read Brandon's blog I would suggest you take a look https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork) The other day I read a post that stopped me in my tracks. Over the past week Brandon has been focusing on a school called Mott Hall Bridges Academy. He has talked to the principle Ms. Lopez, students in the school, and also the Mott Hall Bridges teachers. Below is the post about a converstaion a teacher, Ms. Powell, had with Brandon that really resionated with me.
All of a sudden I realized that Ms. Powell had summed up all of my fears about teaching. Recently I have heard all about the gaps in the education system, how students can be multiple grade levels behind by the time they reach your classroom. My biggest fear is that I will not be able to help my students be successful. How can I teach my students to factor polynomials if they have limited multiplication skills? As a teacher I know I will always have more material to cover than I have time to cover it in. These students who come to me grade levels behind need so desperatly to be successful, but where will I find the time to fill in the gaps? I am sure this is one of the biggest stuggles amoung teachers, and it cannot be fixed overnight.
I think the work of a prepared teacher starts long before they ever step foot in a classroom. My work as a teacher begins now. I am learning the skills and practices of successful teachers, but in my opinion the most important tool I can have as a teacher is collaboration. There are thousands of other teachers in this country who have the same fears I do, and they face them on a daily basis. They are my most valuable resource. Its important that I learn to ask them questions and learn from them.
We teachers are a team, that needs to work together. We all have the same goal, we want our students to be successful. At times my fears about becoming a teacher can be overwhelming, and I think that I am not cut out for this. Then I realize all of all of teachers I look up to, that inspire me, have all had the same fears. They have had sleepless nights worrying about how they are going to fit in all of their material, and they have experienced the joy of watching a student finally understand something they were stuggling with. I am terrified to become a teacher, but I know as long as I have thousands of other teachers ready to help me in my journey, I will be alright.
Good sharing and a great attitude. Dave Coffey and I frequently talk about 'Teaching Hard.' Marzano is a famous voice about education who has shared how teachers don't control much about what effects learning. But what we do control makes a difference. Give it a try, and adjust for next time with what you learn.
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ReplyDeleteWell I had a much better comment posted, but something happened to it... dang. To cut to the point, you are not alone. Use those thousands of teachers you speak of whenever necessary by posting to Twitter with #MTBoS. Anything. Good days, bad days, ideas, concerns, whatever it might be. Inevitably, someone will step up and help.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, you're in this for the right reason. We've all had those fears, regardless of how many years we've been in the classroom. Teaching math for 7 years, I went through peaks and valleys, questioning if what I was doing was working. What helped was knowing that it wasn't just the math that I was teaching. It was how to deal with people, how to build relationships, how to be better human beings, and how to show compassion.
You'll be just fine :)
You've got the right mindset. There are always doubts, and you cannot please everyone. How can you teach students to factor polynomials if they have limited multiplication skills? Sometimes, you can't. So you teach them how to take the answers from the quadratic formula and create a factored form from that. But (at least where I am) those tend to be exception cases, rather than the norm.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do want to say, in particular for your first year teaching, is make sure that you take some time for yourself. It's all well and good to be trying to help every student, but if you run yourself down trying to be everything for everybody (students, parents, colleagues, admin)... it can lead to collapse, at which point you can't help anyone. I nearly learned that the hard way. One of the first things you learn as a teacher is to pick your battles. You may lose some. (In the grand scheme of things, is factoring really that important?) But as long as you can hold onto yourself, you'll win the war.
...okay, uh, maybe not the best analogy, teaching and war, don't get the wrong idea. Though dressing as a ninja for Halloween might be kind of fun.
Heading into math? Technology is a great equalizer. If you're worried about "cheating" with tech, also ask questions that ask students to verbalize what they know.
ReplyDeleteI've had many students over the years in Algebra 1 (and let's be honest, all levels) where students weren't ready for their course. Another use of technology is to allow students the chance to explore rules and properties to create their own understanding of the topic. Then when they are working on an open ended problem, they have a lot of tools at their disposal and they've already had experience with justification.
Gaps will always be there. Make your classroom welcoming to all and a safe room to ask anyone for help and you'll be off to a good start.
Heading into math? Technology is a great equalizer. If you're worried about "cheating" with tech, also ask questions that ask students to verbalize what they know.
ReplyDeleteI've had many students over the years in Algebra 1 (and let's be honest, all levels) where students weren't ready for their course. Another use of technology is to allow students the chance to explore rules and properties to create their own understanding of the topic. Then when they are working on an open ended problem, they have a lot of tools at their disposal and they've already had experience with justification.
Gaps will always be there. Make your classroom welcoming to all and a safe room to ask anyone for help and you'll be off to a good start.
I agree that teachers need to work together, but I feel that it is more than teachers in the same school or even grade level. Sixth grade teachers should talk to fourth and firth grade teachers to see where the class left off, what misconceptions most students have, what students need the most help-though most school districts already talk about these students-what students need to be challenged more. Also ninth/tenth grade teachers should talk to 8th/9th grade teachers about the same thing. This is one way that can help close the gaps,though you will still have gaps. This could be tiring, but since we are molding the next generation and what the them to clean up our mess, we need to teach them to the best of our abilities, and maybe that included going above and beyond the call of duty.
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