Category: Teachers

Posted on

Meeting Middle East Educators

IMG_0542 Last week I presented at the TeachME 2009 International Education Conference, in Dubai. It was a great pleasure to meet dedicated educators from across the Gulf Coast region. 

While many of the attendees are expats, a sizable number were local teachers and administrators. Their similarity to American educators far surpassed any differences. A smile behind a face veil is no less joyful. 

As President Obama said at his inauguration,  "We cannot help but believe that …as our world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself…" 

I suspect teachers will lead the way. 

Notice the TurningPoint response cards on orange lanyards – everybody loves clickers!
Posted on

In the Basement of the Ivory Tower

In an era of "tweets" limited to 140 characters, it refreshing to return to power of long-form writing. "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower" (The Atlantic / June 2008) details the struggle of the adjunct college lit teacher in the lower reaches of academia.

I work at colleges of last resort. For many of my students, college was not a goal they spent years preparing for, but a place they landed in. Those I teach don’t come up in the debates about adolescent overachievers and cutthroat college admissions. 
… But my students and I are of a piece. I could not be aloof, even if I wanted to be. Our presence together in these evening classes is evidence that we all have screwed up. I’m working a second job; they’re trying desperately to get to a place where they don’t have to. All any of us wants is a free evening.

Posted on

Teacher Workshop Evaluation of the Year

As my presentation year draws to close I have to look back on one teacher's evaluation of my workshop that beats them all. The teacher wrote: 

I think the most valuable thing I got out of this was to change the perception of my job from "information dispenser to "designer of learning environments." I really enjoyed it. I usually get  online to look for jobs in other fields during inservice, but I didn't do that once during your workshop. I am actually exited about using this information.

As a 25+ year teacher who sat through many dull inservice workshops, I know what it's like to feel that PD is a waste of time (I usually brought papers to grade.) My nonnegotiable rule is that quality staff development should model what you expect to see in the classroom. "Sit and get PD" emulates what you don't want to see in the classroom. It is essential that the presenter models the instructional technique they are advocating, thus giving the teacher attendees the chance to both experience the technique (as student) and reflect on its use (as educator).

BTW – Here's the basic form I use for workshop evaluations. Pappas-evaluation (68 KB pdf) It usually provide very useful feedback. I might add,  it's been developed over the years with input from teachers who were invited to not only evaluate the workshop, but the feedback form. (Special thanks to Stephanie Malin, Beaverton OR, Literacy Coach for her valuable input on the evaluation prompts.)
Posted on

Good Teachers Don’t Have To Be Cool

As a 21-year-old rookie teacher I was pleased to find out I could finally be the most popular guy in class. I read all the books and crafted the "know-it-all" lecture that informed and entertained. It took me a few years to realize that my goal wasn't to be the smartest person in the room, but to create learning environments that helped my students discover their knowledge and skills.

I was reminded of my teaching transition as I read a recent essay by Mark Edmundson,  "Geek Lessons – Why Good Teaching Will Never Be Fashionable." It's from the New York Times Magazine's college teaching issue (9/21/08), but educators of all levels may enjoy. Edmundson writes:

Because really good teaching is about not seeing the world the way that everyone else does. Teaching is about being what people are now prone to call “counterintuitive” but to the teacher means simply being honest. The historian sees the election not through the latest news blast but in the context of presidential politics from George Washington to the present. The biologist sees a natural world that’s not calmly picturesque but a jostling, striving, evolving contest of creatures in quest of reproduction and survival.
….Good teachers perceive the world in alternative terms, and they push their students to test out these new, potentially enriching perspectives. Sometimes they do so in ways that are, to say the least, peculiar.
….Good teachers know that now, in what’s called the civilized world, the great enemy of knowledge isn’t ignorance, though ignorance will do in a pinch. The great enemy of knowledge is knowingness. It’s the feeling encouraged by TV and movies and the Internet that you’re on top of things and in charge. You’re hip and always know what’s up.
….Good teachers, by contrast, are constantly fighting against knowingness by asking questions, creating difficulties, raising perplexities. More
Posted on

Your Students Will Never Be Late for Class Again

Like all teachers, I struggled for years with tardy students – “But Mr. Pappas, I had to stop at my locker!” Then I took a lesson from fellow teacher – Tom O’Brien, the art teacher in the classroom next door. Tom had it figured out, and here’s what he taught me.

Stand at the door between classes and greet each individual student by name with a handshake as they walk in the room. It guarantees that every day you’ll have a positive connection with every one of your students. Student having a bad day?  Find our before they act out in class.  When the bell rings, the door closes and you promptly begin class. Students quickly realize if they are late, they don’t get a personal greeting. Try it  – it works!

image credit flickr/Earls37a