Reflections on Teaching

One of the joys of growing older is seeing the kid you used to babysit become a productive citizen. One of the progeny of an old college friend has reconnected with us since moving up to Davis to go to school there. He’s even babysitting our son .

Friend’s son is about to graduate with his bachelors in environmental science (which includes a healthy dose of mathematics). He is contemplating filling the gap between that and grad school with a stint teaching algebra through TSA. While I’m concerned about the lack of training time in that program (five weeks), this is tempered by the fact that little can prepare you for teaching in your own classroom, especially in high-poverty schools. Also, Friend’s son has had a successful stint tutoring community college students in economics, which is more than I had when I started substituting on an emergency credential. Here is the advice I’ve given him, and will be giving him…

You will need to learn classroom management first. Don’t look to the loud, pushy person like me, but instead find the little old lady that is 5 feet tall and still has the kids eating out of her palm. She’ll have more useful advice than folks who can fall back on a loud voice and their size. Use what you’ve learned about soft-power in international relations (many of the precepts are remarkably similar to classroom psychology and management). You will train the kids to respond to you, so try to make it clear that the quieter you are, the more serious it is (that also avoids the “yelling” game).

Focus on the necessary and pertinant, and don’t be distracted by ancillary issues in your rules and procedures. Don’t waste your time on stupid stuff. Your administration may have some issues they want enforced that are a waste of your time, don’t add to that list.

If you want to keep misbehavior down, try to have interesting lessons. Boring students to death will make your job harder. They are required to be there, and to take algebra. Only you can make them want to learn it. This will not be like community college students who self-selected in (even if they didn’t want to have to take econ). I’d also recommend this series of posts by Larry Ferlazzo on classroom management which is full of good advice and an honest look at the difficulties involved.

Build a network of others both in and out of your site. I’d recommend Dy/Dan, and Jackie B who are both high school mathematics teachers. I recommend them not just because of their subject but because I think their thinking is both well focused on the issues that should be your first concern, lesson planning, classroom management, and assessment. Read their blogroll to discover other educators. There are other edubloggers, like myself but many of us are technology focused which brings me to my next point.

Like Mathew Needleman, I think you need to focus on teaching first, and I will not be advising friend’s son to skate the cutting edge of technology. He’s only in the classroom for a couple years. If he was there longer, I would advise him to wait until after that period before plunging into Web 2.0. I have had discussions about tech in schools with him before this, mostly to suss out his thoughts as a science and math student. Based on those conversations, he likes a well done math lesson on a transparency projector better than some of the PowerPoint-less lectures he’s gotten. He also clearly prefers paper and pencil for mathematics problem solving, so he should stick with that as he goes into teaching. My only advice, if you’re going to do PowerPoint (or Keynote), look at Dan’s stuff to do it right.