Category Archives: Teaching Diary

These are posts about my teaching in a sort of stream of consciousness style. As the title says, it is a “diary” of my thoughts on teaching.

Financial Aid Options for Teachers

Posted on by
Reply
Share

Paying for schooling can be hard for aspiring teachers and teachers who are trying to continue their education. However, there are many different forms of aid available to help cover education costs. Here are some of the most commonly used financial aid options for teachers.

Student Loans

There are two fundamental types of student loans: those sponsored by the federal government and loans taken out through a private lending institution. There is a third alternative, peer-to-peer lending, which is becoming more popular each year. Before you decide on the type of loan that will work best for you it’s essential that you research the benefits and potential downside of each.

Federal Government Loans

Student loans taken out through the U.S. government are called Stafford loans or Perkins loans. The money comes directly from the United States Department of Education. If you qualify for a government loan, the money will come to you through a participating school. However, you must meet certain criteria before you’re considered eligible for a federal loan. The first thing that you need to do to qualify is to be enrolled in an accredited college or university. You can also qualify by enrolling in a trade, career, or technical school. As a general rule, Stafford loans don’t have to be paid back until after you graduate from college. However, if you leave school without earning a degree, it’s possibly that you could be required to start paying the loan back immediately. You will have to fill out an FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and go through a review process before being accepted. Another federal loan program, the Perkins loan program, is need-based, and carries a fixed 5% interest rate throughout the length of the loan term, which normally runs for 10 years.

TEACH, a Federal Program

TEACH (Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education) is aimed at those who would like to teach at a public or private school for low-income families. It is a grant program designed to help defray the cost of receiving your teaching degree. To qualify, you must be willing to teach four full academic years out of the next eight at a school that encourages enrollment by low-income family members. This money is in the form of a grant, so it won’t have to be paid back unless you don’t meet their criteria. If you back out of the agreement, that money will become an unsubsidized student loan and the funds will need to be paid back, with interest. Part of the criteria for TEACH is that you must be willing to instruct low-income children in high demand subjects such as mathematics, foreign languages, reading, science, and special education. To be considered eligible for a TEACH Grant, you have to fill out the FAFSA. However, there is no need to prove that you have a financial need in order to be eligible.

Private Loans

A private loan is the type of loan you would get from a private financial institution, such as a bank or credit union. Money from a private loan need not be designated specifically for your college education, it is merely money loaned to you with the expectation that it will be repaid, with interest, at agreed upon terms. While the terms of a federal loan are pretty standard, the terms of a loan through a private lender can vary quite a bit. A private loan is almost always determined based upon your credit rating. If you have a good credit score, your interest rates can be fairly low. If you don’t have good credit, your rates could be very high–you may even be asked to provide a cosigner. The terms for a private student loan are left entirely up to the financial institution you’re dealing with–you either take it or leave it.

Peer-to-Peer Lending

Peer-to-peer lending is fast becoming a popular method of securing a student loan. Essentially it is a financial agreement between two parties–a financial lending institution is not normally involved–whereby one person borrows money from another. Once the terms are agreed to, the borrower is expected to repay the loan within a predetermined time frame–with interest. A peer-to-peer loan is a formal agreement, usually requiring the borrower to sign a contract laying out the terms of repayment. Most people that take out a peer-to-peer loan instead of borrowing from a bank or the government have a poor credit rating or low grades that aren’t high enough to qualify for a government loan.

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer. Karen writes about online schools for BestOnlineColleges.com.

Assess the Entire Class in an Instant

Posted on by
Reply
Share

White dry-erase boards are an excellent way to check for understanding (CFU) during and after a lesson. They are also a great way to avoid wasting paper in your lesson plans. Of course, they are also very useful when stating the learning objective. Instead of printing up a class set of the material I am covering in a lesson, I print up one for each class I teach and project it on the screen. The students interact with me through dry-erase markers and white boards and it makes for an almost sport of a lesson.

This can be used in any subject. I teach the concept, use CFU throughout the teaching, then I model the concept in guided practice, asking students to gradually join me. Eventually I “release” them to do questions on their own and once again I CFU through the use of the white boards. I use the term “1 … 2 … 3 … show it to me” and then I can instantly assess a class of 33 kids. I can see if 80% or more are getting it.  If they are, I usually move on. 100% mastery is always the true goal though it isn’t always achieved. As I share anecdotes about my teaching, my goal is to help my readers achieve that goal. If we can get closer through teacher tips like this, we will be more effective in the classroom.

There are challenges getting the kids to leave the caps on the markers and not “doodle” on the white boards. It needs to be stressed to them that they are not doing “art” but rather they are answering questions to show me they “get it.” They get a kick out of it when I say 80% accuracy or better yet 100% accuracy. Sometimes they even cheer. While exuberant, they are focused. This is what makes white boards a great tool for classroom management.

I’ve written here before about how I am moving away from the use of copies and paper in my classroom. I think these changes have only benefited my students. It might be true to say that too much paper improves the presentation but widens the disconnect between the teacher and learner. Then again, this is just my personal experience. I know not everyone is ready for what I am calling “The paperless classroom.” I encourage the use of white boards for CFU. They are simple, always on hand, and you can assess the entire class in an instant.

5 Altruistic Values of Teaching

Posted on by
7
Share

Being a teacher is a wonderful career choice if you value the intrinsic rewards it brings. I’ve always thrived on the energy of seeing a human advance in a subject or in relational-academic skills. This is what I think of as the “human-profit” margin. For example, one of my goals is always to see each kid improve her/his standardized test score over the preceding year. There are many altruistic values of teaching that motivate and keep us on track in our job. If you are a new teacher, take a look at these occupational traits. They are five things I value above and beyond financial compensation that make me want to come to work every day.

  1. Kids are now what we once were and they will one day run society: This can be both exciting and daunting. Knowing one day the child I am teaching long division may one day perform open heart surgery on someone. On the other hand, they could become homeless and jobless if I don’t do my part to give them the skills and motivation to succeed.
  2. Many times you are the only role model of a normal life: I had a parent conference a few years back where the parent had told me right there at the table that all 5 of her kids had different dads. That alone is staggering. I grew up in a house where my dad was always there fore me: tucking me in, coaching my soccer teams, teaching me guitar … I know not everyone has it that good but this was a lighter shade of pale. I felt sad for the confusion the child must live with each day. I couldn’t be that child’s dad (who wasn’t in the picture) but I started paying more attention to him and giving him the best advice I could during that year about life and academics. I hope I made a difference. Each day I have that opportunity as an educator.
  3. Students need a frame of reference to understand art: We forget sometimes how much kids do not know about the world. Most adults can tell you the difference between classical and pop music … most 4th graders can’t. Unless someone explains the difference between an 18 century painting an something modern my a cubist such as Picasso, or Andy Warhol for that matter … it’s all just blurs of sensation. A person may go their whole life and never appreciate art until someone tells them about it.
  4. Students don’t always know how to be nice: We as adults get a million thoughts in our heads daily that are negative and self-defeating. If we are lucky (as I was lucky) we learn about positive self talk and talk with others. A person can go their whole life and never learn how to speak positively. I get to teach that every day (not always a walk in the park let me tell you).

Finally, kids need to learn respect for authority. A person can get to 15-18 or even 80 without that and suffer greatly because of it. As a teacher you are like a “soft” police officer, or judge. You represent authority and if you don’t teach then what respect is, chances are they will not have it when they are older. I like to think that every child who passes through my classroom in a given year knows how to respect her/his elders and her/his superiors. I know this will save them much trouble.

To close, these are 5 reasons I come to work each day. I am not rich by monetary standards but the reason I don’t feel poor is because each day I get to act on altruistic values. They are what give me the most satisfaction in my career. As a final note, I have found keeping an online teacher journal very helpful in measuring my progress toward altruistic goals, I highly recommend it. At the same time, it isn’t for everyone. Stay tuned for why I think that, in another post.

I’ve charted a more refined course for this blog

Posted on by
Reply
Share

I went in and changed the meta keywords for this blog and also added a plugin to create internal links with keywords. Why? Well, to be very transparent, this blog has grown a bit boring for me. Instead of selling the url or scrapping the whole project, I decided to refine its focus. It is a teacher’s blog with an emphasis on methods, tips, and occasional lesson plans right out of my book. I hope to create valuable posts with something worth YOUR while once a week of sooner in some cases. I want to that the 250 feed readers I have according to Feedburner. You guys are who I think about when I publish on this blog. I mean to do right by my contribution. To those others surfing in, you are important as well. I hope we can get to know each other better in 2012. I am going to focus on quality over quantity and I will always write by my motto of providing value for the reader. I see the reader as a teacher, out there, doing well or maybe stuck in a conundrum that most of us can relate with. I hope to help some out, if I can. See you in 2012. Thank you sincerely for being a reader of my blog. My first “new vision” post will come in a few days.

Charter Schools: the best school model?

Posted on by
Reply
Share

I was tagged in a post by writer Michael Kwan about the movie Waiting for Superman. In his article, he asked my opinion of charter schools. I wrote this post in response to that. To research, I immediately went back to read another article I had run across on Facebook called Whose Children Have Been Left Behind? I recommend reading it to get a truly reliable source’s view. I can only offer my inklings as a classroom teacher in a small district in California. I say, the data is now here so let’s take a look at it. I know how to teach the standards and run my classroom but criticizing charter schools is not my usual blogging forte. Just the same, I do have some opinions about charter schools and here they are.

I know that parents in the inner city want the best teachers and the best school for their child. I also know perceptions of that can vary. When they are offered a charter school option, it probably sounds really good. If they can get transportation and it is an exciting move for their child, I never blame them for leaving. But I miss the kids that go. I work hard to make kids want to stay at my school but if they need to go and try the charter, I say bon voyage and good luck. We remain studying and working to meet our touchstone goals in my classroom throughout the year without them.

If you read the article I cited above you will see that after 10 years charter schools are more or less in the same predicament they aimed to solve. The achievement gap is worse in some cases. Based on that and my experience working as a public school teacher for 13 years, I don’t look to charter schools as the model that will save us.

We need more of the arts in our schools. We need more civil education in social studies so kids know how to act properly and kindly in the world. While I love teaching Language Arts and math, I think we need a more renaissance curriculum that prepares kids for the jobs that don’t exist today but will exist tomorrow.

Last, I admit I am biased but I think society as a whole needs to respect principals and teachers more. We spend a good part of every day with future citizens of the world. We have spent years in school to have the foundation but every day we learn to do what we do more efficiently. It isn’t easy. I don’t work for a charter school, but rather a plain old regular public school. I am proud when my kids improve and I work to meet their individual needs. I do this whether they be in a “race to the top” position or if they are illiterate (ie; from another country struggling to just read English).I know each teacher struggles with the same challenges, often without support or acknowledgement. Teaching as a career deserves the public’s respect. One thing people may not know who are reading this is that charter schools get to pick the students that attend their school. Traditional public schools like mine must accept any child living in their zone.

Ultimately, I feel there is no “catch-all” that can solve the needs of a classroom or a school. It’s a day to day struggle and sometimes you fall down but you always get up. That’s the only model I know that is universal. When we focus on what the children really need and the support the teachers need to give it, we see a lot of need. I think it is self-evident the Charter model is not the “Superman” model. Charter schools can be good and they can be bad, just like plain old traditional public schools.

Internal vs. External Motivation for Teachers

Posted on by
1
Share

Having been a teacher since 1997, I’ve analyzed myself and other teachers quite a bit. One thing I have come to identify is when I am working and planning from internal motivation as opposed to external. Internal motivation has to do with ideals and morals. It is the extra plan you make for Johnny who is in fourth grade and still can barely read (hypothetical name and situation). It is the goals you set for yourself as a teacher and the expectations you set for your kids based on what you think is their best interest.

The external motivation is your evaluator. It is the way you will be perceived. It means putting up a wall that is required as opposed to using creativity to make it your own. I admit we cannot escape external demands on our profession. We must adhere, to a degree, to the required parameters we are mandated to. At the same time, I think it is abhorrent that some teachers identify this as the bare minimum and they only go as far is the external motivators require. There must be a balance.

Someone I knew at the district where I work died today. He was quite young and had a lot going for him professionally. Though he wasn’t in the classroom, he was revolutionizing the profession with technology and training hordes of teachers to use his website. His death was sudden and unexpected. It touched me because I respected his internal motivation. It was clear he wanted to help teachers and students succeed and accomplish great things in math. I remember him that way.

This has me thinking once again about my own motivation. If I want to be remembered for something I ought to be doing it. That is where the internal motivation comes in. Am I being true to my conscience as I plan and teach kids? Or, rather am I getting by on the bare minimum of mandates. Also, health needs to be a concern. It’s not always the I feel the best idea to work harder, sometimes you need to stop chopping and sharpen your axe. teachers are ones who can exceed mandates while being true to their own morals and values as educators. If this post does anything for you I would hope it caused you to ask yourself what your own mandates are. I call that internal motivation.

Is a Teaching Career a Safe Bet in this Economy?

Posted on by
Reply
Share

Below is an excerpt taken from an article I wrote, published at Blogcritics.

With economic woes at the forefront, young people choosing a career have their work cut out for them. A job like teaching, which once seemed to this Gen-Xer to be a solid choice, is now in question because of budget cuts. Not only could it prove difficult to keep a teaching job in the future, but even more likely, the pay could deteriorate below survival amounts. How can a government pay its teachers when it can’t even keep its books straight? The upside of this may be that only those who love teaching and feel “called” to it will apply. That, of course, would benefit the students of America.

Then again, maybe I am wrong. Maybe teachers will retain the decent position they have now on the food chain. Maybe the trade-off of teaching as opposed to working in business will remain a medium income with the security of a contract year after year. While some of my friends after high school sought business degrees and big salaries, I chose education. I have seen some of my friends crash and burn in their quest for the almighty dollar, and I have seen others flourish beyond what I ever believed possible. As for me, I am happy as a teacher, but some months are harder than others at just making ends meet.

Like most of you, I’ve been very concerned about the bailout crisis in American politics. I know we have a deficit in the trillions, and now Bush and others say we must write a $700 billion check from the future to the failed banks. Scary. I can’t help but wonder what will happen to teaching as a career. Our salaries come out of that empty pot from which they are pulling the $700 billion. But isn’t teaching a need of society? Won’t our government make sure that the children have the teachers they need and that the teachers are taken care of?

Read the whole article via A Teaching Career: Safe in this Economy? – Blogcritics Culture.

Cost of Paper vs. Whiteboard Markers

Posted on by
Reply
Share

I once thought of writing a book on this topic that would help districts save tens of thousands on paper costs.  I have some skeptics and that’s okay.  I had an excellent question in the comments in my post on “The Paperless Classroom“  which I address in this post. Beth asked how expensive whiteboard markers would be cheaper than paper usage.  I could think of no better way to answer this question than to do a budget breakdown for a school year with some fixed variables:

The variables:
24 kids in a class
10 month school year
600 lessons a year

Paper costs:
2 sheets for each lesson (This is a conservative number that we can assume is likely higher)= about $21.50/Month and $215.00/year

Dry erase costs:
24 markers can last 2 months min. = $15.29/Month and $152.90/year

Yearly savings:
$62.10 per classroom

Teaching Inspiration – On Losing the Dynamite

Posted on by
Reply
Share

This is still a post with a message I want to share. Never mind it being a back to school entry, the concepts resonate true three years later.

Well, today marked back to school for millions across the country. One teacher I read about last week quit her job. Another one I know is currently in counseling for hyper-anxiety. Yet another cries once in a while on her recess time and someone else I know is taking classes to advance. My point in those images is the fact that school is back in session whether we like it or not. Yes, teaching needs you as a teacher but it will go on whether you make the grade or not. This is one of the reasons I hope my future will be in teaching educators. Teachers need inspiration and encouragement in every school and every grade. On a personal note, I’ll be looking to my team teachers for inspiration for myself. This is an evaluation year for me. That means I will be watched a bit more closely all year and formally observed. After I am observed I will meet with my supervisor and he will give me a run down of what I need to improve and possibly he will mention to me what I am doing exemplary.

I had the most amazing year of my career last year so I am still on a bit of a high from that. It was the stuff that teacher inspiration is made of. I have written about a lot of it here in the archives. This year should be the same but I have a lower level of kids so there’s a different set of strategies I need to practice. It was an awesome first day. I have a team that teachers only dream about. They are supportive and thoughtful and talented and forgiving. I definitely need the “forgiving” some days. While I write a blog and have a few decent ideas, I am not perfect and occasionally, it is evident. I think some of the best teacher resources are other teachers. They can also bring you down so be careful who you allow into your world.

I talk about the Dynamite Lesson Plan and its power. Today, I felt like I lost the dynamite, I spent over an hour planning for tomorrow. Through a mixture of visual presentation, more breaks between the action, and marked focus on one standard as we begin to learn to work together, I feel tomorrow will capture their wonder better than today. What a great mantra when you’re discouraged. Tomorrow I will capture their wonder better than today. I know a lot of teachers may have had a day like mine. If you can envision yourself teaching class, keep that vision alive and follow it. 2009-2010 will be YOUR year. Remember the mantra, find your dynamite and don’t give up.