After Five Years

I was recently asked if I wish I had chosen to teach music instead (i.e., stuck with music). My response: "Nope." 

After five years of teaching, I feel like I've grown and learned more than I can even describe. That is exactly what I wanted. With music, I knew that I'd only grow musically (well, music teaches many life lessons, but I won't focus on that now). I wanted to do something that would make me grow on multiple levels. Teaching achieves that end.

It's a difficult job. It's underappreciated. The hours are long and we are constantly being observed, questioned, scrutinized, disrespected, blamed. You can't just know your content area really well to succeed at teaching (which in itself takes years of work), but you have to be good with people, too. You have to be able to read people, understand people, understand their incentives and motivations, understand what their actions mean, not take things personally, not hold grudges, not be afraid of conflict, not be afraid to lay down the law. You have to plan out everything (really, everything) and stand by and enforce your decisions. Speaking of decisions, I read recently that teachers make more minute-by-minute decisions than brain surgeons (which implies that we make more daily decisions than nearly every profession or job). You have extensive amounts of other tasks to complete besides planning lessons, grading, and working with students. Somehow, though—if you're tough and thoughtful and dogged in your efforts—you make it through the school year.

Today is my first day of freedom after another school year. This is always a time of self-reflection, a time to think about what went well, what could have been better, and what you will do to make next year better still. As I was cleaning up my classroom yesterday, waves of ideas rushed through my head about what I'll do next year to improve my practice and increase student achievement. In a weird way I felt like I could keep going, like I didn't really need summer break right now (even though I do). This school year was tough, and for a period of time I was feeling fairly negative. But I remember at a certain point I just decided to change my mindset and since then this was, unexpectedly, one of the best years yet despite new and unique challenges (such as having to teach out of three classrooms). I did better this year forming positive relationships with my students, and that led to so much else being better too.

Anyway, before I figure out how to be a normal person again, I felt like sharing some key revelations/discoveries after my five years about teaching, students, and the world of education. Here they are:

You have to innovate
I believe this realization occurred largely because I teach students in poverty who sometimes struggle with traditional classroom procedures and practices. These students need something new and unique and engaging for them to buy in to what you're teaching. When I teach Economics, I utilize a system in which students practice using and managing money. Using classroom money printed on green paper and simplified paper checks, they have to pay rent for their desks and pay taxes, they get paychecks twice a month and they can earn bonus money (usually for earning high grades), and they can receive fines if they fail to meet expectations or miss class (which improves attendance and behavior). I let them buy their desks if they want to, and I let them buy other students' desks if they both sign a rental agreement. We track all expenses on a bank log/check register sheet and I give them certain privileges if they have lots of money, such as writing one less short constructed response on a test. When I teach Civics, I form a class government, with students fulfilling the roles of representatives, senators, cabinet members, judges, and, of course, voters (I'm the president, naturally). We meet as a class congress and come up with new classroom policies, then we have the cabinet members check them, then the whole class votes, then the judges count the votes and decide if it's "constitutional." This system can be almost entirely student-led, but it does take lots of guidance from me. In addition to these two innovations, I am always trying new and different activities, student groupings, techniques, debate/discussion formats, etc. It's good for you and your students, and if something doesn't work out that well, it's not a big deal; what matters is that you tried and learned from it.

You have to have systems for everything
As some of you may have inferred from my innovations for Economics and Civics, having systems and structures to keep track of and organize everything is crucial. I've been told more than once by students, fellow teachers, and administrators that I'm the most organized teacher they've ever met. As I mentioned earlier, you have to plan out everything. If you don't do this, you'll find yourself less productive, stressed, and frazzled, and your students will notice. Furthermore, you have to teach some of your systems to your students. Just one example is how you will pass out papers to them (always from the east side of the room to the west, for example). What's so important about this "discovery" is this is the kind of thing you don't learn in teacher preparation programs, and often no one will tell you about this or help you with this — you have to figure it out on your own. You may have to print out additional class roster spreadsheets to track attendance, participation, behavior infractions, etc. The simple summary is that being organized makes everything easier. Teachers do so much behind the scenes — the kinds of things that would make a non-teacher fail almost instantly if he/she tried our job for a day.

Poverty
As someone who teaches in a low-income neighborhood, I see the devastating effects of poverty every day: poor attendance, lack of engagement, no sense of urgency, no desire to learn ("I've never seen anyone succeed because of an education, so why should I try?"). Systemic poverty is by far the single-biggest factor that impedes individual and thus societal improvement. Many students living in poverty have a warped view of the world, of what education is and what is does, of authority figures, of success, and of life in general. But it's not completely their fault. Even still, I've learned that we can't let poverty absolve people of their poor decisions, nor can we use it as a crutch or an excuse. Students in poverty can learn and grow and achieve, and it's our job to help them do that because without us, it might not happen. The simple fact is that disadvantaged parents beget disadvantaged children. But teachers, schools, and education can help to break the cycle of poverty. The challenge is, however, to convince kids in poverty that this is true because everything they've seen or heard or been taught contradicts our message. The most difficult part of my job is that I teach poor students. Many of them, however, have persevered and achieved great things. Even though I know it won't happen for all of them, the thing that's on my mind every day is how I can get more of them to overcome and achieve.

Parents

There is no doubt in my mind that parents shape their kids to an extent beyond most other factors. To put it simply, students with parents that care do better. I have some incredibly sad stories of bad parenting, and I've seen the effects of this firsthand. One time I had a girl come in crying. I asked what was wrong and she said that her mom forgot her birthday. As you might expect, this girl struggled in school immensely. I'm not a parent myself so I can't claim to be an expert, but I see too often that parents are almost afraid to upset their kids or something. I see a lack of boundaries, accountability, and discipline. Students have told me that their family is struggling with money and that's why they don't have a notebook, yet they'll come in on a Monday with a brand-new phone. I've had parents tell me that they "don't know what to do" with their son/daughter anymore. Whenever I hear that I always think to myself, "Hmm, my dad never had that problem." If you are a parent reading this, please make your kids read actual books and limit their screen time (phones/social media especially). Be a positive role model, lead by example, and hold your kids accountable for their actions.

Reading

As hinted at just now, I have seen that reading, or a lack thereof, is of paramount significance in a student's life and future. Today's culture is overly saturated with distractions that make reading real books seem like a last resort for entertainment, but, truly, students who read do better in school and in life. I've had freshmen outperform seniors and immigrants outperform citizens simply because they were students who read during their free time. Poverty plays a part in this. Studies have proven that when kids grow up in households without books and parents who read, they're behind in school. Working-class parents typically don't have time to read and came from working-class families themselves (the cycle of poverty is clearly evident). I cannot stress enough that kids need to be reading. We all do. It is THE skill.

Phones and social media
Inarguably, smart phones and the Internet have forever changed our world. Kids, teenagers, and adults alike are addicted. It should come as no surprise that this addiction is having adverse effects in our classrooms. Teachers are forced to fight an almost unwinnable battle each class period. Students are earning lower grades than they should be earning because they missed an important part of a lesson or they aren't getting their work done because they are distracted by their phones. They aren't doing their homework because there's no one telling them to put the phone away and they don't have the self-control to put it away themselves, because why stop doing something that's pleasurable? Students don't understand that using a phone while someone is speaking to them is disrespectful. Parents are calling and texting their kids during class. Parents are buying their kids phones instead of school supplies. Parents aren't taking phones away when kids are in trouble.

For the final exam this past week, I had students turn in their phones to me in order to receive their final. It was amazing. It was a great feeling. Next year I will not teach if a phone is visible. They will put their phone in the phone parking lot, give it to me, or keep it in their backpacks. It will be a battle at first, but it will change everything. This year I didn't do a good enough job of making them keep their phones away, and it caused lots of problems. I finally learned my lesson.

I have also noticed that social media specifically is negatively affecting teenagers. Many of my students complain about not having friends despite having hundreds of "friends" on social media. Many of them have told me they wish they had a friend. I ask, "Well, who are you texting all the time then?" They say they aren't really that close with anyone. Social media is making these teenagers kind of socially awkward: they're more comfortable texting/messaging than they are talking and hanging out in person. The constant comparisons to others' lives being made while viewing social media is making kids anxious, unconfident, and depressed. The classic economic principle of unintended consequences is all too relevant here. I just hope that in the future I can keep them off of social media in my classes.

My creation: The Phone Parking Lot.

Teenagers are very perceptive

One of the biggest things I've learned (that I was never taught, by the way) is that students respond to your mood. That is, if the teacher is calm, the students will be more calm, and if the teacher is emotional, the students will be too. They listen closely to you and see you as either an example of what to be or what not to be. It's always surprising when a student points out or recites something I said in class once. It's always like, "You still remember that?" With this in mind, I believe it's incredibly important to always be cognizant that your students are watching you very closely. They see my habits, my quirks, my systems and routines, everything. I always try to handle things tactfully and calmly because I want to be a positive, professional role model.

We have to teach them how to be students
Something that became more evident this year than ever before is that most of my students didn't understand the difference between professional and casual. We want our classrooms to be professional, academic environments, but do we take enough time to teach our students what that even means? Similar to the idea that telling a student to "pay attention" is way too vague (Does "pay attention" tell students where they should be looking? Does it tell them how they should be listening?), asking them to behave professionally must be taught. I can't count the number of times I've tried to begin class with half of the students still looking down at their phones and/or listening to music. The bell rang, the teacher is standing at the front waiting to speak, yet the students aren't ready. Some, I've learned, don't know what "ready" is unless we tell them. This at least partly due to my students' home lives. Working-class families are less likely to attend formal events such as symphonies, operas, plays, and so on, thus the notion that at some places you have to act differently than you do at home can be a foreign concept to some. We have to teach them how to shift their mindsets once they're in our classrooms, how to act, how to respond, how to behave in general. What may be common sense in well-to-do suburban schools is not in urban schools.

Teachers: Follow your own advice
Since I was the last teacher to leave for summer break (not exaggerating — I left at 7 p.m.), I know now that I need to do a better job of following my own advice. Don't procrastinate, don't be lazy, don't make excuses, ask for help sometimes, and work hard. The week before finals I decided to watch 13 Reasons Why instead of grade, and that led me to being way behind the week of finals and up to the last day of the year. I learned my lesson.