Posts from — December 2007

Filed under “Another-Opportunity-to-Get-Back-to-Teaching,” I am now officially an “adjunct instructor” for Colorado State University.

As I have mentioned before, undergraduate students in CSU’s School of Education take a “capstone” course in the semester before they student teach. The course is structured so that the college students meet two days a week on the campus of one of five area high schools. Our school happens to be one of the five - a “Professional Development School” or “PDS.”

The idea behind the course is that the college folk meet during our school day and the pre-service teachers spend 90 minutes in an actual classroom with one of our teachers and then 90 minutes together debriefing and pulling together a practical framework for all the theory they’ve been taught. As the class is structured, it is co-taught by a University professor and a school-based person — the ideal marriage of theory and practice, right?

So as you may have guessed by now, starting in January, I am going to play the role of the school-based half of this equation. Of course, I have to waive receiving payment for doing this because the class meets during my regular work day, but I’m not really in it for the money as much as the experience. I have had some great mentors in my career and I have continued to make it an important part of my career to “give back” to those entering the profession.

Fortunately, I have a very enlightened principal who is supportive of my personal goals (after all, this will be six hours each week that I’m in the building, but not “in my office”) and who has the foresight to see this as a perfect opportunity to “grow our own.” After all, I’ll get to know these pre-teachers before they student teach and, for some who end up here with us, while they student teach. Talk about an extended job interview.

And once again, there’s the street cred thing. I’ll be teaching again. And I’ll be practicing what I preach.

The good people at Behance, creators of the Action Method and purveyors of cool productivity stuff, recently featured an article that questions the value of some of the things we were taught in school (and, of course, still teach our students). It’s definitely worth the minute it’ll take you to read it.

On “memorizing”:

Memorizing takes up mental space and leads to forgetting… Memorizing also consumes our precious energy for creativity.

On “note-taking”:

Note taking…has become a vestige skill. Amidst our busy lives, we’re lucky to complete our action steps, yet alone have time to read old notes.

I’ve struggled with the note-taking thing myself. In my case, though, I’ve found that the actual, kinesthetic act of writing the notes down helps me remember them regardless of whether I ever review them again.

One thing I have been more cognizant of since first discovering their “Action Method” is spending time in meetings capturing actions that need to be completed rather than a blow-by-blow of everything that was discussed.

The implications for education? Well - take this for what it’s worth from a recovering, traditional math teacher (take notes, do homework, do test, repeat…) - but what would could we do with our students if they didn’t have to spend their time memorizing facts?

No, I haven’t lost my job as an assistant principal, I’m just trying to redefine it a little bit.

You’ve heard it before. It’s been played out and talked to death in grad school programs around the country and beat nearly to death around the blogosphere:

School administrators are no longer just able to act as managers. They need to be instructional leaders.

The trouble is, if we aren’t good teachers and learners, how do we know good teaching and learning when we see it? And if we don’t know it when we see it, how can we possibly be expected to lead it?

Sure, we have checklists and observation instruments to help us collect data during classroom observations, but quantifying a teacher based on a checklist and one 20-30 minute visit? Come on - we argue against doing that to kids - how can it possibly be used to help a teacher improve his or her instruction in the classroom?

I believe that we are what we repeatedly do. If teachers and students see us sitting in our offices plugging away on paperwork and doling out discipline, that becomes our job description. On the other hand, if we spend time out in the building, visiting classrooms, even teaching classes, it will go along way toward being seen in that other light. I’m a teacher and I’ve never stopped trying to improve at it.

Sounds easy. We’ve, of course, heard it before. But I made a commitment this year to actually do it instead of just talking and reading about it. The side effects? Here’s a mid-year report on some of my findings:

• I’ve finished all of my “district-required” teacher evals. So I can just sit in my office and coast until May, right? No. In fact, the side effect of this one is that when my teachers know that their evals are done, my continued presence in their classrooms is a little less threatening. Suddenly, I’m there to support, not to evaluate. That in itself has changed the teacher/administrator dynamic. We’ve gotten the “official” stuff out of the way - now let’s get down to the good stuff.
• I’m in classrooms. A lot. My proudest moment this year was when a student came up to me in the halls and said, “So, like, what are you? In all my classes or something?”
• Teaching a class, even if it’s just occasionally, earns you instant credibility with students. Who would’ve thunk it? I taught one Calculus class for a teacher on Monday and now the students — students who I would typically never get to meet — are high-fiving me in the hall and calling me Mr. Calculus. They asked the teacher if she would always get Mr. Elias to “sub” for her. Now, I’m not saying I did a bang-up job in there - I did OK. But I think the novelty of having an administrator who actually taught (read: didn’t just get called in to babysit while the “real” sub was on the way in) kept them engaged. Plus, I’m sure watching me struggle through a bleary recollection and attempted explanation of Rolle’s Theorem, while painful for me, was especially enjoyable for them.
• Teaching a class, even if it’s just occasionally, earns you instant credibility with teachers. I had some appreciative comments from the math department for stepping in. But who would have expected a Language Arts teacher to walk up to me yesterday and remark, “I heard you’re a pretty good Calculus teacher.” The kids are being very generous, of course, but it was nice to hear just the same.

So I didn’t think I was doing anything special, but lo and behold the little things add up. I’ve earned instant street cred. Now when I talk about instruction, my audience knows I’m not afraid to walk the walk.

It’s made me a better administrator instructional leader, it’s improved my job satisfaction (I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked before, but on good stuff instead of a constant stream of disciplinary infractions!), and it’s made me aspire to be a better teacher myself.

It’s taken me a few years to get to this point, but it’s been worth the ride. So, administrators, if you’re sitting in your office mired in paperwork and a stack of referrals, stand up, grab a master schedule, and start wandering in and out of classrooms. Check to see which teachers will be out of the building on Friday and offer to pick up a class or two for them - it’s a busy sub day in most schools so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding an uncovered class or two!

We are what we repeatedly do. So make sure that what you’re doing is the stuff that really matters.

I taught math for eight years. I have a bachelors degree in it for crying out loud. So why am I sitting here so nervous about taking over an AP Calculus class for one period? I’m doing this as a favor for one of our math teachers who is out of the building today.

It’s like riding a bike, right?

That was the bell - time to go. Expect a full report on my experience later.