August 19, 2011
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The LIVE Jive! And a Happy Friday to yuz!!!
The Daily News
1 Thursday LIVE from the Chill: My third period students look terribly bored right now. Yup. This first part of the DN comes to you LIVE Thursday 8/18/11 from P207, EVHS! Thought I’d bring a bit of Classroom Verite’ to yuz. So here goes: Advice to beginning teachers: I haven’t seen any heads crash to the desks yet, but that usually happens during lectures. I used to have a four-head rule. If you see three heads down, time to cut the lecture short; it’s already a dead soldier. Four heads and the place looks like the last act of Hamlet. Avoid this. It is a death knell to thought. Last period was my first of the day, and they were cooperative, and did my basic plan. This period looks a bit bored. But I can use a few cardinal rules to see to it that the overall plan works. Lecture briefly, do classwork, share ideas. Watch for the four heads. One head down is a sleeper. Two is a red-flag. These are rules by which a teacher can survive.
2 I likewise have the Six-Yawn Rule on classwork. Better to cut it short a yawn and get out there fielding answers than waiting for some guy to finish up his open-mouthed yawn, seeing his ears get redder and redder, and watching as his head eventually falls to the floor and rolls out of the room. This isn’t really spirited teaching, but good gauges as to where things are in the moment. The things you learn.
3 Later in the Day, Part 1: Thought I’d get this stuff down for the DN readers today. This comes to you LIVE from my fourth period class. I’ve already seen three yawns and some texting. Better get out there and jump through a few hoops. Classwork can become an occupational hazard. Get out there and take charge. Now.
4 Not a moment too soon.
5 That last item was all streaming LIVE action from my fourth period class, mind you. I had lectured briefly, and then given the class a Mensa test as classwork. It began to take a bit of time, but I knew that when the yawns started, and the bits of conversation began, to set a five-minute timer in my head. This stuff takes deft timing, great agility, and an ability to allow kids time to socialize. This period I saved from certain death. I put them into groups, and had them teach one another. Instant success!
6 They all took the Mensa test, and once they were free to roam, they taught each other how they came up with answers. Worked perfectly. No lecture from me; I just walked around and guided. I’d rather be a guardian angel than a lecturing, crashing bore. The secret was to trust in my own patience. I KNEW they would begin getting bored. Sometimes we can use boredom to our advantage. I saw three active, stretching yawns and that signaled me that they were good for no more than five more minutes. And trust me, as I said, TWO yawns is a red flag. But I steered the course, and used a bit of boredom to achieve a better end to the period.
7 What this achieves is a hunger to chat, and if played right, a hunger to share frustrations, and to bond. It tends to work every time. And once I release the hounds, they get energized, and excited about helping one another with questions that seemed really difficult. While it sounds goofy, they become explosively active and laughing, and they learn WAY more than if I stood over them at a lectern the last ten minutes of class. That would be no less than the reaper standing there like a dark shade.
8 Time has passed. This is coming to you a period later, fifth period, right before lunch. This class took charge! Instead of each student figuring out the Mensa questions individually, THIS class immediately started working together naturally, which was really pretty lively and fun! I circulated and gave them hints if they needed them, and then moved swiftly away from the danger. Towards the end of the period, I stopped them briefly, gave a few hints, and then allowed them to resume their group work.This class took on a life of its own, and got to the sharing portion earlier, but it worked better. Less torture, zero yawns, and no heads down! It could have disintegrated into social time, but I circulated and gave “hints” if they needed hints. It became a challenge for each group, and by the end, they climbed all over one another trying to work out the answers. Perfect. You can’t do this with all your classes, because some will get off task. These guys were spot on task, and it showed.
9 Still later: After a quick lunch in which a few ex-students came in to visit, I returned to a quiet prep period, and then for my last class of the day. They came in pretty rowdy, and I was certain they would climb out of control by 2:45, but when I gave them the “you may begin” command to do their work, they remained unconscionably quiet. It’s 2:50 as I write this item and my class is insanely quiet. It’s unnatural! I fully intend to awaken them in a minute or two just so I know they’re normal! They are ALL on task and working. I even took a picture. I wish I had gotten the clock in, but here is the picture. I took this right after I wrote that “It’s 2:50…”:
This is my seventh period class at 2:50.
A minute later they were all over each other sharing
answers and enjoying the end of the day!10 The final bell just rang, and I’m writing this after school. Here’s what happened. Within a minute of that last item, I told them that I was proud that they stayed on task until 2:50, but that it had me worried! I thought they were in some insidious plot to overthrow my classroom! I told them they could now talk with friends to see how they did on the Mensa questions, and instantly the room became explosively active and fun! I LOVED it! I gave hints, and then they got answered, high-fived, and before long, laughter and giggles ensued to the end of the period. I didn’t think to take a pictue of the ensuing chaos, but it was jublilant!
11 I hit a three at the final buzzer!
12 And yes, John Le, that one was for you, teach!
13 Awesome! WAY fun day! If it were sports, I’d be 3-0.
14 Another amazing day. I used boredom at midday to keep it controlled, and was able to monitor the socializing so that it remained focused on the learning. Each period had its own pace, and as a seasoned veteran, I was able to control the tempo of every single period.
15 Well, of course, I got home super-charged that things seem to be going right after three days.
16 Since it’s now Friday, I believe I’m at least able to relax my shoulders, and then put it against the wheel today. Whatever that means.
17 Always scary.
18 But for right now, things are calm.
19 I won’t go further on that one, but I definitely feel that my students were engaged, and learning exactly what I wanted them to learn yesterday. We are now in present time. It’s around 7:30 a.m. Friday morning, and I’m feeling good.
20 As a “professional”, I feel that these guys are already focused and ready, as am I.
21 Loved yesterday.
22 The challenge of writing LIVE DN’s is that I forget that the readers are a day ahead, or a morning ahead, in this case, a Friday morning. Coffee, oatmeal, and chuckles. Or perhaps orange juice, toast and jam. Or maybe a bit of tea and sympathy. Starters. It’s Friday. Who’s ready? Dress down and sprint to the finish today. Finish strong.
23 And so… It is no longer a LIVE session. It is a sort of reflection of the day before. Thinking back on it, I’m pretty glad that I used a bit of boredom with my third; it’s a class size of 35, which is atomically too many. There is a reading class next door, so the quieter I can keep it, the better. The last five minutes of the classwork was certainly a stretch, but it all worked. As a younger teacher, I would have caved, and they would have been WAY noisy too early. The way it worked was perfect.
24 I was also visited by the inimitable Sparky at the end of that period, right after I had let the students share their answers. I had put on some Jack Johnson as background music, and they focused on the answers to the Mensa quiz. Some got answers that others didn’t, so it really meshed.
25 I hadn’t seen Sparky in ages, but have been in touch. It was great seeing him. I explained my techniques, and he saw immediately the results, which he agreed were clearly working.
26 Sparks was my sound guy in my latter days of directing, and he moved up to EV almost with me. In my days as Activities Director, he became my sound guy when we would have events in the school’s theater. Most of those gigs were paid, so he got paid to do sound for various groups. It worked out great, because I’m okay with sound, but Sparky is extraordinary, as anyone who has ever worked with him knows.
27 He’s a classic YB Class of ’05 goofball, but professionally, a sound guy extraordinaire. The best of all worlds.
28 He sat in on two classes, and he instantly realized that I was completely focused on my students. As I directed the class, I explained ideas and techniques. He had me as a student a few years ago, and he could see that my classes are much more structured, and deliberate. It’s a subtle change, but a definite improvement, because everything is planned, and planned with contingency plans built in. Call it a fail-safe operation, perhaps.
29 Or perhaps not. I’m going in today, a Friday, with full hopes of getting through it all again. Each day is its own operation. Fridays are their own charge. Friday mentalities are WAY different. All human beings, but Californians in particular have a mentality that Friday counts as a weekend day. Weekends in California tend to begin on Thursday nights. So there’s an entirely different operation going on when it’s Friday.
30 So it’s a bit risky for me to review the answers today. If that’s ALL I do, they’ll tune completely out and start talking about their weekends, boyfriends, things they love and hate, Facebook, and all the rest. But this week began a day late, so it’s a little out of whack.
31 What I’ll do today is allow them time to finish up figuring out the answers, group them, and then go through the answers asking for a spokesperson from each group, always a scary thing. The Mensa questions are intelligent, and many of them are really difficult. They were just getting close to the answers to the toughest challenges when the bell rang each period yesterday.
32 So my gamble is to let them socialize and come up with all the right answers, and to spend the second half of the class sharing. I took the test last Friday, and did pretty well on it, but there were a few questions that took me a long time to figure out. The trick is this: I got the answers a week ago, on my own, but how do I explain how I got the answers? I typed up a sheet the other night, but I have to be completely on my game today, even though it is Friday. “I don’t remember HOW I got this answer!” doesn’t work for students.
33 Fortunately, I put in a few hours on Wednesday night, and typed up all of my notes in duplicate.
34 Still…it’s a Friday. With class sizes 35 and up, I can’t afford disorganized chaos.
35 All this, and I have yet to grade a single paper. So as cocky as all this sounds, there is still a boatload of work to do before I get into a steady rhythm.
36 But that’s for another time. The reality is that I got through the first week with a lot of hard work and subsequent success, always a challenge. You establish the tenor of your class the first week. If you make it TOO boring, it stays boring. If you allow TOO much rowdiness, it establishes itself as rowdy and freewheeling.
37 Today will be the test. At least for me. I have to tone down the socializing, and keep a steady keel on making sure things are controlled. It won’t be easy, but I am blessed that I have made most of my mistakes in the distant past.
38 Fingers crossed. Today will define a LOT of the year, so I still walk with leaden feet on a lot of fragile eggs. I’ll dress down, but I’ll sport school colors today, which we do on Fridays.
39 It’s a challenge, and a challenge I don’t mind sharing with DN readers.
40 So there you have it. Some LIVE reporting, directly from the front lines. And perhaps some insight into a week in the life of a teacher, and a first-hand glance at Opening Week in a neighborhood school.
41 Now it’s time for me to get ready, and for you to fold this thing up and get on your way. You have things to do. Time for all of us to get to gettin’.
42 Have a fun weekend; I’ll report back on Monday.
43 See ya agin.
44 Peace.
~H~
