Confessions from the Couch » Crippling my students?

Crippling my students?

Tonight, I had sushi at a local resturant. While dining at the bar, the server stopped to chat with me about the book I was reading. I told her, “I guess I do a lot of reading b/c I’m a history teacher.” This excited her. She was only about 20 years old. In fact, her sister had graduated from the school “my school.”

As we chatted, I found out that she was from Boston. She told me that the teachers here and there are VERY different. She said everything was slower down here. We really take our time covering material. . . the South has much slower pace, she told me. She explained that:

Her teachers didn’t teach information in the textbook instead they used a whole bunch of different sources; the tests didn’t just cover things in the textbook; they covered outside readings and info found in the lecture.
Students up North were required to do more listening. The teachers pretty much talked the entire time.
She was given homework every night. She said she could spend anywhere from 4-6 hours each night doing homework.
The homework/classwork/projects required students to think. Really think. She said that she wasn’t just asked to regurgitate info covered in class, sometimes she’d have to think really hard about the work she was doing.
The make up policy was quite different. If you missed a homework assignment, you got a zero and didn’t get a chance to make it up. Sometimes, the teacher might let you make it up at the end of the term, but the assignment was much more difficult that the original. So most students felt like they must do the original.
The teachers were much more strict.

On the drive home, I thought about how I must be crippling my students. I am not teaching my students to work for the information. I don’t know if I’m requiring my students to think enough–and they certainly don’t get that much extra practice outside of class, especially since I eliminated homework. I’m worried that my students won’t be prepared for college if they should decide to go–and it will be my fault.

My students simply can’t listen for an hour while I lecture. It feels like my classroom is activity after activity after activity . . . .This is to keep them engaged. But, do I really challenging their thinking skills? Will they be able to write and think when they go to college?

I keep struggling with the basics with my students–bringing a book to class is the infraction that challenges me the most. I tried calling parents and that really didn’t work. There is no way they can do the assignments without a book. They can’t even do the group work without a book. So I’ve taken to copying the text book and passing those out as needed–>I am crippling them! I plan to ask for a classroom set of textbooks for next year–but when do we start making the students responsible?

So, I guess I’m reflecting and asking myself the following questions: Is it possible that iI am simply accommodating my students? How can I challenge them to think? Should I use more direct instruction to prepare them for college? What do I need to do differently in my classroom management so that the students will bring a book to do the activities & assignments? Should I pick up the pace? Am I enabling them and their bad behaviors? How do I promote discipline?

classroom management, students | Miss Teacha | March 6, 2008 6:58 pm

10 Comments

By Frumteacher, March 7, 2008 @ 2:55 am

Those are a lot of questions

I think each type of students demands its own type of instruction. What works for the Boston kids doesn’t necesarrily work for your students. The goal is to have them master the material. I don’t think it matters how you achieve the goal. If your students master the material by doing activities, in stead of ‘just’ listening to the teacher talking in front of the blackboard, then that’s ok if you ask me.

What is certainly NOT ok is the book issue. I am dealing with the same issues. It took me two years to get over the fact that students come to school without books, notebooks and pens. But you know what? If they can think of bringing their Ipod, make-up or magazines, they should be able to bring their books too. I now decided not to allow a student to participate in class without his books. He either gets sent to the office or, even better, gets written down and has to sit separately and work on a separate assignment. Students DONT like this. Since I started applying this rule, hardly any student dares to come in without his books. It’s worth trying!

BTW, how was the sushi?
By Mystery Teacher, March 7, 2008 @ 12:55 pm

I would love to teach that way. We used to be able to do it. But, there was too much disparity in education and so now they require us to use text books. I hold kids responsible for assignments and make-up work. However, it is much harder holding parents responsible. They are the reason my students don’t get work done on time. “My mom says we are going to town tonight and I can’t do any homework.” “Do it on the drive.” “Oh.”
By Kary, March 7, 2008 @ 5:14 pm

I saw in the morning addition of the paper and this made me think of what you wrote. A lot of what is going on is not the teachers fault. You have parents that do not care about their kidsor their education, they say they do, but they show that they do not by their lack of support. The students do not care because their parents do not care. So we get students that are not on grade level, they read at a 3rd grade level in 11th or 12th grade, becuase they hate to read, they have been forced to read boring books in English class and think all books are that way.
So here is the article I saw.

Officials and teachers affiliated with the Alliance AFT came out firing Friday morning, saying they are sick of being bullied and targeted for termination by lawmakers who don’t know what they are doing.

They say poor performance in the classroom goes beyond failing standardized tests, and it’s time for the public to know what teachers have to endure in the classroom.

Mary Strickland is a math teacher who is being fired by DISD because her students have performed poorly for two straight years. “I personally have many students who come to me far below grade level, yet my paycheck is going to depend on a high stakes test at the ninth grade level — when most of my students are not anywhere near the ninth grade level,” she said.

Strickland added that she lacks teaching supplies, parental support and administrative support. She and others who are afraid to speak out live in perpetual fear for their jobs.
By Joel, March 7, 2008 @ 6:02 pm

Echoing some of the other comments here. What works in one place doesn’t necessarily work in another. The family background and living situations are a huge factor.

Teachers at my school now seem to give full credit for late work as long as it comes in before the end of the six weeks. When I was in school, and in my previous district, that was not the case. But we also didn’t have over half of the middle school band students failing a week before the end of the grading period there.

Hang in there. Try to bring some material from outside sources in, but keep in mind you need to teach your students and not some hypothetical perfect class or whatever. Your job is to make your students succeed.
By The Virtual Teacher, March 7, 2008 @ 8:38 pm

You need to teach in a way that works for you and your students. I have to agree that using sources beyond the text can only enrich the class, but there you are reading a history book in a restaurant – I’m guessing that whatever it is about will work its way into a lesson sometime. Getting kids to think and analyze is clearly important. I bet all your activities to keep the students engaged are also getting them to think. They wouldn’t be very engaging activities if they were all about regurgitation. Your activities are also probably much better at meeting a variety of learning styles than if you simply lectured. If we want to have healthy, thinking students, they need to be well-rounded. When do they have time for anything but academics with 4-6 hours of homework per night?

All in all, you are probably doing a fantastic job. You just need to solve the textbook problem. Maybe it is enabling their behaviour to find alternate solutions to the textbook question. On the other hand, how much would they be learning if they didn’t have that resource to be able to participate. That’s a tough one that I am glad not to have to face with my students. Good Luck.
By Edward Carson, March 8, 2008 @ 8:46 am

To prevent me from talking too much and to better engage students in the dicussion, I give them different types of discussion sets and activities to do while reading for our class meeting. I have only done this in US and European history; I hope to add World next year.

Here is a link to my syllabi home page:

http://carsonduboi.googlepages.com/courses
By Miss Profe, March 9, 2008 @ 10:40 am

The way the person at the restaurant described her educational experience echoes my own. I am from New England.

I believe that as a teacher you have to have high expectations, but the expectations should be reasonable and attainable. You do have state standards, and perhaps even district standards. Use those in order to gauge what students should know and be able to do, an then modify accordingly.
By Eileen, March 9, 2008 @ 3:55 pm

I don’t think you are crippling the students who don’t bring their books. Those are the students who will never make it to/through college anyway! The students who DO bring their books are the ones who will go on to college. So, what that means is that you are helping the ones who do not go to college to have a better education than they would otherwise be having. Kudos to you!! You are doing your best with a really difficult situation.

Best regards,
Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com
By DrPezz, March 15, 2008 @ 11:26 am

I think you have to work within your comfort zone (and out of it on occasion), but more than that everything you compose on this blog shows you to be a caring, industrious, and dedicated teacher. You obviously do your best with the kids, and I’m sure they see it as well. Keep up the great work!

By the way–

Since I enjoy reading your blog, I’d be interested to see what you come up with using this meme:

http://drpezz.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/meme-passion-quilt/
By David Fordee, March 15, 2008 @ 8:26 pm

I always think it is best to diversify. I do straight lecture/notes. But, i also have the students work on projects over a long period (usually 3 to 4 weeks) and then present them to the class. We work in groups some. We do Socratic seminar and philosophical chairs. But, it’s the mix that makes it work. What some students love, others hate. What gets the job done for Billy, doesn’t for Susie. So you have to keep it fresh.

The kids love coming into my room and never knowing what to expect. They know it’s never the same old same old. So to me, just keep doing what you are doing. Trying new things.

But, don’t be afraid to ask your students and parents (I communicate through email often) what they think. What they like. And ask how they think you can do your job better. Just asking makes things better.