Challenges 1 and 2

Help!! I need lesson plans for the first week of school and have no clue what the curriculum is or how to create a lesson plan that supports the district philosophy. Where do I go? Who do I see?

Well to begin I would venture to say that the district philosophy is to ensure that students know what the big picture is and what they need to do to understand the material. A lesson plan that supports this philosophy would have students engaged in a variety of instructional methods. Some direct instruction, some hands on, some individual, some in groups. The teacher would frequently check if the instruction was working and take corrective actions when necessary. Remember what Chris Demers said—we need to teach more like art teachers and coaches—with corrective action coming immediately not delayed till a test.

To find what the curriculum is teachers, even veteran teachers, should consult the teachers in the building who have gone before them. Lesson planning alone should be avoided. There is someone in your building who has taught chemistry before and someone who has taught second grade for 25 years. My mentor didn’t tell me what to do but she did provide every single activity that she had used the previous year. That meant that I began my teaching with activities that were created after 16 years of teaching experience. Why would we want to do it any other way? She sat with me and explained how she had used each one and made suggestions for how I might use them. She provided samples of the notes she had given and let me know about possible pitfalls I might encounter. When I had difficulty I went to her and said—this didn’t work…what did I do wrong. And I would go into her room and watch her teach something that I had never taught before. I hope this is how it will work for you.

I’ve noticed that after lunch, my students are dozing off in class… What can I do to keep them engaged?

My high school students do this because they often consume lunches consisting of ketchup packets and energy drinks loaded with sugar. I’m not kidding by the way, I can’t tell you how many boys come in and tell me that they were in a ketchup packet eating contest at lunch. This inevitably leads to a crash at some point.

Research on high school students tells us that we should never go more that 20 minutes on one activity. Even in AP Biology where we think the kids might be able to take longer—go for 20 minutes only. At the younger grades the time goes down accordingly. This approach also makes sure that you are varying your teaching style and approach during the class or day.

Rick Wormeli, a leading speaker and writer on assessment and instruction, cites research showing that tiredness is often caused by dehydration. Seems silly but it is really important to allow water breaks often during class. At the high school level if I see a sleeping or nodding student I make them get up and go get a drink. The walk wakes them up and it alerts me that I may have gone on too long with my talking.

Finally, don’t be offended by a child who is nodding off—unless they do it all the time. Use it as a sign that tells you—if this kid can’t even stay awake then I bet the other kids aren’t super engaged either. Use it as a critique of yourself and say, “Why aren’t the kids engaged with what we are doing right now?” You can use simple techniques like popsicle sticks to make sure everyone is listening. Write down every student’s name on a popsicle stick and pull them out of a can when asking questions. Dylan Wiliam has shown that this simple approach can increase engagement from a handful of students to nearly everyone in the class.

Collaboration and Communication

This is a section from the “synthesis” paper I have been working on. It is a first draft and I would love comments and suggestions.

Collaboration and Communication
When we had our first child my wife was in labor for 12 hours. During the 10 hours of that that we were in the hospital we must have seen 15 or 20 people. There was one wonderful nurse, Heather, who was assigned to work with my wife and I. But there were also other key people involved in the birth. Dr. Heidi, our obstetrician was there, of course and there were many other nurses and specialists.

If we compare the day to education Heather the nurse was like the classroom teacher and Dr. Heidi was the principal. The other nurses were like other teachers in the building. The people who drew blood were the specialists. The main difference in how they worked and how a school works is how they worked together. When Dr. Heidi would come in Heather wasn’t scared—she was excited. She would ask questions and make sure that she was doing all that she could for my wife and I. In turn, Dr. Heidi didn’t shout demands or give orders, she conferred with Heather and made suggestions about what might work in given situations. When my wife requested an epidural Heather, Dr. Heidi my wife and I all talked about the positives and negatives. They even suggested an alternative that we tried first. It wound up not working but we were glad we had tried everything before going to the drugs. (Once we went to the drugs my wife was quite happy.)

When our baby was born Heather stayed with us until the next nurse came on. Before leaving to go home she talked at great length with the new nurse and told her everything about us and our baby. The baby was five weeks early but was otherwise fine, vital signs, etc. Only then did she leave us. Since the baby was five weeks early a special nurse was called in. This nurse took a look at our child and concluded that our baby didn’t need extra help so she didn’t need to stay.

The analogies to education are obvious but the key thing we can learn from the medical profession is how they communicate profusely and how they collaborate with the interest of the patient foremost in their minds. As teachers when we collaborate (if we collaborate) it too often becomes a game of who is the better teacher. This thinking needs to go away. The vast majority of teachers are good, just in different ways. We need to lean on the strengths of other teachers to improve in the areas where they are a little stronger.

A few years ago someone told me how much work they had to do over the summer because they were teaching a new course. I asked them if anyone else in the department had ever taught it. They replied that about 6 other teachers had taught the course. It was clear from the rest of our conversation that the teacher wasn’t going to get much help from the other teachers on planning the course. Why? Imagine two dentists working in adjacent rooms. One knows a new tooth whitening technique, the other does not. Would the first dentist tell the second dentist to read about the technique to figure it out themselves? Of course not. So why do we have to behave this way in education.

Someone once told me that a new teacher was hired who had previously taught in Japan. She was told to come up with a lesson plan for a particular unit and said she couldn’t do it. When asked why she explained that she had never planned a lesson by herself—they just don’t do it that way in Japan. Doctors and nurses have learned that their collective knowledge is much more useful when there is a great deal of sharing and communicating. As teachers we need to work in the same way.