The (Good) but Mostly the Bad and the Ugly

Hard Knock Life

Ahh teachers. We get summers off, we’re done teaching at 3 p.m. (if only), and we have a nice little winter and spring break to hold us over until the school year is done. Our students always raise their hands when we ask questions. They always pay attention to us. Who wouldn’t want to teach???

Unlike Fergie’s life, teaching isn’t all that

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S.

Read on to find out my personal opinions on the hardest part of a teacher’s life and some solutions on how to steer clear of these issues.

Motivation

I’m not talking about a teacher’s motivation here, although that lacks sometimes too. Nope. This time I’m talking about our students’ motivation. When students aren’t motivated to learn you might as well be teaching a brick wall about the nervous system, not a classroom full of 23 students.

I find this picture a perfect representation of how to get and keep your classroom motivated.

• To first obtain students’ motivation, you have to teach to please them. Students will be much more willing to learn the water cycle if you make it relevant to them.
  • Like in a Co-op Co-op, have students write down students’ interests about a particular topic at the start of a unit.
• Offer feedback and encouragement
  • If you hand a student an assignment and tell them it’s important but then don’t offer feedback, congrats! You mastered the art of busy work. Engage with your students and their work by offering feedback to every student. If they know their work means something, odds are they’ll try harder.
• Don’t be a Sad Sally. Or a Grumpy Glinda.
  • Attitude is everything, people!! If you stand at the front of the room and read off of a powerpoint in the most monotone voice known to mankind, your students will probably look at you with the most unhappy or blank stare ever seen. If you’re excited, they will feed off of it!!
• Intrinsic motivation
  • There is absolutely NOWHERE on that picture that says giving your students candy will motivate them. Maybe it works for about 5 minutes, but in the long term, extrinsic motivation just doesn’t cut it.
  • Watch the video below for the author of Drive, Daniel Pink’s explanation about motivation.

Pet Peeves

It’s horrible I know. I shouldn’t care what other people say. But I’m human right? If only students listened the first time.

Here’s a comprehensive list of my pet peeves when it comes to other people’s input (that I definitely did not ask for).

• “Oh you’re a teacher? Do you just cut out snowflakes and flowers and put gold stickers on worksheets?”
  • If you know someone like this, the only solution I have is to unfriend them.
•  “Oh you want to teach high school science? Why don’t you just become a biologist?”
  • Maybe because I like human interaction and don’t just want to stand in a lab all day, Becky.
• “Can I have extra credit?”- the failing student who doesn’t do the regular assignments.
  • Stick to your guns. The majority of the students who ask for extra credit are the ones that didn’t fill out the biome foldable the first time around.
• “Do we have anything due today?”
  • This one baffles me. If you know you didn’t complete any homework last night for a class, WHY ON EARTH would you ask if anything is due. You clearly didn’t do it, Jimmy.

https://twitter.com/ClaireCreight10/status/1123578427431370752

Standardized Tests

This one is a doozy. It’s also one of the things that plagues my mind when I think about my future students and their success. It’s also something I don’t have a lot of answers for.

• My whole college education has been about learning NOT to teach to the test, but how do we do that when standardized testing is so…standard.
• Motivating students to do their best on standardized tests
  • They don’t want to take it and we don’t want to teach for it, but it’s a requirement. Instead of scaring your students into doing a good job because it reflects badly on you, show them the bigger picture. The outcomes of these tests can help you get into college, or receive a scholarship, or put you on a super fancy list that you can brag about on a college application!
• Reviewing
  • A lot of teachers spend time reviewing material for standardized tests days before they start. Instead of just standing at the front of the room going through a study guide, make live quizzes on quizlet, kahoot!, or Poll Everywhere.
• Not everyone is cut out for standardized tests
  • A test that is the same for everyone cannot possibly be an accurate representation of our teaching or our students when all of our students are uniquely different.

Though this post highlighted specifically the bad and the ugly in the world of teaching, we do it for a reason. For that one student who needs a supporter in a safe space. For that student who hasn’t really understood anything but it FINALLY clicks when you relate it to something relevant to them. For the student that realizes they want to teach, just like you.

We do it for them.