every class has its "talker"

I teach a class on job retention to a different set of 20 - 25 homeless or low income adults each class. Just to let you know, I might refer to them as clients because that's the language we use at the organization.

Today, my class was crazy. At the end, I had a few people shouting out whatever thoughts they had while everyone else was either annoyed by the atmosphere, or tuned out from the entire class. I am convinced that it would have been a very successful class if not for the two "talkers."

Nearly every class has one or two "talkers." What is a talker?

1. An extravert, likes to speaks whatever is on his/her mind often without raising his hand
2. Has an opinion about everything
3. Likes to participate
4. Likes to be the center of attention

So having a talker can either be really awesome, or really not awesome. On the awesome side, having a couple of talkers can really add personality to the class atmosphere and keep things interesting. Whenever I ask the class a question, it's great always being able to call on one of the talkers because they always have an interesting opinion. The issue is when these talkers totally dominate the classroom discussion and discourage others from expressing their thoughts. Even worse is when the talkers start talking about something that's completely irrelevant to the topic at hand.

Here's an example. I asked my class what they would do if their supervisor were to ignore their complaints. While one of my clients was explaining his answer, one of my talkers interrupted and started talking loudly about being at a nightclub and trying to figure out which of the girls were lesbian. I admit it's actually pretty funny writing about it, but at the time I was thinking, "Dude.. what are you talking about..??"

My other talker, who I'll call Brittany, was quite different. She actually typically had very insightful things to say, the only problem is that whenever I would ask the class a question, her hand would shoot up within milliseconds and half the time she would start talking within microseconds, and for a very long time. After the first 3 or 4 times, I was like yeah Brittany really enjoys participating! But then after 7 or 8 times, I was like uhh Brittany is the only person talking (and the other guy I mentioned). So then I stated that I wanted to hear more from the people who haven't spoken, but even then few people raised their hand. I could sense that my other students were discouraged from participating because of Brittany's overwhelming eagerness. Eventually I began hearing grumbles and groans from the other students each time Brittany spoke.

In my psychology class, we learned about a study with two groups of dogs. One group of dogs would get an electric shock, and so they jumped over a fence to a safe zone. The other group of dogs were shocked but were blocked from the safe zone. Later these dogs were given access to the safe zone, but they still didn't jump to the safe zone even when they were shocked. They would just continue to get shocked. This is known as "learned helplessness," which is the phenomenon of an animal or a human being choosing to be helpless even when given the option to help itself.

I think this happened during my class today. My clients chose not to participate because of Brittany's eagerness, even though they know I would have called on them. Now that's a pretty sad situation. So how can I address this problem if it happens again?

I believe that a big part of what happened is totally my fault. I think part of it was that I was perhaps overly fun and enthusiastic to start off with, which may have gotten my clients thinking that they didn't have to take the class that seriously. But I think the biggest reason is that I failed to establish ground rules in the beginning of class. So from now on, these are the rules I need to state after my introduction.

1. Raise your hand to speak. Ideally I would like for my clients to talk whenever they want to contribute because I want my class to be more of a discussion. I also really don't want to treat them like children, but after today's events, I'm going to have to enforce this rule and see if it works well.

2. If you don't raise your hand, we're all going to completely ignore you as if you don't even exist.
This might sound harsh, but I actually think it would be pretty funny and that my students would be down to do this. It's like a deal they're making with each other.

3. We listen to each other with respect.

By establishing these rules, and starting off the class with a more serious tone and later being more fun and enthusiastic once I can see that my clients can handle it, I'm hoping that will help my future classes. Let's see how it goes next time!

a conversation with a high school math teacher

Last night I was at a holiday gathering with a bunch of people I didn't know. I met a lady named Mira who I soon learned was a high school math teacher for four years. This was really interesting to me because I'm going to be a high school math teacher next year, so I asked her questions about what her experience was like. We talked for like an hour.

Boy, what a conversation it was. She described to me some of the students in one of her classes, which included a guy who came in a black trench coat every day even though it was hot outside, a gay student who was judged by his classmates and who was dealing with depression, two girls who she didn't know were girls until the first progress report, and a girl who brought her pet snake to school every day. All. in one. class.

The biggest lesson that Mira said she learned was to not judge her students. If you can do that, you will earn their respect. I asked her what she meant by not judging, and she said that it just means to accept them as who they are, and that way they will open up to you. If you judge them for what they do or how they act, they're simply not going to trust you or respect you.

Another piece of advice she gave me was to not try to be your students' friend. She said that some teachers try to be on their students' level, but she said that simply doesn't work for her because her students grew up in a totally different generation. On her first day of class, one of her rules was No Walkmans In Class. Immediately her student asked, "What's a walkman? I think you're old." Mira thought it was hysterical. Even though I've only been out of high school for 4 years, that's a long time for pop culture and high school trends to change. If I try to pretend like I know what my students are talking about, I'm gonna be made a fool.

Another thing she did was tell her students that if they were going to come late to class, then they shouldn't come at all. The reason is because when a student walked in late, that disrupted the entire class and it would take forever for them to settle down again. That seems pretty strict but maybe that got the late-comers to come on time, I'm not sure because I forgot to ask. Anyway her point was that you need to have a consistent routine in the beginning of each class, and she hated for that to be messed up.

Apparently her students loved her. The depressed student would talk to her during lunch, and her students would always invite her to come to their sports games. While she was a substitute teacher, the principal told her that whenever the actual teacher informed the students that Mira would be the substitute, the class would erupt in cheer. This was all great until a couple students took her "coolness" way too far. Here's a fun story.

At 11:45, Mira was on her lunch break and went outside to see a car that had smoke pouring out the sides. She said it looked like Cheech and Chong's ride.

Sitting inside the car were two of her students who yelled, "Hey Ms. ____! Do you wanna take a hit??" as they stuck a joint out the window. Although it was a nice gesture, Mira said she had no choice but to report them to the principal. Why? I asked. Didn't you feel bad about it? She said that now there was the risk of rumors leaking out about her getting high with her students, so in order to eliminate that risk she had to report them. That resulted in the two students getting kicked off the baseball team, as well as holding a personal vendetta against her. Understandably. 

So for a while these two students wouldn't talk to her at all. They walked into her class, saw that she was teaching since she was a substitute at the time, and immediately walked out. Then finally one day she initiated a conversation with them, and explained to them that she had to do what she did. She also talked to them about their futures and about how getting high now in a car during school hours might seem cool but in seven years will make them losers. After that conversation, they were cool again and she regained their respect. 

So biggest lesson learned from Mira? Don't judge my kids. If I do, they'll close off, which is definitely not what I want. Thanks for the advice Mira!

Did you like your teacher?

When I told my brother that next year I'm going to be a high school math teacher, he was like, "daaaaaangggg...." which could either mean something really positive or really negative, but the way he said it I think it was both. I think he meant it in a way that was like daaang that's gonna be really hard and really cool at the same time, which were my thoughts exactly. Then we had this conversation about the teachers that we had in high school (he's only a year older than me), which actually wasn't very long ago.

We talked about both good and bad teachers, and why we thought they were good or bad. My brother started talking about how awesome his Calculus teacher, Ms. Steer, was and I kept asking him why he thought she was so awesome. He said that everyone liked her and respected her, and because of that she had really good control over the classroom. 

Apparently, Ms. Steer very rarely raised her voice, which is something I need to learn how to do since I lose my voice fairly easily. I asked my brother how she was able to do that, and why everyone liked and respected her so much. He couldn't really figure it out for a while, then realized that part of it had to do with the fact that she told stories about her life after every class. Then he narrowed it down to the fact that Ms. Steer just really cared about her students and cared about being there, simple as that. And that's why she got respect and was an awesome teacher.

Then we started talking about our English teacher who we both had, Mr. Dargo. Most people didn't like Mr. Dargo very much and thought he was a pretty bad teacher, and so my brother and I were trying to figure out why. It didn't take us very long to remember that he seemed to kind of hate all of us, which is why we all kind of hated him too. That's probably not a very good relationship to have in the classroom. So since Mr. Dargo didn't care about us, or didn't seem to at least, that made him a bad teacher in our eyes.

But wait, I guess what really matters is how much the students learn, not how much they like the teacher right? If you have a teacher that everyone really likes, but everyone fails their standardized tests, then that's pretty messed up. It's better to have a teacher that everyone hates but makes them learn right? Teaching should be about the transfer of knowledge and skills, not be a popularity contest.

But could students possibly learn less when they dislike their teacher? How much did we learn in Mr. Dargo's class? I don't particularly recall his class being worse off academically than the other English teacher's classes, but could he have done better if we actually liked him? Who knows. 

One thing that I can say with confidence though is that when a student has a teacher he likes, that student will be way more likely to end up liking the subject than if he had a teacher he hated. My biology teacher was a biased, immature, sarcastic, angry lady who clearly picked favorites. I'm not saying this because she had anything against me, in fact I was probably one of her more favored kids, but I really didn't like her because of her poor attitude. So guess what? She killed my interest in biology. 

It's kind of like when you and your girlfriend/boyfriend break up and you end up disliking the music he or she listened to. It doesn't make any logical sense, but it's just something we do anyway. Or at least I did...

Anyway, one of my goals as a math teacher is to make sure my kids know I care about them, and for them to like me. That way, they'll be more likely to enjoy math, and if they enjoy it, they'll be more likely to do well. Makes sense right? We'll see I guess!

Do you guys remember which teachers you liked or disliked? Did the teachers you liked do better in teaching the material? Comment and let me know!

Creating leaders with biking

Think back to when you were in high school. Who were the leaders in your grade? It was probably the kids who were doing student council, in the national honor society, the school athletes, and stuff like that. But what about those kids who didn't do any of those things, and had other interests that no one seemed to care much about? I remember when I was in high school, I breathed, ate, and lived skateboarding. I invested thousands of hours into skateboarding, yet did that make me a leader in the eyes of my school and my community? Quite the opposite actually. I was seen as more of a rebel to society or street punk than anything else, doing something that many people considered destructive. 

Well now I'm in college, and I've noticed that a lot of high school kids have gotten really into riding bikes, particularly fixed-gear bikes, which is essentially a road bike that has one gear that you can't coast on. The biggest appeal fixed gear bikes have for a lot of these kids is that it allows them to explore the streets while doing tricks that can only be done on "fixes", particularly skidding and track standing.

Okay so what does this all have to do with leadership? Well I have a belief that every high school kid can be a leader, not just the kids who are in the top of their class or doing student council, but also the kids who spend their days after school on the street messing with bikes. From a shallow perspective, they may just seem to be delinquents terrorizing the streets with their extravagant colored fixies. But take a deeper look and you'll see that it takes a tremendous amount of dedication and passion to do what these kids do. And you know what's interesting? Dedication and passion is exactly what it takes to be a leader.

Imagine if these kids who are passionate about bikes can use that passion to do something positive for their community. That's the idea behind the class that I started teaching at a local high school. Every Friday after school, I meet with a group of high school students who are passionate about biking to talk with them about their communities and what we can do to solve certain issues. 

Together we planned a bike ride in which we'll be exploring their community and visiting certain places that my students think are important, either positively or negatively. Some positive examples my kids brought up were the park, the swap meet, and a bike shop. Some negative places included a dirty alley way and the park where various gangs meet at. We agreed that that park is a bit too dangerous for our ride though.

Hopefully this bike ride will give us inspiration as to what we can do with these places to help improve their community. Right now, the biking aspect of my class is mostly as a means for exploring their communities which is totally fine and awesome, but maybe we'll be able to figure out a way to improve the community directly through biking somehow. I was thinking my students could eventually organize a bike ride for their family and neighbors, promoting the environment and exercise. 

I've been teaching this class for a couple of months now, and it's still very unsure as to where we're headed exactly. What's for sure though is that my students are undoubtedly leaders, even if they don't think that about themselves. Yet.

The Reflection

I had this crazy realization today that if I want to get really good at lesson planning, I really need to consistently spend time reflecting after each lesson. So why is that important? Because then it's so much easier to remember the important things from my last lesson and apply that to my next lesson. It makes planning way more efficient. When I reflect, I just pull out my journal and these are the things that I usually write down:

First I'll usually write a couple of sentence about the overall feeling from the lesson. It's usually something like, "Man that was awesome, everything went really well." Or, "Man that was pretty bad. X happened."

The Good:
This is all the stuff that went well. For example, for my last lesson I was extremely prepared because I knew that I would be observed by this lady who works for the district. I was a lot more detailed with my lesson plan than I normally am, writing down specific discussion questions whereas before I would just write 'discussion' and try to think of questions on the spot. I also went through the lesson several times in my head before so I knew exactly how it was going to run. During the lesson, I held my journal with my lesson plan in it so that I could glance at it whenever I needed to, whereas before I would try to just memorize it and "wing" it if I forgot a section. I found that holding my journal doesn't take away from my teaching at all, which is what I was originally afraid of because I wanted to look "natural" without having notes in front of me. My students barely even noticed it.

I know you might be thinking why the heck haven't I been doing all these things already. I do admit that it probably shouldn't have taken an observer for me to be more prepared for my lessons, but now I know at least!

Using the board to list things was also really effective. So for example, I asked my students to come up with rules for our upcoming bike ride for me to list on the board. They could just say whatever they thought of, and didn't have to raise their hand unless it got too out of hand. If my students weren't able to think of anything for a while, I could just write down a rule that I had prepared beforehand.

The Bad:
This is all the stuff that didn't go so well. So for example, I have this bad habit of always responding to every comment my students make, even if its in the middle of me explaining something. Obviously this is distracting from the lesson.

Changes for next lesson: This is where I take the good and the bad and turn them into specific changes that I can implement for my next lesson.

• Stop responding to every comment my students make. Stick to the lesson plan, don't get distracted. 
• In planning, be more detailed. Plan out everything, not just the big things. Run lesson plan several times through head.
• During lesson, have journal in hand or in easy reach to check plan whenever I need to.
• This didn't come from "good" or "bad" but I'm including it anyway because I know it's effective. After giving instructions ask questions with one word answers to make sure they understand an activity. (Eg. "How many places are we brainstorming?" 2. "How much time do we have?" 5 minutes.)
• Utilize the board more. Have students think of things to list, but make sure I have some things of my own I can list whenever students can't think of anything.

So that's all for now. I think it would be kind of cool to have my blog posts be my reflections, and you guys can comment on whatever you think I should change. That probably means I need to tell you guys more about what it is I'm actually teaching. I'll save that for my next blog post!

Trifecta

Hello World!

I am a teacher. But wait! Before you stop reading, I'm not just any teacher. I'm a college senior who teaches on the side. Oh so I must be an education major, right? No, my major is business, which is like the complete opposite of teaching. So wait that's weird... I thought business people were selfish, want money, and make this world an evil place. Teachers are selfless, don't care about money, and make this world a nice place. Ah, so you see - I'm like two opposite things, in one! I'm yin and yang. Vishnu the creator, and Shiva the destroyer.

So what the heck is going on? Well let me try to explain it all in a paragraph. I entered college thinking I was going to be an investment banker and make $100,000 a year right after I graduate. As a freshman I thought, what's the best way to be awesome? Hmm by making lots of money! So I became really intense with getting A's in all my business classes, going to business info sessions, and wanted to join a business frat that was like the holy grail to success. But then while I was at some networking event I had this crazy revelation where all of a sudden, I started thinking everyone there was a selfish asshole. All of my conversations revolved around success, and money, and it freaked me out. I left wondering what the heck I was doing with my life and started to question everything.

A lot of things happened after that, but long story short I became friends with a beggar who actually changed my life. He opened my eyes to the low-income community in which I lived. For the first time I became aware of the injustices surrounding me and I began to develop a deep connection to this man and my community. Then one day he invited me to have thanksgiving dinner with him and his wife in the small motel room they were staying in at the time. I wasn't able to go because I had already booked a flight to go home, but I'll never forget that incredible act of generosity from a man who barely had enough to support himself. I began to wonder how a good hearted man like him was left begging in the streets while selfish assholes at my school were on the path to getting rich. I felt like I could relate to him more than the student sitting next to me in my Intro to Finance class.

So what does any of that have to do with teaching? I'm getting there! During this weirdly dramatic shift, I realized that I loved working with the kids in my community, and so I became a counselor for elementary school kids. Then I learned about a program called Teach for America that would allow me to be a teacher in a low-income school for two years after I graduated. After talking to this recruiter lady about it, I thought, "Hmm... I'm already doing something kind of like that... and I really love what I do ... MAN, THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!"

So from that point on, Teach for America became something that I had my sights set on.
It was the perfect way for me to give back to the community while doing something that I love, which is working with kids who have less opportunity than I did growing up. So in order to build the experience that I needed to be accepted into TFA, I began getting involved in different teaching opportunities, and have since then taught in rural Ecuador as an English teacher. I currently teach local high school kids a class on how they can improve their community through bicycling. I also teach homeless and low income adults a class on how they can be successful at retaining a job.

I find teaching to be an extremely challenging, fun, and rewarding experience and am dedicating this blog to serve two purposes:

1. To be a reflection of my own teaching experiences.
2. To be a testament as to why teaching is awesome.

So if you like what you see, please comment! If you don't like what you see, tell me about it! Also if you can find ways that I can be a better teacher, please let me know and I will try to implement your advice the next time I teach. I'll probably even write a blog post about it!

Oh and by the way my views have changed and I no longer think that all business majors are selfish assholes. Business is great, I mean everything is part of business right? I just like teaching better!

Profile Post

If you're a teacher and feel like your students are going to drive you insane, well guess what? I found a remedy for you! And if you don't feel like your students are going to drive you insane, you should drink this remedy anyway because it tastes that good. This remedy takes the form of a blog that will remind you why you are such an awesome person.

Vicki Davis, also known as the Cool Cat Teacher, is the author of one of the best teaching blogs I've ever stumbled across. Take for example her post, Finding Your Beautiful Moment the Last week of School, which expresses how to end your school year in a 100m sprint rather than a halfhearted jog.  Through her blog, Vicki is, in a sense, teaching how to teach. Check out this excerpt:

Plan Your Last Day Well So Students Know You Care. Students need to hear speeches because you can't say things enough. They may groan when you talk about being safe over the summer. They may roll your eyes when you tell them you love them and encourage them to make wise choices. Who cares what they think -- If they KNOW you love them and you say what they need to hear. You have one more chance.

That's so inspiring! And this is just one example of the many blog posts in which Vicki gives super helpful advice through her own teaching experience. So why should other teachers listen to Vicki? Well for one, she happens to be a full-time teacher with ten years of experience. She's also been a keynote speaker on teaching for major companies like Google and Cisco, which is no small deal. But the most important thing to me is the quality of her blogs. One could read just a few lines from any post and know that this lady really knows her stuff.

One thing that legitimately confuses me is how Vicki can be a full time teacher and still manage to post several times a week. And her posts aren't just a few sentences of idle thoughts, but meaty, full-length articles complete with links, pictures, media, and a great deal of enthusiasm. I mean, it can take me hours just to write one post with comparatively way less content. Vicki, teach me the way!

Just to prove how awesome she is, she's won a bunch of awards given for having the best teaching blog. She also has as huge number of readers who comment like crazy - one of her posts has over 80 comments! I have a feeling that most of her readers are also teachers, so by creating an excellent blog she inadvertently created a community for these teachers to interact with one another and share their own stories through their comments. How cool is that? A place where teachers can relate to other teachers' successes, failures, and feelings.

I'm excited to be able to implement Vicki's teaching strategies to my own classroom once I start teaching high school math. I want my blog to be a reflection of my days' adventures for whoever would like to follow the struggles of a first year teacher. I feel like Vicki will help me get through those days through her blog, and she'll remind me how great being a teacher will be. Thanks in advance Big V!

One of her posts that I'm particularly stoked to apply to my classroom is How to be a Terrible Teacher. Even though the title of the post might sound negative, it actually has a profoundly positive message that reflects the entirety of her blog.

The positive message is that when we go down the path to be a Terrible Teacher that we check ourselves and stop. That we remember our noble calling and be more. That we move ahead and focus on our students. We can't afford to be a terrible teacher to even one student.

On top of dealing with constant adversity, it's not very often that teachers receive positive feedback from their own students. However, it's the aspect of giving without being significantly rewarded, other than the sheer satisfaction of witnessing your students succeed, that makes teaching such a powerful and noble career. Thank you Vicki for reminding us of that.

Voice Post

Do you miss your elementary school teacher and how nice she was to you? Well I think I found her, and her name is Vicki.

I would like to dedicate this blog post solely to the voice I hear when I read Vicki's blog. Vicki legitimately sounds like she could be my teacher. She just sounds like a nice person, but with a sense of authority that you want to appeal to. One of the coolest things about Vicki is that she makes me feel smart because I can read through her posts really fast, even though I'm naturally the slowest reader ever. And the best part is that after I read a post, I feel like I just had a really kind person tell me really nice things. And it's not like she uses any sort of special grammar or punctuation or anything... that stuff just confuses me. I love her voice because I feel like she's talking to me in a very simple, yet meaningful way. So check this out for example:

I just want you as the teacher to know that "x" or "y" or "z" or whatever the advertiser or magazine says you HAVE to have to be a great teacher is a lie. You have all you need to be a great teacher, right there inside of you.

It is what you DO every day. It is WHO you are. It is your CHARACTER in doing the right thing when no one is looking. The best teachers teach like crazy whether admin is in the building or not..

"You Don't Need Another Gadget to be a Great Teacher."

Vicki tends to capitalize a lot of her words, which I find really effective because it makes it sound like a motivational speech in my head. You know when a really powerful speaker cranks up the volume on certain words and then those few works speak to you? What better way to emphasize certain powerful words than by capitalizing them? I also found out that Vicki often speaks at conferences, and can bet that she also emphasizes certain words during her presentations.

I mean, Vicki could have capitalized way more words, but then the capitalizing would have lost its effect. I decided to experiment a bit to see what that would look like:

It is your CHARACTER in doing the RIGHT thing when NO ONE is looking. The BEST teachers teach like CRAZY whether admin is in the building OR NOT.

Now it just sounds like Vicki is insane and needs to take multiple chill pills... and be locked away in a padded room. But since she doesn't actually write like that and keeps her capitalization moderate and effective, I can really envision her character as being an enthusiastic woman who is passionate about her job but not way overzealous. And you know what? That's the kind of person a teacher ought to be.

I also want to highlight this particular excerpt from her post, "Advice to presenters and teachers: All You Have is Enough," because it gives me a really good sense of how she feels. 

Ending a conference [or presentation] feels just like ending school. I get this feeling. I want closure. Somehow I want to know that I've done enough. I want to know that today made a difference. I want to know that it was worth this unique, special day -- the only October 18, 2012 that I will ever live. I don't really know what I want to confirm that. I don't know why the kind compliments about the keynote this morning or other words of encouragement just weren't enough. But they never are.

There's nothing really that fancy about it, which is what I like. I hate reading something that makes me have to think hard. As I read it, I could feel myself nodding with each sentence, thinking in my mind, "Yeah I feel you.." Each sentence was short enough to add a bit more in a provocative way. And then when she ended it with the bold lettered four word sentence, that got me. I was like, "YEP."

I also chose that particular excerpt because it contrasts from the first excerpt I quoted. Instead of being all fired up and motivating, it's bit more low-key but grabs your attention in a sympathetic (empathetic?) way. She uses "I" a lot so that her readers can identify with her as a real human being. She writes, "I want to know ___" several times with each one building on the last and catching the reader in that momentum. I also want to know ___.

Vicki's writing style takes you along and sucks you in. Not because it's highly stylized or anything, but because it's plain simple English that has just enough tweaks to spice it up a bit. Stuff like capital and bold letters and a bit of parallel structure here and there. She also uses short sentences a lot which I really like since I have this tendency to forget the beginning of a sentence once I get all the way to the .... wait what?

Nah just kidding, but seriously. Vicki makes me feel smart. I wish she was my teacher!

Hello World!

I am a teacher. But wait! Before you stop reading, I'm not just any teacher. I'm a college senior who teaches on the side. Oh so I must be an education major, right? No, my major is business, which is like the complete opposite of teaching. But wait that's weird... I thought business people were selfish, want money, and make this world an evil place. Teachers are selfless, don't care about money, and make this world a nice place. I'm like two opposite things, in one! I'm yin and yang. Vishnu the creator, and Shiva the destroyer.

So what the heck is going on? Well let me try to explain it all in a paragraph. I entered college thinking I was going to be an investment banker and make $100,000 a year right I graduate. As a freshman I thought, what's the best way to be awesome? Hmm by making lots of money! So I became really intense with getting A's in all my business classes, going to business info sessions, and wanted to join a business frat that was like the holy grail to success. But then while I was at some networking event I had this crazy revelation where all of a sudden, I started thinking everyone there was a selfish asshole. All of my conversations revolved around success, and money, and it freaked me out. I left wondering what the heck I was doing with my life and started to question everything.

A lot of things happened after that, but long story short I became friends with a homeless man who actually changed my life. He opened my eyes to the low-income community in which I lived. For the first time I became aware of the injustices surrounding me and I began to develop a deep connection to this man and my community. I began to wonder how a good hearted man like him was left begging in the streets while selfish assholes at my school were on the path to getting rich. I felt like I could relate to him more than the student sitting next to me in my Intro to Finance class.

So what does any of that have to do with teaching? I'm getting there! During this weirdly dramatic shift, I realized that I loved working with the kids in my community, and so I became a counselor for elementary school kids. Then I learned about a program called Teach for America that would allow me to be a teacher in a low-income school for two years after I graduated. After talking to this recruiter lady about it, I thought, "Hmm... I'm already doing something kind of like that... and I really love what I do ... MAN THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!"

So from that point on, Teach for America became something that I had my sights set on.
It was the perfect way for me to give back to the community while doing something that I love, which is working with kids who have less opportunity than I did growing up. So in order to build the experience that I needed to be accepted into TFA, I began getting involved in different teaching opportunities, and have since then taught in rural Ecuador as an English teacher. I currently teach local high school kids a class on how they can improve their community through bicycling. I also teach homeless and low income adults a class on how they can be successful at retaining a job.

I find teaching to be an extremely challenging, fun, and rewarding experience and am dedicating this blog to serve two purposes:

1. To be a reflection of my own teaching experiences.
2. To be a testament as to why teaching is awesome.

So if you like what you see, please comment! If you don't like what you see, tell me about it! Also if you can find ways that I can be a better teacher, please let me know and I will try to implement your advice the next time I teach. I'll probably even write a blog post about it!

Oh and by the way my views have changed and I no longer think that all business majors are selfish assholes. Business is great, I mean everything is part of business right? I just like teaching better!

Vicki's Voice

Do you miss your elementary school teacher and how nice she was? Well I think I found her, and her name is Vicki.

I would like to dedicate this blog post solely to the voice I hear when I read Vicki's blog. Vicki legitimately sounds like she could be my teacher. She just sounds like a nice person, but with a sense of authority that you want appeal to. One of the coolest things about Vicki is that she makes me feel smart because I can read through her posts really fast, even though I'm naturally the slowest reader ever. And the best part is that after I read a post, I feel like I just had a really kind person tell me really nice things. And it's not like she uses any sort of special grammar or punctuation or anything... that stuff just confuses me. I love her voice because I feel like she's talking to me in a very simple, yet meaningful way. So check this out for example:

I just want you as the teacher to know that "x" or "y" or "z" or whatever the advertiser or magazine says you HAVE to have to be a great teacher is a lie. You have all you need to be a great teacher, right there inside of you.

It is what you DO every day. It is WHO you are. It is your CHARACTER in doing the right thing when no one is looking. The best teachers teach like crazy whether admin is in the building or not..

"You Don't Need Another Gadget to be a Great Teacher."

Vicki tends to capitalize a lot of her words, which I find really effective because it makes it sound like a motivational speech in my head. You know when a really powerful speaker cranks up the volume on certain words and then those few works speak to you? What better way to emphasize certain powerful words than by capitalizing them? I also found out that Vicki often speaks at conferences, and can bet that she also emphasizes certain words during her presentations.

I mean, Vicki could have capitalized way more words, but then the capitalizing would have lost its effect. I decided to experiment a bit to see what that would look like:

It is your CHARACTER in doing the RIGHT thing when NO ONE is looking. The BEST teachers teach like CRAZY whether admin is in the building OR NOT.

Now it just sounds like Vicki is insane and needs to take multiple chill pills... and be locked away in a padded room. But since she doesn't actually write like that and keeps her capitalization moderate and effective, I can really envision her character as being an enthusiastic woman who is passionate about her job but not way overzealous. And you know what? That's the kind of person a teacher ought to be.

I also want to highlight this particular excerpt from her post, "Advice to presenters and teachers: All You Have is Enough," because it gives me a really good sense of how she feels. 

Ending a conference [or presentation] feels just like ending school. I get this feeling. I want closure. Somehow I want to know that I've done enough. I want to know that today made a difference. I want to know that it was worth this unique, special day -- the only October 18, 2012 that I will ever live. I don't really know what I want to confirm that. I don't know why the kind compliments about the keynote this morning or other words of encouragement just weren't enough. But they never are.

There's nothing really that fancy about it, which is what I like. I hate reading something that makes me have to think hard. As I read it, I could feel myself nodding with each sentence, thinking in my mind, "Yeah I feel you.." Each sentence was short enough to add a bit more in a provocative way. And then when she ended it with the bold lettered four word sentence, that got me. I was like, "YEP."

I also chose that particular excerpt because it contrasts from the first excerpt I quoted. Instead of being all fired up and motivating, it's bit more low-key but grabs your attention in a sympathetic (empathetic?) way. She uses "I" a lot so that her readers can identify with her as a real human being. She writes, "I want to know ___" several times with each one building on the last and catching the reader in that momentum. I also want to know ___.

Vicki's writing style takes you along and sucks you in. Not because it's highly stylized or anything, but because it's plain simple English that has just enough tweaks to spice it up a bit. Stuff like capital and bold letters and a bit of parallel structure here and there. She also uses short sentences a lot which I really like since I have this tendency to forget the beginning of a sentence once I get all the way to the .... wait what?

Nah just kidding, but seriously. Vicki makes me feel smart. I wish she was my teacher!

Vicki - the Cool Cat Teacher

If you're a teacher and feel like your students are going to drive you insane, well guess what? I found a remedy for you! And if you don't feel like your students are going to drive you insane, you should drink this remedy anyway because it tastes that good. This remedy takes the form of a blog that will remind you why you are such an awesome person.

Vicki Davis, also known as the Cool Cat Teacher, is the author of one of the best teaching blogs I've ever stumbled across. Take for example her post, Finding Your Beautiful Moment the Last week of School, which expresses how to end your school year in a 100m sprint rather than a halfhearted jog.  Through her blog, Vicki is, in a sense, teaching how to teach. Check out this excerpt:

Plan Your Last Day Well So Students Know You Care. Students need to hear speeches because you can't say things enough. They may groan when you talk about being safe over the summer. They may roll your eyes when you tell them you love them and encourage them to make wise choices. Who cares what they think -- If they KNOW you love them and you say what they need to hear. You have one more chance.

That's so inspiring! And this is just one example of the many blog posts in which Vicki gives super helpful advice through her own teaching experience. So why should other teachers listen to Vicki? Well for one, she happens to be a full-time teacher with ten years of experience. She's also been a keynote speaker on teaching for major companies like Google and Cisco, which is no small deal. But the most important thing to me is the quality of her blogs. One could read just a few lines from any post and know that this lady really knows her stuff.

One thing that legitimately confuses me is how Vicki can be a full time teacher and still manage to post several times a week. And her posts aren't just a few sentences of idle thoughts, but meaty, full-length articles complete with links, pictures, media, and a great deal of enthusiasm. I mean, it can take me hours just to write one post with comparatively way less content. Vicki, teach me the way!

Just to prove how awesome she is, she's won a bunch of awards given for having the best teaching blog. She also has as huge number of readers who comment like crazy - one of her posts has over 80 comments! I have a feeling that most of her readers are also teachers, so by creating an excellent blog she inadvertently created a community for these teachers to interact with one another and share their own stories through their comments. How cool is that? A place where teachers can relate to other teachers' successes, failures, and feelings.

I'm excited to be able to implement Vicki's teaching strategies to my own classroom once I start teaching high school math. I want my blog to be a reflection of my days' adventures for whoever would like to follow the struggles of a first year teacher. I feel like Vicki will help me get through those days through her blog, and she'll remind me how great being a teacher will be. Thanks in advance Big V!

One of her posts that I'm particularly stoked to apply to my classroom is How to be a Terrible Teacher. Even though the title of the post might sound negative, it actually has a profoundly positive message that reflects the entirety of her blog.

The positive message is that when we go down the path to be a Terrible Teacher that we check ourselves and stop. That we remember our noble calling and be more. That we move ahead and focus on our students. We can't afford to be a terrible teacher to even one student.

On top of dealing with constant adversity, it's not very often that teachers receive positive feedback from their own students. However, it's the aspect of giving without being significantly rewarded, other than the sheer satisfaction of witnessing your students succeed, that makes teaching such a powerful and noble career. Thank you Vicki for reminding us of that.