First-Year Teachers: What to Expect

The months before you start teaching for your first year bring about all sorts of emotions.

Excitement & Nervousness.

Ambition. & Paralysis.

Clarity & Confusion.

Your mind begins to fill with questions upon questions.

Did I choose the right school?

Do I really know my content?

Do I know how to manage a class of teenagers?

Am I ready for this?

All of these feelings and questions are normal responses and you shouldn't worry!  If you're having these thoughts, it likely means that you're concerned about your career and your path in life in a productive manner.  You're a responsible adult who wants to take his or her profession seriously.  But don't let it consume you.  

Instead, choose to be prepared.  Take time to learn about what to expect during your first year of teaching.  Plan for your responses to those different successes and challenges.

Below, I've outlined what I experienced during my first year of teaching.  I know from my colleagues that all of these situations are to be expected.  

1. You will be overwhelmed.  They're not lying when they tell you that you will have more than you can possibly imagine on your plate.  The teacher role wears several hats.  The counselor.  The curriculum builder.  The assessor.  The instructor.  The planner.  The employee.  The leader.  There simply is a lot to do.
   
   My Tip: Take time on Sunday or Monday to intentionally plan your week.  Consider all of the tasks that you can imagine for the upcoming week (grading, planning, meeting, teaching, in-services, coaching, etc.).  Then mark 3-4 for the week that are the most important goals to get done.  This will give you focus for the week.  For each day, then, be sure to write a to-do list.  Highlight the 1-2 urgent tasks that you need to accomplish and 1-2 important tasks that will help you with your 1-2 weekly goals.  This is not a mind-blowing solution.  However, taking that time to intentionally plan out your week and focus your actions makes all the difference.  I continue doing that to this day and my boss, her boss, her boss, and his boss are always astounded by the amount of work that I can get done and the level of focus that I have.
   
2. You will be confused.  The summer that I was hired for my first teaching job was spent planning. I knew what classes I was teaching and my Department Chair had given me the texts.  However, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to teach those classes with the textbooks I was given.  It was the day before classes started that I finally reached out to him about it.  Turns out, he had given me the wrong text books.
   
   My Tip: Ask questions but not before you've exhausted all of your options.  Your leaders want you to reach out when you're confused.  As a teacher supervisor myself, there's nothing that I want more than for my teachers to ask me questions. The one caveat here is asking questions for something you should already know.  Please exhaust your options.  Check your resources. Check your emails.  Check with a co-worker.  Then reach out to your boss.  He or she will greatly appreciate your doing so.
   
3. You will be challenged.  You will be doing something that you've never done before.  It will be difficult and that's okay!  Some of the most challenging moments are when students challenge your authority.  I still remember on the first day of class where a student told me "I own this class" while throwing a ball in the air.  I had no idea what to do. I'm telling you, they can smell fear from a mile away.  They can smell uncertainty.  That was a huge hurdle for me when I started teaching.
   
   My Tip: Invest in yourself.  Make personal and professional development on your weekly, if not daily, to do list. I love to listen to podcasts on my way to work.  Listen to teaching podcasts yes, but feel free to branch out.  Podcasts on multi-level marketing are particularly interesting to me because they are always about team-building and creating an environment of safety and recognition.  Imagine if I had started listening to that during my first year!  I would have prepared my communication skills to respond to that troublesome student.  My favorite podcasts are Team Beachbody, Build Your Tribe, The Daily Boost, Coaching for Leaders, and Vibrant Happy Women.  Shameless plug, check out my Spark Mentorship Program for some exclusive training from me!
   
4. You will be proud.  You should be!  Your first year of teaching is hard work.  It takes dedication and consistency.  You will find yourself being thrilled over the big and small - from successful units to conversations with students.  I remember a unit I did that focused on giving back to the community by paying it forward - oddly enough it was paired with Lord of the Flies.  I was so proud to read the acts of kindness that my students participated in.  Holding doors open.  Talking to new students.  Picking up garbage.  They weren't huge.  But they were special.
   
   My Tip: Journal.  Keep track of what you're proud of.  If you don't want to keep a journal, then keep it in your planner.  At the end of the day or week, make a note of what was successful.  I like to do this as it keeps me motivated.  Sometimes it's easy to move from one thing to the next without truly reflecting.  This gives me the opportunity to be joyous in the work that I've produced.  Do this with your students too.  Choose 5 students a week to write notes to.  Tell them that you're proud of their hard work, their effort, or how much they've grown.  Not only will it show that you notice, but it'll create an environment of recognition.

I know the first year can be scary. But revel in it. Allow yourself to experience those fears and truly engage those feelings.  Be prepared on how to handle them when they come up. Most of all, give yourself permission to grow.  Often times, we just want to be in the end result.  But that's not how it works.  We need the growing pains if nothing else to appreciate where we end up.

Love y'all!

Commenting Manifesto Freebie

Caution: Freebie for My Followers ahead!

Commenting is something that I didn't used to discuss with my students.  Sure, I would read my students' papers and mark allllll over them.  I felt like I was imparting my wisdom.  After all, I had studied this content intensely... shouldn't I be sharing my wisdom?

It wasn't until I read and heard Nancy Sommers talk about Responding to Student Writing that my philosophy of commenting completely changed.  Where as before I would mark up the drafts as much as I could, now I follow the Minimal Marking Philosophy (though I'm not a devout disciple).  I give my students one long note at the end of the paper that points out the general strengths and weaknesses dealing with global issues like logic, reasoning, organization, purpose, etc.  Not only do I point out the weaknesses but I give them suggestions as to how to improve.  They're no longer overwhelmed with corrections that they need to make.  Instead, they are focused on developing their writing in a deeper and more fruitful way.

But what does all of this mean if we don't have a conversation with them about essay commenting?

Absolutely nothing.  Our students need to be involved in the commenting process.  Sommers suggests to create a class manifesto.  

Bouncing off of that idea, I have my students create a Mini-Class Manifesto on Commenting with a small group.  They collaborate with 4 peers to create 4 general guidelines for paper commenting.  That means they need to boil it down to the 4 most important elements to a successful essay.  This is hard work!

(to get your hands on this bad boy, see the directions down below!)

Not only that, but they need to give a full description of what that guideline entails.  So instead of suggesting we comment on organization, they have to be explicit with what makes a good organization or why organization is important to an essay.  Furthermore, their Mini-Class Manifesto on Commenting has to include sample comments representing these guidelines.  So what would a helpful comment on organization look like to them?

Once they have finished creating this Manifesto on Commenting, they then need to try it out! Let them experience what it is like to comment on an essay with certain expectations.  Then have a discussion about it.

What worked?
What didn't work?  Why?
What comments kept popping into their heads that didn't fit their criteria?

In general, this exercise is very beneficial to the students.  They get a first-hand look at the grading process.  Even better, they give you insight into what's most important to them!

Want to get your hands on my Class Commenting Manifesto?! 

(click me!)

-> Like my Facebook page and you'll see a tab on the top (or side) that says "Freebie Grab Bag!"  (If you don't, it's either because you haven't liked the page or you'll find it under "More").  Click the Freebie Grab Bag tab and you'll be rerouted to free content just for my followers!

Field Trip to the Art Exhibit

To change things up in the 4-hour long summer school class that I teach, I took my students to the art exhibit on campus.  After visiting and observing, students were to write a back story on a piece of art of their choice.  It was, in a way, a multi-modal essay because it included both text and photo.  They were to include a photo of the artwork that they chose and reference it in their essay.  Aside from that, there weren't too many restrictions.  This was an opportunity for them to be creative!

The exhibit, called Plop Art by Erik L. Peterson, was interesting to say the least.  I'm not an artie by any means but I would assume that this would be considered contemporary art... I know that only because I Googled it. It seems to only be defined by the time period that it is produced in.  In reading the Peterson's description, he mentioned that the art was to serve as commentary on various norms in our culture including narcissim and ADHD.

While I won't tell you about all of the art work we saw, I'll mention a few. We saw a Reflecting Pool which at first we all thought was a pile of sand...Then we realized that it transformed colors as you looked at it.  After realizing what it was, the iPhones popped out.  Everyone wanted a shot.  It was hard to capture the rainbows on film, though.  As you can see, mine looks a little bit more ghostly.

We also saw a tapestry created out of the two billboards.  It took us quite a while to figure out what it was but, once we realized, we understood the large amount of time and painstaking attention to detail it must have taken to create.

We saw another piece known as the Cooler.  It was just as you would think. It was a cooler with two ice cream cones inside.  I'm not quite sure what the purpose was but I'm sure it's ironic in some way.  Students joked about it being a "grab-and-go" and not a piece of artwork.  

And then we saw my favorite.  The neon plop cone with spilled ice cream (it had no name).  Isn't it amazing? Surprisingly, we had a lot of conversation about it.  I say surprisingly because this isn't an art class and none of us have any idea how to discuss art.  Students argued about the focal point - "It's the cone.  It's on the wall.  How could it not be the focal point?" - "No it's the blob of ice cream.  Is it melted or did it fall off?  I think it melted because it's so much bigger." - "It's neither.  It's the light that catches your attention. The light and the color."  I was impressed with the amount of conversation that they had.  They enjoyed it, observed it, and didn't take the art viewing process too seriously. 

So what did I learn from this experience?  Take your students out of the classroom!  We all need a change of pace.  It doesn't have to be serious!  It can be fun and enjoyable but still educational.  While there, students took notes on the art work of their choice and later they wrote an essay on the back stories for how the art came to be.  Perhaps taking our students out of the typical classroom fires up their creative impulses.  One thing's for sure though, they were able to experience something new and creative, use a different part of their brain, and interact with one another in a way that encouraged discussion and collaboration.

So where to next?  Maybe the Student Center Coffee Shop?  Maybe the lake in the courtyard?  Perhaps even the observatory!   I'd love to hear any suggestions that you may have!

Hot Secrets: What I've Noticed From Teaching Summer School

I'm already half way through teaching my first of two semesters for summer school. I can't believe at how slow and quick it has gone.  Four hours and fifteen minutes is a long time to do anything, let alone sit in a class. 

So here are the 5 things I've learned so far:


1.  Everyone is just biding their time.  We hate to think it as teachers but, yes, they're there because they have to be.  More often than not, they're there because they have failed.  All of this means that they want to get in, get out, and get gone.  That's fine!  Design your summer school curriculum that way.  It doesn't make you a bad teacher! 

2.  Students like the leeway.  Teach only what they need to know and find a way to give students autonomy.  For me, that's pretty easy.  Autonomy is almost synonymous with composition.  Regardless, I let them pick their partners, topics, sources, etc.  If I can give them choice and guide their learning, that's an efficient and effective way to spend my 14 days.

3.  My students respond well to routine schedules.  I have the same schedule every day.  Grammar - Journal - Research - Writing - Revision.  Students know what to expect when they come in.  They get straight to work and are able to become better at each task the more frequently they do it.  By the third or fourth day, you won't have to explain directions on how to do something... such as writing a basic paragraph.  Instead, you can spend time helping individual students at their own level.

4.  Don't give out homework.  Like I said, they're biding their time.  In my opinion, if we can get the work done in class, then that's what we should do.  Instead of having them write an entire research paper outside of class, I have them write it in chunks during class time.  We're already covering an entire semester's worth of content in 14 days.  Don't make this harder than it already is.  

5.  Give extra credit.  I give one extra-credit worksheet each day.  It's only worth 6 points and it ties into what we're working on with each unit.  Not everyone will do it but it's nice to give them the option.  Remember, this is a credit recovery summer school course - they need and want the choice.

These are just 5 of the many things that I've learned in the past 6 days.  Have you ever taught summer school?  If so, what have you learned?  Comment below.

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Top 8 for Summer Break Linky

Welcome to the Top 8 for Summer Break Linky!  Here are the only two rules:
1.  Post the Top 8 To-Do's for your summer break
2.  Include the Brownbag Academics logo with a backlink to this blog so your viewers can see everyone else's posts

Summer is here whether we are ready or not.  After a long school year, it's time for some much needed R & R.  This year I'm trying to make the most of it.  Wait, scratch that... I'm GOING to make the most of it.


I have lots on my to-do list:

1.  Lounging Poolside: Normally I like to bring school work and grade some papers (since I'm teaching summer school). This year I plan to bring some books to read to prepare me for my Comprehensive Field Exam in Linguistics.  And... of course snacks. Nothing beats a string cheese wrapped in a little Buddig turkey meat.

2.  Stand-Up Paddleboarding:  If you haven't done it, try it.  Who wouldn't want the opportunity to quite literally walk on water.  The first time I did it, it took me about 45 minutes before I could stand-up.  For those of you who have done this before, don't hate.  I was doing it for the first time of the rough waters of Lake Michigan.  I'm sure there's a lesson here about falling down and learning to get back up again...

3.  Freelance Writing:  Excited about some new freelance writing opportunities that have come my way.  I've never had that opportunity before but I'm looking forward to the challenge!  Among the opportunities, writing a chapter on "Onomastics" for The Year's Work in English for The Oxford Journals.  Don't worry!  A post on this will come soon I'm sure.

4.  Summer School: Yup!  That's right!  I'm taking my summer off to teach some Pre-College Composition Courses.  This summer has been quite a different experience but it has certainly been a growing one!

5.  Vacation:  Who knows when.  Who knows where.  But I AM going on vacation.  It's necessary.  I have the itch to travel and the need to get away.

6.  Strict Money Diet: I'm obsessed with Dave Ramsey.  His book The Total Money Makeover is a God send. I used to follow it strictly.  I used his methods to help get me out of debt!  Now, I have a new job and a vastly different lifestyle.  It's time to be wiser about the way I handle my money.  Envelope system -> here I come!

7.  Run a 5K:  Enough said.

8.  Professional Development:  I plan on reading quite a bit this summer.  While many of the books are academic, I'm currently finishing up BRIEF.  I highly suggest that we as teachers read about what successful business people do.  If it works for them, it will work for us!  It's all about becoming efficient employees and effective service-providers.

That's what's on my agenda for this summer.  I wonder what everyone else will be up to?  

Click the "An InLinkz Link-up" button below to add your link to this linky party :)

An InLinkz Link-up

How do you contact parents?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!  Please comment below or tweet me with the ways you keep in contact with parents!

Carryon Bag: Summer is Here!

Time for a new series!  The Carry-on Bag series focuses on one "day in the life of a teacher".  This will be a monthly series so, given the school year schedule, each month's posts will be drastically different.  

We start this series off in the dead of summer!  This was my day, and it is pretty typical for this month!

How do you spend your days in the summer?  Professional development? Blogging?  Relaxing pool side?  Comment below!

What It's Really About

A few weeks ago I was at church and listening to the Pastor talk about being a servant.  It was the weekend following Easter, so it was not a surprise to hear about extending your faith from passive to active.

The Pastor talked quite a lot about how people in The Church can often times miss the point.  He said, "You can ruin a church by making it activity-oriented instead of Jesus-oriented" and it reminded me of the most profound thing that I learned during my time teaching at the high school level.

I remember sitting in a meeting with my Department Chair, my student teacher, and my student teacher's advisers.  You see, my Department Chair and myself were co-cooperating teachers.  As we sat in this meeting we were discussing the use of activities in the classroom.  He said:

When you wake up in the morning and are thinking about your day,
 are you thinking about the activities you will be doing in class?  

If so, you're missing the point.

Of course what he meant was, we need to be thinking about what our students will be learning.  That needs to be our focus.  The exciting activities we use or cool technology we have implemented means absolutely nothing if we have not really focused on our learning outcomes for the day.

So my question to you is: 

what do you think about when you wake up in the morning?  

It's important to remind ourselves of the purpose of education and why we are teaching who and what we are teaching.  Let's remember to focus on what it's really about in the classroom... our students, their development, and their learning.

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End of the Year Ideas

As the end of the year approaches, many of use are reconsidering what we do to wrap up the entire semester/year.  Some of us have weird end-of-the-year schedules.  Ya know, the ones where final exams are a week before the end of the actual year?  Or grades are due on a Wednesday but you still have class on Thursday and Friday?

DON'T FRET!  We, here at Brownbag Academics, have some great suggestions to get you designing your End-of-Year Curriculum!

Remember please that all of education is simply a reformulation of ideas.  These are ideas that we have used in our classrooms and have found to work very well!  We've collected these ideas over the years: some were developed by ourselves, some were inspired by lessons found online, and some were collected from colleagues.  Feel free to use and abuse these suggestions!  No sense in recreating the wheel.

1.  Create groups and reflect on the year.

• One of our favorite activities involves separating the class into groups to have them reflect on the course's objectives.  Have each group reflect on one of the following: 
• syllabus & course outcomes - did the outcomes match what happened in class?
• readings - favorites?  least favorites?
• assignments - which did they learn the most from?  least?
• activities - did they prefer group work?  partners? individuals?
• advice - what advice can you offer to next year's group of students?
• Then, have the groups present their findings and have a whole class discussion!

2.  End of the year slide show.

• Have students create a slide show welcoming next year's group of students.  Have them work together to include the following:
• welcome notes
• course introduction
• syllabus review
• what to learn
• what to be prepared for
• what they liked best about class

3.  Reflection essay.

• Having students write a reflection essay is a great way to see how each individual student has grown.  Start with having the students review the syllabus and course outcomes.  From there, have students look back at their work - for English teachers, this may mean looking at old essays; for Math teachers, old tests and assignments; etc.  Then have students write about the growth that they have experienced.  What are their strengths?  What are they still struggling with?  How do they plan to continue improving?  This should be a reflection of them and their work, not you and your teaching.

These ideas should get you started!  We like to think that the end of the year is a time for a reflection - a time for students to begin thinking about what they have learned.  With reflection comes growth and that is what we hope for and expect of our students.  Have a wonderful end of the year!

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Conferencing with Students

A few weeks ago I flipped my classroom.

I sent out audio/visual lectures that were 10 minutes in length for my students to learn the content before we met. Then, instead of meeting as a class, we met in small groups. Throughout the semester I have been encouraging community in the classroom through group work so this worked out well.  Obviously the not meeting as a class could only work at the college level, BUT there are ways around this.  For instance, meeting with groups while others work individually.

Before my 20 minute conference sessions with each group, students were required to have watched the first lecture and read/annotate an article. This would be the article they would later write on.

During the conference, then, we briefly reviewed the content from the lecture and then moved on to applying what they had learned.

I got to work with students on their ACTUAL papers. This wasn’t theoretical. It was practical. The response from students was overwhelmingly positive. How this will affect my future classes, I don’t know, but I do look forward to the journey!

Visit http://flippedclassroom.org/ for more ideas on how to flip your classroom at any level with any subject!

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Smart Phones & Robot People

Edudemic recently published the post "A Visual Guide to Slowing Down The Distracted Generation".  I really love that they are recognizing the fact that not only are we as a population not reading as much but that technology has a lot to do with the problem.  

Unfortunately, we have lost the ability as a population to just sit and be.  This is something that I talk with my students about quite regularly.  I'll ask them, "How often do you just sit without watching TV or checking your phone?  How often do you go on a walk and not listen to music?"

We have adapted this crazy lifestyle where we have to be entertained at all times.  And what's really upsetting is that we have lost the ability to entertain ourselves.

Edudemic suggests that we "create passion for the written word" and "make reading fun" among other things.  Is it really that easy to create passion in someone else?  

A question that teachers have been asking themselves for generations is: 

How do we create intrinsic motivation?

Unfortunately I'm not sure if we truly can create a long-lasting intrinsic motivation.  However, as a teacher I'm willing to go for it.  

In general, I would argue that this all starts with open conversation.  We need to talk to our students and children. Ask them what they like and why they like it.  It's not good enough to just ask our students about their passions.  We must get to the root of why their passions are their passions. Probing them to think deeper about what they like and why they like it.

Asking questions like the ones below will help us to better understand them:

• What is it about ____ that you love so much?
• Tell me more about that.
• If you could describe your perfect day, what would it be?
• Why is that so enjoyable to you?

By simply asking questions, we can develop a meta-cognitive behavior in our students.  If we get them thinking and questioning, they will soon be able to take risks in their passions.  Hopefully we can keep them away from having a "device in hand at all times, hopping from shiny thing to shiny thing on the internet" as Katie Lepi mentions that we all do.

As a teacher, I of course care that they are reading.  I care more about their thinking, though.  Yes, reading affects thinking abilities but if they're not thinking on their own already, what's the point of reading?

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