Saturday, 12 January 2013
ETMOOC
I am excited to be part of ETMOOC and I am learning new things all the time. Including adding a label to my blog. Future posts will have the ETMOOC label as well.
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
First Name Basis in High School
I went to a high school where I addressed all my teachers with the appropriate Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss title when I talked to them. I have taught in a high school for all 12.5 years of my teaching career where we use a first name basis with our students. My students call me Jared, and I love that. I love it.
Some of you may not love that idea. "Where is the respect?" some of you are probably saying. I would say that there is no difference in the level of respect for staff in schools that use a first name basis vs. schools that use an honorific. I really think that the question of respect is something that using an honorific has nothing to do with because respect does not come from a name. I remember buddies of mine referring to teachers as Mr. or Mrs. (insert expletive here). Just because they used Mr. did not make any of us respect our teachers more or less.
My dad had a teacher back when he went to high school who used a number system for their students. They NEVER called the students in the class by their real name. He was a Math teacher, he had a military background and nobody really ever questioned him on it. My dad still remembers his number! He also remembers the teacher saying things like, "24, get to the board and do question 5 for us." If 24 had trouble he would sometime say something like, "You're so stupid 24. 13, get up there and help 24." Or if someone laughed at 24, he would say, "Oh, 10 you think you're so smart, get up and help 24." Of course if 10 messed up at all, "10, you're so stupid..." That's what my Dad remembers about that Math class. THAT. IS. HORRIBLE. TEACHING. Remember when people think about the good ol' days? I am positive they don't think about that.
That example of not using a student's name at all, is ridiculous to the extreme of what not to do with a student's name. I do believe that learning student's names quickly is one of the most important jobs a teacher has at the beginning of the school year because relationship is the most important part of teaching in my opinion. I am not saying that you should be "friends" in the, I want the students to like me so much that I will bend my rules and thus set myself up for classroom management nightmares because I wasn't confident enough in my own class expectations that the students are now ruling the class and I can't seem to do anything about it, version of "friends". I do believe that the students need to know that you care about what you are teaching and that you care about them. Getting their name right early helps that relationship out a lot. I think it works the other way around too.
I like the first name basis because it sort of breaks down the walls between teacher and student a bit. They get to know you as you. They address you the way other people address you in regular life. I love the first name basis at our school.
Some of you probably totally disagree, some of you may not. Some of the parents of the kids in our school have a hard time with it I'm sure, but I think it grows on them. Two of the three public high schools in our school district go on first name basis with their staff and students now. I would be interested to hear how other people view this convention in their own schools. I do think that high school is the earliest it should be introduced. Middle school and elementary should keep the honorific system in my opinion.
Have a great day, I would love to see what other teachers in other areas think about this.
Some of you may not love that idea. "Where is the respect?" some of you are probably saying. I would say that there is no difference in the level of respect for staff in schools that use a first name basis vs. schools that use an honorific. I really think that the question of respect is something that using an honorific has nothing to do with because respect does not come from a name. I remember buddies of mine referring to teachers as Mr. or Mrs. (insert expletive here). Just because they used Mr. did not make any of us respect our teachers more or less.
My dad had a teacher back when he went to high school who used a number system for their students. They NEVER called the students in the class by their real name. He was a Math teacher, he had a military background and nobody really ever questioned him on it. My dad still remembers his number! He also remembers the teacher saying things like, "24, get to the board and do question 5 for us." If 24 had trouble he would sometime say something like, "You're so stupid 24. 13, get up there and help 24." Or if someone laughed at 24, he would say, "Oh, 10 you think you're so smart, get up and help 24." Of course if 10 messed up at all, "10, you're so stupid..." That's what my Dad remembers about that Math class. THAT. IS. HORRIBLE. TEACHING. Remember when people think about the good ol' days? I am positive they don't think about that.
That example of not using a student's name at all, is ridiculous to the extreme of what not to do with a student's name. I do believe that learning student's names quickly is one of the most important jobs a teacher has at the beginning of the school year because relationship is the most important part of teaching in my opinion. I am not saying that you should be "friends" in the, I want the students to like me so much that I will bend my rules and thus set myself up for classroom management nightmares because I wasn't confident enough in my own class expectations that the students are now ruling the class and I can't seem to do anything about it, version of "friends". I do believe that the students need to know that you care about what you are teaching and that you care about them. Getting their name right early helps that relationship out a lot. I think it works the other way around too.
I like the first name basis because it sort of breaks down the walls between teacher and student a bit. They get to know you as you. They address you the way other people address you in regular life. I love the first name basis at our school.
Some of you probably totally disagree, some of you may not. Some of the parents of the kids in our school have a hard time with it I'm sure, but I think it grows on them. Two of the three public high schools in our school district go on first name basis with their staff and students now. I would be interested to hear how other people view this convention in their own schools. I do think that high school is the earliest it should be introduced. Middle school and elementary should keep the honorific system in my opinion.
Have a great day, I would love to see what other teachers in other areas think about this.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Not the "young" teacher anymore. Authenticity is Relevance.
I have appreciated reading other educators' thoughts on their profession. I am going to write my own blog, not because I think I know everything, but because I appreciate the opportunity to share thoughts with others. Community is a good thing, especially in education. I enjoy hearing what others think because, either it lets me know that I am not alone in my thinking, or it challenges me to see things from a different point of view. Opening your mind to the fact that not everyone may see things the same way as you is a good thing, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, for my maiden voyage into the education blogosphere I figured I would write something that I had been pondering as of late. I am 36, I think, hmmmm, yes, 1976 to 2012, yep, that's 36. When I was a kid I could never understand how people could lose track of their age and yet, here I am. You realize at some point that your specific age doesn't really matter, but the stage starts to. Whether you are in the first or last half of the average life span of a human in your country is the thing that starts to hit me more than my specific age. I digress.
We have some great young teachers at my high school, and I used to be one of them. ('Young' is the part I was referring to, not the 'great' part, you can ask any former students if you want an unbiased opinion on that one...) I was talking to a couple of my grade 12 students a couple days ago about next semester and they were asking me about a teacher new to our school and what they were like. I described him as "young" but then I suddenly realized that I wasn't sure what my students defined as "young" anymore. So I asked them if I was considered "young". They thought about that, (maybe considering whether or not they would offend me...) and then said, "No, but you are not old." I was good with that, but it was weird to me that I had turned "not young" in the eyes of my students at some point. I wonder when that was? This is my 12th year of teaching. 12 years ago, I thought that guys in their mid-thirties weren't old, but they definitely were well established. I figured that they knew pretty much everything they needed to know about teaching. Nope. They were/still are awesome, and they never pretended to known everything, but that was the thought I had when I was "young".
I honestly don't care if students see me as young or not. I do care whether or not I can relate to students though, and that got me thinking, "Do I relate to these kids now?" I need to stay relevant to my students, but I also need to stay myself. I don't think there is much worse than a teacher who is not "young" anymore and tries to act like they are, just because they think they need to prove to the students that they are still cool. The thinking, "Hey kids, I'm still hip, still with it, right? RIGHT?", is bad thinking. The other end of the spectrum is almost as bad though. The crabby old guy/woman teacher who's bahumbugging any new thing that comes out just because, "We didn't need that when I was in school/when I first started teaching. Kids these days, and their technology and music and the Facebook and the Twitter. Going to hell in a handbasket we are, I tells ya..." Those people are annoying. I'm glad I don't have any people on my staff like that.
I think it is really important that students see what is important to you. I think it is really important for students to know that you care about them and their world, even if you don't get it, or appreciate it. You don't have to act as though you like some certain music or film genre or game, just because you want the kids to think that you are cool. It is important to keep an open mind to new culture though, because you may just like it. If you don't, at least you can have a good discussion with your students about life, and that's a good thing. Students appreciate authenticity, and I will strive to be authentic the rest of my career, even when I get "old". Authenticity is relevance.
Anyway, for my maiden voyage into the education blogosphere I figured I would write something that I had been pondering as of late. I am 36, I think, hmmmm, yes, 1976 to 2012, yep, that's 36. When I was a kid I could never understand how people could lose track of their age and yet, here I am. You realize at some point that your specific age doesn't really matter, but the stage starts to. Whether you are in the first or last half of the average life span of a human in your country is the thing that starts to hit me more than my specific age. I digress.
We have some great young teachers at my high school, and I used to be one of them. ('Young' is the part I was referring to, not the 'great' part, you can ask any former students if you want an unbiased opinion on that one...) I was talking to a couple of my grade 12 students a couple days ago about next semester and they were asking me about a teacher new to our school and what they were like. I described him as "young" but then I suddenly realized that I wasn't sure what my students defined as "young" anymore. So I asked them if I was considered "young". They thought about that, (maybe considering whether or not they would offend me...) and then said, "No, but you are not old." I was good with that, but it was weird to me that I had turned "not young" in the eyes of my students at some point. I wonder when that was? This is my 12th year of teaching. 12 years ago, I thought that guys in their mid-thirties weren't old, but they definitely were well established. I figured that they knew pretty much everything they needed to know about teaching. Nope. They were/still are awesome, and they never pretended to known everything, but that was the thought I had when I was "young".
I honestly don't care if students see me as young or not. I do care whether or not I can relate to students though, and that got me thinking, "Do I relate to these kids now?" I need to stay relevant to my students, but I also need to stay myself. I don't think there is much worse than a teacher who is not "young" anymore and tries to act like they are, just because they think they need to prove to the students that they are still cool. The thinking, "Hey kids, I'm still hip, still with it, right? RIGHT?", is bad thinking. The other end of the spectrum is almost as bad though. The crabby old guy/woman teacher who's bahumbugging any new thing that comes out just because, "We didn't need that when I was in school/when I first started teaching. Kids these days, and their technology and music and the Facebook and the Twitter. Going to hell in a handbasket we are, I tells ya..." Those people are annoying. I'm glad I don't have any people on my staff like that.
I think it is really important that students see what is important to you. I think it is really important for students to know that you care about them and their world, even if you don't get it, or appreciate it. You don't have to act as though you like some certain music or film genre or game, just because you want the kids to think that you are cool. It is important to keep an open mind to new culture though, because you may just like it. If you don't, at least you can have a good discussion with your students about life, and that's a good thing. Students appreciate authenticity, and I will strive to be authentic the rest of my career, even when I get "old". Authenticity is relevance.
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