18 January, 2011
28 May, 2010
Teaching Barefoot
My friend Thom Uhl used to teach barefoot. He never teaches behind a wall, and pulls it off brilliantly, even with the toughest freshmen in our school. He describes our former principal...
"Yeah, I will be at Paul's. A good time shall be had by all.
Hmm, the barefoot/Westerberg story. How did you even know that incident? Okay, here goes.
After teaching in rural North Carolina for 7 years, 3 of them at a wilderness camp for troubled youth, wearing overalls and walking around barefoot seemed like a normal affair. It didn't really occur to me that wearing the same ensemble would be an issue in Denver or Littleton.
After all, Colorado is part of the Wild West, right? What's the big deal! Then again it should have dawned on me that since buying liquor on Sunday was also illegal at the time, that I was in a state that still harbored some conservative ideals, especially when it came to how teachers dressed.
Nevertheless, a couple weeks into my new job at Littleton High School, the weather was warm, and it was obviously the right time to wear overalls and leave my shoes behind in the office.
In the middle of a lesson on Lord of the Flies (another good reason to not be wearing shoes), in walked the principal on one of his weekly visits. I did notice that he looked a bit suspiciously at my attire, but I welcomed him into class as always and worked him into my lesson like I usually do when administrators visit.
Dr. Westerberg had a reputation of being a strong but stern leader at our school for the past 20 plus years. He was also the innovator of the Freshman Academy program where I was hired to serve our at risk youth. Dr. Westerberg's reputation for his "my way or the highway" philosophy was well known throughout the school. In fact, before my final interview with Dr. Westerberg, an assistant principal gave me a flacid pep-talk and let me know how terrified he was of Dr. Westerberg. Well, I never picked up on such an ominous vibe from our school leader, and we always got along quite well.
After a 5 minute visit, Dr. Westerberg walked out of my classroom and never said a thing to me about my professional attire. He didn't even send another administrator to admonish me concerning my fashion sense. We never spoke of the incident.
I think Dr. Westerberg figured that with me he had a teacher who could keep 20 at risk scholars engaged while reading Lord of the Flies. If learning and student engagement was taking place, I guess he figured overalls and bare feet may have just been part of the strategy for keeping things loose while keeping relationships strong.
Just this year, students were walking barefoot at our school in an attempt to raise money and awareness concerning the plight of people who do not have shoes worldwide. It didn't take long before an email was sent to teachers and security was charged with the task of making sure kids weren't walking around barefoot. A health hazard, as it was explained to us.
I don't know, I wonder if Dr. Westerberg would have reacted the same way. Maybe he would have shook his head and smiled. Students were loose, but they were aware and fighting for a cause. Maybe he would have seen apathy and cold, rigid relationships with students as a much greater health hazard than bare feet. I know I do.
In a time when even a greater burden is being placed upon teachers to save our schools and our scholars, maybe the answer isn't to tighten standards; we've been trying that one with failed results for decades. Maybe we need to leave those shoes in the office, or at the very least, loosen the laces a bit." --Thom
Hmm, the barefoot/Westerberg story. How did you even know that incident? Okay, here goes.
After teaching in rural North Carolina for 7 years, 3 of them at a wilderness camp for troubled youth, wearing overalls and walking around barefoot seemed like a normal affair. It didn't really occur to me that wearing the same ensemble would be an issue in Denver or Littleton.
After all, Colorado is part of the Wild West, right? What's the big deal! Then again it should have dawned on me that since buying liquor on Sunday was also illegal at the time, that I was in a state that still harbored some conservative ideals, especially when it came to how teachers dressed.
Nevertheless, a couple weeks into my new job at Littleton High School, the weather was warm, and it was obviously the right time to wear overalls and leave my shoes behind in the office.
In the middle of a lesson on Lord of the Flies (another good reason to not be wearing shoes), in walked the principal on one of his weekly visits. I did notice that he looked a bit suspiciously at my attire, but I welcomed him into class as always and worked him into my lesson like I usually do when administrators visit.
Dr. Westerberg had a reputation of being a strong but stern leader at our school for the past 20 plus years. He was also the innovator of the Freshman Academy program where I was hired to serve our at risk youth. Dr. Westerberg's reputation for his "my way or the highway" philosophy was well known throughout the school. In fact, before my final interview with Dr. Westerberg, an assistant principal gave me a flacid pep-talk and let me know how terrified he was of Dr. Westerberg. Well, I never picked up on such an ominous vibe from our school leader, and we always got along quite well.
After a 5 minute visit, Dr. Westerberg walked out of my classroom and never said a thing to me about my professional attire. He didn't even send another administrator to admonish me concerning my fashion sense. We never spoke of the incident.
I think Dr. Westerberg figured that with me he had a teacher who could keep 20 at risk scholars engaged while reading Lord of the Flies. If learning and student engagement was taking place, I guess he figured overalls and bare feet may have just been part of the strategy for keeping things loose while keeping relationships strong.
Just this year, students were walking barefoot at our school in an attempt to raise money and awareness concerning the plight of people who do not have shoes worldwide. It didn't take long before an email was sent to teachers and security was charged with the task of making sure kids weren't walking around barefoot. A health hazard, as it was explained to us.
I don't know, I wonder if Dr. Westerberg would have reacted the same way. Maybe he would have shook his head and smiled. Students were loose, but they were aware and fighting for a cause. Maybe he would have seen apathy and cold, rigid relationships with students as a much greater health hazard than bare feet. I know I do.
In a time when even a greater burden is being placed upon teachers to save our schools and our scholars, maybe the answer isn't to tighten standards; we've been trying that one with failed results for decades. Maybe we need to leave those shoes in the office, or at the very least, loosen the laces a bit." --Thom
07 February, 2010
Todd Whitaker: What Great Teachers do Differently
http://www.eyeoneducation.com/prodinfo.asp?number=669%2D1
25 January, 2010
link between community and learning-not my class, but awesome responses
What is the link between community and learning?
“I respect them and care about them now because of the community we build, and therefore I value what they have to say because I have accepted them as intelligent individuals that I know will teach me things if I listen.”
In order to be open intellectually with a classmate, you must first be connected emotionally. This emotional connection creates a trust between classmates, the kind of trust in which the fear of judgment is eliminated. This allows us to present all of our ideas, which in turn allows our peers to analyze those ideas, then make us dig deeper. This process helps us appreciate and understand a text far more than if we had no emotional connection.
The more that I talk to my peers, the more that I respect and understand them. The more that I respect and understand my peers, the more that I listen to them and trust them to listen to me. The more mutual listening that goes on, the more the entire classroom community learns. I believe the entire class has benefited intellectually form the already beneficial emotional interactions.
A community generates learning because you have multiple people thinking together and combining their thoughts. The emotional interactions I think connect us together. I’ve noticed that after doing a life question, I find that I understand that person better, and I am less afraid to offend them by asking difficult questions because I know we’re the same, and I wouldn’t be annoyed that they asked a difficult question either.
When there is community it is much easier to push your own thinking without risking embarrassment. Because we are all on the same ground, I feel more comfortable taking risks and possibly finding more complex answers/ideas as a result of those risks.
I love that we get together and do “life” questions and then we do literature questions. I have never talked to someone who didn’t answer honestly; at least it seems they answer honestly. Maybe they are just really convincing. Anyway, everyone takes it very seriously, which means we can all trust each other. Without this trust, we could never go into deep thinking with our literature and we would probably be afraid to introduce new ideas to the table. We need to trust each other, and to trust ourselves.
I think that when a community trusts one another and has real, personal links, they are more willing to be vulnerable around each other and take risks. This is crucial in learning, because if no one took risks, nothing would be accomplished and…well it’d be really quiet in the classroom. I think when you tell something emotionally personal to you to someone who truly pays attention and hears you out, you can begin to feel more comfortable with them. And when you can feel comfortable with them, you will generally be more willing to voice opinions and push them as well.
Knowing my classmates better makes it easier to pitch ideas or do big projects with everyone. I know that it made my IOP go easier for me. It also feels like its ok to be different with this class.
For me personally, I find it much easier to listen intently and relate to another person’s ideas intellectually once I have a connection with them emotionally. It is easier for me to be open-minded and accept other points of view if I am comfortable with them as a person first. It’s like; it would be easier to take advice from a friend than a total stranger. The same thing applies here.
I think that there is a huge correlation between community and learning. I think that all the community building we have done over the last semester has truly brought us together as a community of learners. I feel so much closer to the members of this class than those of any of my other classes. The trust that we have developed over the year makes me so much more intellectually comfortable in class. I think people in the class feel they can say anything and this trust lets them move past their reservations and grow as intellectuals. Furthermore, I think that the community and trust takes the competition out of our classroom so that instead of competing, we help each other to expand our intellectual horizons.
Take a look at the document entitled “Our Commitments to One Another” – under Important Documents. How are we doing on these, as a class? How are YOU doing on fulfilling your end of the bargain? What, if anything, needs to change?
I think that the class as a whole is doing a great job with this commitment and so am I. The only thing that I think that we need to work on is the “takin’ it to the streets” because it’s like we just transform into regular students when we go into the boring classes like bio. We should change this because it changes other people’s lives in a positive way.
As a class I think the major area that needs improvement is supporting and acknowledging others' effort and ideas. We share ideas and listen to one another but tend to comment on our own ideas and in the process; we ignore the ideas of others. I need to work on promoting community in this class as well as in other classes. I also need to try to trust my peers with their ideas and my own.
Our listening skills are AMAZING, especially when compared to my other classes. I feel like everybody in class is always aware of what their classmates are saying. We just need to continue to actively listen, always. It would be wonderful if we could start doing that in other classes too.
I think that our class is progressing in every subject, save honesty, commitment, taking it to the streets, and mixing it up. I think that if the whole class was more honest with each other, the atmosphere would shift so that committing and mixing it up would be easier to accomplish. Frankly, our class sucks at taking it to the streets, I don’t know if our class is phony in literature, or just scared in other classes, but something is just not clicking between the two.
As a class, I feel we may have hit a small plateau in fulfilling all of our Commitments to One Another since we returned to class after winter vacation. However, I really believe that as we delve deeper into the realm of scent and write each other wonderful letters, we can pick those Commitments back up. I, for one, need to “Mix It Up” and “Take it To The Streets.” You must be bold!
As a class I think that we already have such an incredibly close bond allowing us to really stick to our commitments to one another. However, I still think that we need to tell the class and each other to relax more and to totally just take a giant deep breath because even though some things in our lives seem like they are the end of the world, aka bio, they truly aren’t. We each have a strong commitment to the class and each beautiful individual that walks through the classroom door every day that it is hard not to say that we don’t excel on our commitments and that we don’t love each other.
As a class, I think we have done well with sitting in different places and promoting community. We have learned to actively listen to each and think about other’s ideas. Now, since we know each other better, we support and commit to each other. Unfortunately, I don’t think we push each other or are totally honest with each other, because we aren’t used to it and we’re afraid we might hurt each other’s feelings.
As a class, I think we are doing really well in keeping these commitments in the classroom. I feel like the area for most improvement is “taking it to the streets”. It is really easy to see our lack of commitment here, and I think the main challenge that stands in the way of this is that half of our IB class has not been lucky enough to experience the bonding of our class. The other kids don’t really get the idea of a community of learners as far as I can tell, which makes it difficult for us to bond with them the way we did with each other. Don’t get me wrong, I have tons of friends in that class, but as a whole group, I feel that this is the challenge in making our small community of learners include all of the IB class.
As a class, I feel that we have kept our commitments to each other. Everyone is no longer lazy enough to just call an idea “good” without consideration. Instead, everyone is asking challenging questions to increase their own understating and to help expand others’ understanding. I also feel that everyone has become committed to filling out their RWN, and actively participating in each class instead of sitting in a drowsy stupor. The class is also mixing it up, as I see everyone sitting in different seats and talking to a wide variety of people each class.
Anything Else?
First off I just want to tell you I love this class and everyone within it with so much caring and love, it is unbelievable to me because I have never felt this way about a class before. Thank you for such a fun filled semester with so much learning, you really made enjoy literature and understand it more than I ever new I could. I have always loved reading in my spare time but I have never enjoyed reading for school until now. Especially last year we were focused on techniques and not the enjoyments to these pieces of art. (Taking a step back and saying so what and letting it sink into how I am as a human being)
I am truly becoming a better scholar and person.
This class brings me back to life each and every day if I am in a bad/sad/mad mood or even when I am on top of the world it just puts me right back up there!!! I don’t know what I would do without all of the people and especially you in my life right now. I don’t know how I became so fortunate to have this many amazing people to sit down with each week…it’s actually a wee bit overwhelming….just kidding J
OMG I LOVE THIS CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“I respect them and care about them now because of the community we build, and therefore I value what they have to say because I have accepted them as intelligent individuals that I know will teach me things if I listen.”
In order to be open intellectually with a classmate, you must first be connected emotionally. This emotional connection creates a trust between classmates, the kind of trust in which the fear of judgment is eliminated. This allows us to present all of our ideas, which in turn allows our peers to analyze those ideas, then make us dig deeper. This process helps us appreciate and understand a text far more than if we had no emotional connection.
The more that I talk to my peers, the more that I respect and understand them. The more that I respect and understand my peers, the more that I listen to them and trust them to listen to me. The more mutual listening that goes on, the more the entire classroom community learns. I believe the entire class has benefited intellectually form the already beneficial emotional interactions.
A community generates learning because you have multiple people thinking together and combining their thoughts. The emotional interactions I think connect us together. I’ve noticed that after doing a life question, I find that I understand that person better, and I am less afraid to offend them by asking difficult questions because I know we’re the same, and I wouldn’t be annoyed that they asked a difficult question either.
When there is community it is much easier to push your own thinking without risking embarrassment. Because we are all on the same ground, I feel more comfortable taking risks and possibly finding more complex answers/ideas as a result of those risks.
I love that we get together and do “life” questions and then we do literature questions. I have never talked to someone who didn’t answer honestly; at least it seems they answer honestly. Maybe they are just really convincing. Anyway, everyone takes it very seriously, which means we can all trust each other. Without this trust, we could never go into deep thinking with our literature and we would probably be afraid to introduce new ideas to the table. We need to trust each other, and to trust ourselves.
I think that when a community trusts one another and has real, personal links, they are more willing to be vulnerable around each other and take risks. This is crucial in learning, because if no one took risks, nothing would be accomplished and…well it’d be really quiet in the classroom. I think when you tell something emotionally personal to you to someone who truly pays attention and hears you out, you can begin to feel more comfortable with them. And when you can feel comfortable with them, you will generally be more willing to voice opinions and push them as well.
Knowing my classmates better makes it easier to pitch ideas or do big projects with everyone. I know that it made my IOP go easier for me. It also feels like its ok to be different with this class.
For me personally, I find it much easier to listen intently and relate to another person’s ideas intellectually once I have a connection with them emotionally. It is easier for me to be open-minded and accept other points of view if I am comfortable with them as a person first. It’s like; it would be easier to take advice from a friend than a total stranger. The same thing applies here.
I think that there is a huge correlation between community and learning. I think that all the community building we have done over the last semester has truly brought us together as a community of learners. I feel so much closer to the members of this class than those of any of my other classes. The trust that we have developed over the year makes me so much more intellectually comfortable in class. I think people in the class feel they can say anything and this trust lets them move past their reservations and grow as intellectuals. Furthermore, I think that the community and trust takes the competition out of our classroom so that instead of competing, we help each other to expand our intellectual horizons.
Take a look at the document entitled “Our Commitments to One Another” – under Important Documents. How are we doing on these, as a class? How are YOU doing on fulfilling your end of the bargain? What, if anything, needs to change?
I think that the class as a whole is doing a great job with this commitment and so am I. The only thing that I think that we need to work on is the “takin’ it to the streets” because it’s like we just transform into regular students when we go into the boring classes like bio. We should change this because it changes other people’s lives in a positive way.
As a class I think the major area that needs improvement is supporting and acknowledging others' effort and ideas. We share ideas and listen to one another but tend to comment on our own ideas and in the process; we ignore the ideas of others. I need to work on promoting community in this class as well as in other classes. I also need to try to trust my peers with their ideas and my own.
Our listening skills are AMAZING, especially when compared to my other classes. I feel like everybody in class is always aware of what their classmates are saying. We just need to continue to actively listen, always. It would be wonderful if we could start doing that in other classes too.
I think that our class is progressing in every subject, save honesty, commitment, taking it to the streets, and mixing it up. I think that if the whole class was more honest with each other, the atmosphere would shift so that committing and mixing it up would be easier to accomplish. Frankly, our class sucks at taking it to the streets, I don’t know if our class is phony in literature, or just scared in other classes, but something is just not clicking between the two.
As a class, I feel we may have hit a small plateau in fulfilling all of our Commitments to One Another since we returned to class after winter vacation. However, I really believe that as we delve deeper into the realm of scent and write each other wonderful letters, we can pick those Commitments back up. I, for one, need to “Mix It Up” and “Take it To The Streets.” You must be bold!
As a class I think that we already have such an incredibly close bond allowing us to really stick to our commitments to one another. However, I still think that we need to tell the class and each other to relax more and to totally just take a giant deep breath because even though some things in our lives seem like they are the end of the world, aka bio, they truly aren’t. We each have a strong commitment to the class and each beautiful individual that walks through the classroom door every day that it is hard not to say that we don’t excel on our commitments and that we don’t love each other.
As a class, I think we have done well with sitting in different places and promoting community. We have learned to actively listen to each and think about other’s ideas. Now, since we know each other better, we support and commit to each other. Unfortunately, I don’t think we push each other or are totally honest with each other, because we aren’t used to it and we’re afraid we might hurt each other’s feelings.
As a class, I think we are doing really well in keeping these commitments in the classroom. I feel like the area for most improvement is “taking it to the streets”. It is really easy to see our lack of commitment here, and I think the main challenge that stands in the way of this is that half of our IB class has not been lucky enough to experience the bonding of our class. The other kids don’t really get the idea of a community of learners as far as I can tell, which makes it difficult for us to bond with them the way we did with each other. Don’t get me wrong, I have tons of friends in that class, but as a whole group, I feel that this is the challenge in making our small community of learners include all of the IB class.
As a class, I feel that we have kept our commitments to each other. Everyone is no longer lazy enough to just call an idea “good” without consideration. Instead, everyone is asking challenging questions to increase their own understating and to help expand others’ understanding. I also feel that everyone has become committed to filling out their RWN, and actively participating in each class instead of sitting in a drowsy stupor. The class is also mixing it up, as I see everyone sitting in different seats and talking to a wide variety of people each class.
Anything Else?
First off I just want to tell you I love this class and everyone within it with so much caring and love, it is unbelievable to me because I have never felt this way about a class before. Thank you for such a fun filled semester with so much learning, you really made enjoy literature and understand it more than I ever new I could. I have always loved reading in my spare time but I have never enjoyed reading for school until now. Especially last year we were focused on techniques and not the enjoyments to these pieces of art. (Taking a step back and saying so what and letting it sink into how I am as a human being)
I am truly becoming a better scholar and person.
This class brings me back to life each and every day if I am in a bad/sad/mad mood or even when I am on top of the world it just puts me right back up there!!! I don’t know what I would do without all of the people and especially you in my life right now. I don’t know how I became so fortunate to have this many amazing people to sit down with each week…it’s actually a wee bit overwhelming….just kidding J
OMG I LOVE THIS CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
19 November, 2009
ideas
Books for Epigraphs:
The Courage to Teach - Parker Palmer
Teacher Man - Frank McCourt
Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference - Mark Edmundson
Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness - Debra Shoeberlein
The Art of Connecting: How to Overcome Differences, Build Rapport, and Communicate Efeectively - Claire Raines and Lara Ewing
Research on relationship-building in the classroom and its effects on learning
Richard and Michele Steckel - Milestones project for 5280 Magazine - archive of photgraphs of children
Hector Orci - find out more Advertising exec. Focuses on Latino markets. Mexican born. LOs Angeles.
Positive Regard for students
Getting to know them really
Not shying away from serious issues
you're not perfect: the story of Schwaib Meachem's class and Kabby Hong from MA+
Title: Rapport: An Introduction to Relationship Building in the Classroom
The Courage to Teach - Parker Palmer
Teacher Man - Frank McCourt
Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference - Mark Edmundson
Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness - Debra Shoeberlein
The Art of Connecting: How to Overcome Differences, Build Rapport, and Communicate Efeectively - Claire Raines and Lara Ewing
Research on relationship-building in the classroom and its effects on learning
Richard and Michele Steckel - Milestones project for 5280 Magazine - archive of photgraphs of children
Hector Orci - find out more Advertising exec. Focuses on Latino markets. Mexican born. LOs Angeles.
Positive Regard for students
Getting to know them really
Not shying away from serious issues
you're not perfect: the story of Schwaib Meachem's class and Kabby Hong from MA+
Title: Rapport: An Introduction to Relationship Building in the Classroom
26 May, 2009
19 May, 2009
Things students don't know about you:
1. Students don't know or understand how hard you work.
2. Students often don't know what hard work is, but think they do.
3. Students don't know that you see the world differently than they do. They see the world on their terms--in a self-centered fashion--and you know you are not the center of the universe. This is key to rapport building.
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