Six Thoughts on Becoming a More Effective Teacher

Every so often I am asked by former high school students pursuing college degrees in education about my thoughts on being an effective teacher. While I do not consider myself the authority on the subject by any means, I do believe strongly in these six thoughts.

Invest in Yourself

“The first and best victory is to conquer self.” – Plato

“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” – Jim Rohn

The most important factor in determining whether a child learns in your classroom is YOU. Amid papers to correct, lessons to plan, emails to answer, calls to make, meetings to attend, and any number of other details which to tend, you must remember that it is your long-term growth and happiness that must be the priority.

The give and take of your personal and professional life is like making deposits and withdrawals at a bank: the “Bank of You.” Reading books, articles, and blogs that inspire, motivate and inform are deposits into your bank. Exercise and eating well are deposits. Creating strong relationships with peers are deposits. Attending conferences and seminars are deposits.

The benefit to a teacher from any of these deposits is interest paid. Interest comes in many forms: improved mental and physical health, increased student performance, easier relationship building with students, parents and administrators, invitations to mentoring and/or leadership roles within the profession, and many more.

There is give and take in any profession, however, and teaching is no different. All of the inevitable distractions, the rough days, the time away from family, and the stress of the job make withdrawals from the Bank of You. Your goal is to have enough saved up in the Bank to buffer against these difficulties. If you don't, you'll soon be living on borrowed time.

Observe Great Teaching and Have Great Teachers Observe You

It seems human nature to adapt and conform to our surroundings. On the golf course, I always play better when I'm in a group with great golfers. Whenever I attend professional golf events I am struck with the urge to get back to my home course and play. I am inspired by watching great performances. When I observe great teaching first-hand, the same thing occurs. I am rejuvenated and excited to get back to my own classroom!

We are easily influenced by our circle of friends and colleagues: whoever we spend time with tend to shape who we are. Within your school are many outstanding teachers, and it's easy to figure out who. Spend time with them. Watch them work. Ask them questions. Allow them to come into your classroom and don't be afraid of what they might have to say. Be inspired, and your students will benefit.

Seek Opportunities to Serve

Sometimes when the going gets tough, we build a “comfort cocoon” around ourselves. Our thinking turns to “I” and “me” rather than “we” and “us.” We wallow in pity parties of our own design and feel alone. Before that happens, volunteer for school committees or become an activity sponsor. Find ways to take the initiative in your environment and help make it better. In doing so, you invest in opportunities that put “we” and “us” front and center in your mind and create meaningful relationships that will help you through the tough times. If you want to be a great teacher, motivator, communicator, and/or leader, you can't do it alone. You will get everything you want in your life and career if you give others what they want.

Strive for Balance in Your Classroom

“Teaching is about the intersection between relationships, curiosity and content.” 

– Dr. Kwame Brown

Content is king in education. The almighty test controls much of what goes on in the classroom. However, I firmly believe that our primary job as teachers is to build people, and it must be done within the context of our curriculum. This is the joining of the “what” (curriculum) to the “how” (process and example) to get to the “why” (inspiring young minds.)

Very few teachers that went to college to receive a degree education simply wish to program young minds with facts and figures. Any computer can do that these days. Our role is to maintain our focus on why we are called to teach and why our presence matters to students.

Take Time for Reflection

There is tangible benefit to writing in a journal. When you put your thoughts on paper, they become more concrete. You may even see them more objectively. When you browse back in your notes, you can see how your thinking has changed, evolved. Journaling is another way to make a deposit into the Bank of You. There are myriad articles about journaling's benefit, and many techniques to get it done. I encourage you to do your research.

Sitting down and visiting with a trusted friend and/or colleague can be a valuable reflection exercise, too. I look forward to opportunities to talk to friends in my profession. Nearly all the time, I come away from those chats with a fresh perspective, reminded that my concerns and my frustrations, as well as my hopes and victories are a part of a larger, shared experience.

The “Annie Principle:”

“When I'm stuck with a day that's gray and lonely, I just stick out my chin and grin and say: 

'The sun will come out tomorrow...'”

Teaching is tough. Not every day will go as planned. But the good news is that for the foreseeable future, the sun will indeed rise tomorrow, and another opportunity to be better awaits you. When all else fails, and regardless of the circumstances that may have made today difficult, there are young people in your sphere of influence that want precisely what you have to offer.

Stop Should-ing on Me

Margot Thompson is a blogger that I follow on Twitter. She and I share the same thoughts on the word "SHOULD." Here's the beginning of her blog post from late October. The link to the full post is below the excerpt. Enjoy!

For most of my life, I've felt a huge pressure to be something or someone that in my heart, I really wasn't. Urged in certain directions by those I loved and respected, I just presumed they were correct, and it was me that simply couldn’t feel comfortable walking the “right” path. So often we tell ourselves what we should do or who we should be based on what others believe. I should be a straight “A” student. I should go to university. I really should socialize more. I should be married to a “successful” man. I should have children by now. I should make more money. What a load of shoulds.

via margotthompson.typepad.com

Success Through Failure

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. -- Wayne Gretzky

NBA star Kobe Bryant holds many, many records. He's the youngest player to score 24,000 points (31 years, 76 days) and the youngest player to score every thousand point increment above that through 32,000 points (36 years, 87 days); records previously held by the likes of Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He is tied with Michael Jordan and two others for the most "All-Defensive Team" honors won in a career (9). He has been on 11 All-NBA First Teams (tied with Karl Malone), and is a 16 time NBA All Star. By most all statistical measures, he is a great basketball player.

There's one more stat that he added to his resume recently: most missed shots in a career. Kobe Bryant as of November 11, 2014 had missed 13,418 shot attempts. That's a lot. Michael Jordan missed about 9000. (But then again, Kobe has played 4 more seasons and 200 more games than Michael in the NBA.)

Kobe Bryant is taking risks without fear of failure. He is continually trying. He is continually working to get that ball in the hoop. It hasn't fallen through the metal ring over 13,000 times, but in the process of trying, he has become great and maintained greatness in his NBA career.


For me, the story is a bit less dramatic and certainly not a national sports headline grabber. This was my first year on a road bike: lycra shorts-and-all, seriously pedaling around central Iowa. My goal for the year is to ride 1500 miles, and I'm currently at 1409. I know there's a few weeks left in the year, but it's Iowa... it's pretty cold this time of year, and it gets dark awfully early. My life as a teacher and busy dad may not allow me enough tome to spend the 7-8 hours I need in the saddle to reach my goal.

Am I a failure if I don't reach my goal? I don't think so. While I'd like to think I'll find a way to pedal 91 more miles, here are some of the benefits I've already reaped through my efforts this year:

1. I biked 1409 miles!
2. I met dozens of wonderfully interesting people.
3. I have an expanded wardrobe of stretchy, breathable fabric.
4. I was with my children for their first 25 mile-long rides.
5. I biked across the state of Minnesota to raise money for MS research.
6. I raised over $2000 for MS
7. I saw parts of my state that I've never seen.
8. I lost weight and gained muscle (temporarily...)
9. I have a new appreciation for fitness and will pass that on to my children.
10. I gained excitement for the future, a more positive mindset, and have a renewed appreciation for goal-setting.

Not a bad list. 

On my reading list this summer was "Failing Forward" by John Maxwell. It's a great, easy read, and I recommend it highly. The book is a treasure trove of quotes pertaining to using failure as a stepping stone to success. My top five from the book:

• Embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.
• The less you venture out, the greater your risk of failure. Ironically the more you risk failure — and actually fail — the greater your chances of success.
• If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And that means you're not taking enough risks. You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve.
• The next time you find yourself envying what successful people have achieved, recognize that they have probably gone through many negative experiences that you cannot see on the surface.
• The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get.

Now, will I reach my 1500 mile goal? I plan on it!

Accident or Design

It occurs to me that our days tend to unfold in one of two ways: by accident or by design.

This struck me after looking back on a recent summer weekday and realizing I had done nothing but float around the house like a half-filled helium balloon: doing a chore here, playing with the kids there, checking email every 20 minutes, thinking about work with no particular purpose in mind, reading a little.

Wow. In the grand scheme of things, I thought, I have done nothing to add value to my life today, and it was by accident. I wasn't intentional. I just existed.

Don't get me wrong, this kind of living has its place. Occasionally, and on purpose. Making a choice to "decompress" or "disconnect" can be a good mental break. But when there exists no purpose to what we do, we have no purpose.

I like to make lists. Lists keep me honest and directed. My usual routine is to make a list in the morning for my day. However, in an effort to quell the recent malaise that has beset me, the teacher in summertime, I recently began writing out to-do lists for the next day as I sit enjoying Netflix in the evening. This little shift has set up my tomorrows much more successfully. I wake up with intention (today it was to start at 5:30 AM with a 30 mile bike ride), and move on to other goals (like writing this post). No floating unless I designed part of my day that way.

Ultimately, we have control over ourselves. That's it. Small steps like setting a few little goals and intentionally designing tomorrow to move ourselves closer to those goals will lead to bigger and bigger things. Avoid accidents with better design.

Smart Phone Apps that Keep You Learning Behind the Wheel

If you are often mindlessly behind the wheel of your car logging windshield time, perhaps with the radio on or maybe in silence, you could be missing an opportunity to engage your mind with positive or enlightening messages. Last year I read something Larry Winget wrote in one of his books about using driving time as another chance to learn.

Since then, I have used several different apps with my Android smartphone to listen and learn while in the car. I commute to my teaching job 40 minutes each day, and the average nonfiction audiobook is six hours in length. If I play an audio book on my way to and from school for each of the 190 days I make the trip, over the course of the school year, I will go through roughly 21 books!

These are the best and most used free apps I use to beam content to my Bluetooth connected radio:

Overdrive Media Console. This app will connect to your public library's audiobook collection and play them with a very nice interface. You are limited to your library's offerings just like you would be for regular books to check out, but if your library has a decent stock of titles, you'll be set. There are over 22,000 libraries that use the system, so chances are good you're a member of one. The other nice thing is that the audiobooks are automatically returned if you don't renew them... No late fees!

Umano. This app is unique in that it offers a curated list of interesting articles from major publications on many different subjects narrated by professional voice actors. I have found many thought provoking and interesting items using Umano. The people employed to read do a quite respectable job. At one time, I had a search in place for inspirational items. The app didn't disappoint, offering a wide array of news and general interest items that fit the category.

uListen is my current "go to" app in the car. It is just great. There are thousands of videos on the youtube with motivating, inspiring, informational, and fascinating topics. Many of these videos are perfectly understandable with no video playing at all (like taped motivational seminars) or are already audio only. uListen will search all of YouTube and will play only the audio from any given video. On the road, cell towers can be spread out. No video means less bandwidth and a smooth playback experience despite poor reception!

Stitcher bills itself as a kind of internet radio. What it actually is is a streaming podcast app with a wide array of content in 18 different subject areas, from current events to religion and spirituality. I like Stitcher because of its streaming platform. Podcasted shows aren't downloaded and don't take space on my phone. Episodes are also dynamically refreshed to the most current without my help. The app also allows the creation of a list of "favorites" to return to time after time.

Do you have favorites in this genre of app? Please share below. I'd love to hear from you!

 

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Talk Positive to Me!

If I'm not careful, I can be a pretty negative talker. I can get down on the person I talk to the most, and can be a brutally negative force in his life. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it's true.

And that person is me. All of us carry on more conversations with ourselves than with any other person. Of all the continual banter going on between the ears, a good portion of it can be quite negative.

• I'm not going to do well...
• I'm not ready for...
• I'm too this or I'm too that.
• I can't....
• This is too hard...
• I don't want...

A student who does well in her classes and studies hard for a big test may walk into the classroom on test day saying things like "I hope I do well. I'm not a good test taker." Or "I don't want to bomb this too badly!" That negative self talk programs the mind to go in the opposite direction of the desired result. Of course she wants to do well! In an attempt to lower expectations in her mind to cushion the blow of a possible lower grade, she is opening the door to poor performance. Instead, walking into the classroom with an attitude of "I got this!" leaves no room for negativity.

On the golf course, a golfer tees up the ball and promptly hooks it into the lake. Walking back the the cart he exclaims loudly, "I knew I was going to do that!" (In the interest of full disclosure, I have done AND said this a few times over the years...) Well goodness. If he knew he was going to do it while standing over the ball, why didn't he back away, set his mind on the positive thought of hitting it down the middle of the fairway, and let it rip? I can attest that clearing negative self talk usually works in this case!

To go one step further, imagine all your negative self talk and doubt projected externally to other people. Yuck! Why do you think it is that we can be so outwardly positive but so inwardly negative?
 
Keep your head full of positive information and positive messages. It takes work, but keep your noggin full of ideas from positive and motivating people. As Zig Ziglar was fond of saying, you are who you are and where you are because of what you've put into your head.

Read good books, read the Bible, find inspiration and keep the negative self talk at bay. in doing this, you will be able to more easily recognize then repell negative self talk when it creeps into your head.

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Digging for the Good

Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest men in the world at the beginning of the 20th century. He made his millions with keen business acumen and a sharp eye for developing the skill and effectiveness of the people around him. In fact, at one point, he had 43 millionaires working for his companies -- an unheard of occurrence back then. Depending on what index you look at, one million dollars in 1910 is the equivalent of between $25,000,000 (using the consumer price index) and $481,000,000 (as a percent of the US gross domestic product)!

Carnegie was once asked by reporter how he managed to hire 43 millionaires. He responded that none of them were millionaires when he hired them but observed that, "You develop millionaires the way you mine gold. You expect to move tons of dirt to find an ounce of gold, but you don't go into the mine looking for the dirt—you go in looking for the gold."

How often have we seen the "dirt" in other people and assumed that was all there was? How often do we stop digging and move on? Strip mining for gold creates holes in the earth thousands of feet wide and hundreds of feet deep using equipment larger than houses. Our personal gold digging landscape may look only like a sea of gopher holes in the grass.

The difference between the holes is belief. Gold miners dig broad and deep because they know gold is there. If it's easy to see potential gold in someone, we tend to dig deeper too. However, look for the gold in everyone, and not just the easy-to-see stuff. Invest and get digging!

 

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