Category: First Year Teachers

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What Giving up on a Student Says About You

Not every student can be well-behaved or have perfect grades. Sometimes, kids can be frustrating and difficult to handle, which can cause adults to give up on them and stop giving them the support they need. However, as tempting as it is to give up on a student, this is something that you should never do. Giving up on a student shows that you lack the determination and hard work needed to make them successful in school. 

Why You Should Never Give Up on a Student

Some students need more guidance than others, so it is essential that you do what you can to make sure they don’t go down the wrong path. By helping even the most troublesome kids, you could help them to change their attitude about school entirely. If you don’t continue to help and encourage all students, then you could be setting them up for future failures. If their teachers and trusted adults don’t believe in them anymore, then they won’t see a reason to believe in themselves either. Therefore, you should never give up on a student because you are just letting them know that it’s okay for them to act out and not try since you aren’t doing anything to stop them or help them.

How to Stop Yourself From Giving Up

No matter how much you want to give up on a student, you need to keep trying and allow yourself to get to the root of the problem. Try to be more personal with the students and get to know them better to allow you to better understand what’s going on. If they’re just not understanding something or not wanting to participate, there could be a deeper reason to it, so having you give up on them could only make the situation worse. Treat them like a human being instead of just a misbehaving child. The best way to get to the root of the problem and help a student is to spend one-on-one time with them and try to figure out how to properly help them and connect with them.

Also, you should take away any distractions that could be preventing students from being successful. At school, if a child always sits near others that are distracting and off task, then you should make assigned seats and spend extra time with the student to ensure that they stay on task. At home, if a student is refusing to do homework or go to school, parents can take away electronics or other objects that could be providing distractions from school as well. At first, kids may throw a fit if their distractions are removed, but as upset as they may be, it will help them to focus much better.

Conclusion

Giving up on a student not only shows them that you don’t care enough to help them improve, but it also says that you are not willing to do whatever it takes. Not every student will be easy to teach, but for teachers, parents, and other faculty members, it is essential that kids get the help and support that they need no matter how difficult they are.

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Teacher Burnout or Demoralization? What’s the Difference and Why it Matters

A study led by Dr. Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania showed the staggering reality of the American education system; 15% of teachers leave the profession every year and 45% of new teachers leave within the first five years. The burning question behind these results is why?

When talking with educators, a common discussion topic is the soul-crushing, depressive, and futile nature of the profession. Now, many teachers are lucky enough to be in school districts where they are supported, listened to, valued, and not scapegoated by the administration, parents, and students for items that are not under their control but it seems this is becoming few and far between. In Ingersoll’s study, he focused one portion on first-year teachers who left their current school and polled them on the reasons why. The results, as seen in Figure 15 of the study linked above, are as follows:

  • 32% → School Staffing Action
  • 39.7% → Family or Personal
  • 31.7% → To Pursue Other Jobs
  • 44.4% → Dissatisfaction

Ingersoll and Perda state “On the other hand, high levels of employee departures are worrisome not only because they can be a symptom of underlying problems in how well organizations function, but also because departures can entail costs and other negative consequences for organizations and for the larger system (Ingersoll & Perda, forthcoming).”

Understanding the Difference

The important distinction to make is that these statistics are focusing more on teacher burnout than teacher demoralization. At first glance, these words may seem to be two ways to say the same thing but there is an important distinction to be made. When a teacher is burnt out it more than likely means that they are done. Gassed. Finished. Nothing left. Whether this burnout happened within those first five years of entering the profession or is the culmination of decades of their willpower, desire, and love of teaching being ground down the result is the same; leaving the profession. Ingersoll’s study focuses primarily on this issue.

What is not often discussed, is teacher demoralization which is really what goes on before teacher burn out happened. Teacher demoralization results in teacher burnout. This distinction is vital in addressing the problem within the profession because it allows intervention to be focused on the problem, teacher demoralization, instead of the symptom of the problem which is teacher burnout. 

Doris A. Santoro, an associate professor of education and chair of the education department at Bowdoin College, in her publication Is It Burnout? Or Demoralization? addresses this sentiment by saying “we know that teachers are experiencing dissatisfaction (Keigher, 2010), but, like doctors, we must be careful to look for the true source of the problem in order to properly treat it. […] similarly, school leaders need to get to the root of teacher dissatisfaction so it can be diagnosed and treated properly.”

Finding the Cause

The underlying problems that Ingersoll and Perda refer to are precisely the issues that result in teacher demoralization whether it is unruly parents with no administrative support, absurd class sizes with no mandated support, low pay, general lack of administrative support, forced to follow a rigid curriculum, overarching desire for better test scores at all costs, lack of autonomy, etc. The list is nearly endless and is what results in teachers having self-reported stress amounts equal to nurses and physicians according to Gallup’s 2013 State of America’s Schools Report. 

Once the difference between teacher burnout and teacher demoralization is made more clear, it can be more easily addressed. It will not be a quick change nor one without growing pains as the profession continues to suffer from these systemic problems but as the reality of these problems become more apparent and felt more by those outside of education, the policies and legislation hamstringing many of these ailments felt by teachers can be changed. 

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How Teachers Can Decide What’s Important, Then Ditch The Rest

Teachers have a student for only 7 hours a day, maybe even less if they teach in a half-day kindergarten program. With so much that needs to be accomplished each day, each month, each school year, it can be challenging to figure out how you will get everything accomplished. The trick is not to let yourself get overwhelmed with all of your tasks. And then you can figure out and plan your time so that you will accomplish what needs to be done.

Where to begin?

There are many methods and strategies available for teachers to use, it is easy to find ways of managing a classroom, discipline, lesson planning, etc. The critical factor here is to pick a system or create your own that will be easy for you to follow. Perhaps the very first step you need to take is to think about all the tasks you need to do during a school day…and then prioritize that list. At the top of your list should be the most important tasks, things that must be done daily.

When making this list of tasks, consider things such as communicating with parents, discipline, and administrative work such as entering grades into your school’s system. These are probably at the top of your list. You should also make sure your plans for student injuries, substitute plans, and school closings are up to date. These areas are most likely the most important ones in your day and the areas that need to be covered in case you are out, and a substitute needs to step in.

What should be next on that list?

Now that you have scheduled the most important tasks that need to be done daily without fail, you can look at those tasks that are a step below.  This is a great time and place in your master schedule to work on your lesson plans. It is also the perfect space to map out any professional development you are interested in so that you can build it into your schedule. You may also want to use this time to talk to your in-classroom support members or aides. Be sure that you are delegating work that can be handled by them. They are there to help you!

Time wasters

In our ever-connected world, it is very easy to get caught up in Pinterest and blogging hype. Without a doubt, there are some incredibly cute and elaborate classroom ideas floating around in the virtual world.

While some of these ideas and systems are great, ask yourself if they are vital for managing your time. If you can quickly prioritize your tasks and day, you will be able to accomplish a lot. There is really no need for elaborate setups, labeling, or organizing systems. Although they may be cute, if it costs you too much time in setting up and following through, it is not the right system for you.

Conclusion

Educators have a tremendous amount of responsibility each day. And with a limited amount of hours in each day it is imperative, for your students, and your own well being, that you schedule the most critical tasks first and then work backward down your list. It is as simple as writing it all down on paper, but it will be the perfect guide to accomplishing all you need to during the day.

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How To Get The Teachers We Want

When you break down the success or failure of any educational institution, be it in the edtech or traditional sectors, it all boils down to the cost/effect ratio of the institution’s teaching staff and whether or not those teachers are connecting with and reaching students in such a way which produces the desired results and interactions. Budgets play a massive role in securing and retaining top teaching talent, as an inability to pay a worthwhile wage will drive good teachers away to other institutions who are able or willing to pay them what they are truly worth on the market.

However, there are ways to find and retain good teachers on your ledger regardless of your institution’s financial situation. While teachers are always looking for a higher pay scale (like anyone would in any particular field, they’re also looking for greater overall rewards and a working environment which makes their time and effort investment worth it. Building an environment which rewards the teacher emotionally and professionally is just as important as being able to provide the right numbers on their paychecks. 

You’re not just competing with other educational institutions

Talented people are talented people. Just because someone has a teaching certification doesn’t mean they’re married to teaching, especially if there is a related or peripheral field which can offer them better pay and overall quality of life. Per a recent study, the ability to staff and keep good teachers is very much dependent on how desirable the teaching profession itself is compared to other potential job opportunities on the overall market.

While you have major work to do convincing the right teachers to join your institutional ranks, you also have work to do convincing talented people to stay within the teaching profession itself and not ply their trade in other fields which could potential pay more or offer a set of overall rewards which outstrips their perception of the teaching field itself. Only the most focused and ethically aggressive hiring strategies are able to work on both sides of this fence, getting the best talent to work for them regardless of whatever other job opportunities lie out there.

So, how do you get the right people in such circumstances?

If you have sufficient financial backing, you’ve got to pay your teachers the right ethical wage for the work they’ll be doing. One of the key criticisms which arise among teachers either switching jobs or wavering over their commitment to the profession is overall dissatisfaction with salary. 55% of public school teachers in a recent study expressed overall displeasure with their wages. Those numbers vary based on the type of institution, but the fact remains that lower pay (or the perception of it) leads to a lack of top talent vying for these jobs and/or being available in the first place.

The other huge key is simply to listen to your teachers and teachers in similar institutions. Find Twitter chats and educational Facebook groups where these teachers go to vent about their current circumstances. Most are looking for support systems which listen to their concerns and help them hone their craft while carrying out the requirements of the job. Also, look into alternative teacher education programs to find talented teachers who may have been unwittingly marginalized and taken off your radar. The way to secure and keep the best teaching talent is to give them a job environment which compensates them fairly and addresses their concerns either before or as they arise. If you can do that, you’ll have a leg up in getting the right teachers for the right jobs.

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Reducing the ‘Toxic Stress’ of Starting High School

The transition from middle school to high school is a big step, so most students get overwhelmed and stressed as they go through the process. This can cause them to be less successful at school, and it can cause their grades to drop significantly. So, how do we reduce this stress?

What is the ‘Toxic Stress’ of Starting High School?

Each student has a different mindset and a different way of handling stress, but it is no secret that the start of freshman year is a rough transition for most high school students. These stress levels can actually be tracked by looking at the hormone cortisol of students, which is also commonly referred to as the ‘toxic stress’ hormone.

Students with a fixed mindset, meaning that they believe fixed traits cannot change, were found to have higher stress levels than students with a growth mindset, which is an individual that believes skills can be developed. This is because students with a fixed mindset were not prepared for the drastic changes of high school, which made them not want to adjust their ways of learning.

Why is Starting High School Stressful?

Even though many middle schools try to create an environment that prepares students for a high school setting, it is usually much easier and less stressful for students, so when they get to the actual high school, they are usually hit with a surprising amount of work.

When starting high school, students are given more difficult assignments and a larger workload. This alone is a huge factor as to why students get so stressed. Since the work is more difficult, they have a fear of failure and may work themselves too hard while trying to do something that shouldn’t even take much time.

Plus, high school is also more stressful socially. Teenagers work so hard to fit in and be popular, which can often distract them from focusing on their classwork. Students work hard to be someone they’re not just to fit in, which can easily become exhausting.

On top of everything else, high school is a step closer to college. A lot of high school students still have no idea what they want to be when they grow up, so trying to decide where to go to college can be a huge cause of stress for them, even if it is still years away.

How Can We Fix This?

There is no way to remove the stress of every student completely, but there are ways that parents and teachers can help to reduce the stress of students. The easiest way to do this is to make sure you are accessible to them.

However, many parents are so worried about reducing the stress of their kids that they hold them back and don’t allow them to be challenged enough. But no matter what, there will be challenges in life that kids have to face, so instead of holding them back, the best thing to do is to be there to help students face these challenges.

Conclusion

Yes, high school can be stressful for incoming freshman, but with the help and support of those around them, they can ease into the process better.  Stressful situations are much easier to get through when you have someone by your side to help out. Parents need to teach kids that change is okay and teach them how to adapt to their new high school schedule.

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Teacher Cover Letter Examples and Writing Advice

If you are looking for a teaching position, you need to understand that a great cover letter can mean the difference from being hired to being unemployed. Your cover letter should highlight your achievements, preparation, your work history, and the personal and professional and personal attributes that make you the right candidate for the job.

The objective is to introduce yourself and showcase the qualifications, expertise, and skills that make you the perfect candidate. The objective is to introduce yourself and showcase the skills and qualifications that make you stand out from the other people vying for the position.

Regardless of where you are in your career or job search, the tips and cover letter examples below will help you convince the hiring committee that hiring you is a no brainer.

Teacher Cover Letter Examples

Cover letter examples can help help you choose the proper format and tell you what content you should include. For example, a cover letter example might show you how to project a leadership presence and an air of confidence.

This article published by WeAreTeachers.com provides examples of cover letters that were used by real people to secure teaching positions.

Use a cover letter example to inspire your own, but don’t plagiarize. Your cover letter should be tailored to model your personality and qualifications.

Tips for Writing an Oustanding Cover Letter

Emphasize your achievements. Include examples of the accolades and awards that you have received in the past. For instance, if your students earned high scores on state tests, if you received a leadership award, or completed an advanced degree or training.

Mention any training or certifications. Connect your certifications and licensure to the job at hand. For instance, if the job is for the position elementary school teacher, emphasize the fact that you were an elementary education major in college, and possess teaching certification is this area and math and reading.

Include related work outside the classroom. If you have work or volunteer experience outside of teaching, list this. For example, maybe you are certified as a paramedic, sign language instructor, etc.

Customize your cover letter. Don’t be the jerk that sends out generic cover letters. Make sure that your cover letter is tailored for each school and listing. This conveys to the hiring committee that you have done your homework and are serious about working in their district.

Take your time. You may think that a cover letter is a formality, but it could make or break your job candidacy. Take it seriously and always try to churn out a stellar product.

What did I miss?

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List of 645+ Bulletin Board Ideas (With How To Videos)

When I started off as a teacher, I hated doing bulletin boards. Why? Because I was not artistically inclined and didn’t see my self as a creative. However, with the help of supportive colleagues, I learned how to make innovative bulletin boards.

The bulletin board that I am most proud of was the “I am responsible for my grades” themed one that I created in the Fall of 2007. It simply had the words “I am responsible for my grades” on the top half and 5 mirrors on the bottom half. Of course, I don’t have to explain what the message was.

How did I find the inspiration for the idea? From YouTube. Fast forward to 2019, and I am a full-time writer, author, thought leader, etc. In honor of my past life as a bulletin board guru, I decided to create a list of the best bulletin board idea videos on the internet. I hope you enjoy them.

Welcome Back to School – In this video, you will learn how to create a “Welcome Back to School” themed bulletin board.

Birthday Bulletin Board – In this video, you will learn how to create a “Birthday” themed bulletin board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVTUzzUxt6Y

Attendance Bulletin Board – In this video, you will learn how to create an “Attendance” themed bulletin board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehh37PKKZTc

15 Winter Bulletin Board Ideas – In this video, you will see 15+ examples of “Winter” themed bulletin boards.

Create Bulletin Board Letters – A super useful video that shows you how to create your own bulletin board letters.

300 Bulletin Board Ideas – This video contains a mega list of 300 bulletin board ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByFyiWhRKdA

100 Bulletin Board Ideas – This video contains a mega list of 100 bulletin board ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwTiycxWNEw

31 Autumn Bulletin Board Ideas – This video contains a mega list of 31+ “Autumn” themed board ideas.

200 Bulletin Board Ideas – This video contains a mega list of 200 bulletin board ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oq6lO4nde8
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Getting Ready for the Age of Experiential Education

As education continues to evolve, experiential education has been on the rise across K-12 schools and higher education. According to the Association for Experiential Education, this type of education is defined as “a teaching philosophy” that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities.” In other words, experiential education can be thought of as learning by doing, or incorporating more hands-on work and concrete experiences into the curriculum.

Study Abroad

One of the most well-known and best examples of experiential education is global education, or studying abroad. Though studying abroad was not extremely common in the United States a mere fifty years ago, the amount of students who are choosing to incorporate an international experience into their education is increasing. In addition, study abroad offices, departments, and provider companies have been steadily increasing over time as well, in order to accommodate for the demand of this educational experience.

Even though students from different walks of life will experience their time abroad differently than one another, studying abroad still accomplishes the goals of experiential learning, as defined by the Association of Experiential Education. Those who go abroad have valuable opportunities to develop intercultural skills more deeply than their counterparts who do not study abroad, hone language skills, build a sense of contributing back to communities, and learn about different values around the world. These skills are extremely valuable since companies and recruiters are now looking for intercultural skill sets in their candidates. As we move towards the age of experiential education, students should begin to plan ahead on how they can incorporate a study abroad into their educational plans.

Student-Centered Learning

Another excellent example of experiential education is the move towards student-centered learning. Many of us know the traditional methods of teaching: students are lined up, alert and ready to follow a teacher-centered lecture or lesson. Students are expected to take notes, ask questions, and listen. But the issue with this method of traditional teaching means we assume all students are coming into the lesson with the same level of learning – it does not address the varying levels of education that these students come in with.

There are many ways to accommodate for student-centered learning, but one way is to differentiate instruction. Moving towards experiential education could mean more professional development for our educators to learn how to accommodate for the diverse learners in the classroom. It would require teachers to assess students before, during, and after the lesson to make sure they are differentiating the learning goals for each student. By focusing on the student, we are creating a student-centered learning environment where their needs are met.

Overall, the shift towards experiential education is a positive change that has excellent potential to really improve and enhance our traditional educational system. There are many more ways to incorporate experiential education practices within the classroom in both K-12 and higher education, and the first step is to shift our mindset to this non-traditional way of learning and support both our educators and students. Making their success a priority in this ever-changing world – where success looks different for every generation – will help us continue to evolve with the new ideas of experiential education.

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How Educators are Make Their Voices Be Heard

Where once we lived in a world where there were stark differences between privatized and public education, we are now shifting into an era of grassroots determination to provide quality education to children in public schools.

And part of that upward shift requires giving educators the quality treatment that they deserve, first. Time and again, it seems apparent – underpaid teachers and under-funded schools result in lackluster public education for students because educators fall short when they don’t have the resources they need. And when they don’t have the resources they need, students tend to underperform, making the teachers look bad. As you can see, it’s an ultimately frustrating and cyclical problem.

How educators are doing it

Educators are changing education, though, by taking to lobbying themselves, striking, and calling physical attention to the nature of poverty in the American education system. In the past two years alone, media coverage has increased as teachers began striking from their towns and the front lawns of the state capital to demand fair pay for the hard work they put into the public school systems.

This process of educator lobbying is complicated because children suffer in multiple ways. They suffer when they have to stay home from school for weeks on end because their teachers have to make the difficult decision of picketing. And they also suffer because the effort teachers make to create change often barely comes close to making the government budge, or worse, their efforts create temporary change followed by stricter regulations from the government.

The aim of educators’ strikes is that they can prove a point of how crucial it is to fix the public education sector, rather than allowing more and more money just to be poured into private education, which is seldom available to anyone other than the wealthy. It’s the public schools, teachers demand, that have needs to be met, and that starts with the teachers who show up to make students’ education possible every day.

So, the problem arises that, while educators are taking matters into their own hands, and trying to reinforce a sense of quality in public education, there still remains a lack of total government support for the public education of America’s youth. And the fact of the matter is that the majority of children in America will attend public school, and only a small percentage attend private school.

So, what will the next few years bring in terms of potential change? It will depend upon how much of a difference teachers and financially endowed persons are capable of making within the government. Because up to this point, it seems that, without the additional support of the people in office, the efforts to revolutionize education on behalf of educators will sadly fall short.

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Why Learning Failure Is Essential (And Unavoidable)

pass or fail

Nobody likes failure. As children, we’re conditioned in school to study hard, pay attention and memorize material to avoid failure at all costs. And, in the evitable instance that failure does occur, we are shamed, punished, or made to feel bad for it.

But why, as humans, do we try so hard to avoid something that is literally unavoidable and, moreover, essential to growth, progress, learning, and positive change?

The Realities of Failure

If it weren’t for failure and its resultant lessons, we would have never learned to walk, talk, or eat on our own. Yet, schools have made failure a punishable offense. For teachers and parents, this article will discuss how to navigate failure in the classroom, how our perceptions of failure impact our kids’ ability to learn, and how failure breeds creativity, ingenuity, and success.

Failure is hard and can cause both physical and psychological pain. As a result, we’ve developed a natural distaste for it. Since the advent of conventional schooling, however, society and educators developed an education system around avoiding failure in a way that, in extreme cases, leads to woefully overprotective helicopter parenting and hindrances to child development and learning.

Failure in Our Education System

With college admissions hinging on standardized test scores and GPA, it is no wonder that kids are seduced into choosing “easy A” classes over ones with higher potential for growth – and higher potential for failure.

American academic culture has stigmatized failure to the point of instilling fear in children and putting the focus on passing instead of learning. In reality, failure is an impetus to ask questions, learn how to integrate feedback, change unproductive habits, and come up with innovative solutions. Historically speaking, every major scientific, mathematical, social, technological, and other breakthrough has come on the heels of failure. Perhaps, instead of only teaching students about the successes of the humankind’s great innovators, we should also be teaching them the origins – and often long histories of failure – that preclude such monumental discoveries.

Psychologically speaking, failure does more than teach students about the task, lesson, topic, or field in which they’ve failed. By nature, failure incites discomfort and from this discomfort, students are challenged to either change their course or repeatedly experience the same failure. This basic cycle – of failure and change – is the practice of resiliency, a key characteristic in childhood development.

How children learn to adapt through failure also teaches them valuable social skills, such as the two-way communication involved in asking questions and receiving criticism. As teachers and parents, our responsibility is to refrain from belittling or berating our children for their failures, instead offering them encouragement and constructive feedback. Healthy feedback and empathetic responses to failure, in turn, reinforce these same response patterns in our children, teaching them to be forgiving, empathetic, and constructive givers of feedback themselves.

Lastly, there is often solidarity found in shared experiences of failure or struggle. Unpleasantness and pain, both common feelings after failure, can serve as a sort of “social glue” when experienced by two or more people. There’s likely more than one student who fails at a given task. Instead of singling students out, use failure as an opportunity to create a shared learning experience that allows kids to work together to study, retake a test, or tutor each other.

To take away failure is to take away learning. Instead of pairing failure with fear, we can rebrand it as a symbol of opportunity, creation, innovation, personal growth and understanding.

What are some of your favorite historical failures, and how are you teaching your students about them?