New Terrain

According to the August 22-29, 2007 poll taken on Teacher Magazine, more than 65% of the 155 educators voluntarily polled said they spent $250 or more on classroom supplies in a year. I remember the first time in my life while in college I realized teachers had to spend their own money for supplies for their students. And that they would spend a lot of it. I was dumbfounded, angered and thought this must be an anomaly and surely they must get tax breaks like my small-business owning parents.

And then, two years after my initial discovery, I became a teacher and traded my chronic shoe-buying habit for an equally pricey storybook-worksheet-flashcard-buying habit. I also realized during that time that the generous tax break was $200 a year. I was lucky that my school was part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and had a warehouse of basic classroom supplies available. The $800 I spent my first year could have and should have been far more like many other educators. Like everyone else, I wanted and needed specific books for my students-- not the sun-bleached, dog-eared paperbacks that were published before even I was born that revolved around the titillating adventures of Joe and his dog, Buff.

Anyway, the point is, teaching is costly and it doesn't pay too much. And when your weekends are spent catching up on grading, cooking dinner for the whole week and finally getting some sleep, you probably don't have too much time to troll for freebies online. So here is a quick start of a list of freebies out there-- If you have a way to get discounts or free supplies that wasn't listed below, please add them as a comment!

A list of links to free DVDs, science posters, and lots more. Definitely check this out.

Free Clorox Multimedia Kit AND a free canister of those handy disinfecting wipes!

Barnes and Noble's 20% discount for books in the classroom increases to 25% for a week four times a year. It's not available online, so use at the store. Borders and other major bookstores also have discounts. Make sure you bring your teacher ID or pay stub when you apply for the discount card.

Office-supply stories like Staples and OfficeMax have reward programs for teachers.

Free pair of Drillmasters' marching band shoes for directors of marching bands.

Starfall was one of my favorite free phonics sites as a new teacher. It's interactive, has low-level, non-fiction stories, and a number of useful activities.

And because our lives can't revolve only around the classroom, here are more ways to get free stuff in your personal life, such as free 411 information access, free books and free samples.

Revised 10/9/2007:

Also check out TLN's Teaching Secrets... all the secrets divulged are delicious, but scroll halfway down to read tips on "scavenger hunting" for your classroom! Thanks John!

For quick tips and cheap ideas on fostering organization skills in middle schoolers, read TLN's latest piece.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

(A student's goals and plans posted on the classroom wall)
What are your big goals for the school year?
To get good grades and to do well in English class.
What do you need to do to reach those goals?
1) Pray to God
2) Trust God
3) Let God take care of it all.

(After I've finished an observation and left the 9th grade classroom)
Teacher: Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know you guys did a great job executing our visitor procedures! You guys did exactly what you were supposed to do! (Which is to act as they normally would when there are no visitors.)
Students: What do you mean visitor procedures?
Teacher: We had a visitor just now. The lady in the pink shirt.
Students: Really?? We thought she was a new student in class!

(Answers on a worksheet)
Is this an example of erosion or weathering?
Weathering.
Why?
Because Miss said so.

(Observing an English class in the middle of popcorn reading. Student call on another student after they finish reading their paragraph.)

Student: You there, in the pink shirt.
Me: (Head down, taking notes, not realizing I was being called on)
Student: Hey! It's your turn to read!
Teacher: Um, she's not a student today...

(School secretary paging the teacher over the intercom of my arrival)
Ms. Long, you have a student here to see you!

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"You taught me how to swim and you dropped me in the ocean. Now, I'm worried about the sharks."
-- a comment one of my first-year teachers, Fernie Salinas, shared with his education professor from college, reflecting with a heroic mix of weariness and amusement on the unpredictability of teaching before one actually goes into the classroom to teach a whole class on his own. Keep up the inspiring work, rock star. =)

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

1) What suggestions do you all recommend for a high school class that has issues with negative behaviors. The teacher says the problems are generally instigated by two guys who say they understand the need to learn the material, but don't care. One of them lives independently. The negative behavior from those two spreads throughout the class so that no one is listening to the teacher and no one is learning.

2) Another teacher has a whole bunch of students in in-school detention. They're in there for more than two weeks at a time! That's two weeks of lost instruction! She escorts the students down from the suspension room to attend her class, but the other teachers don't. As a result, the students spend almost the entire day reading ESPN magazine. She's looking for alternative reading material and activities that deal with social change, malleable intelligence, etc., for the students to read. Any suggestions?

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

August 29, 2005 It took me about 35 minutes to get him to sit down and read the first question on his homework assignment, but after an hour of tutoring my most uncontrollable student in the dormitories tonight, we high-fived when he got his 2's multiplication tables. Then he broke my heart. "Maybe, you think, if I memorize my multiplication, the girls in class, and the boys, maybe they'll like me, as a friend?"

So it's one thing to teach kids. It's a whole other thing to make sure what we're teaching is of high quality and that it's being taught well. This is an issue we are engaging in-depth with our teachers in Teach For America, and no doubt a key issue all teachers grapple with across the country.

As I help facilitate sessions to first- and second-year teachers on rigor and mastery in student learning, I find myself telling stories from my own teaching. These are stories that are inspiring and these are stories that are heartbreaking. When I think about rigor and mastery, I find myself telling stories about "Sam".

His reputation preceded him. A week before he even arrived at school, the teachers were eagerly sharing all the horror stories they knew about the 12-year-old. It was a mix of rumor and truth. They told me about his alcohol problem. They told me about how he doused his cousin with gasoline and lit her on fire. They told me I would be lucky to get him to sit down and not hurt anyone.

But I was idealistic and I was optimistic and I was eager to make miracles. I was going to work so hard on this student, he was going to love me. But, as with all things, it wasn't quite so easy. Sam had been through heartbreaking abuse and trauma. He wouldn't sit down, he wouldn't stop hurting other students, and he wouldn't be quiet. Soon, no one in my class was listening, let alone learning. And so, without even realizing it, sitting down and being quiet became my big goal for Sam.

But I persevered. I set up a behavior plan that worked for Sam. I gave him inspiring talks and visited him at the dorm. Some days, he would even sit quietly in the classroom and fill out an entire math worksheet. Sam was working. The other students were working. I felt like a great teacher.

The "nice and quiet" lasted for about a week and a half. Then my conscience kicked in. I had to ask myself one of the hardest questions of being a teacher: To what extent was Sam learning?

The truth is, Sam was filling out a worksheet on addition and subtraction-- skills he had learned 6 years ago. I was so terrified of disrupting the peace, I didn't dare teach him something more challenging, lest he feel confused and frustrated (and disruptive and violent...) But it didn't matter that it was a first grader's worksheet-- he wasn't even filling in most of the answers correctly. I was so thrilled by the quiet, I avoided confronting him with corrections.

I was failing Sam. (Sam was actually quite intelligent and was clearly capable of doing far more challenging work. He had never been corrected or taught the lower level skills because of his behavior.)

It took a lot more time on my part, but it was my responsibility to figure out how to properly instruct Sam on basic math skills so that he could strengthen his math foundation. I also had to teach him more appropriately rigorous material that he should have learned long before, such as multiplication and word problem solving skills.

This didn't happen over night, but it did include investing him in a Big Goal designed just for him, explaining and making sure he understood why he needed to really solidify adding and subtracting, and how that was going to help him in the future. It also involved pulling him out to the hallway to show him how to correct and check his answers, and going to the dormitory at night to work with him.

Sam ended up getting expelled from the school. The day he was led out with handcuffs, I was heartbroken. In a mere 3 months, he had made great gains. He could do multi-digit addition and subtraction on his own and he could memorize his 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's and 10's multiplication tables. He could read and draw graphs. He could write a five-sentence paragraph. I had done my job. He had learned. And that's something no one can expel from him.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

To all the new teachers out there, I envy you. Some of you have already begun teaching for a couple weeks. Others will start this month. You are about to be inducted into a field of utmost importance where every decision you make, every word you say and every ounce of energy you put in shapes our future. You have the power to close the achievement gap and inspire leaders.

It's a truly magical time. And at times, it can be truly painful.

For many of you, you will realize what defeat feels like after you spend 8 hours crafting a fascinating lesson on Africa only to realize that your 13-year-olds don't even know what a continent is. And that they don't care to find out.

(But soon, you will also realize that victory is in investing time to plan intelligently upfront and therefore avoid spending 8 hours designing one lesson plan [Hello, Backwards Design!] and that diagnostics go a long way. You'll also be pleased to discover that it's actually better for your students when you spend those extra 4 hours sleeping rather than cutting out laminated pictures of Africa. And you'll soon realize that your students really do want to learn. It's your job to prove that they can. Do not give up.)

For many of you, you will wonder if drowning feels like the unrelenting waves of ungraded assignments and administrative paperwork that keep crashing into you.

(Having never drowned, I don't know. But it's still pretty awful, isn't it? But you will soon realize that tracking your students' progress is a motivator for them. And a motivator for you to pace yourself in getting that grading done.)

For many of you, you will understand how 9-year-olds can truly hurt your feelings and make you want to cry when they call you dumb and ugly. You will understand how it feels to be helpless when "John Cena" decides to roll on the ground and neighs in the middle of class. You will understand how it feels to be scared when your students rally their peers to defy you.

(But you will soon realize that it takes a consistent management plan and strong lessons to really focus your students' learning. And it also takes a sense of humor and a couple steps back from the classroom to remember that it's actually pretty funny when John starts making like a horse in the middle of "Tom Sawyer")

For many of you, you will learn what tired really feels like. You will understand how disappointment feels when only 2 parents show up for Back to School Night. You will realize what confusion and frustration truly is when the administration makes decisions that seem to go against student achievement.

(You will also soon realize what it means to be both a team player and a leader. It means collaborating with your colleagues, parents and administrators, and rallying for changes when needed. It means being a humble and respectful member of the community. It means working hard, but also having fun.)

It'll be magical. It'll be crushingly hard. But you are not alone – at some point or another, thousands of your colleagues-- both new and seasoned-- are feeling a similar sense of being overwhelmed, under-appreciated, and at the end of their rope. But they are also feeling the same sense of victory, relief and joy from when our work pays off and our students achieve. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and legions of students grateful for your efforts.

(You'll also soon realize your students will express their appreciation in countless ways, like when John Cena brought in a piece of homemade frybread one morning or when he improved his reading by four grade levels. Those moments were worth every lesson-defeating neigh.)

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)