I'm Back - Styles of Teaching

I'm back.  I have been busy with teaching and I haven't kept this blog up to date.  I am the kind of teacher who works until about 5:00, comes home and spends a few hours with my kids, and then once they are in bed, I continue working.

I am currently in the middle of my third year at Kinnick High School.  My teaching continues to change.  This change is what I want to discuss:

Student Teaching:

My student teaching was with Travis Lemon.  A amazing math teacher in American Fork, Utah.  Travis taught with a hands on, constructivist style.  This was the style that was taught and praised in my undergraduate studies, so I adapted and learned this style.  

The problem was I didn't fully believe it.  It is hard to change after I had been taught for 16 successful years in the traditional style.  Plus I saw lots of students who were struggling in this style and naively thought that the traditional method would be better.

As an undergraduate student, I observed traditional teachers classrooms and were critical of them.  For some reason, I thought that I could teach traditionally and be better.  I was blinded by pride.

Student Teaching:

After graduating from college and moving to Texas, I wasn't able to secure a teaching position.  So I decided to begin substitute teaching.  This was a great opportunity for me to practice my classroom management skills. I learned that knowing student's names was powerful and physically moving around the room was powerful.  These are things that were taught to me in my classroom management.

First Semester of Teaching:

After one semester of substitute teaching, I was hired to teach at Celeste High School, in Celeste Texas.  It was a school of 160 students, 40 in each grade.  I taught all of the Juniors and many of the seniors.  The students were very weak in mathematics.  I was teaching "Algebra 2" and the students were clearly at the Algebra 1 level.  They also wouldn't do homework, so I adjusted to meet their needs and had a great experience.

Since I was far away from BYU and I could truly teach how I wanted, I taught very traditionally.  This is what the students were used to, and they enjoyed it.

The principal told me to help the students pass the TAKS tests.  So we spent a lot of time preparing for that test.  While I was there, all of the juniors passed all content areas of the TAKS tests.  This had never happened before in the history of the school!

This positive experience solidified by belief that I can teach in the traditional style and be successful.

Kinnick High School

Following that one semester of teaching, I was offered my dream job; to teach for the Department of Defense in Japan.  These students were much different.  They were more where they were academically prepared for Algebra 1 and Geometry.

Again I taught traditionally, but this time my students really struggled.  In Celeste the students were low, but they were all low together.  They had been in the same classes with the same teachers and knew the same material.  There were only a few students who had transferred in later and they were my stringers students.  At Kinnick, I needed to differentiate much more, but I was unprepared to.  Differentiating instruction is something that you can learn in theory, but you can't understand without having actual students to work with.  It is also to Differentiate as a new teacher because you are creating every lessons, homework assignment, quiz and test for all of your students, there isn't time to make individual adaptations.  At least this is my perspective.

My second year at Kinnick, I went to a day of professional development and went to a session by Dan Galvin, a teacher at Yokota High School.  He mentioned that he was starting to use video in his lessons.  He explained the idea of the flipped classroom.  I latched onto the idea and decided that I would try it the next year.

This blog post is already long enough, I will talk more about flipped learning in my next post.

A New School Year

Reflecting from Japan

It's the start of a new school year! For those of you who don't know I have not only switched schools, but I have moved half way around the world! I am now living in Japan and teaching with the DoDEA (Department of Defense Education Activity) on the Yokosuka Naval Base at Kinnick High School. This is a job that my wife and I have wanted and been working very had to get for the last 18 months. I am so glad to be here and it is turning out better than I could have imagined.

This year will have lots of firsts. The first of which is the first time to start a school year. My teaching experience consists of my student teaching which was basically from February to April. Then last year I substitute taught until I started teaching at Celeste High School from January to June. I have never started a school year, so this is a first. I am glad that I can create my own expectations, rules and classroom norms from scratch. But I am worried about making mistakes - but that is true about anything I do.

This year I am teaching Geometry and Algebra 1. I taught these classes during my student teaching, so I have some experience teaching these courses.

Big Fish in a Small Pond

I really like the school that I am at. I especially like the teachers, but I definitely feel like a tiny fish in a big pond. Most teachers at the school have been teaching for more than 10 years. They are professional educators - which I think is awesome! Most teachers aren't hired to teach for DoDEA unless they have 3 years of teaching experience. So being hired as a first year teacher is rare. In fact it is so rare that there isn't even a mentoring program. Luckily there are several other math teachers who are helping me.

This is one reason why I am so glad to be here. I feel that this is a pattern that is developing in my life. I find the best group of people that I can associate with, and after a few years I find myself as one of the best in that group. For example in high school, I began to hang out with all the smart kids. At the time I didn't feel like I was as smart as them, but by the end of high school I was. I then went to BYU and again I felt like a small fish in a big pond. But by the end I graduated in the top of my class. Now I am here and I believe that in a few years I will be one of the best teacher at the school. Well, that is my goal anyway. I know that this is where I can grow the most as a teacher. I am so glad to have wonderful examples all around me.

Great Students

I am mostly excited about this year because of my students. I hand out a sheet on the first day of school to help me get to know the students better. On that paper I ask questions about them and their hobbies and interests. I also ask about what they like teachers to do, what they don't like teachers to do, and what grade they want.

Last year at Celeste High School, I loved the students, but I was very surprising at how many students just wanted to pass. There were very few that wanted an A. Also at Celeste almost every student commented about not liking it when teachers gave out homework. This year there was some of that, but many of the students liked it when teachers taught. One student even said they liked it when their teachers use effective teaching methods - maybe they have a parent who is an educator. Also almost every student wants an A. I am excited about teaching a group of students who want to learn and work hard.