Chapter_1

// To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher //

Chapter 1: Beginning: The Challenge of Teaching

In this chapter, Ayers discusses his myths of teaching. Which myth(s) resonated with you the most? Did you agree or disagree? (Scannell) Myth 12: Kids today are worse than ever before. Every single year for my entire career as a high school teacher I have heard over and over again how terrible the next incoming class is. “They have no respect for authority…they’re all pot-heads…the girls are sooooo catty…” the list of terrible predictions goes on and on. These are the things used to describe the students we are charged to serve before we even give ourselves the chance to meet them for ourselves. I have always taken this information from the water cooler junkies that share it, filed it in my mental recycle box, and promptly move on to the real issues of the day. Ayers (2010) shares that teaching is “relational and interactive”, it is absolutely critical that we, as teachers, meet each and every student we serve where they are in their growth and, without judgment, work to help them constantly and consistently improve themselves and their futures.

(O'Donnell) Myth 3: Good teachers are always fun. This statement reminds me of how teachers and students get fun and engaging mixed up. To a student, the idea of having a "fun" teacher doesn't mean they are learning anything. Classes can be fun just because lots of their friends are in the class with them. We really want teachers to be engaging. I like the adjectives that Ayers uses: involving, pleasurable, delightful and joyful. These words signify a teacher that enjoys their job and truely cares about the success of students. When I was in my undergrad, I remember listening to a teacher that I thought very highly of say, "I try not to know anything personal about my students. In class it is all business." My thought is that although this was a good teacher, the students were lacking the personal connection. Does this mean that she wasn't a good teacher because she was not fun? No, it just means that that teacher lacked the ability to build a relationship with the students. I wonder how much more effective this teacher could have been if she got to know her students.

(Pfaff, N.) Myth 12: Kids today are worse than ever before. While I don't happen to completely disagree with this myth, I do have so issues with how it is worded. I don't think kids today are worse than ever before I do believe that they are expected to produce less, in the home and have less responsibilities in the home than they did in the last decade or so. I believe the lack of these critical elements in a kids life gives them less experience with failure/difficult decisions. Bobby Knight once said, "You learn more from failure than you do from success." That quote is 100% true. Kids need to be expected to produce more in their homes than they are now. In my class of 18 students I have maybe 4 that have daily chores, or responsibilities. The students that are not taught these things lack the self-discipline to succeed in school. It doesn't make these kids worse than before it just doesn't give the kids tools they need to be successful in school. At our school I have heard our kindergarten teachers say, on several occasions, "these kids don't have the basic skills on how to act in school." I believe that stems from home. While parents are a child's first teacher it is their responsibility to show their children how to act in school. It's really not the kids fault. So I don't think they are worse than ever, I think they lack the tools to solve problems and show responsibility. By the time students get to me, in 4th grade, they have a good idea of school expectations, but these expectations were taught by teachers, not parents. If parents were to model these techniques for their kids by the time they enter kindergarten this myth would even be an issue.

(Langenfeld): Myth #12: "Kids today are worse than ever before" really resonated with me. While I don't agree, I think if you polled a cross-section of veteran teachers they would probably agree. To be honest, it's really one of my pet peeves. I actually like the challenges that diverse classrooms bring. How boring it would be if the kids just walked in, sat down, and passively learned despite the teaching and lack of community. I liked how Ayers made the argument that adults complaining about the lack of manners, disrespect for elders, and poor choices isn't new. It's been an issue since Socrates and reiterated by Shakespeare! Remember "Leave It to Beaver"? Adults were always worried about Beaver. Perhaps it's human nature that as teachers we continually hope for "the perfect class" that won't require the intensity and committment that makes us tired and longing for winter and spring breaks. But then, if we got it, would we be happy?

(Wendler) Myth #1 - I thought that this was an interesting perspective on classroom management. We all know that a classroom lacking good management can be detrimental to student learning, but students sitting quietly in their seats raising their hands one at a time is not necessarily the ideal classroom environment. As an elementary teacher, I feel that our young students need to be constantly interacting with each other and leading themselves in self discovery. When a student has a "light bulb" moment, they get excited about their own learning. As teachers, we need to use management to create a safe learning environment for each child and give them the tools that they need to realize new learning. Classroom management should be more about guidelines of learning, rather than a set of classroom rules.

(Weires) Myth #7 - Good teachers treat all students alike. There are some things that should be the same for all students - students should all be treated with respect, they should all be held to high expectations, etc. It is important to remember, however, that our students come from many different backgrounds and situations that need to be considered. Here are 2 examples that have come up recently for me. 1) A geometry student asked for a homework extension because she had been up much of the night taking care of her grandmother who was ill. Grandpa's hip is bad and her mom had to work, so she was the one who had to help out. This is a student who normally has her work done on time. Extension without a late penalty? Yes. I would hope other teachers would do the same, but I know that some teachers would say that a rule is a rule and the if the student is doing well, the grade won't be affected much by one late assignment. True, but I think that saying "tough luck, kid" sends the wrong message to the student. 2) A student whose father was arrested recently (among other issues) was struggling with math class. He started coming in for help and ended up earning a B on the final exam. This brought his grade to a 58%, 2% less than passing. His teacher asked me if I thought it would be OK to give him an extension to turn in a few assignments he missed so he could pass. Considering the circumstances, I thought that was a good idea. Again, some would disagree.

(ODonnell commenting on Weires) Reading your post I am reminded of the book by Rick Wormelli "Fair isn't always equal". For some teachers this is a hard concept to grasp. Education is about knowing your students and their needs. Being a fellow math teacher I have another example: You have a student that rarely completes homework and is getting a poor grade. By spending a little extra time in class helping them you have inspired the student to complete a little homework outside of class. Since the grading policy is that the student earns points for completion of the assignment, does the student receive credit even if the assignment isn't complete?

(Baldry)You know, teachers are human beings, so we should have feelings...everyone has circumstances, and I think teachers should take those circumstances into consideration...teachers who would ignore the circumstances in the two examples above are the ones who frustrate me...how do you deal with situations like that?

There is a quote attributed to Jefferson that says, "There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people" (though one site I found says he never actually said that.) How do we get teachers to understand that circumstances sometimes need to be considered? (Marty) Karen-love the quote! Totally agree that circumstances and student needs should be considered, but often the students who struggle with behavior get awards and attention at the expense of those who always are on task and are self-motivated. The struggle is to balance the needs of the needy with the not-so-needy.

(Lowery) Myth # 2- This is a myth that I left my teaching program believing was true and found out that it was not. As teachers, we know that the real education sometimes occur when you are in front of a classroom of students and they are expecting you to tell them something they did not know before coming into the classroom. it can definitely be a scary place. It hit home with me when I expand that to being the new principal in a building and seeing the eyes of 80-120 staff members looking at you to see what is so special about you and why you got this position in THEIR school. As Ayers stated, "The complexity of real teaching can then be grasped, and the intellectual and ethical heart of teaching can be kept in its center" (p. 24) The same can be stated about being the principal. I also agreed with myth 10 because it allows for a realization to occur. Sometimes, as a teacher, I miss what is really going on in my classroom because I don't know the environment of the students. Others, I can completely dead on what the issue is in my classroom. Everyone is human and has to realize you are not always right. Sometimes, yes...always, no!

(Lowery) Commenting to Langefield's post- I agree with you on the statement being a pet peeve of yours. It is same thing with me. The worst thing that someone could do to me is tell me about the bunch of students I am receiving from another grade. Please let me experience the students and reach my own conclusion.

(Sebring) Myth #3- "Good teachers are always fun". Let's be honest folks, it is incredible to be around someone who is 'fun' especially in the classroom. However, the dog-and-pony show can only last for so long before it gets to be old. There are a variety of different aspects that attribute to learning, which Ayers mentions in his book. He states how learning can be "engaging, engrossing, amazing, disorienting, involving, and often times deeply pleasurable" (p. 24). And yes, learning can be fun- but in the proper context and at appropriate times. Think back to some of your most influential teachers... how many of them were 'always fun'? Can we make the learning fun- absolutely. Does it have to be fun all of the time- no, because that is why we call it 'work'.

(Van Heukelom) Upon first reading through the myths, I thought #8 and #12 said the same thing. Although I still think the information Ayers included under #8 could fit under #12, I see that the myth itself is different. #8 says Students today are different from ever before and #12 says Kids today are worse than ever before. I agree that #12 is a myth. However, I disagree that #8 is a myth. I think that kids today ARE different than ever before. I think that society changes the way we are every year. Kids today are digital learners. This is different from ever before and changes the way our students learn, interact, socialize, etc. I do not think that this makes students WORSE, just DIFFERENT. (Marty) I actually found Myth #1 "Good classroom management is an essential first step toward becoming a good teacher" arguable. I disagree that this is a myth. If one doesn't have a management plan, one can expect chaos. In my opinion, an organized, well planned lesson, which includes planning for transitions, layout of materials and student expectations is the key to keeping students engaged in the learning. I don't, however, equate classroom management to a "don't smile until Christmas" philosophy as implied on page 23. I did agree with Ayers' three essentials: Youngters (active), Environment (appropriate), and Curriculum (engaging).

(Bischoff) Myth #3: Good teachers are always fun. What makes a good teacher? Great lesson plans, delivery, content, knowledge, training, experience, ect? I hear high school students say “Mrs. Doe is a good teacher.” When I ask the question; what makes Mrs. Doe a good teacher? The two most common responses I get are; “She a good teacher because she doesn’t assign a lot of homework and/or her class is easy.” If the class is easy are the students being challenged and are they getting the most out of the class? Ayers states “Good teachers are not always fun; good teachers should aim always for authentic engagement with students” (page 24). In my opinion, good teachers often find ways to make that authentic engagement as enjoyable for the students as they can. Will it always happen? No and I don’t believe it should always be fun for the students.

(Griswold) Myth #2- Teachers Learn to Teach in colleges of education.

I believe in the past, the teacher education programs struggled to provide new teachers with the skills they needed to be prepared. More recently teacher education programs have changed to provide future teachers with skills for our changing world. However, these programs cannot teach everything. There are many skills that new teachers must learn on the job. This is best learned with the guidance and support of mentors. First and second year mentoring programs through school districts are good preparation, but I fear that they are just additional hoops that these new teachers must jump through to retain their jobs. I think that it is the administrator of these new teachers to make this experience as beneficial as possible. In addition, good teachers are always learning how to improve. They are never “done” with their teacher education program and they seek out better ways for students to learn.

(Pfaff) Myth #3 "Good teachers are always fun."- I agree with what Ayers explained about this statement which is "good teachers are not always fun; good teachers should aim always for authentic engagement with students." (page 25) To me good or even great teachers should have a goal each and every day to teach their students to the best of their ability. Some days the students will test the teachers patience and sometimes a teacher in the eyes of the students will not be considered a "good or great" teacher. I feel a good teacher should have control of their classroom and this is not always considered fun to the students. Also I feel students thrive on consistency in the classroom and that is where you find good teachers to help the students with this.

(Pfaff) Commenting to Weires- I liked your classroom experiences. I think more teachers need to show compassion for situations like these and give students a break now and then. I feel our students today have such different backgrounds than when we were growing up so we must have to give the students a break or help once in a while.

(Hawkins) Myth #2 "Teachers learn in college" Lets face it, 12 weeks of student teaching and we think people are ready? Some yes, but some really need the time in the classroom seeing day to day activiites with students. I know in Dubuque with three colleges in town we see lots of student observers. They come with little to know experience and aren't required to do much besides watch. Again watching and doing are totally different. In PE I would have a student teacher for 9 weeks since they would spend 1/2 the semester in the elementary setting. By the time they were use to the schedule and got to know the students names, it was over. I also think that students should leave college with a letter grade, not just pass/fail. That way an A student teaching shows that you are ready to have your own classroom, it may hold college students more accountable.

(Pfaff, N.) Comment on Hawkins- Well said Amy. I feel as though my college experience gave me a good foundation and excellent resources on be a successful teacher, but nothing prepared me for teaching until my first year. I had an excellent student teaching experience in Physical Education, but that didn't prepare me for the classroom too much. Then I had another 12 week in a 5th grade classroom. Sadly, this experience was horrible. I was expected to show up at school by 6:00 a.m, while contract time was 8:20. If I showed up at 6:30 he would comment, "Good afternoon, Nick" My cooperating teacher expected me to pray with him and 3 other teachers in the building at least once a week. He didn't teach me a thing about teaching methods or organization of a classroom. It was horrible. I truly learned from my first year of teaching, I failed at just about everything. Which, wasn't the best for the kids in my class, but it paved the way for others to be successful. You never really learn unless you are forced to fail. As I watch my daughter growing up, she is crawling all over the place. She keeps banging her head on the same book shelf. Maybe I am a bad father for allowing her to do that, but I figure once she gets tired of it, she will stop. That's how she will learn, failure is the best teacher in the world.

(Hawkins) Comment on Pfaff--I agree about the good teachers are fun. Good teachers build relationships with kids, that makes kids think they are fun because they know they care about them and are interested in what do. They respect those teachers.

(Jones) Myth #1 “Good classroom management is an essential first step toward becoming a good teacher” resonated with me. Obviously all of us know that effective classroom management is essential to creating an effective learning environment for our students. However, Ayers argues that classroom management is often viewed as something that is separate from the “whole of teaching” when in fact effective classroom management is accomplished through effective teaching. Put simply if a teacher creates an engaging lesson plan that is relative to and developmentally appropriate for the students classroom management takes care of itself. When the lesson plan does not engage the students, is not developmentally appropriate, and/or the students do not see how it relates to them or their lives they create management problems for the teacher.

(Hach) Myth 2: "Teachers learn to teach in colleges of education." I attended a four year university educational program, received my degree, but I didn’t truly learn how to teach or what I was doing until I had my first classroom. I think colleges and universities are improving the way they teach new teachers and prepare them for the real world of teaching, but there are just some things you can’t learn until you’ve got 20 little eyes watching you. I completely agree with Ayers when he said, “teachers journey through teacher education was painfully dull, occasionally malevolent, and mostly beside the point” (p. 24). I believe there’s a disconnect between what we learn in college and the reality of schools. I wish there could be an overhaul of college educational programs because I think there a lot of teachers going into teaching that aren’t prepared for the real world of teaching.

(Hach) Comment on Jones- I agree with you that a teacher does not have to focus on their classroom management when they create meaningful and engaging lessons for their students. I think this is why teachers turn their focus inward when they are having problems in their classroom - rather than saying "what's wrong with these kids" and instead asking themselves "what am I doing wrong to not reach my students successfully.".

(Wendler): Nick I agree with you and Ayers as well, but I do think that good teachers can keep control of their classrooms and create a fun learning environment for student learning. I think that this is especially important in the younger grades. With all of the pressure of tests and scores, student need a fun environment to get them excited about learning and to learn to love school.

 (Merritt): Although a lot of the myths that Ayers mentioned were ones I wanted to talk about, the one that I agreed with is Myth #9, Good teaching can be measured by how well students do on tests. As we've mentioned throughout this program so many times, education is more than just scores on a test. Education should be about an entire experience, one that teachers play a continual role in. Obviously standardized testing is a part of this, but there is so much more about teaching responsibility, respect, hard work, continuous improvement, and perseverance that cannot be measured on a test. In my opinion, a good teacher can be someone that takes a kid that always struggles on a test, doesn't want to come to school, and never puts any effort in and is able to make that connection with the kid that gets him/her to school, to put some effort in, and maybe make a little bit of improvement on the tests. It's no secret that some kids just don't care about the tests or some will always struggle for some reason or another. Saying that good teaching is only based on the tests of those kids is not fair to the good teachers out there.

If we did look at it from more of a testing standpoint, Ayers makes a great point when he says, "Learning is dynamic and explosive, and a lot of it is informal; much of it builds up over time and connects suddenly" (p.28). We all tend to get things at a different pace and sometimes certain experiences finally allow us to connect the dots. We can teach everyone the same material and some will get it at the snap of a finger and others down the road. The key is that they get it at some point. Testing cannot measure that.

(Baldry) Myth #5--"Good teachers begin with the curriculum they are given and find clever ways to enhance it." This myth resonated with me for a couple of reasons. First of all, as a Spanish teachers years ago, I did just this. I was extremely comfortable teaching Spanish. I taught what I was supposed to teach, but I didn't always use the book and didn't always follow the curriculum to a T. I had fun teaching, and I really think my students had fun learning. Now, as an ESL teacher, I am less comfortable with what I teach, so I stick to the book much more closely than I used to. I also have a family, so I have less time to devote to coming up with the 'clever ways to enhance" the curriculum. But, when I do something outside the box, I think my students enjoy it and have more fun than when we stick to the book. I also think because they enjoy it, they are able to retain that learning better. For these reasons, I do believe there is some truth to this myth. I do believe that there are some very effective teachers out there who never stray from the curriculum, tho...teachers who never enhance or differentiate what they teach, yet have successful students who learn a lot from them.

(Wylder) Myth #2––"Teachers learn to teach in colleges of education." It was rapidly apparent in my first year of teaching that I was excruciatingly unprepared for my teaching position. All of the theory courses that I received in my undergraduate work was immediately inapplicable after being presented with the district and state curriculum. I absolutely agree with the author with Ayers, teachers learn the trade on the job. Learning to manage reading groups, interruptions, testing, district requirements, and much more is not presented as part of the teaching profession in college preparation programs. These things must be learned on the job and are not even included in field experiences.

(Wylder) Comment on Hach––I agree with your point of view and wish that prep courses would incorporate a more practical approach to teaching rather than one that prepares students so poorly for the expectations that are imposed on them in their first teaching positions.

(Rial) Myth #1- Although I believe in some of Ayer's statements I have to believe that Classroom Management is essential for a productive classroom. Without control there is no effective learning. It is imparative for the teacher to create an environment where all students can and will learn. Thus classroom management to me is the foundation to an effective learning environment. Had I not been a coach before I was a teacher I would not have been as prepared as I was for the classroom. Becacuse I was a coach I new some (not all...I do not "know it all") classroom mangement skills. Which brings me to the point that because of a well organized and good set of classroom management strategies I beleive that is why my classrooms are effective. However, there is always room for improvement.

(Hughes) Myth #6- Good teachers are good performers. I do think teaching is an art. Teachers need to know how to engage students and tap into their interests. This does not have to be through teacher performance. Although humor and effective attention getters have its place, it does not mean the students are learning. It might mean the teacher is funny or fun as stated in Myth #3, teachers are always fun. Ultimately, teachers need to have a way to tap into student interest which leads to learning. It can be engaging students through performance or in a quiet way of providing gateways to learning by how the environment is staged, the energy of the teacher, the knowledge of each learner and learning style and the depth spent to provide a rich environment with tools for learning. So as a kindergarten teacher, I feel I perform often. This doesn’t mean I am a better teacher than someone who is more passive in delivery. It is the intention behind your teaching that makes the difference. My performance is my personality coming out in my teaching. There is still a lot that goes on behind the scenes to help students learn.

(Falck) Myth # 3- Good teachers are always fun. I have to say that this stuck out too me. Although, I would love to be a "fun" teacher, I find it musch more important to be a good teacher by engaging students in productive learning. If it turns out that the learning is fun to the students then great, if not, well at least they learned something. I believe that teachers need to be able to engage students through engaging instruction that is meaningful to the students.