Monthly Archives: November 2013

Nov18

National Education Week

Posted on November 18, 2013 by daunaeasley

Celebrate National Education Week now! November 18-22 is National Education Week. I personally have many reasons to celebrate. I think it is particularly appropriate that this week is so close to the Thanksgiving holiday. This educator has many things for which to be grateful. How about you?

I’m grateful that a wonderful teacher, Esther Waggoner taught with so much enthusiasm when I was in the third grade, that she made me want to grow up and join the teaching profession. Thank you Mrs. Waggoner from the Mason, Ohio school district.
I’m grateful that at age eight I chose the right profession for myself. What are the chances of that happening?
I’m grateful that so many of my former students honor my relationships that I built with them by staying in touch with me. What joy that adds to my life.
I’m grateful that my teaching path had its twists and turns that gave me such rich experiences. I never dreamed at the outset of my career that I would teach preschool, every elementary grade, high school and now work with college students. What a blessing this rich variety has been.
I’m grateful for the creativity a teacher can bring to the classroom. Great teaching is an art form and the classroom can be enriched by it.
I’m grateful that a favorite high school band, the Lakota West Marching Firebirds of West Chester, Ohio, will be marching in the Macy’s Day parade on television this Thanksgiving Day. Watch for them! They are not pictured above. All the photos on their website seemed to be copyrighted. However, watch for their red and white uniforms and their great sound.

Teachers March Together

However there are some things about the teaching profession that currently sadden me.

It saddens me that it seems to be so accepted to widely criticize the teaching profession in today’s media.
It saddens me that it seems so acceptable to vote against levies for education and our kids’ needs.
It is my dream that all the great teachers in the profession (and there hundreds of thousands of them) will work hard to reestablish the reputation of professionalism in this teaching profession that I love so much.
We do this by focusing on the students’ needs and their families.
We do this with commitment to our profession. Through our thorough preparation and creativity in our daily lessons we can re-create a respect for teachers.
We can’t capitulate to the single-minded obsession about test scores. We need to speak calmly and with reason until our voices are heard. Great teaching is so much more than testing. Yes, you heard me. Great teaching > test scores. Some of our hardest working and most committed teachers are being maligned because they are committed to working with a student population who are at-risk learners. That makes no sense.
We need to teach our students lessons about living life successfully in addition to the academics we teach. They need to learn about the value of risk taking, recovering from failures, thinking outside the box and the power of persistence. Some of our country’s greatest success stories were the brainchild of former students who didn’t test well.
We became teachers to change lives.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available autographed or in large quantities from the author: dauna@cinci.rr.com

Also available at Amazon.com

Contact Dauna Easley to speak to your group: dauna@cinci.rr.com

Nov11

The Whisper

Posted on November 11, 2013 by daunaeasley

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I was sitting in a meeting recently surrounded by several people I didn’t know. One woman had to leave early. But before she left she leaned close to me and whispered, “I’m glad you came. It is so nice to put a name with a face. I want you to know that my students talk about you all the time when they are in my class. Of all of the (people who do my job), you are their favorite.

I don’t even know the woman’s name, but what a difference she made in my day. More than a day. From time to time throughout my days, I’ve been thinking about those whispered words ever since. The truth is I work hard to go beyond expectations for my students. But without those whispered words from a stranger, I wouldn’t know that my efforts were having such a positive impact. I’m grateful to her. It would have been so much easier for her to make a subtle exit from that meeting without taking the time to pass along a private compliment.

When I taught in the elementary grades I didn’t have to practice the art of whispered words so much. In the primary grades we’d compliment students more publicly. Young children crave a teacher’s admiration. Primary teachers say things like, “Oh I like the way Betsy looked back in her reading text to find that information.” “Look at Scott’s illustration he added to his writing. Isn’t his art work wonderful?” Elementary students love being praised publicly. They smile and feel validated and everyone else in the class works harder and hopes a future compliment will flow their way. A great teacher finds a way to compliment everyone. That isn’t fake. Every student has strengths. The talent is in the noticing and then giving voice to those observations.

It’s when I moved into the high school setting that I had to rethink that strategy. Older students yearn for more private praise. Public praise sometimes embarrasses them. It seems manipulative or can even make their peers jealous. You can best encourage older students when you sit down next to them and point out something that they have done that you admire. It’s the whispered words when you are having a one-on-one conversation that stay with them. It’s the quiet words when they seek you out before or after class that can become a lifetime memory. They pull those words out and hit replay in their mind for years. Most of the time you’ll never know what power your words have had. But occasionally you’ll get a letter or a compliment years later, and you will know for sure.

Here’s what I’d like to whisper back to the lady whose name I don’t even know. Thank you. You’ve made my day. You have no idea how much those words mean to me.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available autographed or in large quantities from the author: dauna@cinci.rr.com

Also available at Amazon.com

Contact Dauna Easley to speak to your group: dauna@cinci.rr.com

Nov4

Great Teaching Strategies

Posted on November 4, 2013 by daunaeasley

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In my current job I supervise college students in their final semester of college doing their student (practice) teaching. They are assigned to current classroom teachers who are their mentors. While visiting one of my college interns this last month I heard a great mini speech a mentor teacher gave to his students. I loved his speech so much it made me want to re-enter the classroom just so I could use it with my own students. See if his speech will help you. In my teacher’s soul I call this the YOU speech. It went like this

“Ladies and gentlemen, in 10 days it will be the end of the quarter. The grades you will receive then will become a permanent part of your school record. Your grades are listed online. You and your parents can check on them any time you want. When you check on your grades, If you don’t like what you see, NOW is the time to fix them. Here’s what I suggest. Check on your grade today. Then fix the YOU problems. Then come see me and I will do everything possible to help you raise your grade.

What is a YOU problem? If YOU don’t hand in your homework and your grade is low because of the zeros you get for homework, that is a YOU problem only YOU can fix. If you need to make up a quiz and you haven’t come in to make up that quiz, that is a YOU problem. If you turn in a rough draft and I make suggestions for things that will make your final draft better, and YOU don’t make any improvements, but just hit “print” on your computer and turn in the rough draft as your final draft, that is a YOU problem. When YOU fix all the YOU problems, then come see me and we will talk. I will do everything in my power to help you improve your grade. Unfortunately I can’t do anything to fix the YOU problems.” Only YOU can do that.”

I wanted to stand up on my chair and cheer at the end of this speech!

But I figured that wouldn’t be very professional. As an observer I am only supposed to blend into the background and observe. But I must confess to my blog followers:

I thought of all those essays I had covered with suggestions only to be ignored. Many times I felt like I had spent longer on the essay making suggestions than the student had spent writing it!
I thought of all the parents who had emailed me to check on a student’s grade. How could that grade possibly be true? Hint: The zeros indicate the paper wasn’t turned in…by your kid.
I thought of all the students who turned in three weeks worth of work on Friday at 2:30 and said, “Can you grade those papers and enter them right now so I won’t be grounded from going to the prom this weekend?”

You can’t blame me for wanting to cheer.

It is time to give credit where credit is due. THANK YOU Mr. Broxterman for that wonderful speech. I’m sharing it with all my blog’s teacher readers. In the spirit of the month of Thanksgiving, I’m certain they will be grateful for your words forever. The YOU speech will be heard around the world in classrooms everywhere. On that I’m not even kidding. My blog is read in more than 30 countries. OK readers, link this speech to your teacher friends everywhere.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available autographed on in large quantities from the author: dauna@cinci.rr.com

Also available at Amazon.com