Tag Archives: education

Dec2

Gifts from the Classroom

Posted on December 2, 2012 by daunaeasley

What is the best holiday gift you have ever received? From my childhood I remember a much wished for and cherished bike that sat in front of the Christmas tree, the only new one I ever owned. This was a stunning event in the household where I grew up, because we usually didn’t receive what we most wanted. However the elves must have been extremely busy that year because they didn’t do a good job of assembling this bike and it never actually worked just right. Oh, it looked very pretty, but sometimes when you turned the handle bars, the front wheel didn’t turn – not a reliable characteristic for a bike. I probably jumped more miles on my on my beloved pogo stick than I ever rode on that bike. Oh, could this gal pogo! I bounced everywhere. Yep, I’d have to say that my pogo stick was my all time favorite gift from childhood.

What I Admire About You

But as we mature we come to realize the truth of that adage, “The best things in life aren’t things.” They truly aren’t. The best thing in life is making others feel good about themselves. We all long to feel valued and appreciated. About two-thirds of the way through my teaching career I discovered an activity that helped accomplish this goal. I always planned this activity for sometime during the holidays.

As my students entered the classroom they received a stack of blank index cards…one for each of their classmates and one for the teacher. Silently I had them write the name of a classmate at the top of each card and then write one thing they admired about that student. I encouraged them to be as specific as possible. General statements like, “You are a great gal” are not as powerful as “I admire the way you always have something encouraging to say when someone in our class is down in the dumps.” They were required to write one about me (the teacher) also. Let me tell you high school teachers need their encouragement too. There were a few cautions and guidelines I voiced ahead of time. Absolutely no ‘put downs” would be tolerated, only positive comments were permitted.

A Confession

I admit that occasionally I had a group of students so at odds with one another before we began this activity, that I didn’t require that they write a compliment to every classmate. I might limit it to 10 or 12 compliments written using time parameters as an excuse. I wanted to make certain no one was ever hurt by this activity. But when you set limits like these, you always risk the omission of someone being complimented. I only used these limits a time or two. Here’s the real beauty of the activity. Each time I limited the number of compliments they had to provide, they always got half way through the activity and then THEY requested of ME that they be able to write something they admired about everyone in the class. That is how great is the power of writing positive words about someone.

Then Comes the Magic

At the end of our time limit, we circled our desks and orally read one card at a time. One student would read aloud to one other student a single comment while all others listened. Then the next person in the circle would read a comment about someone else. I encouraged them to keep changing the people who were being complimented. “Try and choose someone no one has yet read about,” was my occasional reminder. When it was my turn to read I always started by complimenting someone I felt was considered just a little outside the inner circle…the kids not quickly accepted by their peers. As we listened around and around that circle twenty or thirty revolutions, you could feel the climate of our classroom change. They smiled more easily, eyes moistened, shoulders relaxed, heads nodded as everyone agreed with a compliment being shared orally, and teens relaxed their armor. Kindness settled softly over our circle like a cashmere blanket. Friends became closer and former adversaries demonstrated tolerance. When others validate us, we are more likely to notice and appreciate positive traits in others. The students in my classroom became a family. There is no greater gift for a student who will be walking into your classroom every day for an entire school year.

Just before our time together ended, I instructed them to pass their cards out to one another. By taking the time to distribute their compliments in written form, everyone could carry the compliments away and read them again whenever they might need a morale boost. As dozens of students stood to distribute their cards to others, I anticipated it to be quite a noisy time. It never was. Why? The moment they received a card from someone, their eyes were magnetically drawn to the compliments written on those cards. They hungered for that validation from their peers.

Our class was always changed from that day forward. We became a community working together, a unit. As a side (but not unimportant) benefit, a bully has a hard time finding a foot hold in a community where everyone has your back.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available at Amazon.com

Nov12

Teachers Create the Classroom

Posted on November 12, 2012 by daunaeasley

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The Teacher Makes the Choice

One of my all time favorite quotes for teachers was written by Dr. Haim Ginott and comes from his book Between Teacher and Child.

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child’s like miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.”

Oh, how I wish I had written that myself. I am so grateful that someone did. The book, Between Teacher and Child is around forty years old and yet contains advice that is timeless.

A Great Measuring Stick

It IS our personal approach that creates the climate in the classroom. Do we provide a welcoming presence. Are we pleasant and approachable? Can students trust our moods? Or are we the grinch that only smiles twice a year. We honestly do have the power to make a student’s life joyous or miserable. We teachers have had teachers too. We all can remember a teacher who was a tool of torture. We’ve all had a teacher who honestly was an instrument of inspiration.

A word of caution here: A teacher cannot truly be an instrument of inspiration if they are a tool of torture to only one or two students. Students are always watching. I believe they judge teachers on the way they treat the most challenging child in the class.

I’ve been sitting in high school teacher cafeterias and listened to something a teacher said to a student that made me wonder who was the adult in the classroom. Trying to “one up” a student who has just made an inappropriate comment in class is a losing proposition for any teacher. Professionalism goes out the window. Sometimes it is tough to listen, absorb, and under-react but retaliating an inappropriate comment with a sarcastic one, only escalates the negative. It may feel like a win in the short term, but it is a long term loss.

I chose a lighthouse to illustrate this point for a reason. Lighthouses demonstrate their real worth during inclement times. So do teachers. It’s easy to be a good teacher when everything is going smoothly. But great teachers reveal themselves during the tough times.

A teenager stands up and yells profanities at you in class, then stomps out slamming the door on their way out of the room. (Yes, this has happened in my classroom). What do you do? The choice is yours. Do you escalate the situation or attempt to de-escalate it? Before you make your choice, take a deep breath and then pause. Every student will be watching your reaction. You are the beacon in this moment. Will you dehumanize the student? A teen is a child with longer legs, raging hormones and often tumultuous emotions. You are the adult. What you do next defines you as a teacher.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available at Amazon.com

Nov5

How to Stop a School Bully

Posted on November 5, 2012 by daunaeasley

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When They Don’t Want to Go to School

Twenty-five years ago my oldest daughter was in junior high school. I sensed something wasn’t just right because she didn’t want to go to school. The school nurse also frequently called me telling me that my daughter was in the clinic claiming to be ill. I’d turn my schedule upside down in my own classroom where I was teaching to go and pick her up only to realize with a mother’s instinct that she really wasn’t sick at all. She just wanted to come home.

Finally one day, even though she tried to continue to mask her situation, her secrets exploded at home and the truth came out. Some girls were targeting her at school. On the day that she couldn’t take it anymore the bullies had gotten her locker combination out of the counselor’s file drawer where they worked as ‘aides’ to the counselors instead of being assigned to study hall. They used the confidential combination to open my daughter’s locker, and then dumped all her books and belongings in the restroom sink. Then they turned on the water and left them there for others to discover as the sink overflowed. Someone came to find my daughter and asked her why all her belongings were being flooded in the girl’s restroom. They assumed she caused the flood. That’s when she broke down at home. She was afraid she would get in trouble for the restroom flood. She was afraid if she revealed who really did it, they would pick on her more.

She sobbed as she told me this story. But at the very same time she pleaded harder for my silence and made me promise not to go to school and talk to anyone about it. She swore that administrators and teachers loved these girls. They had everyone fooled. She was sure no one would believe her. If I went to school and “told on them” they’d know my daughter had told someone their identity and that would only escalate what they would do to her. Unfortunately I knew that this was (at that time) probably true.

These tormentors were the original ‘mean girls.’ They preceded the internet by fifteen years. Imagine the trouble they could cause cyber-bullying today. Clearly they showed one personality to adults or they wouldn’t have had access to the counselor’s files. (Of course, this isn’t at all professional and they were probably sneaking to do this). But their true identity was revealed to their peers, especially to those who felt powerless to stand up to them. To the masses they were the ‘popular’ girls.

What Did I Do About It?

The first thing I did was toss and turn all night. I lost quite a bit of sleep trying to figure out how to handle this situation. She’d made me promise her I wouldn’t go to school or tell anyone. If I did, would the situation escalate? She was certain it would. Would my daughter ever trust me again if I broke my promise? Would she be willing to share her problems with me in the future?

What did I do? I went to school, of course. To my credit I didn’t take a weapon. As I tossed and turned I remembered that I had formerly taught with the assistant principal’s mother in another school district. She and I were no longer in touch, but it was at least an opening. I sneaked into that assistant principal’s office when I knew my daughter would be in class. I told him I knew his mother and how I knew her. (That shouldn’t have made any difference, but somehow it made me feel better). I then told him that my daughter had made me promise that I would not come to school and let anyone know what she was experiencing. I demanded his promise that she would never find out I had come. He said he would honor that request.

Then I described what was happening. I told him I couldn’t figure out how to handle it. If I called these girls’ parents, would that make it worse? Probably. The girls would deny all of it to their parents. I’ve known of parents who do this, but it never felt comfortable to me. I told him I saw it as a school problem and I asked him what he was going to do to solve it without my daughter knowing I had come in. But I let him know in no uncertain terms that I expected it to be solved quickly and discreetly.

Guess What?

We brainstormed together. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to do something that would put my daughter in a more uncomfortable situation. He came up with a wonderful idea which became the perfect solution.

What did he do? He sought my daughter out in the cafeteria. He told her one of her teachers had told him what a great gal she was. He asked her if she could help him with a project. In his role as assistant principal in this school he also served as athletic director. That put him in charge of all athletic functions. He immediately put her in charge of a concession stand. She was surprised to be sought out and valued by the assistant principal. He would talk to her frequently in the halls and the cafeteria just being friendly. She began going to all the games and functions. She had a talent for this and wanted to live up to his confidence in her. Soon she took on more and more responsibilities. He had other students report to her putting her in a leadership role.

What happened to the bullies? They saw the assistant principal talking to her frequently. He was well liked by the students. When they saw that he valued her, they stopped making her a target. It was a subtle but perfect solution. She stopped hating school. She felt accepted and valued at school both during the day and at after school functions.

Did she ever find out that I went to school? Eventually. But let me tell you how it happened. When my daughter (yes, the same one) had her own preteen daughter attending the same junior high school, she talked to me on the phone one day. This is what she said. “The school nurse is always calling me telling me that my daughter is sick. I know she has been having headaches, but I think something else is going on. I just don’t think she feels comfortable in this junior high setting. Every morning she pretends to be sick and tries to stay home from school. I just don’t know what to do about it.”

I paused a long time and then I said, “Do you want to know what I did about it when I had that same problem?” There was a long silence on the phone. She didn’t know what I was talking about. I reminded her of the situation she encountered in junior high and confessed to the promise I had broken. She was astonished, but by then, of course, not annoyed at all. The next day she marched right into that junior high, asked to see a guidance counselor and said, “My daughter doesn’t want to come to school. She just can’t seem to find a place to fit in here. How can you and I help her? Before she left the school, the guidance counselor had promised to seek her out and make her a photographer for the year book committee.

My granddaughter called me that night. She was all excited about this new responsibility. We bought her a digital camera and she was off to all the games and school functions. This time there wasn’t a specific bully that we knew of. I think we solved the problem more proactively before she became the target her mom had become.

When kids feel connected and valued, it goes a long way toward taking the power away from a bully. I’m glad for all today’s bully hot lines. and the anti-bullying workshops and strategies taught currently. These are long overdue.

But I am still continually amazed at the power of one teacher, one peer, one administrator, or one role model. When I approached that administrator he knew exactly what to do. He had the sensitivity and the influence to turn it all around very quickly. Adults within our schools have a lot more influence than they would ever believe. I’ve built wonderful friendships with students in the schools where I’ve taught who were never assigned to my class. You can build positive relationships with kids in the hallways, standing duty, at athletic functions or walking through the cafeteria.

I challenge every teacher to pick at least a dozen kids in the school building that you don’t have in class and focus positive attention on them. Don’t seek out a ‘star.’ Choose a kid who appears to be on the sidelines. Choose someone who looks like they need a friend. Choose someone dressed differently. Smile and speak to them consistently. Can you imagine what a positive difference we would make in our buildings if we all committed to this strategy? Why not try it? What do we have to lose? A bully?

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available at Amazon.com

Oct29

The Magic Question for Teachers

Posted on October 29, 2012 by daunaeasley

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A Student I Will Never Forget

I was preparing my third grade classroom for the first day of school when I noticed an unusual name on the student roster. The name was Kim Hyangsil. The first name, Kim, was common enough. But I remember thinking the last name Hyangsil seemed like an unusual name and I wondered how to pronounce it correctly. It was early on the first day of school that I discovered only one of my assumptions was correct. The name did belong to a little girl. But her first name wasn’t Kim. It was Hyangsil. Kim was her surname. She was Korean and she didn’t speak or understand a single word of English.

Korea?

Even gathering this meager amount of information was something of a feat when you consider that neither of us could speak one word that the other could understand. Today, that might not be so unusual. Our schools are liberally sprinkled with students who do not speak English as their native tongue. But this story took place in the midwest about two decades before classes that taught English as a second language became commonplace. Korean children in our schools were more rare than kangaroos in a Mexican restaurant. When I questioned the school office personnel they seemed amazed and unaware of Hyangsil’s language barrier. They called home to gather more information only to discover that Mom, too, spoke only Korean.

What in the World Was I Going to Do?

I think that is when I first discovered the magic question. This one simple question has done more to make me a better teacher than any other single act I can recall. It will work in every classroom situation, no matter how diverse or how seemingly hopeless. It shapes and guides my relationship with every single student in each and every class, no matter what their age, learning style, cultural background or attitude of the moment. This question, if asked sincerely and with an open mind, will always point a teacher in the right direction. What is the question?

What one thing can I do to help create some success in my classroom for this student today?

Too simple? Re-read it please. Some of life’s greatest wisdoms are simple.

Ask the question, be still, and then listen for the answer. You’ll be amazed at how much expertise you have in areas in which you have received no training whatsoever. Try any idea that occurs to you. If it doesn’t work, adapt. Try something a little differently the next day. Let your student guide the way. Keep asking the question with sincerity every day. The results will amaze you.

Caution!

As soon as you utter the words, “I can’t do anything to help this student,” you and your student are both lost. Never give up on a student. Many times I’ve thought, “I don’t know if I’m making progress. I’ve never been trained to handle a situation like this. I don’t know what I’m doing.” But I never once uttered, “I can’t do this.” Can’t is a cop out. It is a refusal to try. For a great teacher this is not an option.

Twice, after months of effort, I’ve felt so guilty about not having enough expertise that I’ve called the parents in for a conference to tell them I was outside my teacher comfort zone. I’ve asked the parents frankly if they have seen their child making progress while in my classroom. I’m not certain if this was the right thing to do, but personally and professionally I just felt like I had to confess my uncertainty to the parents. Maybe an administrator wouldn’t have liked this approach, but in my gut I knew I was doing what I had to do. In both of those situations I was dealing with students with very different learning styles. Both times the parents reassured me that their child was making progress. They gave me examples to prove their observations.

But I’ve never once said, “I’ve not been trained to do this so I know I won’t be effective. I give up.” A great teacher must have a tremendous sense of efficacy. Try something, observe the results, try something else, adapt. Try again, and again and again. Not all students have the capacity to progress at a typical pace, but that doesn’t mean your efforts are without results.

What Did I Do with Hyangsil?

I found picture cards of familiar objects. Each night I made recordings of how to pronounce the objects in simple sentences. “Wagon. This is a wagon. Tree. This is a tree.” I attached the recordings to head phones where she could practice vocabulary whenever she had a free moment. I gave her partners within the classroom to help her with simple sight words (today called high frequency words) and sentences. She was a bright little girl and she learned the English language very rapidly. She was especially proficient in math and she made beautiful drawings. I found classroom activities in which she could highlight those skills. It wasn’t long before the other students respected her for her unique talents.

Predictably, because the more effort you put into anything the more you reap from it, she and I became extremely close. It was such a heartbreak when her family moved away only a semester later. By that time though, we had a wonderful bond. She and I were pen pals for probably ten years. I lost track of her when she was living in California, but I still think of her with great fondness and wonder how she’s doing. When the internet became more prevalent, I tried to find her again. I found a young lady living in Korea with the same name, but she was far too young at this time to be the Hyangsil Kim I knew from years ago.

As with many of my most memorable students, Hyangsil taught me more than I taught her. She taught me to never give up on any situation. She gave me courage and confidence as a teacher. But most of all she helped me learn to ask the magic question that guided me through the rest of my teaching career.

What is one thing I can do today to help create some success in this student’s life today?

Ask this question every day and then get busy. It’s the best gift you can give your students and yourself.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available at Amazon.com

Oct22

How to Help Students Succeed in Life

Posted on October 22, 2012 by daunaeasley

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Beyond the Textbooks

Good teachers teach the subject matter and they do it well. They know their academic area thoroughly. Their lesson plans are well thought out and hopefully creative. They are experts in their field. There are studies that prove that the best way to improve test scores is to thoroughly educate our teachers – to provide them with a deeper understanding of their subject matter. They then can pass this academic excellence along to their students.

I thoroughly agree with this strategy. BUT…if you want to become something beyond a good teacher I think there is so much more than academic excellence required. Great teachers don’t just teach academics, they teach people. The student precedes the subject matter. Great teachers don’t just teach an academic field. They must teach many things beyond the text. They teach concepts that help students live a life full of successes that they learn to create through experiences and activities that begin in the classroom.

How?

The truth is I’ve written a whole book about this and it’s not easy to describe briefly. Also,even as I write this I can hear many good teachers saying,

I don’t have time for anything other than the academics!

I can’t cover all the material even now.

How can I add more?

And technically they are right. We don’t have extra time for unimportant concepts. But what I’m describing is important and effective teachers will realize it and integrate it into their lessons. Great teachers will custom braid success strategies throughout all of their teaching. weaving them over and under the academics they cover, strengthening their students’ learning path into a cord with triple the strength of mere facts.

Think Differently

We have to be honest and admit that we don’t know the world our students will be facing. Changes in our country within the past decade have resonated that message. We must prepare our students for an economy we can’t even predict. They will change not just jobs but careers. We must teach them entrepreneurial skills, creativity, perseverance, problem solving, and how to set goals and adapt when the ground under their feet begins shifting in a new direction.

Six Tips for Getting Started

Read orally to students no matter what their age. We do this when they are young, but we give it up when they need it most. By carefully selecting short oral readings you can engage their minds using words from the greatest inventors, entrepreneurs, leaders, thinkers, and doers. You can expose them to the best advice given by the greatest minds in less than 5 minutes per day. Carefully choose, then read a 2-3 minute selection. Then have them orally reflect. Cap the reading and discussion with a challenge to apply it to their lives immediately. Check back on the results.

Model initiative by talking about ways you are trying to improve your life. Talk about personal goals and share your progress toward a goal. List the steps toward your goal and check off progress as they watch. Challenge them to do the same. Have them identify a goal, write it down, list their steps and check off progress as a classroom challenge. Support one another. You must walk your talk on this one or it will have no impact. As teachers we are FIRST role models.

But also share your failures with students. I don’t mean to air dirty laundry that is inappropriate for students, but I DO mean to reveal a time in your life you have faced a failure. This is uncomfortable for adults. We want our students and children to think of us as a success. They need to know we have faced failures and survived. If they never hear that, when they face failures in their future (and they will) they will feel like losers. They need to know we faced failures, what we learned from those failures and how we persevered. How much did it hurt? How did you recover? Is there success after defeat? What got you through it? Tell them. This is a life skill they need.

When you reveal your vulnerabilities, as a side benefit, they will be more apt to approach you when they have an issue they need to discuss with someone. When this happens, don’t over react. No matter how large or shocking their problem, initially you must under react. If you over react, they won’t approach you again. They may never again approach anyone with a situation they need to discuss. This is a time for problem solving with them.

Verbalize a student’s strengths at every opportunity. Always look for talents and verbalize them whenever you notice them. Young people often undervalue their skills. If they are good at something, they may think everyone does that well. It’s no big deal in their mind. They often FIRST see their future careers and successes through the eyes of someone else whose opinions they value. My grandson had to write a sample college essay in high school listing and describing his strengths. Once he described his athletic skills he stopped. More slowly he knew he had a sense of humor and admitted some leadership skills. But what he didn’t know was his greatest strength. He has a wonderful talent for making other people feel valued. When I told him this he said, “What do you mean?” I give him a dozen examples. It was a revelation for him. Why had I not pointed that out to him yet? Shame on me. He didn’t even know he had this unique and valuable skill. He will never forget this conversation. I’m sure of it.

Choose activities and readings that make students aware of their self talk. The truth is we say more hurtful words to ourselves than any bully has ever directed at us. But usually students are unaware that they do this to themselves until you make them aware of it. I have my students carry a small notebook and record the internal messages they give themselves for a week. I share mine too! I think it is important to participate in the activities you assign your students. We have to take it further. We have to turn it around and replace it with positive self talk. I attended a small high school with a graduating class of only 81 students. Mike was a student in that class. He was not the valedictorian nor the salutatorian in a class of only 81. And yet he has made a huge success of his life (more about that in my book). Do you know what his self talk is? He was embarrassed to admit this and he says he NEVER says it out loud, but he continually says to himself internally, “Somebody has to be first. Why not me?”

I’m passionate about this topic and hate to stop here.

But I know if this post gets any longer, no one will want to read it at all. My book describes 100+ such strategies. I think the greatest gifts we give our students are the ones that go beyond the text books. I’m a career teacher and I’m sure of it. I belive great teachers TEACH…To Change Lives.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available at Amazon.com

Oct15

Teacher for a Lifetime

Posted on October 15, 2012 by daunaeasley

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Not A Runner

I’m not a runner, so using running analogies in my writing is a dangerous proposition for me. But a few parallels between teaching and running strike me. The National Education Association has been collecting data on teachers for years. What they reveal is that 50% of teachers quit within their first five years of the profession. And they never teach again. That means half of the people who enter the profession spend less time IN the profession than they did preparing for the profession.

Those are staggering and disappointing numbers, but I’d have to also confess, that they don’t surprise me. I threw so much of myself into my job that I became sick in only my second year of teaching. I had never been sick before. My illness baffled and scared me. The doctors couldn’t explain it to satisfy me. I was desperate to get better and considered quitting the profession at that time. But I hung in there and realized that teaching, if you wanted to make it a career, was more like a marathon than a sprint. You simply can’t finish a marathon if you try to maintain a sprinter’s pace. No, I’m not in favor of half-way teaching. I’m a teacher who threw herself whole heartedly into the profession. BUT if you don’t find your own pace, your comfort zone that will somehow sustain you to hang in to make it to the end of the marathon, you will never survive in this career.

After more than two decades of teaching, I moved from the elementary grades into high school. High school?! If you had told me at any time during my first half of my career that I would eventually teach high school, I would have laughed in your face and then run out of the school building…in a sprint. In my 24th year of teaching I taught high school for the first time.

I didn’t just move from elementary to high school, I also moved into an entirely new student demographic at the same time. Most of my students were tough and oppositional, living in at-risk situations. Many of my students didn’t know their fathers and some even had mothers in prison or unemployed parents on drugs. I have no idea what kept me from quitting that year. Professionally it was the hardest year of my life. I almost quit in the first week of school. I only made it until 11:00 am on the second day before I was crying. I spent the rest of the year questioning my judgement for staying. That first group of teens chewed me up and spit me out on the pavement. Then they walked over me and left me for dead. And they enjoyed it.

I continued to teach in that challenging environment for 12 years. Do you know what I learned? When I made a positive difference in a student’s life in that environment, I was usually the only person turning that kid’s life around. I learned that those kids challenged me until they trusted me. Life had dealt them some serious blows and they weren’t going to let anyone hurt them again. Once they finally trusted and accepted me then they became my greatest allies. It was in that school that I accomplished some of my most meaningful teaching. It was, in a strange way, kind of intoxicating. I was making a difference. Isn’t that why most of us enter this profession? To make a difference?

It was also during this era that I began speaking and writing about teaching. I wanted to encourage and inspire other teachers. Day in and day out I saw a lot of teachers who looked defeated. I wanted them to feel supported and realize the positive difference they were making. Speaking and writing helped build my self esteem back up a little while the students continued to pummel me like a tether ball dangling from a pole in a prison yard. Yes, making a positive difference in a tough environment feels good, but it also had its down side. I began to feel pessimistic about the future of our country. If the students I was teaching were the future of our world, what was our world going to become?

Fortunately for me my teaching career took another unexpected detour. Someone heard me speak and offered me a job in a more traditional academic high school teaching in a Teacher Academy program. The students who enrolled in that program already knew they wanted to teach. For the most part they were wonderful role models, great students, caring and encouraging to others and even their teacher. The last seven years of my full-time teaching career were blissful. I maintain long-term professional friendships with many students and I watch them finish college and enter their own classrooms. Once again I feel quite optimistic about the future of our schools and our country.

Today I continue to write and speak about teaching while I supervise college level student teachers part time. I love this role. In this capacity I am able to be in and out of schools interacting with top quality mentor teachers, while calming the fears and encouraging beginning teachers. After twice considering walking away from the profession, it turns out I am a teacher for life.

Tips for Running a Teaching Marathon

Find your own pace. When you discover your energy flagging, turn your attention to the other parts of your life. Are you socializing enough? Are you having any fun in the rest of your life? Have you given up an activity you enjoy? If teaching consumes your whole life, you won’t be able to stick with it long-term.
Find a coworker with a positive attitude and good sense of humor. You can encourage one another and laugh about the occasional lunacies of the profession.
Focus on the students. Try not to focus on the frustrations of the profession. There will always be a new program, new curriculum, a new computer system, data collection, testing pressure, politicians who complain about schools during campaigns, or a change in policy or administration. None of that is as important as building a rapport with students and helping them learn and grow into positive adults. Laugh about the rest and focus on the kids.
Don’t eat lunch with the crab apples. Every school (or business) has crab apples. Spend your time with the positive staff members. Avoid staffers who complain about the quality of the students, the community or the administration. Seek out professionals who genuinely care about the students and have the ability to keep the rest of the job in perspective.
Never quit after a frustrating year. There’s an old saying, “Never cut a dead tree in the winter time.” Wait until spring. It may just appear dead and will flourish in the spring. In teaching, each school year is a clean slate. I’ve had some of my best teaching years just following some of my most challenging. Those sweet years can rejuvenate you.

In my life I play many roles. I’m a daughter of aging parents, wife, friend, mom, grammy, speaker and writer. But in addition to all those roles, I know that in my soul I am a lifetime teacher. I hope somehow you will be able to obtain the satisfaction from teaching that I have. The world needs committed teachers more than any other profession. If you agree, you are probably one of us. I teach to change lives.

TEACH…To Change Lives

Available at Amazon.com

Sep17

Take a Closer Look at Schools

Posted on September 17, 2012 by daunaeasley

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Do You See What I See?

My grandson was pitching for batting practice this week. He was hit in the eye with a line drive ball which broke five bones around his eye. His eye was blood-shot, swollen almost shut and he has temporarily (we hope) lost all depth perception. In the emergency room, he couldn’t even get a straw into his mouth to take a drink without putting his hand on the straw first to guide it to his mouth. He has to wear protective glasses at all times to keep everyone and everything from inadvertently jarring his eye until these fractures heal.

During this same week I was visiting schools to meet newly placed student teachers. These are college seniors who are doing their final practice teaching before hopefully finding teaching positions in their own classrooms next year. The professional teachers who are sharing their classrooms with these novices are called mentor teachers. It took me eight days to visit 20 students in thirteen schools located in four different school districts.

How Are These Two Events Connected?

I see a significant parallel. And I don’t think it was just because I was emotionally experiencing both of these events simultaneously.

It seems that everything you hear through the media about schools and our educational system these days is bad news.

And yet when I walk in schools’ hallways I see wonderful things happening. It appears to this career teacher that the reporters and politicians who are being constantly quoted about the bad state of our American educational system, have no depth perception. They are seeing out of only one eye. Or are they even in our schools’ hallways.

I used both eyes and both ears as I walked the schools’ hallways and talked with the staff.

This is what I saw and heard about teaching.

I saw teachers sitting with students before school hours having breakfast together. This free breakfast was served to everyone, every day to ensure that all students were getting a nutritional start to their day of learning without singling out anyone.

When I asked student teachers to describe their mentor teachers, they used these words:

committed, caring, kind, patient, hard-working, she comes in early and stays late, he answers all my questions and explains everything he is doing for me, helpful, fair, consistent, he has a wonderful rapport with his students, well-organized, enthusiastic, even the students who claim they don’t like English still like this teacher who is teaching English. S/he is exactly the kind of teacher I want to become.

One student teacher was describing the principal in the building where she is assigned. “She had all the student teachers over to her house for a meal. She wanted to get to know us individually. The teachers in the building tell me she offers to babysit their own children. She is always asking the question, ‘What can I do to help you?'”

I saw classrooms decorated and organized with so much care, that the rooms made you want to spend days there learning. I know how much (or more accurately) how little money a teacher is given to set up a classroom. These teachers reach deep into their own pockets to make a comfortable environment conducive to learning. Their classrooms were charming, and exciting places to learn.

I saw so much evidence of beginning-of-the-school-year activities planned specifically to build a positive classroom community. Anti-bullying themes were apparent everywhere. One teacher photographed her students’ feet (shoes, socks and all) on the first day of school and placed these foot photos on their lockers. Each student then wrote a paragraph about what they would do this year to put their best foot forward.

Secondary students were gathered in a circle discussing ways we can make isolated peers feel included.

I had one-on-one interviews with all the student teachers and asked them why they wanted to teach and what they wanted to teach. More than one had tears in their eyes as they explained their passion for the profession. Their enthusiasm was uplifting. It made me feel optimistic all over again about this profession I love so much. One of my student teachers appears to be in his forties. He left the insurance industry to become a teacher because of the way he recognized that teachers can change the lives of young people.

About three weeks ago I had dinner with a couple of former students who are now in the teaching profession. One of them is in a district where her salary has been frozen for five years because the school tax levy was not passed by voters. In addition to her rent and car payment she pays $700.00 a month toward her college loan for her education. She had applied at surrounding school districts trying to increase her pay and relieve some of her financial stress. One of those districts called her for a job interview ten days before the beginning of this school year. She thought it would be unfair to leave her current school district and students so close to the beginning of the school year, so she didn’t go after the job. And yet in the media we only read about the seeming selfishness of teachers who strike for wages. Does the teacher I just described sound selfish to you? Will we read about her? Only here.

Yesterday I was surfing the internet reading stories about teaching. One article had a link to the Huffington Post. I had never been there before. What did I see? Dozens of negative articles about teachers. There was only ONE positive one. And that article was written by a celebrity, Tony Danza. Thank you Tony! But once again, it was driven home to me that only negative or celebrity-written articles about teaching seem worthy of publication.

I’d start a personal campaign to get every parent and teacher I know to write a positive story about teaching and flood the media with them; but I know they wouldn’t get printed. In the media there is a popular expression they use to determine what gets heard. “If it bleeds, it leads.” In other words bad stories, ugly stories attract viewers and readers.

All I can do is stage my own personal campaign on my blog site here or write a book about the positive side of teaching… which I have. If you are new to my site, scroll back through the past couple of months and check out many true and inspiring stories about teaching. Also read, TEACH…To Change Lives.

Available at Amazon.com

One Final Word About Our Schools

If the parents and grandparents of our country could have walked the halls of our schools with me this past ten days, they would have felt so good and been so impressed with the commitment the teachers show to your children. I heard it and saw it and felt it everywhere I went. Take a deep breath and feel good about our schools. This doesn’t seem to be popular right now, but it is the truth.

My grandson goes back to the eye specialist tomorrow. It will be his third visit this week. We know he has five fractures (one of them pretty serious) and a depth perception problem and we are watching it closely. As for the media…I have only one piece of advice.

You Need Glasses!!

Sep10

TEACH…To Change Lives

Posted on September 10, 2012 by daunaeasley

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Life Changers

They sneak up on you. Life changers come from out of nowhere. You wake up in the morning expecting a typical day, but you meet someone new, or something unexpected happens on that day, and it changes the course of your life. Sometimes you figure it out on the very day it happens. You say to yourself

Wow. I’m going to remember this day forever.

But some life changers only reveal themselves over a long period of time. It may take decades before you know the full impact they have on you. Life changers can feel wonderful or horrible. The things they have in common are that they are out of our control and they change us profoundly. They are different from significant days that you plan like a wedding or a reunion. They appear suddenly and alter our lives in unexpected ways.

One of the things I love about teaching is that we get to experience so many life changers. Sometimes it’s a person, often a student, other times it’s an event or simply a tiny moment. Sometimes we teachers become the life changers and we may even be unaware of it. But in this wonderful profession life changers are possible every single day.

One of My Life Changers

This is my youngest daughter, Kelsey Easley. Her life was a life changer for me. This story isn’t mostly about Kelsey but it begins with her. When Kelsey was born I had already been a teacher for fifteen years. I believe I was a good teacher, creative and hard-working. But watching my daughter’s life and her experiences changed my teaching profoundly.

Kelsey was diagnosed with brain cancer at age five. She battled cancer off and on for eleven years until the disease took her life at age sixteen. When Kelsey had to receive radiation to her brain at age five, it saved her life but it also changed her life. Radiation kills healthy cells as well as cancer cells. As a result Kelsey’s intelligence plummeted. She went from being the top reader in her kindergarten class, to the lowest reader by the end of the first grade with the same peers. Now she didn’t just have a deadly disease to battle, she also was forced to enter the population we politely label special needs.

That experience put me (Kelsey’s mom) on the other side of the IEP conference table…the side of the table where no parent ever chooses to be. I learned a lot of lessons on the parent side of the table, most of them painful. I saw teachers and specialists in a whole new and often unflattering way. Too often I saw condescension or inflexibility. It changed me.

I also learned how naturally accepting and inclusive young children are. They’ll love you bald. It makes no difference. But acceptance changes at about junior high age. What Kelsey needed the most in junior high and high school were friends and there were very few. I watched her hurt and no one deserved it less.

How This Changed Me

It would be impossible to describe all the ways parenting Kelsey changed me; but for right now I’ll share one story. When I began teaching a Teacher Academy program at the high school level, I decided to begin a Friendship Club between my class full of academically talented future teachers and the students with special needs in our high school. Kelsey had taught me that friends were what the special population needed most. Instinct and my own experiences taught me that my future teachers would learn even more. My students knew all about Kelsey. She had passed away by then but I shared many stories about her.

We planned monthly activities pairing our aspiring teachers and their new friends from the special education department. The outcomes were wonderful. True friendships emerged. Simply a new friend to greet in the high school hallways was an improvement for the special population. Many of our new friends wandered into our classroom routinely before school and during breaks. My future teachers learned to plan appropriate activities that encouraged conversations and natural friendships. They also learned patience, tolerance, how to modify activities to feature all talents, a new respect for challenges our less fortunate friends encountered and a gratitude for our own gifts.

You’d think a win/win idea like this one would be greeted with positive reactions from all, but it had its challenges. Most of the special population didn’t drive and were quite dependent on school transportation specially equipped for their needs. This meant our functions had to happen within school hours. Some teachers were opposed to having students miss class, though we tried mightily to schedule these events during lunch hours. Locations were hard to schedule too. But the challenges were worth the effort. Relationships formed and barriers were removed.

Will You Help?

One day an unexpected email (a life changer) challenged all of us to examine just how sincere our intentions were. The email came from Steven’s mom. Steven was one of our new friends who was almost completely nonverbal. Steven’s mom wanted her son to have the opportunity to attend the prom. Would any of my students be willing to have Steven be part of their prom night? I read the question from the email aloud to my future teachers and waited. It was very quiet. No teens made eye contact with me. Here was Kelsey’s mom standing in front of them asking an uncomfortable question. PROM? A pretty sacred night for a teen.

After a somewhat lengthy pause Chelsea finally spoke up.

I’ll take Steven to the prom. I didn’t have anyone special I wanted to go with, and I couldn’t rationalize spending the money, but this gives me a good reason to go.

Her friends complimented her and told her they’d support her in her decision.

The Friendship Date

Prom night was a little more challenging than Chelsea had expected. Steven didn’t like the noise level in the room where the dancing was taking place. He mostly enjoyed standing at the front doors in the lobby watching the limos come and go as teens arrived. Chelsea, on that night, didn’t realize that she was right in the middle of a life changer. But she was.

Steven’s mom called Chelsea the next day and told Chelsea how much Steven had seemed to enjoy the evening. A friendship grew as Chelsea began to make sporadic visits to Steven’s house to hang out. She followed his lead into things that he enjoyed, basketball, wood working and equipment that digs. He learned to make an attempt at saying her name. He pronounced Chelsea’s name “Chs.”

Before long Chelsea went off to college to fulfill her dream of becoming a math teacher. But, as a true friend does, she took the time to visit Steven whenever she came home for breaks. When Chelsea was a junior in college she walked back into my high school Teacher Academy classroom to share some news with me. She grinned a little as she said these life changing words.

Guess what Mrs. E? I’ve changed my college major. I’ve decided to become a special educator.

I, of course, was pleased but not even the tiniest bit surprised. Today Chelsea is in her second year of serving in the classroom as an intervention specialist in a school not far from here. It’s close enough that she can still be a friend to Steven; and that is exactly as it should be. Steven and Chelsea were life changers for each other. It was a particular joy for this teacher to watch this transformation take place.

I can feel Kelsey grinning down on all three of us.

Chelsea and Steven, Still Friends Today

TEACH…To Change Lives

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Sep3

Humor in the Classroom

Posted on September 3, 2012 by daunaeasley

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Funny Stories from My Classroom

It’s Labor Day which means school has begun for just about everyone. I’ve taught almost all age levels, preschool through high school seniors…and now college student interns, learning to teach. I have the true and funny stories to prove it.

The Obvious Question

It was close to Thanksgiving. I had been sharing a book of turkey riddles with my preschool class. The following day we visited a supermarket for a tour and to talk about foods our families might serve for Thanksgiving. In each department there was a spokesperson who talked to the young children briefly about their area of the store. The lady in the produce section let the preschoolers spray water on the fruits and vegetables. Big hit with the kids! In the bakery department they had the chance to sample a cookie. Yum. But the head of the meat department clearly had no experience with preschoolers. His talk included technical terms about meat inspections, USDA requirements, meat temperatures, and how meats were classified. The class grew very restless, but the speaker seemed unaware. At last it appeared that he was going to release us to the next department. We were all anxious to move on. But before we left his area he asked one last thing. ”

Do any of you boys and girls have a question about meat?

Chris raised his hand. I was stunned. What could this four-year-old possible want to ask about meat that our tour guide hadn’t already over-explained?

Yes, son?

All the teachers turned to listen. Chris’ question was thankfully simple.

Why did the turkey cross the road?

The teachers broke into laughter. The guy from the meat department was finally speechless.

Keep Searching

I was teaching an important lesson about diversity to my high school seniors who were future early childhood educators. We were discussing the importance of choosing preschool toys and materials that are sensitive to the diverse backgrounds of the children we serve. I warned them to reject items that weren’t gender sensitive in today’s world, such as books and puzzles that always depicted a doctor as male and a nurse as female.

I cautioned my students to make certain all ethnic backgrounds were included in the main characters of stories and materials. “Also look carefully to be certain that toys and materials include children with special needs,” I said.

Their comments showed they were enthusiastic about this topic. I ended the class with an assignment. The students were given a ‘make-believe budget” of $500.00 and told to search through catalogs and find items sensitive to a diverse population. Only politically correct toys would do.

Way in the back of the room, Jennifer started right away. But she was turning pages just as quickly as she could. I silently wondered how she could even evaluate the toys at that rate; so I said,

Jennifer, you look like a woman on a mission. Can you see the items flipping the pages that quickly?

Her reply?

Don’t anybody bother me, I’m looking for fat Barbies.

Delicious Recipe

It was right at the end of a long school day in my third grade classroom. I was putting my students through our closing chores as they prepared to go home. I gave my directions without giving it much thought.

Be sure to put your chairs up on top of your desks and pick up any debris.

Eight-year-old Bobby seemed puzzled when he asked,

What’s debris?

My reply was also pretty impromptu.

Debris is left over stuff.

You could see understanding appear in Bobby’s eyes as he said,

Oh yeah, my mom fixes debris for supper sometimes.

Follow the Rules!

I was preparing a group of teens to travel out-of-town for an educational conference. I spoke to them seriously about our stay in a hotel.

No one is ever to be in the hotel hallway alone.

Even if you’re just going for a bucket of ice, take a partner.

Never talk to strangers or enter the room of someone you’ve just met, no matter how nice they seem.

The atmosphere of my classroom was very sober…just the way I wanted it to be. It is a big responsibility taking teens out-of-town for several days to stay in a hotel. I never took this part of the job lightly.

At precisely that moment there was a knock on my classroom door. A man from the technology department whom I had never met before, was looking for the room that housed the media brain of our building. That particular door is somewhat hidden. You must pass through another room that has no posted room number in order to find it. I tried to describe the process to him, but he was still confused. I stepped outside my classroom door, walked a few feet down the hall, opened the unmarked door and escorted him inside, to point to the door he was trying to find. I was back to my classroom in seconds.

My classroom was completely quiet, still sober from our previous conversation. Then one of my girls with a twinkle in her eye spoke up bravely and said,

Excuse me, Mrs. Easley, but didn’t we just see you leave your friends and go into a room alone with a strange man who you didn’t even know?

For a second I didn’t smile. I tried to stay stern. But it was a hopeless cause. We dissolved into giggles, then laughter, then finally guffaws. Tears streamed down our faces. My safety lecture is one they (and I) will never forget.

Read about ways to help students create success in life.

TEACH…To Change Lives.

Now available at Amazon.com