Another Perspective

Here is a response from one teacher in my department, I'm still waiting on the others, but I make no promises;-)

Brenda McCormick: Business Management, Graphic Design, Computer Science, and Online Experience

The best part of being a business teacher is: that everything changes based on technology, workforce demand and changes due to a shift in our cultural norms. I enjoy change and I have found that I am never bored teaching business education classes. Just keeping up with the version changes in the MS Office Suite can be challenging but add in the changes in technology that drives many businesses then you have to make changes to not only the content of your curriculum but also your delivery. Some teachers are very reluctant to change lessons once developed. If I could pass on one single piece of advice it would be to always be willing to make changes to your lessons. This helps me stay fresh and current with technology and of course the changes in our standards.

The hardest part of being a teacher: was to learn to adapt in a very different environment that what I was used to. After spending almost 20 years working for a furniture manufacturer I found myself ill prepared for my role as an employee in the public sector. Many of the ways in which I was taught to handle working on a team, taught to handle controversy, chain of command, etc are not handled in the same manner in the education system. At least not in the school system that I work for. So that part of my job has at times been a struggle.

I decided to pursue my teaching certificate because I thought that after spending so many years working in corporate America I had something that I could give back to our young people. As a manager (in my prior life), I interviewed many young people for jobs in my department. I was saddened by the lack of basic problem solving skills, technical skills and soft skills that the job candidates possessed. So I became a teacher. I still feel that I have something to give back but if I had it do again I would have pursued another endorsement. Currently I only have a business endorsement. I would highly recommend that new teachers pursue a core class endorsement. I have been with my school system over 10 years and I believe that once our district moves back to semester delivery and the in-coming freshmen are faced with the foreign language requirement, elective choices will be at a minimum.

Another piece of advice that I would pass on would be to try attending professional development conferences such as MBEA, MACUL, ACTE and such. Some of these conferences have repeat presenters that are just great and they are willing to share their knowledge and experience. Start building your network of business associates who can help to guide you and mentor you in your career. Good luck.

Classroom Management!

There are so many things to worry about when you are a teacher and unfortunately this is one of them!  In a perfect world, we could teach our classes and the students would listen and take notes and do all of the things they are supposed to do!  In reality, you will get a handful of kids that do that and the rest will be texting, coloring, reading, etc.  If you are in a computer lab, the challenge is to keep them off of Facebook and YouTube and their email. 

You have to find a balance between a teacher that the students enjoy learning from and one that the respect enough not to push the envelope.  You can still be a “cool” teacher and expect them to follow the rules at the same time.  Most of my students know that I am easy going and can tolerate quite a bit, but they also know when they’ve gone too farJ 

When I was student-teaching, that wonderful mentor of mine told me, “If you can handle it in your classroom, then do it!  Once you turn the problem over to the principal or assistant principal, then you’ve lost the control, and that student will remember that.” She was right!  Unless it’s something that is so bad, that I truly believe they need more than I can give them, I never send them to the office.  For example, I had a student chewing tobacco in my class this year, and the liaison officer wrote him a ticket and he had 2 days of In-school Suspension.  That was something I could not do.

One thing that I think helps is having classroom procedures.  Things that are expected of them every day or things they do without having to ask you.  Turning in papers, late work, using the hall pass, etc.  If you have them in place, then the responsibility is on them and more than likely they will be doing what they should be. 

The makeup of a class will set the tone for the entire term, semester, year, etc.  Sometimes they are all great kids, but they are just the wrong mix, and it becomes challenging.  I have some kids in health class that never say a word, but then you put a couple of their friends in computers class, and they become behavior issues. 

I promise you will all find your own style of classroom management and what works for you may not work for someone else.  It doesn’t always happen the first year;-)

Skype!

It was great to meet all of you last night!  Skype is lots of fun!  I hope the blog and our talk last night was helpful!  My next post will be about classroom management and then once I get the other teachers responses, I will post them also.   Please, let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about.  I am by no means an expert, but I can at least share what I've learn so far.  Seeing and talking to all of you made me really miss my college days;-)  Well, except the work! lol

I am also working on a list of websites that are helpful or that I use for lesson plans and technology ideas!  One of your best resources will be other teachers!  If they are willing to share, pick their brains.  But always be willing to share in return.

Differentiated Instruction

I’m not sure if this is being mentioned in college courses now, but there has been a huge push in our district for this concept.  The ideas and concepts are wonderful and make sense, but once you get into the classroom and come across all new challenges, it can be hard to “differentiate” every lesson.  We have had some PD days with this topic and our last one we had a guest speaker, Kathleen Kryza.  She also has been teaching a group of individuals at our school.  Again, her ideas are great and they make complete sense, but it is very hard to do that when you have so many standards to cover in such a short amount of time.  We are on trimesters so 12 weeks of instruction is not a whole lot.  Her basic ideas are teaching to student’s learning styles: auditory, visual, kinesthetic.  Which if I recall, Nancy teaches that in her classes.  She also says you should break your lessons into 3 C’s: Chunk (giving them information) Chew (letting them process what they’ve been giving) Check (making sure they understood or possibly doing self assessments).  It might be something to help you lesson plan and think about when developing ideas for your own classroom!

Make yourself marketable and moveable

I know that I had mentioned this in a previous post, but it is very important!  When I was subbing at Bedford, the principal told me that because I was dual certified, I had a better chance of getting a job!  The more certifications and content areas you have the better.  There are teachers here that are going back to get another certification to make sure their job is secure.  This is also why I am getting my vocational certification.  That will open up about 5 more classes that I can teach.  If I were to go back and get another major/minor, it would be in a core subject.  With all of the changes at the state level, the jobs that are most secure are in the core content areas (in my opinion).

By moveable, I mean be open and ready to teach all areas that you are certified in.  I must admit I was a little terrified when they told me they wanted me to move to a business position.  I had never taught in a business class!! But I did it, and succeeded!!  It must have been the wonderful instruction of the Business Ed. Department at CMU;-)

Finding a Job!

I must say that finding a job for me was fairly easy.  I was very lucky how I fell into my job at Bedford, especially with neither of my certifications being in a core subject (math, science, English, history).  After my student teaching (16 weeks), I was offered a long-term subbing position for the 2^nd semester—perfect!!  It was December, nobody was hiring, so this was win-win!  I had to learn a few things to teach Interior Design, but I adjusted.  The other full-time health teacher at Monroe was retiring at the end of the year, I thought I was all setJ  This was also the time when schools really started crunching and cutting back, so most open positions were filled within and people were simply shifted, not hired.  So I finished the year as a sub, had a great experience, great resume booster—time to start applyingJ  I had just gotten married, so I was looking locally which was a challenge, but tried to simply apply to every school in the area.  Most applications are done electronically now, so I simply applied with my credentials to have it on file.  That summer, Monroe called me back with another long-term position.  This was someone I had worked closely with and had already subbed in her classes.  She was taking the first semester off for health reasons, and it ended up being the entire year!  This time I was teaching Early Childhood Education (basically running a preschool) and sewing—I did not know how to sew!!  But they taught me and I gained a fun little hobbyJ Finished out the year, and the teacher did not return, but because I was not certified in that area, I could not apply for that position.  It’s funny how as a sub (even for an entire year) you can teach anything!  So back to the drawing board—checking all the schools I had previously applied to, sending my application/resumes out again, and knowing that the number of openings was getting smaller and smaller.  So that summer, I also started looking into “other” jobs—things not even related to teachingL At this point I did not have anything come fall and hadn’t been as lucky to fall into another long-term position. 

So I started off subbing at a couple different schools that fall, hoping to get a foot in another door.  I was always called back to Monroe because everyone there knew me and I knew the students so I usually had a sub job 2 or 3 times a week!  However, subbing in different buildings, different classrooms, never knowing where you are going can be tiring, especially when you have had your own class and want to teach as a career.   So one day I got home from school and had a message on my answering machine.  It was a teacher from Bedford (the school I currently teach at) asking if I would be interested in covering her classes at the end of the year for her maternity leave.  2 weeks of going to the same class—heck yeah!!  Wouldn’t you know, the same week, the principal at Monroe asked me to do another long-term position 2^nd semester—now what do I do??  So I went to my student-teaching mentor—her advice, “you’ve been in this building for 2-years and have not gotten a teaching job, now they know you’re a good sub, and may want to keep you as a ‘good sub’, go somewhere else, and get your foot in another door”.  And I did!! After my 2 weeks at Bedford, they called me that summer with a part-time position/part-time building sub—by November, they offered me a full-time business position and I’ve been here for 5 years!! The business position opened because another teacher took a leave of absence—but I was in the right place at the right time!

So my moral of the very long story I just told, don’t be afraid to try something new!  I was comfortable at Monroe and thought for sure one day I would get a job there, but I took a chance and I love my job and this school is so much betterJ

**I should note, the teacher at Bedford who called me to cover her classes had met a teacher from Monroe at a conference, and said, “I have the perfect sub for you”.  Because at that point I had subbed in every Family Consumer Science class there was;-) 

Student Teaching!!

I did my student teaching at Monroe High School in the fall of 2004. I loved my student teaching experience and learned so much from my mentor!  During our seminar, there were a lot of student teachers that did not have the same great experience, I considered myself lucky.  All of my student teaching was done in health (my major), and if you had asked me back then if I would be teaching business classes in the future, I would have said, “no way”. 

Student teaching is hard work.  You work 40 hours a week with no pay and start to learn what it’s really like to be a teacher.  I had a class that had me in tears at least once a week!  I learned more about classroom management from them than I ever did sitting in a classroom at Central (sorry Nancy).  

You never really know what your experience will be like until you get there.  My mentor started the classes and handed over one hour at time.  She shared all her lessons, we co-taught, it was wonderful!!  I learned so much from her and took away more than I ever expected.  Some host teachers will literally throw you in the class, first day, and let you go. 

When my advisor from Central would come for my evaluations, I was required to write a full I-Tip lesson plan for him, which I’m sure you’ve done numerous times over the last 4 years!  My mentor would laugh and say, “You will never do this when you’re a ‘real’ teacher, you won’t have time”.  And she was right….until now!  The state is now requiring all teachers to be evaluated, every year.  Our district has started these evaluations this year and with those evaluations, we have to have LESSON PLANS!!!  Not just for that day, but for the entire term, and every class.  If they were to “pop in” for a 10-minute mini observation, we better have those lesson plans with our 5 key components for them to see.  Our district has been in an uproar all year over these lesson plans.  It truly is impossible to write them for every day.  Don’t get me wrong, I have an outline of my courses, and a general idea of what needs to be covered that day, but it takes a lot of time to write out all of the components that they want each and every day, plus grade paper, plus do extra-curricular, plus take college classes, plus deal with day to day problems with students/lessons/discipline, etc.  I spent my entire planning hour last week in the counseling office with a student because she came to me with a problem.  Needless to say I didn’t get lesson plans done that dayJ  My point to all of this is not to discourage you, but to expect changes even though you do not think they are relevant, someone might. 

Tips:

1.       Get to know the principal at the school and ask him/her for input, advice, to come observe you teach.  He could make a very good recommendation for you, or will remember you when their school has a position open.

2.       Take pictures for your portfolio each week!  That way it doesn’t look like you took it the last week and took all your pictures on the same day. 

3.       Ask the students to fill out evaluations for you at the end of the semester. 

4.       Each lunch in the teachers’ lounge to get to know other teachers, and hear about some of their challenges as veteran teachers.  Beware:  some teachers have very negative attitudes and don’t let that suck you in and start to take that attitude on yourself.

5.       If you’re lucky enough to have a teacher share with you, make copies and keep everything!! And they like new lessons too; share your ideas with themJ