Mission Statement Impossible

I don't remember if public schools have mission statements.  If they did when I was teaching in one, it certainly wasn't stated often.  The private Christian school I teach in now states it all the time and in many places.  Aside from the website, it is also talked about in meetings, devotions, paperwork, and brochures.  For a while, it was printed in six inch letters on a framed poster in the hallway, illuminated with art lighting.  This is our mission statement:

GRACE Christian School is a loving community that spiritually and academically equips, challenges, and inspires students to impact their world for Christ.

As a reader, that may not seem like a heavy statement.  It is only one sentence, after all.  It could be printed on a coffee mug.  However, if it is your mission, it is actually impossible.  Think about what it means.  Our school's goal is not only to prepare students for their academic careers by teaching them the material they will need for college or careers, but we are also supposed to challenge them academically.  On top of that, we are to inspire them academically so that they will want to learn now and for the rest of their lives.  That's just the academic part of our mission.  We are also supposed to equip, challenge, and inspire them spiritually.  This is not a small thing.  We are supposed to live as examples, teach them about God and interpreting scripture, teach them to apply the Bible to their lives and the material they study, and inspire them to impact their world for Jesus Christ.  On top of that, we have to be in community and loving while we do it.  This is a heavy responsibility to carry on a daily basis (no wonder we are all so tired).

Here's the part I think I'm actually qualified to do alone - Academically challenge.  My training and experience to this point have given me the skills to challenge most students on most levels.  Given that I just used the word most twice, maybe I'm not qualified to do that part alone.  I know I can't academically equip them alone because I can't teach everything.  We probably are qualified as a group to academically equip them, but not as individuals.  I guess that means it is good we have each other.

As for inspiration - that happens through magic I think.  I don't really mean magic; I just mean that whatever causes inspiration isn't something I can plan.  God uses things I can't predict to light a spark.  Most recently, a parent told me that a project I assigned the kids three years ago (one that I didn't consider particularly important at the time) has led to their daughter pursuing a science career.  That doesn't mean I don't work hard at trying to inspire my students, just that I can't guarantee that anything I do will make it happen.  

As for our being a loving community - ask anyone who has ever gotten sick or injured at GRACE.  Our people rally with meals, fund raising, visiting, and whatever help may be needed.  We laugh with each other, cry with each other, enjoy each other, pray with each other, and just generally do life together.  That is our loving community.  

I haven't yet addressed the spiritual part of our mission.  That is because only God can accomplish the spiritual equipping, challenging, and inspiring.  Again, we may work hard at planning chapel services, mission trips, community service opportunities, and the Biblical integration of our lessons; but we cannot turn that into spiritual inspiration.  Only God can do that.  We can using challenging words, but only God turns that into a challenge in their hearts.  As teachers at GRACE, we MUST lean on God because our mission cannot be fulfilled in human power.  We hope our students see us pursuing God to fulfill this mission and, thereby, follow that example.  In the end, that is how we spiritually equip them, by showing them our dependance on Him.

Podcast Recommendations

If you read my blog during the summer, you know I walked.  I walked a lot.  I walked 530 miles during the summer.  I knew I would get bored with music playlists in that time, so I listened to podcasts instead.  I thought I'd use this week's posts to make some recommendations.

Stuff You Should Know - Did you ever wonder how Twinkies are made or why you can't see the seam on a Muppet?  Do you ever think about why we have headstones or how earwax gets out of your ear?  If you like to learn about anything and everything, this is the podcast for you.  Two guys who are employed by http://www.howstuffworks.com compile available research on a given topic and spend 30 to 40 minutes telling you about it.  They are pretty even handed on controversial issues, doing their best to present both sides even though they usually will tell you their personal opinions.  If you just like learning, this is an enjoyable way to spend an hour.

TED Radio Hour - This is an NPR show, and it took me a while to get on board with it.  I used to think that I could just listen to TED Talks without needing NPR to put them together for me.  I am now, however, fully on board.  Guy Raz hosts an hour on a certain topic and interviews the TED speaker, so you get a much fuller picture.  If you have ever had a question you wished you could ask a TED speaker after listening to their talk, Guy asks those questions.  This has actually become one of my favorites.

StoryCorps - This is also an NPR show. According to their website, "StoryCorps’ mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of our lives. We do this to remind one another of our shared humanity, to strengthen and build the connections between people, to teach the value of listening, and to weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that everyone’s story matters. At the same time, we are creating an invaluable archive for future generations."  As a teacher, I would like to make an assignment in my classroom using the Story Corp format.  This would be a fabulous project for all you history teachers out there (or English teachers).


Renewing Your Mind - RC Sproul gives the deepest presentation of theology I've ever heard.  He's a gifted teacher, who explains deep issues in an accessible way.  

Let My People Think - Ravi Zacharias is an evangelist, apologist, and teacher.  He wants to help thinking people believe and believing people think.  He is a living testimony that it doesn't have to be one or the other.  He is enjoyable to listen to, and this podcast is only 15 minutes long (for all of you ADD listeners).

Truth For Life - Alistair Begg may be my favorite person to listen to.  His Scottish accent makes you feel smarter just listening to it.  His delightful charm makes you forget you are getting deep insight from the Bible.  

The Village Church - Matt Chandler clearly grew up in church.  He references songs you will only remember if you went to Sunday School as a child.  He speaks difficult truth in a gracious way, and he isn't afraid to tell you about his own difficulties.

Ask Me Another - This is a quiz show from NPR.  I have found myself laughing out loud while walking down the street.  People in their cars probably wonder what the crazy lady is laughing at.  It's hard to explain; you will just have to listen to find out.

This American Life - Story telling is a rapidly diminishing art in the modern western world.  Ira Glass still has it.  He can make you stay in your car for 15 minutes after you pulled into the drive way at home because you want to know how the story will end.  Having the podcast eliminates this problem.  I have loved this show for years.

Study is a Verb - Do Something

My kids are taking chapter tests today, so I thought I would take this opportunity to share some study habits that I have gleaned from 17 years of being a pretty good student and 17 years of teaching all kinds of students.  I just read that sentence and realized that I have been teaching for the same number of years I was a students.  That makes me feel really old.  Yikes.

1.  Study is a verb - I have watched students "study" and wondered what benefit they could possibly be getting from it.  Here's how it works.  They take out their notes.  They stare at the page.  Their eyes get blurry, and they can't see any more.  This changes nothing.  To study effectively means you have to DO something.  Highlighting, flashcards, asking yourself questions - These are ways of interacting with the material.  Staring at it is not.  All my other advice comes from this.

2.  Organize Your Time and Space - Some people are natural organizers.  They love folders and tabs and calendars.  Office Depot is their happy place and color coded is their favorite phrase in the English language.  Others are a hot mess when it comes to organization.  They have to turn their backpack upside down and shake it to find a pencil.  Then, there are the ADHD kids, who tell me that  they shouldn't have to be organized.  "Oh, no," I tell them.  "It's far more important that you be organized than anyone else."  The natural organizers are already there in their minds.  If your mind isn't naturally organized, you really need to organize your environment to compensate for that.  If your homework is always in the same spot, you won't have to remember where you put it.

It is also important to organize your time.  This is harder for students than organizing their space.  You can see the space, and it is always in the same place.  Time is so fluid and so easily filled with whatever comes along that organizing it can be difficult.  I suggest having an ideal plan at the beginning of each week but to leave in a little flex time.  Things are going to come up that mess with the ideal.  This is only a problem if there is nowhere to put the new activity.  It may also require reorganizing as time goes on.

3.  Study in Blocks - Remember when your teachers told you not to wait to study until the night before the test.  You ignored them; everyone does.  It turns out that they knew what they were talking about.  Research shows that you remember best the things you study at the beginning and the end of a study session.  Studying in one long block means there is only one beginning and end.  Breaking that up over several nights makes multiple beginnings and endings.  If it is too late for that and you only have one night.  Take a 2 minute break every 30 minutes.  It is enough time for your brain to think you have begun a new session.  The strange result of one study showed that studying in different places might help as well (although no one is sure why), so studying one night in the kitchen and another in the living room may actually help.

4.  Take a Moment to Acknowledge Anxiety - Being nervous about tests is normal, but does it affect your performance on the test.  It does if you just try to pretend it isn't there.  An experiment was done in which two similar classes took tests.  In one classroom, students were given three minutes before the test started to write about how they felt going into the tests.  The other just began taking it as normal.  The group that was given a chance to share their frustrations and fears scored an average of 5% higher on the test than the others did.  The thinking is that putting it on paper frees your mind from focusing on it during the test, allowing you to shut off the internal dialogue.

5.  Allow Minimal Distraction - The world is filled with distractions.  We cannot eliminate them entirely - and we shouldn't.  The mind actually needs some stimulation, or it will create its own.  However, distractions that interfere with your ability to focus should be reduced as much as possible. That might mean muting the computer, so it doesn't beep every time a message is sent.  My students believe it is rude not to respond immediately to a chat message.  I tell them to make their google chat status "I'm studying for the next hour."  Then, it is rude for someone to chat them but not rude for them to wait to reply.  The phone can be put in another room.

A note about music.  Some people do benefit from playing music while they are studying.  It helps block out the little sounds, like buzzing lights and ticking clocks.  Before you says, "See, mom!  I told you music helps," be aware that not all types of music helps.  It is unlikely that your favorite song is helping you focus.  Be aware of when it is helping and when it is hurting.  If you are singing along, you are not studying.  If you are dancing around, you are probably not studying (Some people do need to move in order to think, so you will be aware if that is you).  I keep a TV on with the volume low, but I make sure it is a rerun of something I've seen before.  That keeps my brain from attending to it.

6.  Teach to Learn - If you are explaining something to someone else, you will know whether or not you understand it.  If you are an auditory learner, hearing yourself say it out loud will be like sitting in class again.  If you are verbal processor, saying it out loud will make it more real to you.  You can teach another person, but if one is not available, you can teach a stuffed animal, a doll, or a chair.  The key is to do it out loud.  It forces focus in a way silent studying doesn't.

7.  MAKE Flashcards - We are a one to one school.  We do a lot of things with technology, and I know there are online flashcard sites.  Those are great and should be used, but I want to make a plea for the good old fashioned flashcard.  Your senses are the pathways by which information enters your brain.  Using an online card site uses only one - sight.  When you hand make a flash card and then use it properly, you use sight (to get the information), muscle memory (from writing), sight again (from look at the card), speech (by saying it out loud), and hearing (by saying it out loud).  You also get a little bit of tactile because holding the card is different from not holding one.  I've got my doubts that scented markers would help, but they certainly could not hurt.  The more pathways the information has to get into your brain, the better you will remember it.

8.  Pray - I asked my students a few weeks ago if they prayed before a test.  Many of them said yes (or at least that they prayed during the test if it was getting hard).  When I asked if they prayed before they studied, no one said yes.  God cares about your learning and talks much of wisdom and knowledge in scripture.  He even says in James, "If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask."  Why wouldn't we ask for help in making our study time efficient and effective?

Changing Your Plans - That's Life

Teachers live by plans.  Day plans, unit plans, lesson plans, year long course maps, curriculum guides, etc.  We submit plans for review and approval, and most of us plan about a week ahead (Note:  if you are new teacher reading this, don't feel bad.  You are probably planning two hours ahead.  If you get a whole day ahead, pat yourself on the back.)

Because we make so many plans, we tend to get very attached to them.  Then, there is a fire drill or a pep rally we forgot was coming.  Half our class is out on a field trip we didn't know about or leaves early for a swim meet.  The thing it took me longest to learn as a new teacher was how long things would take.  I would have a plan I thought was a class period only to have it last twenty minutes (or three days).  It was just impossible to know how long something was going to take if I had never done it before.  What happens to your plans then?

Our plans are lovely ideals of how a lesson will go, but they are just that.  They are ideals.  We don't live in an ideal world.  Stuff is going to happen.  Equipment is going to break.  Projector bulbs are going to burn out.  How you react to those things sets an example for your students.  You don't want them to wig out, so you shouldn't either.  You want them to be flexible, so you have to model flexibility.

As you get farther along in teaching, you get better at predicting how long things will take.  Every class is different though.  What took two days with last year's physics class might take three days this year.  The kids are different, and you may have explained it a little differently.  You get better at predicting the rabbit trails.  For example, when I teach about the ear, I know to expect questions about ears popping on planes and tubes and now can work in time for those questions.  No matter how long you teach, you will still encounter times when you just can't stick to the plan.

Don't be afraid to regroup.  You want to teach, not just cover the material in the curriculum.  If your students aren't getting the material, push the test out a day.  Every year, I walk this line.  I realize that there may be a chapter I don't get to do (or that I have to combine two chapters at the end and just teach the essentials from that chapter).  It has taken me a long time to come to this conclusion, but I believe it is right.  I would rather teach the things I do get to well than get to everything by doing it badly.  

The Power of Silence

I have a magical super power that makes kids fall into hushed silence.  It isn't a special hand signal.  It isn't a sound.  It isn't a flashing sign.  It is MY silence.

Kids are used to being lectured, yelled at, told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.  They are used to music being pumped into their ears 24 hours a day.  They are used to beeping, buzzing, and ringing.  What they are not used to is the sound of silence (I wish I could input Simon and Garfunkel here).

When my students get out of hand while I'm in the middle of a lesson, I stop speaking.  I stare at the ceiling, and I wait.  If you know me, you know that silence isn't exactly a strength of mine, but it doesn't take long.  It takes 30s or so for the first student to realize I have stopped speaking; then he usually spreads the word that everyone should shut up.  The whole process usually takes less than a minute.  It takes much less energy and is much more effective than fussing.  They don't care if a teacher fusses because, in their minds, teachers fuss all the time.

The one I keep in my back pocket for the most extreme times is keeping silent for the remainder of the period.  This usually happens when we have played a review game.  I certainly don't expect the same level of decorum for a game that I do for other times, but it is only useful review if people are paying attention.  I usually give them a few chances (because it is a game, after all).  Then I say, "That's it.  I'm done."  I sit down and don't speak for the rest of the period (which is usually only 10 minutes or so if I get to this point).  It freaks them out.  They don't know what to do if a teacher doesn't talk for ten minutes.  In those times, you could hear a pin drop on the carpet.  Beware: Using  this technique too often will make it stop working.  It is the novelty of it that makes this work.

Right now, I'm sitting in a completely silent room.  It is my study hall.  It consists mainly of 8th graders and a couple of seventh graders.  Because they all have the same classes, I usually let them work together.  We are a school that places high value on collaboration and cooperation.  However, as with any study hall, it can be dangerous to let them talk.  My policy is clear.  There is one warning for the volume being too loud or lack of productive talk.  After that, you go back to your assigned seat and remain silent for the rest of the period.  If this happens in the next class period, you will remain silent for not only the remainder of that period but for the next day's study hall as well.  That's the step we are on now, which means I will have to suffer the sound of a silent classroom for the entire period on Thursday.  I don't enjoy this, but it is amazingly helpful.  Last year, we never escalated beyond this point because NO ONE wanted silence for three class periods.  This class is a smart bunch, so I'm sure they'll do the same.

Student Blogging - Experiment in Public

After I started blogging for real last year, I came to realize what a valuable tool this kind of reflection is.  Each week, I choose some piece of teaching life and really think about what it means to me.  I did this before, but it was hit or miss random thoughts and usually while I was driving.  Now, I try to figure out what I really want to explore through writing.

The fact that other people read my reflections pleases me almost as much as it confuses me.  For example, one day two weeks ago, my number of page views in Portugal jumped from 4 to 54 in one hour.  What happened?  (If you are one of the 50 Portuguese readers, please comment below.)  I love checking the stats, not just for the number but for which posts people are reading and where people are reading.  I like thinking about the fact that my experience as a teacher might lend any kind of insight to other teachers (or even students and parents).

Last year, I decided I wanted my students to have this experience as well.  I want them to reflect on the things they are learning in all of their classes.  I also think it fits well into some of the changes that are happening in education.  If you remember my post called The Poster By My Desk, you know that one of the ways we are rethinking teaching is Talk to Strangers and another is Real Work for Real Audiences.  Student blogging seems like the perfect way to do this.  I believe they will write better if they know it is being read by people out in the cyber universe.  I believe they will reflect well if they are trying to convey it to someone else.

Once per week, my 8th graders will be assigned a blog by one of their teachers.  It won't always be me, but they will be writing about something they are learning, and this makes me happy.  I may be a science teacher, but I know the value of writing and am so happy they will be doing this.

In order to keep all their blogs collated, I have compiled a list of links to their blogs.  If you would like to read the blogs of 8th grade students and encourage them with comments, you may find a list of all their blogs at this blog.  This has all gotten a little too meta for me because I am using this blog to link you to another blog, which is a list of 61 more blogs.  I've never used the word blog this many times in one day - even when I ran a work shop on blogs.

Our Shared History

Yesterday was World Photography Day.   You didn't get a long weekend, and there were no fireworks to mark the occasion.  Photography has become so much a part of our normal lives that we don't even think about them any more.  Most of us have thousands of photographs stored on a phone or computer.  They are as normal to us as our speech.  I want to take a moment to reflect on why photography matters.

No one who is alive today remembers a time when there was no photography.  This is because usable photography was developed in the 1820's.  There was image capture earlier than that, but it took too long to be usable.  If you are interested, here is a good summary of the history of photography.  People over the age of 30 will, however, remember when it wasn't as easy to see your photos as it is today.

Remember film?  My father and I are both shutter bugs.  We would go on family vacations and take about 8 rolls of film each.  At 36 frames per roll that meant, we were taking over 280 pictures each, not knowing until we got home whether any of those were worth having.  We took our rolls of precious film to Eckerd Drugs and put them in envelopes that were dropped into a slot and sent to "the lab."  Four days and a hundred dollars later, we would pick up our prints.  After sorting out the blurry, the overexposed, the underexposed, the finger in frame, and other such errors, we often found two or three pictures that were really worth enlarging to 8 x 12 (that's right) and hanging on the wall. In an interview, a National Geographic photographer said he took 300 rolls of film to get enough for a spread (usually 8-10 photos), so I didn't feel so bad.

That little walk down memory lane is not what I want to write about.  I want to write about the meaning of photography.  Our history as a people was once passed down by oral tradition.  Then came writing.  The ability to capture an image is just a progression in sharing history.  Photography gives all of us a shared history.  Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong are the only people to see each other on the moon with their own eyes, but we share that historic moment because they took photos.  When the concentration camps were liberated, the instruction was given to take as many pictures as possible.  Otherwise, no one could believe how bad it was.  Unless you were in New York City on September 11, your memories are shaped entirely by the pictures taken by those who were.

These events all took place when photography was the realm of professionals and hobbyists.  Even on 9/11, phones with cameras were not as ubiquitous as they are now.   The people who took the photos of those historic moments meant to capture something big.  Now, almost everyone can capture what is happening in front of them at the moment it happens.  They can also share it almost instantly with everyone in the world.  This may or may not be a good thing.  On the one hand, ease leads to lack of thought.  Twitter doesn't require that you think before you post.  Instagram never asks if you are sure about what you are sharing with the world.  When film had to be developed, no one would have wasted that frame on a shot of their lunch.  Also, more people doing something hasn't always made us better at it.  People post a lot of blurry shots.  On the other hand, the shared history of photographs means that we now have a visual record of more things than we have ever had before.  What the printing press did for writing, cameras on phones will do for imaging.  It is too soon to know what this will one day mean, but I feel like it will mean something.

The next time you are looking through a history book or an old National Geographic and see a familiar image, think about the connectedness that image brings.  Everyone else who see that image shares it with you.