Athletic Artists and Artistic Athletes

My role as yearbook teacher has given me a unique take on my school.  I am in and out of classes from Transitional Kindergarten through AP Biology.  I go to at least one or two games of every athletic team we have.  I have at least some communication with every teacher who works here, and I attend most events.  One of the most interesting things that I get to observe in this role is the variety of artistic opportunities we have.

My school offers visual art, dance, theater, band, strings, and chorus.  As other schools have cut some of their arts programs for budget purposes, we are trying to grow ours.  Our school's vision statement is, "Students at GRACE Christian School will be grounded in God's Word and challenged to achieve academic excellence as they prepare to use their gifts and abilities effectively to follow God's plan for their lives."  We don't believe that God made people the same, and we want our kids to seek out whatever gifts God has given them to use for His glory.

I teach both science and yearbook, and people always respond to that as though it is strange.  Apparently, I am supposed to be one dimensional.  Our AP Biology teacher also holds a history teaching degree, and he loves them both.  One of our earth science teachers also teaches history, and the other one also teaches Bible.  At one point, our math teacher took up Irish dance.  She eventually gave up math to teach dance full time, but our students were able to see that a person is not one thing.  We want our kids to have a well rounded view of the world and themselves.


As the person who photographs everything, I have had the opportunity to witness this in action.  Some of the leaders on our girls basketball team have also been the most devoted members of our chorus.  This violinist, who is one of the founding members of our strings group, is the same guy protecting our goal on the soccer field.  He understands that he can do both of those things well and not have sacrifice one for the other.  Much of the visual art that decorates our school halls and wins awards at competitions was made by runners and soccer players and volleyball girls.  We also have artists who excel academically or in more than one artistic endeavor.  My yearbook editor just completed her role as Badger in Wind in the Willows, excels in multiple AP classes, and is one of our most accomplished visual artists.  When a student graduates from GRACE, we hope that they have explored all kinds of activities and found Christ in all of them.  They are all reflections of God's creation, and we don't want them to limit themselves to one thing.

I understand the difficulties faced by schools who are wrestling with budget problems.  Financially, it is easy to say that the athletic programs bring in money and should be kept while the artistic programs do not.  I get that, but our students aren't numbers on a spreadsheet.  The contribution they will make to the world can't be measured that way.  The impact that the arts have on a student's brain will change them in ways that cannot be quantified.  I am proud that I have a school that knows this is important and funds our arts programs.  We even hold a pep rally for them.   Don't get me wrong; we still struggle with the balance between athletics and arts, just like other schools.  I think our struggle is often for a different reason, however.  We struggle with the fact that a student can't be in two places at once.  They can't be at cheer practice and play rehearsal at the same time.  While I know that is frustrating to both the coach and the director, I'll take that struggle any day over the struggle of cutting back.

Love reading.  Love computers.  Love music.  Love tennis.  Love fashion.  Love knitting.  Love math.  Love painting.  Love science.  Love Latin.  Love writing.  Love God and learn about him through all of these things because these are all reflections of His nature.

What's So Hard About Being a Good Teacher?

Recently, one of my more outspoken 8th graders said, "I don't get what's so hard about being a good teacher.  I mean, you just do it."  We were in the middle of a lesson on the periodic table, so I didn't have time to go into a soliloquy about the training and experience that brought me to the point where I am today.  I replied, "That's because you only see what happens in these 45 minutes." and of course followed up with, "Read my blog."

His question, however improperly timed, does reflect the thinking of many students (and probably parents and society at large).  It got me thinking about other comments I have heard.  A teacher friend of mine said her husband told her she wouldn't be so tired all the time if she had better boundaries between work and life.  Legislators in most states play political bingo with test scores and teacher pay and school assignment for students because they don't understand what goes into good teaching either.  At the risk of sounding defensive, I'm going to take it upon myself to explain what the big deal is.  What's so hard about being a good teacher?  My dear 8th grader, I'll give you four answers; but they won't even scratch the surface.

Answer one - Let's start with a teacher's education.  I hold a bachelor's degree in secondary science education with an emphasis in physics.  When I was in college I took all the teaching classes an education major has to take as well as two calculus courses, four biology classes and their labs, three chemistry class with two labs, earth science and its lab, and every physics course I could fit into the schedule.  I even pushed some of my general ed into the summer so that I could take Applied Thermodynamics and Modern Physics.  Since graduating from college, I have attended hundreds of hours of workshops, training seminars, and conventions.  I read articles on new educational research and books on neuroscience.  I follow Talks with Teachers on Twitter and participated in their Idea Lab.  I'm not complaining about ANY of this.  I love learning, and it's part of being good.  I wouldn't want a doctor who got his degree in 1998 to have learned none of the medical science that happened since then, and I wouldn't want my teaching to reflect only the information that was available then either.  Professional development is a good and enjoyable thing, but it is part one of the answer to your 8th grader question.  Good teaching is hard because you never stop developing it.

Answer two - All the research says something different.  I was reading an article recently on the importance of homework.  It discussed the part of the brain that is activated when doing work independently after having left the environment in which you learned it.  Then I clicked on the related article, which was about how homework is the worst thing ever invented and why no one should ever be required to do it.  As I have mentioned in the past, I work in a school with a one to one program.  We've read a lot of research about millennial students and technology and the importance of collaboration and are all on board with our program.  Then, in the course of two days, we have read two articles about how technology is messing with our memories and why introverts are being harmed by the focus on collaboration.  What's a good teacher to do?  The research isn't wrong; it is just that we aren't working with widgets.  Every student responds differently to what we do, and only the lazy teacher responds with "teach to the middle."  We have to take in all this conflicting research and figure out a way to turn it into a lesson plan.  This would be like you, my 8th grade friend, trying to write one paper for five different teachers who all believe that good writing is something different.

Answer three - Your school community has specific expectations.  I won't re-hash my post on my school's mission statement.  You can find that by scrolling down to last week.  When I was in public school, spiritual inspiration was not an expectation.  It is here.  Some schools focus heavily on citizenship or service, and others are all about test scores.  Some care about getting grades posted within 24 hours while others want you to take the time to give deep and meaningful feedback.  Learning the expectations of your specific school community isn't easy; most don't post a list or anything.  You learn them at faculty meetings (meetings could be its own answer because there are so many of them).  The expectations of parents are also quite different than they were even a decade ago.  We live in an instant results, consumer driven, Yelp review kind of world.  So, my inquisitive 8th grade student, ask yourself if it would be hard to do well in my class if I had four conflicting expectations of you and graded you on all of them and posted your grades on twitter.

Answer four - All students are different.  I mentioned in answer two that every student responds differently to what we do.  Introverts need quiet time to think while extroverts need verbal processing.  Auditory learners find your diagrams distracting while visual learners can't learn without them.  The student with auditory processing disorder needs you to have lots of bright informational posters in the room while the ADHD student finds the same posters make it difficult to listen to you.  One student needs you to make constant eye contact while another would be riddled with anxiety if you looked in their direction.  All these students are in the same period and are expected to accomplish the same objectives.  Again, I hope you will not read this as a complaint.  I do not want Stepford Students.  It is a wonderful thing to have such a diverse group of people.  We all learn from each other's differences, and it is one of the things that makes my job so wonderful.  It is also one of the things that makes it hard to be good at.

Well, my 8th grade student, have you figured it out yet?  You see me standing in front of you talking as though I am coming up with things on the spot.  I've worked long and hard to make it look that way.  You see me answer your questions as though it didn't take years of training to have those answers and years of experience to learn how to put those answer on an 8th grade level for you.  You see me put a score on a test without any understanding of the years it has taken to build professional judgement about which error is worth 1 point off and which is worth only half a point off.  You see a test as though there is a printed book of tests I am copying.  (By the way, that book does exist, but you wouldn't be happy if I used it).  You don't know this, but you complimented me and all your teachers with your question because you implied that we make it look easy.  I hope this post helps answer your question.  Being a good teacher isn't easy, but as Tom Hanks says in the movie A League of Their Own, "It's the hard that makes it great."

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.