Tag Archives: education teaching

My brass school doorknob

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On my desk I keep a brass doorknob and a block of wood from my first school.  It reminds me of my start as a teacher and the struggles I faced.

I found that doorknob on the floor in front of a classroom door whose window had been smashed by it.  The custodial staff could not keep up with all the broken windows which mostly where broken from the inside. Looking at the school from the outside you saw a lot of boards in place of window panes. 

We must all be aware of the struggles classroom teachers face. They need our support, advice and all the help we can give them.  They may not get what they really need in their school but thanks to social media they can get it online.  Consider yourself very fortunate if you work in a good school environment. But remember not everyone is that lucky. Reach out and support our struggling colleagues.

Looking at that doorknob I will never forget my days as a classroom teacher:
lack of supplies, little support, poor working conditions, revolving door teacher staff, ineffective administrators, little if any parental involvement, violence….

 

My Teacher Mentor – Patrick J. Corr

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Today is a sad day for me as I learned my teacher mentor Patrick J. Corr passed on.

 I will never forget the first day I started teaching in 1969.  The principal told me to go down to the basement to Room B9 and watch a veteran teacher in action.  Just walking into his room I was immediately impressed.  His classroom was meticulously decorated with that month’s theme.

Observing him teach I quickly realized how he had the complete attention of all of his students.  As he walked around the classroom I saw all the students’ eyes follow him.  He showed me that a teacher had to be an actor. After that initial observation Pat asked me to join him and several colleagues for lunch in his room.  That was the beginning of my first PLN.  These three teachers taught me how to teach, design engaging lessons, decorate a classroom and be prepared for any eventualities.

I was crushed in the 1970’s when he was laid off.  Here was a teacher whose whole life was devoted to teaching. He was laid off because he had low seniority on the high school level.  All the years he taught on the junior high level were not considered.  He was never sick and the only day he took off was to attend my father’s funeral.  Luckily he was quickly rehired and I am sure he benefited the lives of all of the students he taught.

Pat was the epitomy of a constant learner.  He was a voracious history reader and took courses on his own to learn even more

The world is a better place thanks to Patrick J. Corr.  I will miss him!

“A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart”

First PLN 40+ Years Later – Lifelong friends

Parent-Child Activities

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When my daughter was in lower elementary school she chose to do a Social Studies community project on the Jones Beach (Long Island, NY) Water Tower.  We went to Jones Beach and took photographs of the tower and then she interviewed the head park ranger.  When we got home she did some research and starting writing a report.  We also built  a model of the tower for the school Social Studies Fair.  It was wonderful to see all of the displays at the fair and the proud looks on the children’s faces. Twenty plus years later both my daughter and I have fond memories of this father-daughter project.

There has been a lot of attention on the need to improve parent involvement in schools.  Planning more fun family activities would really help.  Make sure to provide free child care and have refreshments.

I feel that it is important that there are more family type events in schools periodically.  I always enjoyed seeing the art shows with my children’s work displayed, listening to them perform in concerts or watching them perform in school plays or gym nights.

Be creative in forming these activities to make them more interactive for both the parents and children. A great beginning of the year activity especially for parents new to a school would be a QR Code Scavenger Hunt of the building.  Just think of all the fun parents could have with their children solving problems and riddles on a Math Night.

These parent children activities will become life long memories.

Focus

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Help! Each day I am bombarded by tweets, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Klout (thanks to all those who have added me), emails, text and instant messages and I tend to lose my focus on what I should be doing.  It is a good thing I am a pretty good at multitasking.

Do you notice that when you attend a performance or a lecture they start by asking you to turn off your cell phones?  This allows you to concentrate on the performance or speaker.  (My only problem is that they do not remind you to turn your cell phone back on.  If I am tardy in responding to any one this is the main reason!)  Since we are surrounded by so many competing things in our lives it is important that we learn to focus in on what we are doing. I feel that we also have to work with our children/students on focusing on whatever they are doing.

During the time I coached I worked with my team on focusing in on what they were doing. I remember gathering my relay team together in the final race in the city championships.  I told them that whether they lost or won I would still be extremely proud of them for their hard work and commitment to the team.  I reminded them to focus on the handoff and try to block out everything else around them.

When I taught I spent a fair amount of time in the beginning of the school term getting my students to learn to listen.  This required them to focus on whoever was talking and not to fidget or play with their pen, pencil, paper, etc.  It is also extremely important that we as teachers and administrators listen to our students. In addition, we as educators need to focus on what we are doing with our students.  It is a good idea to set goals and have a mission statement.  Of course, it is important to review and amend those during the course of the school year.  I just wish the educational policy makers would focus on the real needs of the teachers and students in the classrooms as well as their parents and listen to what they need.

When I had writing assignments for my publisher I would have a sign on my desk with the word “Focus” on it.   Before my educational booklets were published they were reviewed by children, teachers and utility representatives.  I can remember when just about everyone would love a page except for one person. At first I could not understand why that person did not approve it.  When I focused in on that person’s comments in many cases I saw their point and then made the appropriate changes.

Of course, I should practice what I preach but that is very hard to do when I moderate a chat on Twitter.  The pace is so frenetic and it is hard to focus in on all the tweets and what they bring up.  I also have to focus on what I tweet.  There are times I inadvertently use the wrong word because I am rushed or leave out things as a result of the 140 character constraint.

We have to remind ourselves in our busy lives to focus on the things that really matter in our lives.

 

Don’t Forget the Students

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Years ago I was asked to take part in a community group looking to address the gap in activities for young adults after school in our town. I was quite impressed with the group that was assembled but I noticed a glaring exclusion. I raised my hand and was recognized by the chairperson. I said, “We are missing a very important element here.” She responded, “Jerry, we have the Superintendent, School Board members, all the principals, members of the clergy, the police captain of the local precinct, elected officials, Presidents of all the PTA’s, members of the Chamber of Commerce and business community and of course you representing the library (I was the President of the Library Board of Trustees & VP of one of the areas HS PTAs.).” I replied: “How come we do not have any young members of the community here? We are here to make decisions about them and they should be heard.”

A lot of times when we are making important educational decisions we have a tendency to leave out the voices of the students (and parents). We should be listening more to what our children and students have to say. When making the rules of the classroom include the students in the formulation of them. Learn to step aside and let the students take more of a role in their learning process. School improvement needs the voices of the students on what they would like to say. Make them a real part of the process.

The Day I Stepped Aside

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My Official Class - Not the Current Events ClassIn the early 1980’s I had a Social Studies class that was real troublesome.  All their subject area teachers had problems with them.

I always felt that it was important that my students knew what was going on in the world, so with this class as well as with my others, their daily homework assignment was either to listen to, watch or read the important news of the day. The next day we would start off with a recap of the major news stories that occurred.  Coincidentally, one student years later wrote me from college stating that he did not appreciate this assignment until he reached college.  He thanked me for having him do this.

This tough class was reluctant to do the daily homework so I decided to have them do a weekly news show.  I had them decide what we should cover on the news show.  They came up with the following: world news, national news, state news, local news, sports, fashion, movies, music, business, and weather.   I was very pleased when they really got into this weekly project.  The first weather person after a couple of weeks told me to step aside.  He was going to take charge of this show.  He even decided to give the show to the teachers during their lunch period.

This activity really turned this class around.  They were a joy to work with the rest of the school year and my colleagues loved the change in attitude of this class.

One day years later my wife and I were walking in midtown Manhattan when someone yelled, “Mr. Blumengarten!”  Boy was I surprised when the former weather forecaster on our weekly news show ran up to me and he was wearing an NBC jacket!

It is important to know when you should step aside and let your students take charge of their learning.  Of course, you should still be present to facilitate and help them along their paths of discovery.