What do teachers make?

I want to share this story that was emailed to me a few weeks ago. This situation comes up quite frequently and to be honest I have thought about this question a lot. After hearing this response it has changed my total outlook on teaching and the reason I chose to be a teacher. I hope it makes a difference for you too.

What Do Teachers Make?

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, 'What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?'He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.'To emphasize his point he said to another guest; 'You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?'Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, 'You want to know what I make?(She paused for a second, then began...) Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor. I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental. You want to know what I make?' (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table.) I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions. I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything. I make them read, read, read. I make them show all their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made calculator. I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity. I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe. I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America . I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.'(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)'Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant... You want to know what I make? I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make Mr. CEO?'His jaw dropped, he went silent.

POEM

I was at an education seminar a couple weeks ago and an administrator read this poem.

"Responsibility"

We live in a world in
which we need to share
responsibility.
It's easy to say it's
not my child,
not my community,
not my world,
not my problem.
Then there are those
who see the need and
respond. I consider
those people
my heroes.

-Fred Rogers

It s amazing to look at the world and see all the problems going on, and its easy to look into the schools and see the students with a lot of problems going on. This poem really made me think of why I want to be a teacher. After the administrator read this poem I looked around at all the other teachers and other administrators and saw people whipping their eyes. It takes a shared responsibility from everyone to fix problems going on in this world and also the problems going on with our students.

Expectations

If there is one thing that I have learned while student teaching it is to set high expectations. I am currently teaching a 7th grade health class and we are covering the body systems. I recently just taught them the muscular system and I wanted to review over how the muscular system is works with the respiratory system, circulatory system, digestive system, urinary system and nervous system. We did a little activity, and then I asked the students tell me the function and how they are all incorporated. I was blown away by the responses. I feel like they taught me the health lesson. The moral to my story is that setting high expectations is a great thing to do, because the students will somehow reach those expectations. Setting the bar high and reaching the bar is a great accomplishment.

Taking time off!!!

So this last weekend I decide to take personal time. My expectations were high of feel stress free and being relaxed. I ended up driving to Boise with a friend to watch a semi-pro basketball game. The game was a blast, but I was WAY wrong on feeling stress free and relaxed. A lot of the time I was thinking about all the stuff I had to do when I got home. I don't think "personal time" should feel like that. I think I better try taking time off one more time to see if I can feel stress free and relaxed. I'll let you know how it goes after spring break!

Assessment and Standards Training

This last week I also attended the health education assessment and standards training. I will be honest, I went into the training not being able to recite the 8 standards in health education, but I can recite them now. This training was awesome!! It explained exactly how to incorporate the health standards into your lessons. A lot of times when I was developing my lessons, I didn't even realize exactly what standards I was covering. I knew that I always covered the first standard of CONTENT, but the other seven I had not clue. Come to find out, I was covering all the health standards by the teaching strategies that I was incorporating. The main focus of this training to me was how important the skills taught in health are over the content knowledge. This really opened my eyes. I assessed the students where I am teaching and I see the skills they need to learn from my class to survive. It is important for kids to have the refusal skill, the application skills, analyzing skills, and self- management skills. Some of my students are having to take care of themselves and this really pointed out to me the real importance of the health standards not just in the content knowledge but also the skills.

HECAT

HECAT stands for Health Education Curriculum Assessment Training. This was a training that I attend last Friday. This is a new idea for teachers, schools, and districts to assess the curriculum that they are choosing. Core content areas do not have this specialized training yet, but are in the process of developing their own curriculum assessments. The two content areas that are already in use are the health education and physical education. What great content areas!! Anyway, the training was very beneficial. I went into the first part of the training thinking how am I going to sit for six hours, but the material was very useful and will help me greatly when developing my own health and physical education curriculum.

The modules that the health education curriculum assessment covers are:

Alcohol and Other Drugs
Healthy Eating
Mental and Emotional Health
Personal Health and Wellness
Physical Activity
Safety
Sexual Health
Tobacco
Violence Prevention

Literacy

I know I have talked about the use of a smart board to incorporate literacy into physical education, but since I still do not have one, I found an excellent way to use literacy in PE. I use "exit slips". An exit slip is a slip of paper that the students will respond to. I give my students a writing prompt and they answer on the slip of paper. An example of a prompt might be listing five rules to the game of badminton. The students would write on the "exit slip" the five rules to badminton, then had the slip to me on their way out the door. This strategy is a great assessment as well. I can assess the students content knowledge and skills as well as my teaching. This also incorporates literacy into physical education lessons.