January 2009: Working to Create Hope for Others and Ourselves
January 1, 1970
January 2009: Working to Create Hope for Others and OurselvesWelcome to Issue Twenty-One!
Even though the daily news reports offer disheartening information that touches and burdens even the most stalwart teacher, we are in a profession that strives to make the future brighter for others. Recharge yourself as you spend time taking care of others.
In this issue of The Practical Educator, you will find information about the principles of professional teaching, some very practical tips about how to live well during the current economic crisis, and just a bit of information about a new process to help students who struggle to succeed in school.
“Teaching is the perpetual end and office of all things. Teaching, instruction is the main design that shines through the sky and earth.”~Ralph Waldo Emerson
In April, The First-Year Teacher’s Checklist: A Quick Reference for Classroom Success, will be published. Designed to be a quick guide for teachers, this new book contains lists highlighting some of the most important ideas, issues, strategies, and techniques new teachers need today. One of the first lists in the book is this one below.
While professionalism is an area of expertise that new teachers learn to develop, all educators seek to refine their own sense of professionalism throughout their careers. Use the excerpt below to use the three basic tenets of professionalism to energize your teaching practices as the new year begins.
Be Guided by the Principles of Professionalism
Great teachers are defined by the extent of their dedication to developing the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that are the hallmarks of a professional educator. As you begin to develop your career, let the following principles of professionalism guide your efforts:
PRINCIPLE ONE: Commit yourself to the well - being and success of every student in your care.
• Treat all students with dignity and respect.
• Honor your students by having high expectations for their academic and behavioral success.
• Maintain an organized and orderly classroom where students are kept safe from harm.
• Promote positive behaviors that aid the development of self-efficacy.
PRINCIPLE TWO: Commit yourself to maintaining rigorous standards of professional performance.
• Accept responsibility for what happens in your classroom.
• Conduct your professional life with impeccable integrity.
• Initiate a teamwork approach to a successful school year with the parents and guardians of your students.
• Recognize that the constantly changing complexity of education makes professional growth a personal responsibility.
PRINCIPLE THREE: Commit yourself to delivering the most appropriate instruction for your students.
• Differentiate instruction to meet the individual needs of all learners.
• Help students set and achieve reasonable goals based on state standards.
• Be aware of and incorporate educational best practices.
• Provide written and verbal feedback designed to encourage student achievement.
“To teach is to learn twice.” ~Joseph Joubert
What Teachers Know about Living Well in Tough Times
Every day when Americans check the news, the ubiquitous topic tends to be the distressing state of the economy. Layoffs, scandals, the mortgage crisis, bankrupt banks, closing businesses…all of these are frightening reminders of the concerns facing millions of Americans. Because we are in a profession that takes care of others, we strive to help our students cope when the downturn in the economy affects their families.
Unfortunately, too, just like those other Americans, we teachers wonder how we can take care of our own families when times are tough and money and credit are in short supply. We choose to teach knowing that our salaries will never be the main reward offered by our profession.
While teachers are certainly not immune to the threat of layoffs and the decrease in school budgets, we tend to have skills that allow us to cope with this pressure better than many other professionals who have been paid higher salaries than ours tend to be.
All of us, even the newest members of our profession, have acquired skills and attitudes that allow us to live a relatively comfortable lifestyle even now when our nation’s economy is in a doleful state. Our expertise in learning to live below our means can be found in this list of some of the best strategies that teachers use to save money.
1. We save our change and put it to good use. Teachers have even been known to purchase furniture and other big ticket items with accumulated coins.
2. Teachers know that eating out is more expensive than eating at home.
3. We frequent discount stores such as the ones where everything costs a dollar or less. We have no problem finding great school supplies and those little items we want to use for tangible rewards there.
4. Teachers go to the grocery store with a list. We know that not having a list means spending more money than we can afford to.
5. Teachers pay attention to how much soap we use. If we pour in too much we know that it is just down the drain in waste.
6. Teachers don’t waste anything if we can help it. After all, we are the people who gladly pick up and reuse the pencils that others drop in the hallways.
7. We use cloth instead of paper towels as often as we can.
8. We don’t shop when we are hungry.
9. We know how to haggle to get the best deal on a vehicle. When necessary, we can also haggle politely for other things also.
10. We make our own coffee and take it in a travel mug to work.
11. We make a point of saving water at home and at school. Not only does it save us money, but we are helping keep the planet greener, also.
12. We save on the fuel for our cars by consolidating trips. We plan our errands so that we don’t waste time or fuel.
13. We are the people who spend time calculating our withholding taxes so that we either break even or get a small refund. We also file our own taxes whenever we can.
14. Teachers plan ahead.
15. What the rest of the world does not know about teachers: a large part of our lounge conversation revolves around the deals we just found or the great bargains we know about. Being the friendly helpful people who choose to be in a profession that focuses on others, we share our shopping expertise with our colleagues.
16. We don’t have time to make too many trips to the supermarket. We save money by only going once or maybe twice a week--less often if possible.
17. We buy in bulk whenever we can. For example, we buy a large amount of cereal on sale and divide it into smaller containers so that it stays fresh longer. We are the ones who leave a store with the gigantic boxes of detergent, too.
18. Impulse supermarket buys are not something teachers do—unless those purchases are great deals, of course.
19. We buy supplies and medicines for our pets at these sites: Petcarerx.com and 1800petmeds.com.
20. We are the folks ahead of you in the supermarket checkout line with the well-organized coupon files.
21. We use coupons for a variety of things besides groceries. One great site for this is dealcatcher.com. Another great site is fatwallet.com.
22. Teachers are the ones with a key ring full of those little store reward tags that clerks scan to give us great deals. We then scan our receipts with pleasure to see what we earned or saved as we leave the store.
23. We also are careful to review every receipt to make sure that there are no errors or that there is not a difference between advertised price and what we were charged. Who would have thought that grading papers would have a non-school related purpose?
24. Teachers tend to hang on to receipts so that we can return things without a hassle. We have even established files for this at home.
25. We are the people in the store with our calculators out to determine whether the economy size is really a bargain or not.
26. We often carpool with colleagues even if it means staying later at school or getting there a bit earlier than we would like.
27. We take public transportation if we live in an area where this is available for us.
28. We are the ones driving the small economical cars found in the school parking lot. Teachers have been known to joke about how our students drive better cars than we do.
29. We turn lights off. We turn our computers off. We unplug things. We know that those little actions can add up to big savings over time.
30. We belong to those big discount clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club.
31. We use cheap calling cards or an Internet phone service such as Skype to save money on long distance calling.
32. We know to the minute what our cell phone usage is each month. Teachers full take advantage of those off peak minutes that are allowed on our phone plans.
33. We make a simple monthly budget and work to stay within our budget. Most of us do this electronically nowadays. A great free site that many teachers use to track and plan how they spend money can be found at mint.com.
34. We try to stay healthy. Teachers know that washing our hands often is much cheaper than paying for a doctor’s visit.
35. Our movie nights happen in the afternoon when matinee prices are cheaper than nighttime rates.
36. Another way we do movie nights is to stay at home with a cheapie movie we rented or, even better, borrowed from the public library.
37. We use a public library to obtain books, newspapers, audio books, and magazines, too.
38. Teachers are also good at learning about free events in the community and in taking advantage of them when we can.
39. Teachers work second jobs. We teach summer school, night school, and tutor. We have been known to sell real estate on the side or work at camps or wait tables or do whatever we can to make a little extra.
40. We spend money on recertification courses and advanced degrees so that our paychecks can be larger eventually.
41. When we shop, teachers check the expiration dates on various products. We know that an out-of-date product is not only a waste of time, but can also be harmful to our health.
42. Few teachers can resist the lure of a garage or yard sale sign. We don’t just purchase for ourselves, however. Many teachers have been known to purchase book bags and even warm coats for our students at these sales.
43. We don’t pay retail if we don’t have to. A great site for this is http://www.retailmenot.com.
44. Online auctions were invented with us in mind.
45. We pack our lunch. On the days we don’t have the teacher’s special (peanut butter sandwich with an apple), we tend to eat leftovers or heat frozen foods we purchased on sale.
46. We are the ones who purchase store brands and generic items.
47. We reuse as much as we can. After all, teachers are the people with closets filled with years of old bulletin board materials.
48. We volunteer at community events so that we can have fun for free while helping out others.
49. When a store has a grand opening, teachers are there. We know that there are often remarkable deals when a store first opens.
50. Teachers, even though we are not paid well, tend to pay our bills on time. By doing this, we make sure that we don’t have to pay any unwelcome fees for late payments.
“When you teach your son, you teach your son's son.” ~The Talmud
Two Wonderful Websites for Your January Resolutions
If your resolutions for the new year include figuring out ways to use time more efficiently and to become a better organized teacher, you may want to check out these two sites for their great advice for busy professionals.
Mind Tools ( www.mindtools.com ). This site offers resources on communication, stress management, and other career skills, in addition to time management skills.
Time - Management Guide.com ( www.time - management - guide.com ).This helpful site offers sensible suggestions for time management, as well as links to related sites.
“Don't try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior. When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed.” ~Marva Collins
The Response to Intervention: Early Identification and Assistance for Students with Learning Difficulties
Have you been wondering about a relatively new term that teachers are learning more and more about: RTI? More and more often this year, teachers are hearing about this new process to help students who are struggling to succeed in school. Perhaps your school has a team in place already or is in the early stages of establishing one. In either case, this excerpt from The First-Year Teacher’s Checklist: A Quick Reference for Classroom Success offers a quick overview of the process and how it will affect classroom teachers.
Brought about in part because of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004), Response to Intervention (RTI) is an approach that is used to identify and assist students who struggle academically because of learning disorders. Teachers whose school districts embrace this philosophy use data collected from various types of interventions to determine the best ways to help students learn. The RTI process uses a three - tiered format:
TIER ONE consists of sound classroom teaching practices, including benchmark testing and alignment of curriculum with standards.
TIER TWO involves a problem-solving approach that implements interventions designed to help the child who is experiencing difficulties. Further testing determines the success of these interventions.
TIER THREE is similar to Tier Two in that individual interventions are offered, but in Tier Three, the interventions are offered through an Individual Education Program (IEP).
Although special education teachers will work with students who are in Tier Three, RTI also has implications for general education classroom teachers. As a classroom teacher, you will be expected to
• Deliver sound instruction aligned with your state’s standards and use best practices in your teaching design and delivery
• Monitor student success through benchmark testing
• Reteach, remediate, and offer other interventions to assist students who do not initially meet benchmarks
• Act quickly to refer a student who still does not meet benchmarks after assistance
• Work with your school’s RTI team and the child’s parents to establish an IEP for students whose response to interventions reveal that their learning disabilities require support beyond what can be offered by a general education teacher