when I have kids of my own
I know this is a really sore subject lately around here but I feel I have a unique viewpoint to add. AND since I am still confined this is my only forum for comment.
Excuse me while I lay out my qualifications:
I am a functioning adult who suffers from ADD and Dyslexia. I have been plagued by these demons all of my life. By the time I reached third grade my teachers were ready to place me in the 'special ed' classes. My parents refused. Somehow they really believed that there was much more to my issues than a 'special ed' class could offer. My parents chose to move me to a private school where I was promptly given an educational evaluation. My IQ was tested at age eight. If you were rounding to the nearest hundred I would be a two hundred, but since I don't want to make a big deal about it I will leave you with a fifty point spread.
Well, aint that freakin' amazin'. That dumb little kid in the back of the class had all of the foundations to be much, much more than was being drawn from him. In the end I graduated from High School with a well earned 2.3 GPA. In all of my school years I only had a single teacher who really took the time to get me.
(Let me specify what 'getting me' is in comparison to sending notes home to my parents ... She gave me hell. Forget mom and dad, she was all over me like white on rice. She did it right in front of everyone else in the class. I bet I only screwed up three or four times. She knew that calling mom and dad was something I was already able to handle. She threw me a curve when I was expecting the heater. A good teacher is capable of dissecting her student and finding that curve ball.)
Back to the qualifications:
I never did homework. (Excluding Mrs. Martin's class - I couldn’t take being embarrassed) I was a master at making sure I got teachers who were lax in homework standards. When I had to take one who wasn’t, I was always prepared to turn in some crap I did in the last five minutes of the previous class. I was a master at not doing anything more than required for survival.
I needed to be pushed hard because while capable I wasn't going to get it on my own.
As I grew up, I learned how to deal with my problems and motivate myself. ~enter the opportunity to 'care for' my brother-in-law's four children~ I had four children in my care and all but one needed educational help. One child was already three years behind. She has, since moving back in with her mother, failed the seventh grade three times. While living in my home, she only held a solid C average. The other two lacked motivation. I understood how to handle that. First I tried a reminder such as kneeling on rice for a little while. That worked with the older one. The younger one got to see my smiling face every evening. Where he would have to spontaneously erupt in to goose hops ~squat and jump, squat and jump, squat and jump~ and then he could rest while kneeling on the rice. Only took two weeks for mister stubborn to break. My motivation tactics were harsh but far better than a beating.
~leave the children, enter my sister's son~ He and I are quite a bit alike. Only difference is we know what works for me so I can pass on my 30+ years of experience. I was asked to sit in on a parent teacher conference to discuss why he was the worst reader in the class. I quickly gathered that this teacher was 'doing her part' to help him (sarcasm - yes immature but you didn't meet her). She had sent home paper work to have him tested. She did that and got it back two days later. She filed it and forgot it. My sister, after going through many people, finally found who had the paperwork and that it was incomplete (waiting on info from the teacher). He was tested the following week.
We met with his teacher while awaiting the results. She told us that his reading was so bad that he was unable to comprehend what he read because it took too long. She also told us she was doing 'everything' she could to accommodate him with his disability to read.
He is in a new school this year (one of the best in our state) and he is reading at an accelerated level. Did he just get it? I don't know. But, I do know that he learned how to spell a hundred new words this summer and he was not allowed to give up or give in. This is something that, as good as a teacher may be, she just can't make it happen at home.
I feel I have been able to analyze my own experiences and those that I have been involved in. I believe this first hand experience makes me a qualified judge of what I want in a teacher.
So ... here goes:
1. Speak when spoken to, unless your interest in this child’s learning is as great as mine. If you don't care to give your very best all of the time don't tell me about what you think. You see as a parent I will be interested in everything that goes on at school. I will be the dad who shows up on a Friday afternoon with cupcakes. Not just to treat the kids but also to see that you are giving them a well rounded education, not just text book regurgitation.
2. I expect you to read a story to your class. A story that really meant something to you as a kid, that way you can give them the true emotions you feel. And maybe, just maybe you'll inspire a child to read instead of handing them a book and asking for a summary, oh excuse me book report.
3. I want to see physical projects. The ones kids have to put their hands in and on. I want my child to experience their education rather than sit back and be fed dates, facts and figures. Make slime, build and launch a rocket, make an impression so that those budding scientist have the opportunity to be like a moth to a flame.
4. Be creative with your delivery. Not every class of children is the same. Especially if you have been teaching for several years. Children are fed multimedia almost from birth these days. Sorry, but it's going to take a little more than a black board and colored chalk everyday. Every once in a while you are going to have to wrap yourself up and FedEx yourself to class so they can see a glimpse of a real world activity. And then, while you have their attention, explain what a really good business model looks like.
5. Give as much of yourself to each child as you can. Treat them as your own. That way when you deal with a parent they are far less likely to doubt your opinions. It's a funny thing when you are as passionate about a child as the parent it shows. When you belittle the parent by acting all knowing you only push ME away. We can't work together because you already think you are better than me and you don't know me.
6. If you expect me to give you respect, don't demand it as you would with a child. Show me that you want my respect and I will likely give it to you freely. As long as we both respect each other, our communication will be better and we can both do a good job of ensuring that MY child's needs are met.
7. Be passionate!
8. Never stop trying to be better.
9. Live. (Yes, I understand that a teacher’s job isn't done at 3:00pm. If you sit at home every night grading papers, you are going to resent the kids who turned them in because you told them to)
10. Be MY partner it the education of MY child. Together we can move mountains, build cities and orbit the moon. Well, that is when MY child does all three; we both get to live vicariously through them.
When I have kids of my own I will be shopping for my child’s teacher. I want someone to read books, build rockets, and be passionate with and insatiable fire for education. That way I can make sure my child is as enriched at school as they will be at home.
Thanks in advance for working on my list.