I Hope They Like Me

Soon it will be Meet the Teacher night for many of us around the country.  This is the night that we meet our new group of kids and their parents.  Teachers dress for the occasion, many of us putting on lipstick for the first time since June.  Do you get nervous?  I still do.  

This will be my 26th Meet the Teacher night.  I get butterflies with the anticipation and excitement of meeting my new kids, moms, dads and even grandparents.  I want them to like me, really like me. (cue Sally Field's oscar speech in 1985 for those of you old enough)

I want the moms and dads to know that their child is in good hands, that I will love them like my own. That I will do my best to teach them what they need to know academically and emotionally.  Besides math and science, I will teach kindness, fairness, perseverance, community and respect.  If their child makes a mistake, I will guide him through it without humiliation. I will teach them that fair doesn't always mean equal. I will tell them to work it out when they come to me at recess, upset because someone won't play with them.  I will cheer them on and push them to be their very best. I won't give up on their child.

I hope all of this comes across as I fly around the room, shaking hands and excusing myself to greet another new face that enters the room. I hope they like me.

Countdown to the First Day

47 days.  If you teach in Texas, that's how many days until our first day of school.  I posted the number of days we had left a couple weeks ago.  Bad idea.  My own friends sent me hate texts.  "Stop! I haven't even begun enjoying my summer yet!" a coworker texted.  I guess I'm weird.  I didn't mean to piss anyone off.  I just get excited when I think of the new school year approaching.  



I love when I see Target's display of school supplies! Colorful binders, folders, 100 packs of notebook paper, pencil bags and crayons!  The big box.  The 64 count!  Now if you had that when I was a kid, you were rich.  Santa brought me mine.  I think there's a 96 count box now.  I can't wrap my head around that.  I would go crazy with that many new, perfectly-made crayons.  Anyone else?  

I love decorating my room, planning my bulletin boards, arranging the desks to make it look inviting.  I don't want it to look too busy though.  That's very distracting to some kids. Think of that when putting your room together.  Your kiddos with ADD will be staring at the twirling thingys you have hanging from the ceiling instead of listening to you.  Early in my career, my husband visited me at school.  "Whoa.  How do your kids learn in here?" he looked around at my plethora of decorations on the walls & ceiling.  "What?  They love it," I defended.  Then I thought about it.  It was pretty crazy.  So I've really scaled down my classroom decor.

This will be my 26th First Day of School.  I may be alone, but I can't freakin' wait!

They can't do that

Something's been bothering me lately.  Maybe it was the article I read about teacher expectations.  Maybe it's because people have been discussing it on twitter.  I don't know.  But it's bothering me.

It was the last day of school and I was visiting classrooms, saying goodbye to my students for the summer.  At the time, I was serving as the instructional math coach on campus and I didn't have a class of my own.  I popped into my friend's class near the end the day.  The last day was a half day of school for some reason. That's a whole other post.  Anyways, my friend taught Pre-K and she had both her morning and afternoon groups that day.  The district, in its infinite wisdom, decided that since it was a half day that both groups of kids should come to school.  So my friend ended up with more kids than any other teacher on campus.  Remember, these were Pre-K students, 5 years old.  She had over 25 kids in there, I think it was 28.  She was ecstatic to see me or anyone else for that matter that day.  "I gotta go to the restroom," she shuffled past me.  I looked around at all their little faces.  "Hi Mrs. Wilt!" some of them blurted out.  "Hey guys, whatcha doin?"  "Nothing" they answered. They were all sitting on the huge, colorful carpet that every Pre-K and Kindergarten teacher in the world has. My friend was excellent at classroom management.  Those kids knew their spot and they were sitting in it.  Some of them squirming and bouncing up and down, but in their spot.  So I decided to play a game with them.

  "We're going to pretend that we're going on a picnic," I smiled.  "Yay!" some of them shouted. "We are pretending that we're going on a picnic. This is a listening and remembering game.  You have to bring something to our picnic and you have to remember what everyone else is bringing."  I had every kid's attention.  They had never played this game.  I was excited.  "Ok, Also, what you bring has to begin with the next letter of the alphabet.  I'll start.  I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring an apple.  My thing started with the letter A so the next person's thing has to begin with a what?"  "B!" most of them yelled out.  I knew they knew the alphabet.  They were going into Kindergarten next year.  And they had my friend, who was an awesome teacher.  The first little girl looked at me and I prompted her, "I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring..." at that time my friend jogged back into the room.  "Thanks," she whispered.  I motioned back to the girl and said, "I'm going on a picnic and," my friend interrupted.  "What are you playing?"  "You know, that I'm going on a picnic game.  They have to remember what everyone said before them.  You know," I told her.  She said, and I'll never forget this, "They can't do that." In front of them.  I looked at their faces.  Some of them were still smiling because they were too far away to hear our conversation.  But the ones who were close, they heard.  They heard.

This is where, thank God, I told her, "Yes they can.  They're going into Kinder.  And they know the alphabet, right?" nodding my head. "Yes," she looked skeptical.  "Ok, go ahead."  I was so surprised that she didn't think her kids could play this game.  It was the ABCs for goodness sake! I was actually getting mad at her inside.  In my head I'm thinking, "I can't believe my friend said that.  I can't believe she doesn't think they can play a memory game.  She's a great teacher.  Why can't they do this?"

I motioned back to the little girl.  "I'm going on a picnic," she jumps in with me,"and I'm going to bring an apple," I point to myself, "and a..."  she's thinking..."a banana!"  "Ok, good," I tell her and point to the next kid.  "I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring an apple, a banana and a...cat!"  The kids giggle.  "Good! Next," I gestured to the next little face.  I was making a point now.  These kids were going to play this game and show her!  My heart was beating faster.  They kids were now on their knees, waiting for the next classmate and anxiously waiting their turn.  I didn't even look at my friend. I pretended she wasn't there.  We kept going.  "I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring an apple, a banana, a cat and a doughnut"   "Elephant," giggles.  "French fries"  "Grapes"  "Hot dog"

I really don't remember what they said for each letter.  It was a few years ago.  We got to the letter M I think when the PA system came on.  "Happy last day of school.  Hope you have a fun and safe summer! At this time, we need all car riders to the front please, all car riders to the front,"  Kids started standing up.  Game over.  "Bye!" they waved at us, some of them coming over to hug their teacher.  She lined them up and waited for buses to be called.  I'm not sure what happened next.  But I do remember thinking, "Ha!  They did it! Your kids played the picnic game and you didn't think they could. So there!"  I was like a little kid!  But it's true!  I was so full of pride for them I could've burst.  They proved her wrong.  They could do it.  I'm so, so glad when she said, "They can't do that," I didn't agree and say, "Oh, Ok."

The article I mentioned earlier is one that came out in 2012.  It describes an experiment done in the 60s with a group of teachers and kids.  The teachers were told that their upcoming kids were really intelligent, on the verge of being gifted.  The kids, actually, were just regular kids.  They didn't score high on the test.  In fact, some of them were "at-risk" for not being successful.  If you want to read the article, I've attached the link.  But the experiment showed that these kids grew, and did better than expected that year and the year following. Not because they were "gifted".  Not because they had high IQs. But because their teachers believed that they were smart.  So they were.


Teachers' Expectation Can Influence How Students Perform

More homework please...said no kid ever!

More homework please...said no kid ever!
Helen Wilt
June 20, 2016
Twitter@HelenWilt


Ok teachers and parents, do you really love homework?  Parents, do you enjoy fighting with your kid about doing her homework every evening?  Teachers, do you enjoy asking your students to get their homework out?  If you said yes, you're a liar.  Ok, that's a little rough.  As teachers we dread the moment we say, "Please get out your homework."  This is when several students start rummaging through their desks and backpacks.  Some students start whispering to each other, "There was homework?" One student will say, "I think I was at the bathroom when you assigned that."  And of course, my favorite: That confused look like I just asked them to take out their intestines and lay them on their desk.

I've been teaching for 25 years and believe me, I've tried everything to get my students to do their homework from promising candy to threatening them with no recess for the entire year.  The usual suspects get to spend their recess sitting out according to the rules of schools I've worked in.  That works zero percent of the time.  The students I've "put on the wall" over the years because they didn't do their homework will again visit that wall over the school year.  This is the kid that needs to run around and get his energy out.  I was just punishing myself when that same student came back to class so eager to learn.  Not!

After reading Ron Clark's book The Essential 55, I tried his homework challenge.  I excitedly told my classes about this new homework challenge.  I would give them a point every time 100 percent of them did their homework.  After earning 10 points, I would bring in homemade cookies and brownies for them!  "Woo hoo!" they yelped with excitement.  I started thinking about how much this was gonna cost me.  Oh I forgot to tell you, if one kid, just one, forgot his homework, all points were erased and they had to start over.  Hey, Ron Clark's idea, not mine.  I encouraged them to exchange each others' phone numbers to remind their friends to do the homework assigned that night.  Numbers were exchanged and kids started pointing at other kids, "You better do your homework tonight."  Good peer pressure.  I smiled.

We started out strong.  I had 3 math classes at the time.  I always let them begin their homework in class to give them that extra edge.  Some would finish it before we even left for the day.  The homework was 7-10 problems by the way, not 20, not 50, not a packet of work. 7 problems.  I was sure this was going to work.  I started planning the party.  How many boxes of brownie mix would I need for 3 classes of 22 students? Hmm. Could I afford this?  What have I done?

Well, no need to worry.  Every time a class got close, someone blew it.  The kids would get mad at him or her and I started to fear for certain kids' lives at recess.  I mean, let's face it.  The kids who need to practice by doing homework were my kids that had only one parent at home.  These were the kids who were in charge of little brothers and sisters when they got home.  They made Hot Pockets in the microwave for dinner.  They were watching episode after episode of Phineas & Ferb, Spongebob Squarepants or God forbid, Jerry Springer.  There was no one at home to remind them to do those 7-10 problems I had assigned.  They weren't thinking of brownies down the road.  They had other worries.  Did mom remember to buy Hot Pockets this week or will we have to skip dinner again?

My students who did have their homework finished didn't need to do it.  They had this stuff mastered. Yes, one or two wanted more homework.  I gladly gave them more. Hey, knock yourself out. But I don't need YOU to do the homework!  I need this other kid to do it!  And there were some of them who had mom's handwriting on it, but hey, it was finished, right?

So we have 3 groups of kids:

1. The doers group
2. The non-doers group
3. The my-mom-does-my-homework-for-me-because-she-loves-me-group

If you read Alfie Kohn's book The Homework Myth you'll throw homework right out the window.  He cites research that's been done with elementary-aged children.  This research showed that when given homework, students showed no increase in academic achievement and sometimes actually showed a drop in achievement! (Kohn, 2006)  

So I tried it.  No more homework I said. Kids gave me that look.  Is Mrs. Wilt serious?  Is she crazy?  Was this an April Fools joke?  Nope I reassured them.  We are gonna work hard in here every day and you'll go home and spend time with your family and friends.  Go outside and play I told them.  Most parents loved it.  "Thank you so much.  We spend 2-3 hours doing homework a night between math, science and reading."  What?!  My colleagues were giving homework too and we didn't even think about the time it would take them.  How many of us are guilty of this?  My colleagues kept giving homework and fighting and arguing with kids about it.  Not me.  I went outside with my kids and watched them run around, play football and soccer.  I didn't stress anymore about homework.  I didn't have to come up with bribes or contests or turn to threats.  We did our work at school and went home to relax, read and play.

Teachers, I challenge you to try to throw homework out the window this year.  You'll have pushback from some parents.  Give them a website to practice their skills.  Assign a challenging project for those kids. Try a menu board where kids choose what homework they want.  But don't kill them with packets and worksheets and busy work.  I promise you.  You'll thank me in May when you haven't spent money on candy, cookies and Excedrin. 

Kohn, Alfie, The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of A Bad Thing, Da Capo Press, 2006

Clark, Ron, The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator's Rules For Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child, Hachette Books, 2004