I'm doing part of Joel's Total Teacher Transformation series at So You Want To Teach? and the assignment for today is to Be Prepared. Joel gives a list of hypotheticals and asks you to plan out your response.

"There’s no right or wrong answer here. But having a plan gives you so much more
confidence when this type of situation arises. After you plan through some of
these things and begin to actually see them happen, your reactions to unplanned
events will fall much more in line with how you had planned for different
circumstances. Planning is the key. -Joel"

Today’s assignment
Plan how you will respond in the following situations: (I'm going to be so truthful it hurts.)

1. A student chews gum or willfully violates some other clearly stated school policy.

Hopefully I will have given the students a warning at the beginning of the year and after that, it's free game. If they willfully violate, then I willfully write a referral. If it's a disruption to the class, I send them to the office and then write the referral.

2. When a student’s misbehavior is brought to his/her attention, the response is ambivalent at best ("So what?") and insubordinate at worst ("No way!")

I would take this time to point out a few prime examples of that exact misbehavior.

3. Two students get into an argument that escalates (or almost does) to the point of name-calling or violence.

I step in and tell them both to calm down before I have to write both of them up. Or send one student in the hallway to dispel (ha ha) the disruption and write a referral for both of them at the end of class.

4. A student confides in you that another one is picking on him. One day in class, you observe it happening.

Again, step in and advise the bully to watch their language, not call names or make fun of others, etc. That serves as the warning. I would then talk to the student to see if this is happening in other classes. If so, I'd let other teachers know to be on the lookout for this behavior and watch to see if it escalates. I think if I don't allow anyone in class to pick on anyone else, then the student knows they have at least one safe place.

5. You have a student who is repeatedly tardy to class.

Our school's policy is after two tardies, you get after-school detention. That deters a lot of it. If it persists, I would talk to the student and see if there was a situation we needed to handle (move their locker, keep their supplies in the classroom, late getting to school, etc). Other than that, the administration pretty much handles this issue.

6. A paper airplane is thrown across the room, but you didn’t see who did it and nobody else is willing to tell you.

This wouldn't bother me so I would ignore it and leave it on the floor until class is over. I'd just pick it up and throw it away. It's not an issue unless I make it one. (I'm responsible for what goes on in my class!) I don't want to waste class time interrogating the students about something they won't admit anyway.

7. As you are sitting down, a student makes a “fart noise” with his mouth; the entire class begin uncontrolably giggling for minutes.

I would probably say excuse me in a dead pan and go on with my business. I'd make some kind of joke out of it. I like to have a good laugh- but I want to keep it under control.

8. A student loudly and clearly uses profanity; everyone hears it.

This is my pet peeve and students will definitely know this rule at the very beginning. I would probably say "Language!" in a stern tone and then write a referral after class. I have no tolerance for ignorance.

9. You are walking down the hallway and see two students making out.

Truthfully, I would probably say, "You do know I can see you, right?" followed by "And that will be a write up." Continue walking and write the referral. (Not at the same time as walking though)

10. A parent interrupts your class and begins asking you questions about his/her child.

Just randomly a parent shows up? That's definitely unexpected. Um....I would step out in the hall and ask the student if there was another time we could meet or talk. Or I would try to exchange e-mails or phone numbers. I guess if it was anemegency I would try to quickly address the issue. Luckily, the office handles visitors so I think they would make arrangements for the parent to see me or for someone to cover my class so we could speak.

So that was interesting! Feel free to constructively criticize these reponses or give some better suggestions. Or feel free to respond yourself in the comments. And don't forget to go and join TTT too!

Thanks to responses from my last two posts and requests for articles about classroom management, I wanted to get some responses to the following poll. Your answers will help me give input for an upcoming blog series on classroom mangement. Guest posts will be involved so if you have life changing advice, tips, and tricks, feel free to contact me about contributing.




Thanks so much! I appreciate your time, loyalty, tweets, comments, and input.

As a follow up to my post Why Learn Math? I wanted to post some answers from the Twitterverse to the question:

"How will I use this [math/english/science/history/reading/art/etc] in real life? How do you answer?"

iMrsF I like to throw it back at the students and get them brainstorming. (Of course, I sometimes guide a little..)

yuglook I tell them the truth. Most of them will probably never. But learning it teaches them to think logically and all that stuff.

pepepacha Math is like training for a basketball game, it makes you stronger and better but is not always fun nor always useful every day

And my favorite response of all:

k8nowak This is going to be an unpopular response, but that's the rallying cry of a bored kid. When I hear it I know lesson needs work.

This changed my perspective on the whole situation and motivates me even more to design a spectacular class where the thought of this question never occurs because they're doing it in real life as we speak.

As k8nowak goes on to say:

I don't know anyone who got interested in math because it's useful. More like puzzling, surprising, predictive, etc...

To hear more of their great perspectives visit the blogs of iMrsF, yuglook, pepepacha, and k8nowak.

Or tweet tweet.

Why learn math?

Why is math important?
When am I going to use math in real life?
What does math have to do with anything?

As all math teachers know, we hear these questions on the daily. For one, we teach what we teach because the state and federal government tell us what we have to teach. So, there's that. But other than that, what are the real life answers to this question?
I wanted to post some excerpts from a forum that answered this question and get some responses from others.

Groovy:
Since football is big here, I use this analogy: You lift weights, don't you? (or, "Your brother lifts weights...") Why, because you want to be a weight lifter when you grow up? No! You lift weights to build muscles that you will use for other things: playing football, impressing your girlfriend... well, math is like building mental muscles that you will use for other things. You're building little neuron connections in your brain that you will need later, to learn things you really like. Weightlifting and math don't have to be fun, but they will take you where you want to go!"

Aliceacc:
Algebra, and much of math, is the study of problem solving. It teaches you to organize information and apply a step by step process to solve the problem you've been presented with.

robinsky:
Basically, learning math teaches a person how to think logically and abstractly. It trains your brain to notice details, to be logical, to make sure you have reasons for each step of your plans. These skills are critical for a person to be able to navigate our world, to be an informed citizen, to make decisions your whole life. I talked to them about people who get taken in by scams because they don't recognize when arguments don't make sense.

myangel52
Algebra is just solving for unknowns -- which we do all the time, but most people don't write it down. When we figure out how much money we need to pay bills -- algebra. When we need to figure out what the loan payments will be for that new car or the house -- algebra...What they learn in school is just the formalized way of writing it down to show someone else, and/or the abstract version of it. It all applies, though.

Doctor Achilles, The Math Forum The idea here is that if you learn math now, then when you're confronted with math later in life, you won't have to worry about it at all and instead you can just pay attention to what you want to.Jen Peck, Karen Rosser, and Carol Pifer, Math and Education students at the University of Richmond, have put together a series of Web pages called "What Good is Math?" talking about the connections between mathematics and art, calculating grades, cooking, shopping, sports, and travel:

Art and Math: How Are They Related?
How Did I Get a C in Spanish?
How Do I Get the Most For My Shopping Dollar?
Mathletics! or Is There Math in Sports?
So You're Planning a Party?
So You're Planning a Trip?
Will I Ever Be Able to Fill My Piggy Bank?

How can math be so universal? First, human beings didn't invent math concepts; we discovered them. Also, the language of math is numbers, not English or German or Russian[...]

Why is this question asked now more than ever? In older days, students didn't ask why they asked how. Not why do I have to learn this but how do I learn it?

Teachers: how do you answer this question? Even if you don't teach math, how do you convince your students that your class work is important and has purpose?

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High school in Little Rock AK, did something not to be forgotten.

On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.

Looking around, confused, they asked, "Ms. Cothren, where're our desks?"

She replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk." They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."

"No," she said.

"Maybe it's our behavior." She told them, "No, it's not even your behavior.

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom.

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren's classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the desk less classroom.

Martha Cothren said, "Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you."

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.

Twenty-seven U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall.

By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, "You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it."

True story.

For more stories like this, click the label to the right that reads "Inspirational".