Skill that is lacking: ability to follow instructions

Teacher gives outline of assignment, along with an example of exactly how the assignment should look when completed.

Students turn in the assignment without 1/3 of the requirements. 

Teacher asks where the other requirements are. 

Students say “what [requirements]?”.

Teacher says to look at the outline of the assignment as well as the example of how it should look.

Some students responses: “oh”

Other students responses: “I lost the outline.”

—— a frustration of probably every teacher to ever give an assignment. Why is it so hard to follow instructions???

Bit coin

Today, in the personal finance class I teach, I was talking about currency values and exchange rates. After passing around some foreign currency I had (Canadian dollars, British pounds, Brazilian real), I introduced students to the idea of a digital currency that was not tied to any one country – bit coin!

Some of my students had heard about it and had a vague idea about what it is, but many had not. I showed them a short video to explain the concept of the decentralized currency, and how super computers can be used to “mine” the bit coins. I was reminded of teaching this topic last semester, and a comparison one of my students had made in an effort to understand that I (as well as the class) found quite funny.

“So…. it’s kind of like Pokemon Go, the whole mining thing.” This happened in the fall of 2016, right after the summer that Pokemon Go had come out and had become so popular. I cracked a smile but managed to suppress a laugh, not wanting the student to think I was laughing at him. “Yeah, sort of..” I managed to respond, never having played the game myself. I knew the gist of it since my sister played it, so I knew you had to find and capture pokemon, which could be an extreme simplification of bit coin miners competing to seal off a block of transactions to get rewarded with bit coins…. Did I lose you there? I didn’t go into that much detail with them because it’s really beyond the scope of a personal finance class. And to be honest, I don’t grasp the concept 100% either, but I wanted my students to at least be aware of the existence and basic idea of a digital currency. I told them that if they were interested in learning more about the topic, there are plenty of videos, articles, and websites out there that are very helpful.

“Dear Straight People”

Those who have read other posts on this blog know that I am the advisor for the LGBTQ+ group at my school. We had a meeting earlier this week, and our president shared one of her favorite slam poems with us. It’s entitled “Dear Straight People“, and I wanted to share it with you. Did I mention I love slam poetry?

“Is this worth points?”

I come across students every year that I refer to (at least to myself) as “point mongers”. These are the students who, upon receiving an assignment, always ask questions like “is this worth points?” and “How many points is this worth?”

On one hand, it’s important that students know how they are being assessed, but I really hate getting these questions. I get them mostly from younger students, 9th and 10 grade.

These questions are like traps for teachers. If you say no, they follow up with “then why should I do it?” What I want to say to that is – “Oh, I don’t know, maybe to LEARN something… I’m pretty sure that’s the point of coming to school, isn’t it?” I am very sarcastic in my head, but of course I can’t say this to the student. Instead I tell them that it helps them retain the information better and they will have something to study when the test comes. This response does not always work because so many students are only concerned with collecting points so they can get their “A” that they don’t care whether they actually learn something.

If I say that yes, it is worth points, the followup question becomes “how many?” It’s as if they are trying to decide if the amount of points it will get them is worth their time and effort to actually do it. Sometimes, if they find out after not completing a homework assignment that it’s worth a lot of points, or any points at all, they will resort to copying just so they can get their points.

I think the root cause of this problem is the short-sightedness of so many students. They don’t see how a lack of effort now will affect them later. They just need a grade that is ‘good enough’ to keep their parents off their back, or to stay eligible for their sport. If they thought about the long-term a little more often (or at all) they might see that they will be better off putting the work in now instead of always trying to find the short-cut.

I teach a lesson on goals in my personal finance class where I touch on types of motivation. I try to explain the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, including that while extrinsic motivation (grades, money) may be fairly effective in the short run, it is intrinsic motivation (pride in oneself and one’s work, inner purpose) that results in true, long-term success. I tell them that those students who are here to learn something for their future will get a good grade anyway, more or less as a byproduct of their honest efforts, but that those that are just here for a good grade will not necessarily learn as much, and aren’t even guaranteed to get an A. I think at least some of my students seem to understand after this lesson, but alas, I cannot reach them all, especially if they are not receptive to my message.

What Gender Wage Gap?

Sometimes teachers hide things within their lessons or worksheets. These things can be trivial, like the name of a character on their favourite show, as my old accounting teacher used to do. She was a fan of a soap opera called “The Young and the Restless”. I was probably one of the few students who caught on because I watched it sometimes with my grandma. Other times, however, these hidden details can have a deeper meaning, a lesson if you will.

I indulged in a silent chuckle for something I put into the tax cases that I give my personal finance students every year. I give them the W2’s for different people and they have to fill out a 1040EZ. For the married filing jointly case, I wrote the numbers in so that the wife made more money than the husband. No student has commented on this, but I’m hoping they notice, at least sub-consciously. I patted myself on the back for my subtle feminism.

 

Another incident when earning power between the genders came into play was when I was discussing the different forms of income. I talked about earned vs unearned as well as nontaxable. I asked if anyone knew what alimony was. The boy who raised his hand said it was when a couple got divorced and the husband had to pay the wife to support her afterwards. I corrected him and said “OR, the other way around, depending on the situation.” He said “oh, yeah, I guess that could be too” – his facial expression indicated that he had never considered that situation but he just realized he should have.

I’m hoping these little things will help this generation to not accept it as the norm that men make more money than women.

Stress relief during midterms

I found a stress relief idea on Pinterest and decided to try it because we had some bubble wrap lying around. I printed out instructions on bright pink paper and then stapled them to some bubble wrap. I got this tin for Christmas and thought it was a perfect container.

Midterms started on Friday and continue for all of this upcoming week, so I put it out on my desk on Thursday. I’ve had several appreciative students take one, and then upon reading the instructions exclaim “only 3 pops per hour!?” 

Vitamin N

 

I have definitely had more than one conversation with my co-workers in the faculty lunch room about the sense of entitlement that we see in many of our students. Almost all of them have smartphones and most of them do not pay their phone bill. A lot of them expect to be given things and have their hand held as opposed to working hard for them. Of course not all of our students are like this, there are some with a great work ethic that were raised in such a way that they know they have to earn things, rather than be handed them.

Email from a former student

I think a lot of teachers would agree that they enjoy hearing from former students. It’s something you don’t get to experience until you’re at least 2 years into your teaching career. You have to have had students for a year before they graduate and start the next phase of their lives before you can hear from them about life after high school.

I taught a programming class two years ago for the first time without having much (any!) background in it myself. Luckily there are a lot of great (and free) resources online that I was able to use (Code Academy being a big one) and I read up on it before the class started. I had two sections of the class and I actually really enjoyed teaching it, despite being stressed about how it would go leading up to the start. I had two great groups of students, and I think I did a pretty good job of teaching a subject that was so new to me.

I must have done a decent job because just this week I got an email from one of my students from that class. He graduated last year and started college this fall. For purposes of this post I will call him Domenic. Domenic was fairly quiet as a student, always polite, respectful, and attentive. It was easy to see he was interested in the course, and would keep at things until he figured them out. He had a great work ethic and an inquisitive mind. He asked me to write him a reference letter for a scholarship last year and I was happy to do it.

Domenic’s email had a file attached — he wanted to share a program he had been working on. It was a game he thought I could possibly use as an example in class (how thoughtful!) but he was also asking for feedback on it. It really brought a smile to my face for more than one reason. First of all, as stated in the beginning of this post – I love hearing from former students. That Domenic wanted to share what he had created with me meant a lot. Needless to say, I tried his game and sent a prompt reply with feedback and to express how nice it was to hear from him. He said he is planning to come in for a visit sometime when he is home. What’s funny is that I actually have his younger brother in class this year… and it’s like deja vu!

Fall has begun!

Well, I’m already going into the 4th week of the school year, and this is my first post… I didn’t post anything over the summer because, well, if you’re a teacher you know – I was soaking up every minute of my time off! A lot of people that aren’t in the education world like to dismiss the idea that teachers work a lot of hours during the school year because hey – they have summers off.

First of all, many teachers use time in the summer for things like professional development (something we are actually required to do a certain amount of) or preparation for teaching classes the following year. There is usually not enough time during the school year to plan big picture things, and even if you’ve taught a course a few times before, you can always improve it and tweak your lessons to make them more effective.

The first few weeks back are always hectic — getting back into the routine (for me that means waking up at 5:30am – not fun!), learning student names, remembering all your passwords and combinations for things… I was absolutely exhausted every day after school for the first week and a half before I seemed to get back into the groove.

I started keeping notes on my phone of blog-worthy happenings in my classroom, and now I am finally getting to post about them on a Sunday morning while on my laptop in a coffeeshop (where I am supposed to be grading and lesson planning). Ahh procrastination, not just a habit of the student, but also sometimes the teacher..

So, I am assuming that most of you have heard about the wildly popular Broadway musical called Hamilton, yes? Well, I am teaching an American history class that begins with the American Revolution, and you can bet that I am bringing those songs into the classroom! I downloaded the soundtrack at the beginning of the summer and am obsessed with it. I’m pretty sure everyone who listens to it is in love with it. You catch new things every time you listen because it’s pretty fast-paced and modern (some songs even include rapping), with the ability to teach you so much about history in an engaging way.

Some of my students have already listened to the music, and when I announced I would be playing some songs as they relate to what we cover in class, they could hardly contain their excitement! This made me so happy! Of course there are some students that roll their eyes at me because they think musicals (especially educational ones) are lame. I am convinced they will come around if I play them enough songs!

A couple Fridays ago I had a student come talk to me at the end of 8th period after I had played a Hamilton song. She asked me “What’s your favourite song from the soundtrack? I NEED to know.” I couldn’t help but smile at this. I told her that it’s so hard to choose because there are so many good ones. We spent a few minutes scrolling through the list of songs and chatting about which ones we loved the most. She told me hadn’t ever really been that interested in history, but the music from this soundtrack had just captivated her. I think this is amazing! It makes a case for something I’ve thought for a while — that if we could make catchy, modern songs with lyrics that taught about academic subjects, students would retain more of what they’re learning AND enjoy it! Does anyone reading this know of anything like that that’s out there? If so, please share!

Back to lesson planning I go…