Hello, my name is Mr. Malley

Well, today’s the last day of exams. I have to show up tomorrow to clean up and organize my room, but at 2:30 this afternoon my teaching duties will be over until September. That’s a very good thing.

Jon, a graduate that I taught this year, stopped in for a chat yesterday and made me think about how much I (the teacher) have learned. I was telling him that even after formally studying Psychology in college for two years, 90% of what I now know about that subject was learned this year! That’s no exaggeration.

There’s a lesson in the above statement, I think. If you consider all the years that people spend in college, and divide that by the amount of time actually spent studying the content they so earnestly devoted themselves to learning, how much knowledge does one really end up with in the end? With the exception of the exceptional, not much, right?

Now, multiply that knowledge by the motivation to deliver that studied content to a group of seventeen-year-old students. Suddenly, you end up with a remarkable ability to recall information!

The more I teach, the more I realize that if I want my students to learn, I have to engage them in sharing what they know with others. Otherwise, what’s the point of remembering?

Happy summer.

The one thing that no teacher education program can prepare its students for is efficiency. And, efficiency is the lesson that is sorely needed.

Just consider the numbers:

• I teach six classes of thirty students. So, at any given time, I am responsible for the grades, homework, and general personal growth of 180 people. Considering that “No Child [can be] Left Behind,” this stresses me out a bit. It takes me over a month to learn the names of these 180 students, alone.
• I teach each class for 88 minutes, every other day. So, in a two week period, I will see each student five times. I am to update parents of the progress of their children once a week through an online gradebook that my school uses. For students who are “at risk” of failing, I am to call home every two to three weeks. If I cannot contact a parent by phone, I am to send a certified letter notifying the parent that the child is at risk. If the student continues to fail despite these attempts, I am to “differentiate” my teaching plans to accommodate the student’s specific needs.
• I teach three classes a day, five days a week. This means that in any given week, I will teach fifteen lessons to fifteen different groups of students. Some of these lessons will be repeats of previous lessons.
• I am given 1/4 of my work-day to do all of the planning for my classes. Zero planning typically takes place during my planning period, due to the fact that I am correcting assignments, entering quiz scores, and making copies. A veteran teacher in my building once said:

Teaching is the only job where you get nothing done at work.

I spend an average of twenty hours working outside of work. While I know that this time will decrease with every year that I teach, I didn’t realize this would be necessary in college.

I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I love my job. I truly feel like I am doing something remarkable; I’m working with young men and women to broaden their depth and understanding. I am involved in their personal growth. That’s fantastic.

Nevertheless, the teaching profession is not without its pitfalls. And, one ought not be mesmerized by the illusion that teaching is all about making a difference in the lives of children.

Not to get political, but our current education model is all about results. What is the result of each teacher’s work with their students? What impact are they having on their ACT scores? What are they doing to ensure that each student is actually learning? How many times have they really accommodated their instruction to meet the needs of Timmy, the boy in the back of the room with ADHD? By the way, Timmy is not supposed to sit in the back of the room; didn’t they read his IEP?

Teaching is wonderful, but it’s tough ….

Rumor around school is that my AP Psychology class is somewhat difficult. I like that. The older I get, the more I start to appreciate the teachers and professors I had throughout the years who made my life feel like hell. When I think about it, those are the individuals who forced me to learn.

I see myself as a single voice amidst a sea of stimuli in my students’ lives. On a consistent basis, they have to decide whether to think about my class or the opposite sex, sports, video games, television, myspace, their job, or their family. Considering that my class is no match for any of the other above mentioned stimuli, it is easily understood how a student can “forget” to read, do an assignment, etc.

A typical student sits in my classroom three to four-and-a-half hours each week on an alternating schedule (3 hours one week, 4.5 the next). I recognize that this is not nearly enough time to really teach them everything I expect them to learn. Therefore, what they learn in my class is largely dependent upon their commitment to learning, not my ability to teach.

Many teachers come to this same conclusion - that students have busy lives that appear to conflict with their own expectations of what is academically necessary. As a result, I feel, many teachers lower their expectations. It’s tough to give bad grades to good students; it’s much easier to simply lower the standard. The consequence has been, in my opinion, a watered down education system in America.

Writing this, I realize that my expectations are conspicuous considering my laid-back nature and “diverse” academic past. Nevertheless, it is my job to teach students. The word teach implies that someone is learning. I spend 8 to 12 hours some weekends working on; reading about; researching psychology. If I am not as tough on my students as I am on myself academically, I’m simply not doing my job.

Granted, students are in a naturally passive role: sitting through class after class, listening, and taking notes. I can’t expect them to devote the same amount of time that I do to my subject - that would be absurd. However, I can expect them to master all of the material I present - and I do. If I teach it, they should learn it. If they don’t learn it from me (perhaps because I used a vague example), they should continue their learning elsewhere (the Internet, textbook, etc.).

I tell students on the second day of class that I am not the most important person in the classroom - they are. I am merely a facilitator of classroom activities. This stance, along with highly comprehensive tests, has given AP Psychology the reputation of being a tough class.

The bottom line is that I am certain that students who take my AP Psychology class will leave knowing a lot about psychology. For this, I am satisfied. My job has a purpose beyond entertainment.

At the end of last year, I asked my principal what I should do about my Psychology textbooks considering the 60 students signed up for AP Psychology the next year; the books on the shelf were tattered and very outdated. He recommended that we buy new textbooks, and this summer we did just that.

Shopping for textbooks was interesting. I’ve never been a fan of textbooks, so I found very little fun in the process. Although, I did like the concept of free books from blood-sucking publishers. My shopping got me 6 - 8 college-level Intro to Psychology books. It was like Christmas, only nerdier.

I chose the book that was a) easiest for me to read, b) highly recommended, and c) popular. I made the right choice by going with Psychology 8th edition by David Meyers (Worth Publishers), 2006. Here’s what a student wrote, unsolicited, on my course web-page:

Though i don’t like to read much, this book makes me feel like i am someone. It actually has a voice and speaks to me as if I was listening to someone read it.

-Tuba Steve

It’s always nice when a pedagogical tool does what it’s supposed to do. Thank you, David Myers. Thank you, Tuba Steve.

Having shiny new textbooks is one thing; getting students to read them is another. While I don’t know what percentage of students actually read the textbook before coming to class, I like to think that my methods are encouraging:

• random quizzes designed to check understanding of topics before I present them.

• tests that are quite difficult to ensure that more than surface knowledge is necessary in order to score well.

If you’ve ever sat through my class, you know that it is nothing but a proverbial “carrot” on a daily basis. I like to have fun; I like to entertain my students with the content that I teach. I demonstrate, I poke fun, and I laugh. They laugh, too.

For this reason, students are frequently surprised by the rather abrasive “stick” that I use get them to study outside of class.

My quizzes and tests are that stick. They prevent students from simply “attending the Malley show” as I put it today in class. I don’t show up to school on a daily basis to put on an information session; I show up to teach. Teaching is a silly word in the absence of learning.

I just bought Alfie Kohn’s new book, The Homework Myth. As is usually the case with me and books on education, I skimmed the research for smart quips and quotes and jumped straight-away to the last two chapters - where the author finally says “so what.” I found his argument compelling.

• Schools need to switch their “default” homework setting from ON to OFF. Most teachers (and even several schools) have mandatory homework policies. For example, they are very clear that homework will be given every day. This, according to Kohn, is the root of the problem with homework in schools today.

“What this means … is that the primary commitment, both logically and chronologically, is to make sure students usually have schoolwork to do at home. Only secondarily do teachers figure out what to make them do on a given night” (165)

• What teachers need to concentrate on instead of compulsory homework is the value of the work students are given across the board. If a particular lesson is best suited for the home environment, then it should still be assigned for home (ex: testing chlorine levels at home as comparison to findings at school).
• The fear is that with the default set improperly, teachers are apt to give worksheets and mundane work that is bound to be despised by the highest achieving students and ignored by the lowest.
• Teachers rarely spend the time and effort it would take to create homework assignments that could actually promote learning - that time and effort is already spent on preparing lessons. Rather, teachers who feel compelled to give out homework tend to dole out worksheets as “practice.” According to Kohn, this is largely unnecessary.
• Bad homework actually hurts a student’s inner desire to learn. This is one point I agree with very strongly and is is a big deal to Kohn. If you’ve ever read his other work (namely Punished by Rewards) he spends a great deal of energy on explaining the psychology behind human motivation. Basically, students come to school wanting to learn. Busy work extinguishes that want.

What we ought to do is not give homework unless we have to; unless the material calls for it. We set high expectations in our classrooms. We plan intricate lessons in our classrooms. We communicate our expectations. We provide materials. We monitor progress. We do not make homework mandatory! Studies seem to support that in such an environment, students actually do more meaningful work at home (without our guidance).