MS: Nice work! You just transitioned from asking what school was about to making it an assignment for the first day! It seems like a good way to transfer and understand your methods to the students are going to receive them…Ok. We have produced a philosophy, approach and purpose for the upcoming school year. What is your next step?
BG: Good question. A philosophy and purpose is great but is rather useless if one doesn’t know about what she or he is going to do day to day or moment to moment. This where we dig into the details of the upcoming semesters.
MS: So where do we start?
BG: Well, we have started with a grand overview, so it makes sense to ease down to more and more detail. To me, I feel like the next logical step is to create and long term plan for each class.
MS: Doesn’t most school districts usually provide that for you?
BG: I guess the most correct answer is yes and no. Each state provides a general curriculum for each discipline and each subject and school districts translate the state ideas into what they want for their particular district. But not all districts are created equal. Some states do a great job at created these curricula into clear documents and approaches. Other states do much poorer job. The same can be said of particular individual school districts; some do a poor job translating this information and others do a great job translating this information, some do this even when the state does a poor job on their end.
MS: So how do you determine which source to use?
BG: In my experience, the past few years have given me the poor end of the resources. The State writes standards that read like legal statutes and a quite hard to decipher what they want. The local district translates these curricula with some activities that seem contrived and ineffectual. As a result, I leaned toward the state standards. I sometimes got lost by depending on the issued textbook and previous experience. This led me to teach some things I didn’t need to and other things I missed completely. I have now decided to just follow the State’s curricula and take my chances.
MS: So you just go to the source?
BG: Yes, I always think that is best when in doubt.
MS: Okay. So you have settled on the right source. What’s next?
BG: In my early years of teaching, I handled everything moment to moment. My first year of teaching, in California, the school were just glad to have a qualified person in the position. I showed up, talked to the principals and had a conversation with one of the deans of discipline. I then got teacher’s editions of the textbook from the bookworm clerk. I then observed a few master-level teachers for a few days to see how things were done. I was then dumped into a full schedule of classes, including filling in for in-school suspension. One I was in a classroom, I was on my own. I was not asked to do lesson plans, there was no mention of any state testing and I was never observed by an administrator.
MS: Really?! They didn’t check on you or guide you or require you to do anything besides teach?!
BG: It was just after Christmas and the other teacher quit after living out of the back of his truck for a while. The principal was retiring at the end of the year and she was treading water until June.
MS: Wow! How did you handle that? It seems like they just abandoned you.
BG: Actually, I thought that it was pretty cool. My job was just about teaching and not much else. No one told me what I had to teach. They just wanted me to teach the kids some math. One guy had an organized program that I adopted but, for the rest, I was on my own. I got great advice from some veterans and was able to learn about teaching with few distractions. I was able to focus on just mathematics and connecting with students and learning my own discipline philosophy.
MS: I want to get back to the planning but, I wanna ask first, what was your favorite quote from a veteran teacher?
BG: Well, there were two useful quotes from the same veteran teacher. He was the guy who shared his self-made textbook. His first one was, “There is no such thing as a bad day. It is just an opportunity for growth.” Kinda corny but true. I still live by this one. The other one is a quote that is probably a cornerstone to my teaching; “The key to teaching is telling the students that you love them without saying those words.” I follow those every teaching day and, sometimes, I even tell them straight-up that I love them…Because I do.
MS: Pretty powerful, even though I am not sure if I feel the same way. Anyway, what does your experience in California have to with planning?
BG: Right! I am sorry I went off on a tangent there.
MS: It’s okay. Your stories were pretty interesting.
BG: Anyway, my point that I meant to get across was that they required little formal planning of me. The only planning I did was for my own use. When I planned for a class, I wrote in a calendar planner the topic I wanted to teach that day. That was it. I mentally planned for a test every Friday and would write it the day before. I just played everything by ear or, as educators like to say, “From the seat of my pants.” And guess what? It worked out fine. I felt like kids learned and them seemed to like being there. The school had some behavior issues but I didn’t witness anything major.
MS: Nobody checked on you to see if you were following district curricula?
BG: No, they didn’t check on me. They seemed to have bigger problems that curricula. Rumor had it that the district had recently gone bankrupt by buying too many computers. It is rather ironic that such a thing happen about 75 miles from Silicon Valley. In addition to not checking my plans, I was observed by administration exactly zero times. It was a great to start my teaching career. It showed me that administrative observations are of little use when veteran teachers are looking out for the younger teachers. It became obvious that administrative observations are just a way of control and quite political.
MS: Really?! Do you really think so?
BG: Yes, I do think so. But never mind my opinion. Let’s look at some facts. High school students are so close to college that they can taste it. And how do we evaluate college professors? We ask the students their opinions and that is it. Case closed. Okay, I get it that high schoolers are minors and trying to manipulate their grades and teachers. I know that they would give high marks to teachers with easy grading and low marks to teachers who challenged them. But isn’t that true of college students, too? In any case, we can minimize the damage by involving parents opinions of the results. I know some of them are vindictive and will attack the tougher graders. But shouldn’t all of us be on the same page about our kids’ educations. Yes, the teachers are the education professionals and their values and approaches should be respected. On the same token, shouldn’t parents and students have respect for what teachers do?
MS: I am a little surprised that you trust students and parents that much.
BG: In my experience, I have a lot more trust for parents than I do administrators. Who knows students better than their parents? On top of that, who is going to have first-knowledge of a student’s education more than the student and their parents? I often give the speech to students that they are responsible for their education and really nobody else. In ten years, the teacher won’t even remember what happened in class but the student will carry it around for the rest of their lives. The student will remember the great ones and the terrible ones the rest of their lives. I know I do. It will define what quality education is for the rest of their lives. They will get a clear definition of who cares about their lives and who doesn’t.
MS: I agree with in a world where every parent of a teenagers really care about the teenager’s education and life. Or a world where a parent cares about the livelihood of a particular teacher. However, there are too many parents who are tired of being parents and have pretty much given up on the kid. On the same token, there are enough parents who actively try to destroy a teacher’s career because the teacher didn’t react to the parent’s needs the way the parent expected her or him to. Don’t you think administrators should step in at that point?
BG: I get what you are saying. There are a certain percentage of people who would evaluate teachers in an emotionally selfish way. I believe the opinions of students and parents should be a system of just counting the middle 80% of the opinions. That is, I am staying that the system should throw out the top 10% and bottom 10% of the opinions. In that way, the outliers can be eliminated. I guess in the case of a disgruntled parent and/or student, it would be the administrator’s obligation to fully investigate the situation. It has been my experience that many administrators do not investigate negative situations deep enough, including discipline situations.
MS: We may be getting off track again but I believe that this something that needs to be discussed a little deeper. We have gone from evaluating teachers to investigating incidents of disciplines as it refers to students. I get the sense that you don’t think administrations are doing enough as far as school discipline.
BG: That is a good perception on your part. I don’t enough is done about school discipline.
MS: Let me point out some of the facts that I am aware of. First, discipline is one of a long list of duties that assistant principals are in charge of. Secondly, I have many stories about the volume of discipline referrals. In many cases, by the end of the school year, many discipline referrals are left unresolved because of the mere volume. Any thoughts about what can be done?
BG: First of all, if there is consistently this number of referrals unresolved every year, isn’t that a red flag? Doesn’t that tell you that this a code red situation for discipline? If you were diagnosed with cancer and your doctor gave you six months to live, wouldn’t you try everything outside Western medicine to cure your cancer? Wouldn’t you see acupuncturist or shaman or a miracle worker or medicine man or a witch doctor for some help? Wouldn’t you try anything to get some help?
MS: I get what you are saying. What do you have in mind?
BG: This situation makes me think of a lot of ways to try to solve the problem. I will start with the most obvious. Why is this one of the many duties of an assistant principal? That would make sense if discipline was a small part of the education process in high school. For example, at schools on military bases, discipline is tied to the military parent. That is, if a student is a severe enough discipline problem, a parent can be threatened with a demotion in rank. At least, this was the way it was when my wife grew up in the military. I have also heard stories of kids being kicked out of private schools as a result of discipline issues. The point is, in those situations, discipline is not a major distraction in the education process. Therefore, a part-time duty of an assistant principal makes better sense.
However, when we are talking public schools, assistant principals do not have that immense power towards discipline. Their power is a bit more tenuous and the misbehaving students know that.
MS: Then what are you suggesting?
BG: One of the better experiences in my California teaching experience was their approach to discipline. And most of the solution was the framework that they based the school on. When I have taught outside California, schools had one principal and several assistant principals. The number of assistant principals was based on population. This was not the case in California. At the school where I taught, a school of about 1500 students, there was a head principal, an assistant principal and about 7 “Deans of Discipline.” These deans only job was handling discipline problems. The first day I was there, I was introduced to the “Dean with a Black Heart.” This man was pleasant and professional and was a master at his job. He explained that he earned his nickname because of his no nonsense approach. When a kid was sent to him, he checked the evidence and, if there was enough to confirm the complaint, the student was immediately suspended.
So that I got the entire picture, I was assigned to the In-School Suspension room to give the regular guy a break for lunch. This is how it worked; Students were assigned to this room and were instructed to work on classwork and no talking was allowed. Any violation of this agreement meant they were immediately sent home. In the entire semester I work there, there were two incidents; a fight between to students and one silly incident of a practical joke nature. In that semester, I filled out zero discipline referrals. I know that was just me but I was a first-year teacher and the only other target for bad behavior was substitute teachers and a very few discipline problems. In addition, I was terrible at class discipline at that time.
MS: That sounds like could ease the burden on principals and it seems like seven deans would have enough time to fully investigate all incidents. I get the feeling that you have more to add.
BG: Right you are! But not as much as you probably think. When most people think of responses to discipline, they think of suspending students. I understand that because that was mindset in my past also. But, since then, I have heard of many different and effective alternative approaches. Some sources strongly recommend meditation. For Fundamentalist Christians, this is too hard to swallow. Maybe they could paint it as meditation/prayer. Anyway, there is evidence that it is very effective. There are others who believe in isolation. That is, sending the offending student to a room until the incident is psychologically resolved. At the bottom, I believe that administrations need to look for patterns and be open to seeing school policies and procedures as part of the problem. They should have open conversations with students to see what their perceptions are and try to heal the chasm between the two groups. In my conversations with students, they believe that nobody is listening to them and their issues. I tend to agree because administrators and teachers feel that they don’t have time to have those conversations. I believe that this conversations are the key to the healing.
MS: Why do you think administrations are willing to try these ideas?
BG: I believe they are scared. They are scared of losing their power and control. They believe that these approaches are not legally sound. They feel that they are not precise enough and that will lead to over-manipulation by opportunists. They may have some points but I believe that they need to develop these ideas to use for their advantage. Not advantage for power but advantage for healing and quality education for all…But then again, I know nearly nothing about being administrator. Maybe it’s the best they can do, given the state of public education. Anyway, what was the original subject?!
MS: Oh, yeah! We did get off on quite skew. That’s right; We were talking about planning. Back in California, your plans were pretty much a single phrase about what you were going to teach and it worked fine. Now lesson plans have become a lot more complex.
BG: That is absolutely right. What used to be a single phrase has become four-part lesson plans that need to be on paper and in electronic form so all administrators can see exactly what you are planning from day to day. I have seen some plans that are several pages and stating the standard in very complex legalese. I try to keep my plans down to a page or so.
MS: So you still stand by your golden simplicity and “less is more” attitude?
BG: Yes, I do. If I am building a rocket ship or a house, I am all for very detailed plans. That kind of details is necessary because, by design, there are the minimal number of moving parts. But, in education, there are so many moving parts that it is too hard to sink yourself into a detailed plan.
MS: What kind of “moving parts”?
BG: Mostly I am talking about the minds of the students. Some minds are focused and working a mile per minute. Some are unfocused on other stuff and working a mile a minute. There are kids whose minds work much slower. Of course, in high school, there is an immense amount of hormones at play here. Guys are distracted by what some girls are wearing. Girls are wondering who likes them and doesn’t like them. There is the anxiety of “going to the right college” and all the anxiety-driven things that go with it. The kids are worried about grades and SAT scores while their parents are worried about how much it will cost. Then there is the distraction of cell phones and school-distributed laptops. It is no wonder that they are anxious and completely distracted. It really makes me understand why so many kids have Attention Deficit Disorder. And all of this doesn’t even include the variety of issues going on with many kids at home. They range from good conditions that are beyond belief to horrible and depressing conditions that many non-teachers can even imagine.
MS: Okay, I see what you mean about all the moving parts. But what does this have to do with how we write lesson plans?
BG: Well, if you have a bunch of moving parts that are unpredictable, the best approach is not a precise plan with no flexibility. With this kind of unpredictability, there are two approaches that a teacher could take in writing plans. He or she could write plans like a logic diagram that takes care of every possible scenario in a classroom or the teacher could write a flexible framework that can be adjusted to almost any situation. The first type would very long and time-consuming and may never include every possible situation. The second type would require the teacher to write a general plan that was flexible enough to adjust to any situation. You can probably guess which one I would choose.
MS: Yeah, it’s pretty obvious which one you would choose. But that’s pretty much true of most teachers. It is whole lot less work. However, I get the feeling that “less work” route is not the reason you chose that route.
BG: Don’t get me wrong; I’m not about overworking anyone, especially me. I didn’t choose that route because I saw it as easier. It is important to point out that I chose that route because it is closer to way planning should be for teachers. The lesson plan should be a framework not an absolute step-by-step instruction.
MS: Tell me more about this approach.
BG: When I was an undergraduate and learning how to write lesson plans, I took out a legal pad and wrote down every ten minutes of the period. I then planned everything in 10-minute increments. This worked great as a newly to the process and that was a great guide in my student teaching and my first couple of years in teaching. I needed that structure. It helped me to get a rhythm to my daily teaching. However, after a few years of teaching, I learned to tap into my rhythm as a teacher. It became so second-nature that I pretty much knew how much class had elapsed without looking at a clock. At this point, I was able to split the class into four sections; the opening, instruction, practice and closing exercise. It was at this time that I could be more generalized by plugging in these activities. In my current approach, there are two possible activities for an opening; practice problems or “symbolic interpretation.”
MS: “Symbolic Interpretation”?
BG: Hold that thought. I’ll explain that later… Anyway, in addition, the closing exercise is two options chosen by the student. (I’ll explain that later also.) That leaves just the instruction and the practice. Practice is pretty straightforward; the student is given an assignment to complete, whether it is a worksheet, an assignment of problems out of their textbook, an interactive exercise or any of a variety of other approaches to practice. In this part, it all depends on what the student is hooked into. For example, many of my current students get anxious when I assign them exercises out of the textbook. They tell me that they prefer doing a worksheet. To me, they are pretty much the same thing. I’ll do what the student feels comfortable doing. Otherwise, the student is too focused on their opposition rather than the assignment. My rule of thumb is that, if I’m not excited about the assignment, then they probably aren’t either. The truth is, I’m always more excited about math than they are, in general. But, if it bores the math guy in the room, I KNOW the student is ready to take a nap or watch YouTube. I believe that it is the teacher’s duty to be plugged into their energy level towards the work. When it wanes, a change must be made. Therefore, this must be the most flexible part of the program.
On the same token, a similar approach must be taken on the instruction. That is, it must be very flexible. This is another area where the teacher must pay close attention to his students. Sometimes the concept must be explained in depth. Other times, the concept can be best explained through many examples of its application. It is also important here that the teacher doesn’t get too abstract but stays close as he can to the students interests. This is probably where I start to get off track with my teaching. It frustrates my students a little because I get excited and teach too fast. But they are patient with me because , I believe, that I have built a loving relationship with the students.
I love the abstractness of mathematics. At least, to a point. The students, on the other hand, are more attuned to its practicality or its lack thereof. The unfortunate part of this divide is that I prefer to focus on the concept and the student wants to know the procedure so they can get the exercises correct.
MS: They want to pass the test, right?
BG: They do but this issue is much deeper than that. It is the culture that has been created for them.
MS: How do you mean?
BG: They have been taught that the end goal of high school classes is how they do on standardized tests, whether for college admission or getting credit for a course. And, usually, these tests are composed of many multiple choice questions. And multiple choice questions are usually procedural in mathematics. Therefore, they want to know the procedure for solving a problem.
MS: But aren’t your tests and state tests multiple choice?
BG: The state’s tests are but my tests are not. I ask them to tell what a concept is and they can support their answer with an example. I know that multiple choice tests are very convenient for the teacher but they don’t really tell me what the student knows. On top of that, as you may well know, procedures are quickly forgotten but a learned concept lasts for a very long time. I once had a student ask me halfway through a school year, “How do you remember all this stuff?” He was referring to all the things I was teaching him in the math class. I told him, “I don’t remember much. I learned a lot of this stuff 40 years ago. I don’t remember the step by step stuff I was taught. But I do remember a handful of mathematical concepts. With those concepts, I can build just about anything I want to, mathematically….and non-mathematically, too, come to think of it.”
MS: That’s a great story and point. How does that relate to writing a lesson plan?
BG: That’s right. That’s where I was going with this!…Okay, what I am saying is that a beginning lesson plan really needs to plan moment to moment of the class period. However, as one gets more experience, most of the planning should be asking, “How do I teach this concept and how will the student practice it in order to know it longer?” That is, the inexperienced teacher starts with the moment by moment planning that leads to class periods to weeks to semesters to school years and the experienced teacher goes in the opposite direction. That is, the experienced teacher plans out the entire semester and then breaks into the day to day. He doesn’t need to write down his moment to moment plan; he just needs to know what concept needs to be taught each day and when it will be practiced. He can make the decision about the details when the moment comes. He should get a feeling for the class and assign work accordingly.
MS: I have some questions and/or issues about this. First of all, how does a teacher know when he or she has gone from novice to experienced as a teacher? I mean, how does one know if they have developed into a teacher who macro-plans instead of micro-planning? Secondly, how does one know if material is being retained? Is there some test for that, besides waiting to test the kids a year later? As an evidence-based teacher like me, what is the rule of thumb for long-term retention? Lastly, a colleague recently stated that our goal should be to have mathematics students to have the ability to solve certain types of problems, not understand concepts. How does this fit into your ideas?
BG: These are some good questions and I will try to answer them one at a time. However, some of them seem to overlap. So, at the end of my explanations, let me know if I have answered the questions fully enough for your satisfaction.
MS: certainly!
BG: To answer your first question, it is a matter of feeling. On the inexperienced end, I know that young teachers want to become experienced teachers as fast as possible. I know I did. Therefore, one has the tendency to move from micro to macro very fast. However, we need to be really in touch with this. The best way to handle this is to start with minute to minute planning. When the plan is implemented, the teacher should set a timer for each section of the lesson. When the teacher can anticipate, without looking at the timer, when a section ends, they are probably ready for a more macro approach. This is sort of like a quarterback having a timer in his head when he holding the ball too long. The closer he gets to his limit, the more antsy he gets. Sometimes, in the first few weeks of a school year, I sometimes feel the need to re-calibrate my inner timer. The more years I get under my belt, the less I need re-calibration.
MS: This seems kinda nebulous to me.
BG: Of course this seems nebulous to you. It seems that way because this is how the system has trained us. “If it ain’t logical, then it doesn’t exist.” We have gotten away from feeling almost anything. In order to be effective, we have to feel into it. If we want to do the best for our loved ones, we have to feel into it. If I want a better tennis serve, I have to feel into it. We have to know when to think about it and logically improve it but we also need to know when to attach to the feeling. The same is true here. This where we need to trust our intuition, which really our Inner Self. We need to trust that the Universe is a friendly place out to do us good rather than harm. If you are religious, this when one should trust God rather than fear Satan. This is what I have heard referred to as “Reverse Paranoia.” So I guess I am really saying that the teacher needs to trust their intuition on the line between novice and veteran. Also know that it is okay to be wrong. If you are not experienced as you thought, or not as much as a novice as you thought, it is always okay to switch to the other approach. And, don’t forget, there is a transition stage when you might be a little of both. It’s all a part of our growth as a professional.
MS: I never really looked at it that way. It is a very interesting approach. I’m gonna mull that around in my head.
BG: Please do. I know that it is really tough for mathematics people to think in such deep ways. I know this because it was a tough transition for me as well. But, once you cross that threshold, it can be one of the most powerful things that could ever happen to you. At least, that has been my experience….Anyway, I don’t wanna get too far off track here. What was the next question?
MS: The question about material retention was the next thing.
BG: Right! This is a part of teaching that is a goal but cannot be tested until it is too late. maybe there needs to be some longitudinal studies on this, based on my views on education. But, as for right now, I can only do what everybody else does in this area: project and predict. Here is what I think; I think that information is only retained when it is interesting and relevant. It is only retained when seems important enough or interesting enough to share with somebody else later. I remember random sports statistics because I thought my friends would be impressed that I remembered the statistics. I remember funny or poignant lines from movies or famous quotes because I thought I could share a great moment with a friend when I quoted them. I remember mathematical concepts for two reasons; I thought that it was a pretty cool measurement of the world and would avoid being embarrassed by a question from someone who thought I was brilliant at math. That’s one part of the retention equation, in my mind. The other part is that I learned that information in a situation where I felt relaxed and confident and free to make mistakes.I didn’t learn it to do well on a test. I didn’t learn it to get a high paying job. I learned it because it was cool and I was free to experiment with it. A safe space is important in psychotherapy as well as a mathematics classroom. So, your rule of thumb is, “If they are enjoying themselves, they probably remember what you taught them. If they are under duress, from testing or your attitude or from a feeling of a lack of love, then they probably will forget it, even if they got a great score on the testing.
MS: So love and coolness is the route to retention, in your opinion?
BG: Yes, I truly believe that. I you love the math and love the students, then that is step one. If you can share how cool you think math is, then you got ‘em hooked. However, if you don’t love the kids or the mathematics, then it is a tough road. If you don’t think math is cool or you translate its coolness to them, it is gonna be equally difficult. If you don’t have, or can’t express, the love or the coolness, then are completely screwed for retention of information.
MS: Okay. I’ll consider that….The next issue is about whether we need to teach concepts or how to solve problems.
BG: The mere mention of such a question irritates and makes me cringe, like fingernails across a chalkboard.
MS: What do you mean?
BG: This question is wrong on so many levels. A mathematical problem is not the goal. It is the expression of the goal. The goal is for the student to understand mathematics. The step by step of the problem does not do that. Let me put it this way; if your car is not running right, then you take to a mechanic. Say you have the choice between two mechanics. The first mechanic has a step by step manual to troubleshoot the problem with the car. He very good at following instructions and has a good success rate in troubleshooting cars. Then there is the second mechanic. He has no manual. However, he used to design car engines. He knows how the car is supposed to work. He uses his experience and mechanical intuition to solve car problems. Who would you choose? For my money, I would pick the second guy. He well-versed in concepts of auto mechanics. If he hasn’t learned the procedure, he can probably design a effective procedure. The same can be said of mathematics problems. If you know the step by step, you can solve the problem in most cases. However, if you make a mistake, can you analyze where it went wrong? Can you correct the problem quickly? Probably not but the concept learner definitely can. On top that, I have heard that research says that knowledge of concepts last a lot longer than knowledge of procedure. It is my feeling that anyone who would ask that question has never had a mathematical job outside of teaching high school. It is another poor consequence of the SAT culture of American high schools….Does that answer your questions?
MS: I think that it does. I am not sure if I totally agree but thanks for clearing those ideas up. For discussion sake, let’s say that this approach is the right one. With that being said, what is our starting point and how do we organize the information so we can turn into a lesson plan?
BG: Good question! It is good to be moving forward on this. Well… Both the veteran and the novice need to make a big plan of what topics to teach. The topics are the “bare bones” of the plan. As was illustrated earlier, it is okay just to have a single word or phrase to describe the topic. Then the “meat and skin” can be built upon this.
MS: So you’re saying that this is the same requirement for the veteran and the novice?
BG. Right! That is precisely what I am saying. Both levels have to decide on the topics to be taught, based on what the state or the school district requires. In reality, both groups are planning for the to minute but the veteran has taught so many classes that he or she already knows what comes moment by moment. The veteran already has acquired a rhythm and a knowledge of the pace of the class.
MS: So you’re saying that both groups are planning the same thing, it’s just that the veteran has already worked that part out?
BG: Precisely! However, let me point out that this only works if the teacher is teaching in the same discipline. That is, if I found myself teaching a new subject, like psychology, it would necessary for me to work out a minute by minute routine for psychology because it is so new to me and it requires different set of teaching skills. Now that we have established the structure of the planning, I believe it is time to get to the details.