Conversations with America’s Best Teachers covers a wide variety of material. In fact, the questions asked of the featured teachers were arrived at only after interviewing over one hundred teachers from various K-12 grades. During these “pre-interviews” we asked the teachers simply, “If you had the best teachers in the country in front of you right now, what would you ask them?” Many of these questions formed the basis for the questions put to the teachers featured in this book.
While many interviews ask personal questions and questions like, “How did you get started?” or “What made you want to be a teacher?” Conversations with America’s Best Teachers moves beyond that and focuses almost entirely on practical questions that teachers, administrators, and parents can use immediately.
In the book you will find advice on many of the toughest issues teachers face, including: classroom management, discipline, parental involvement, dealing with apathy, the first days of class, grading, and much more. To give you an idea of the quality of answers in the book, here are some excerpts:
“I think the key to classroom discipline is preventing problems from happening long before they could develop. Granted, sometimes issues begin at the lunch tables, or at home, and follow our students into the classroom. I see misbehavior as a psychological and sociological issue, and therefore, apply principles of both to my discipline plan. I use James Wilson and George Kelling’s ”Broken Windows Theory”: Crime is the inevitable result of disorder (which has received much attention in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point). Thus, someone who sees chaos, and sees a system that deals with criminals ineffectively, is more likely to commit a crime himself. The appearance of order prevents crime. Like Rudy Giuliani cleaned up Times Square by cracking down on graffiti and subway turnstile-jumping, I crack down hard in my classroom on the two most visible offenses: chewing gum and being tardy. When students see that they can’t even get away with mere gum-chewing, they don’t try anything more daring.”
"My entire career I have used a technique that I've often been criticized for, but that I have found to be extremely effective. It involves the first week of school, which is so important. I don't teach any of the standard course of study that first week of school. Instead, I have my students create interview questions and interview each other. They then present that person to the class and we videotape it. it's a fun activity, but my real modus operandi is to get to know these kids, and for them to get to know each other, so that we build community. I believe that you must build that community before you can successfully move on to academics. I agree with the Gates Foundation about it being all about Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships, but with a different order of importance. Relationships should come first, then you teach the relevant subject material that matters to them in real life, and only then, once you know them and know their world, do you introduce the rigor and get some major work out of them."
"The elementary schools have got it down pat. There the students don't get just a grade, they get a full report card that breaks down not just math and reading skills, but a lot of social skills, and effort. Ideally, this is the way it should be. It's tough. I mean, when you've got an overcrowded classroom already, it just means your job as a teacher is that much harder, but maybe it's worth it. I think the way [my class] does it, with two separate grades, is easy to keep track of and still provides needed information. And with computer grading systems, now it's just a matter of putting the information in and letting the computer sort it all out for you. Eventually I would love to see kids getting three or four grades per class in middle and high school. That way, if a student gets a D, he and his parents won't just assume he's stupid, but can really pinpoint where the problem lies. Maybe he's brilliant or really creative, but just not organized or something. You simply can't determine that with one grade."
"I absolutely love extra credit! In both of these previous examples you can use extra credit as a selling point, but you should be using it in various ways. It's one of the best tools a teacher has at his or her disposal. The thing you have to remember is that kids in elementary and middle school don't tend to really understand percentages when it comes to grading. So here the trick is to make extra credit worth thousands of points. When I used to give papers that were worth 5 extra credit points, I might get them back on toilet paper or all stained up; that is if I ever got them at all. But when I switched it up and made the papers worth 5,000 points, suddenly every student was doing them and I was getting them back on golden paper with perfect binding, protective layers, and tabs. It was as if it were a sacred document from the President of the United States! They were so excited to get all of those points, even though it was really no different than the 5 points, but with different percentages. I've heard teachers tell their students that there is no extra credit and that they should just do the work given because that's their job. Well the real world doesn't work that way. In reality, the more work you put into something, the more you're going to get out of it."
"My game plan begins well before I get that group of children. I look to make connections with my students and their parents from the moment I get my class roster. It's critical that I make these connections prior to them arriving in my classroom as that sets the stage for the entire year. This lets the kids get to know me and allows me to talk with them and their parents. I would also send postcards to the families over the summer that describe a little bit about what third grade would be like. At pre-open house, I'd have a science fair board with a picture of me on it from when I was in third grade so the kids can see that I was just like them and a part of the same learning process."
"The second focus was on keeping the communication open throughout the year. For this I used classroom journals that went back and forth from home to school every day. I would write something and a parent would write something back. It was almost like a continuous telephone conversation between parent and teacher. The parents always knew if there was homework due, how their student was behaving in class, what would be due soon, and just about anything else they needed to know. I was always aware of what was going on at home that could possibly be affecting the child's performance in my classroom. This method of communication worked very well. I required my students to have that journal signed every night by a parent even if there was nothing written in it for that day. That journaling back and forth was critical in keeping the parents involved. They basically had no choice but to become involved, even if it was only to read a paragraph that I wrote and then sign it."
"We also have an electronic grade book that allows me to email out progress reports. So what I do is send those out maybe once or twice a week and I can build into the system exactly who I want those reports to go to. So if little Suzy is struggling, then maybe her mom gets a progress report and her dad who lives on the other side of town gets a progress report, and her social worker, case manager, probation officer, and anyone else who might be relevant gets a copy too. And so what ends up happening is that rather than saying, "How was school today?" Suzy now has ten people asking her if she studied for her vocabulary test. Teachers just don't do good enough jobs of empowering the parents to become secondary teachers at home, and this really makes a big difference."
"It's one of the most important skills a teacher can acquire, especially teachers in public schools where funds are limited. It's really about taking the time to learn how it's done and then actually doing it. There are not as many grants as there used to be, but there are still plenty out there. If teachers really want to get the extra material they need for their classrooms, they need to seriously look at grant writing as an option. The State and school districts just don't have the resources. Education is expensive and to do it right is more expensive than people are presently willing to fund. If you want to go that extra mile and provide that extra incentive for your students in the classroom, you're going to have to come up with that money somehow: either out of your own pocket if it's relatively inexpensive or, if it's more expensive, you need to seek a grant."
"I guess what I have been best known for doing are historical simulations in class. I found this to be a very powerful tool where the kids actually role-played or became part of an historical event. I did a lot of those. You can do all different types depending on what you're studying, but what I like to do is give kids the opportunity to actually learn on their own, but with the guidance of the simulation. These simulations became very successful for me and they were also extremely content-rich. A lot of times people will use the state standards as an excuse to be a bad teacher, saying things like, "I would be a great teacher, except that I now have to cover 50 Greek philosophers." So they give the students a list and have them memorize it. Well, no kid is going to understand why that's important, and they're not going to learn it particularly well either."
"With writing, most kids feel they cannot write. In fact, many of them have heard from former teachers that they are miserable writers. So they come into my class with old bruises and zero confidence. Most are afraid to write because they don't spell well, they cannot remember grammar conventions, their handwriting is terrible, etc. I tell them that I don't care about that. I do care that they put words on the paper. We may start off with outlandish assignments--- describe the grossest thing you know. Or use all the cusswords you know. It shocks them. We do lots and lots of writing before I ever deal with errors. The only feedback they receive is positive, encouraging them to tell me more, helping them develop their voice. Next thing I know, I have students showing me pages of work. Only after I have them believing they can write, do I talk about quality. Often the practice alone brings huge improvement."
"One year, as I was writing their behavior suggestions on the board, one girl from a tough background used a ruler to shoot a wad of paper across the room at another student."What a long year this will be!" I thought. But instead of sending her to the office on the very first day, I suggested it might be better for her to have lunch detention with me, rather than highlight her inappropriate behavior so soon. We had lunch together and talked. She was never a behavior problem again in my room and made significant gains in her class work. This worked with her, but another technique might have been called for with another student."
"When I talk to education classes I always tell new teachers to take as many speech and drama classes as they possibly can. The attention span of kids has gotten so low these days you can't really talk that much to them. Cooperative learning is an improvement and has kids talking to each other, but even then you can see them check out after a little while. Stories, however, can last a lifetime. There are so many miracles that you can share with them that would not only get their attention, but inspire them to want to learn more. It could be stories from your own life or things that you've just read about. I use them to captivate the imagination of my students and it pays off. I would encourage all teachers to liven up their lessons by using as many stories as possible."
"When we started learning walks about eight years ago, they were still pretty new. Now they're much more common, but ours was a bit different as we didn't want them to be a top-down process and given by the administration. Central office staff and principals coordinate most learning walks. They walk through teachers' classrooms, observe what's going on and then come to certain conclusions. We didn't like that idea and instead wanted the walks to be coordinated and given by teachers in more of a bottom-up approach. We waned teachers to be in complete control of the learning walks, setting them up, implementing them, gathering our own data, and then coming to our own conclusions about where we needed to be. We wanted it to be one of the vehicles we used to drive our professional development."
"I found that I had to spend ten valuable minutes of instructional time at the beginning of each period to speak to each student, and if I was busy helping one of them, those with whom I had not spoken would follow me around the room until I acknowledged their existence through some positive comment. Once I had done that, they would settle down to learn what I wanted to teach. By the end of the year, they had transformed into my favorite class. Four year later, when it was time to graduate, they were still asking me if they were my favorite class."
"A new teacher once showed me her carefully planned vocabulary lesson for a seventh-grade class. The words were on their reading level, covered a variety of word roots and vocabulary skills, and were neatly typed on a worksheet. The lesson was an absolute failure. The students dutifully looked the words up in the glossary, copied the definitions, and the knowledge was transferred from dictionary to ditto sheet without ever having to pass through the brains of the children at all. They remembered none of the words the next day; they barely remembered the activity. After discussing with her how she could adjust and make this activity a meaningful learning experience, she tried again. This time the students generated their own vocabulary list by finding the words from newspaper and magazine articles. They defined the words initially using context clues, and then challenged each other to find the correct definitions. Then they made up sentences that used their own names and information from their own lives, using each of the vocabulary words. Not only did the students respond with excitement and enthusiasm, they remembered all of the words the next day, the next week, and the next month. And they begged to do that activity again."
"I often used a theme-based curriculum that followed the state guidelines. I basically wrapped the lesson around a theme such as a Middle East/Desert theme or something. This was a very important method for me and was constantly a part of my practice. There's always a population of students that need to have things flow. They need to have connections between events and that's where the theme-based approach comes in. When teaching kids to read, it really helps to bring science, social studies, and math into your literature. This allows them to better see those connections and makes it easier for them to understand the various subjects better than if they were separated. That's why I incorporated themes. I take whatever standards I'm teaching and pull out all the resources I can find to connect it with all the other content areas."
"Highlighting positive behavior is always more effective than highlighting negative behavior. Children-- like adults -- crave positive recognition. I had all sorts of simple methods for highlighting positive behavior choices. For example, when a student who traditionally struggled with my class rules had a great day, I'd make a positive phone call home right in the middle of class. Many parents were astounded and delighted to get such a call. I also made certificates and small thank you cards to recognize students who demonstrated leadership when it came to behavior. I know these certificates and cards had an impact because I'd see them posted prominently on the walls of my students' apartments when I made home visits."
"One of the most successful ways I've found to differentiate instruction is to allow students multiple pathways to a common destination, particularly when it comes to writing. For example, when a piece of creative writing is the goal, I will give kids a number of choices on how to begin. Some kids choose to use one of the magazine pictures I have on file as a starting point for their story. Some kids choose to use pattern blocks on the floor to create a scene or character that becomes the focus of their story. Some kids choose to use a "squiggle," literally a scribble I have made on paper with a black marker which they extend into a picture their imagination creates, and write a story based on the original picture they have drawn. Yet other kids can begin by using a flip-book that gives them a silly sentence around which to create their story."