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What is Your Calling?

Why did you become a teacher? Why do you stay in the teaching profession?

If you work in education, you can probably answer the first question. Depending on how long you’ve been in the profession, it might take some thinking. There was a reason you got into education and there’s a reason why you stay.

Teaching is a calling. But, what does it mean for something to be a calling? The writer and author Frederick Buechner said a person’s calling is something “(a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done.” A calling is a that place where your needs and the world’s needs collide.

Hopefully, if you’re in education, it is what you need most to do. It is work that inspires you, makes you jump out of bed in the morning, and keeps you energized.

Education is certainly work the world needs to have done. It is the most important thing we do as a society, because every profession is based on the idea that individuals in those fields learn from teachers.

So, why did you become a teacher, and why do you stay in the profession? Hopefully it’s your calling because the world needs passionate teachers who feel like they need to be teachers. Most importantly, there are classrooms of students who need you to help change their lives.

The Smartest Person in the Room

I absolutely love quotes. My favorite quote is “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Those fantastic words are from the author and humorist Mark Twain.

One of the my other favorite quotes is, “The smartest person in the room is the room.” There’s some debate who actually said these words, so we’ll just leave it at a pretty wise individual.

In 2020 that room, thanks to technology and the Internet, is as big as you want it to be. If you want to know something, you search for it on Google or ask Siri or Alexa for the answer.

Recently, I was looking for some new number sense routines for my fourth graders, and my Internet search took me to youcubed.org. It is a great site filled with videos, activities to do in the classroom, and other useful resources.

There are so many other wonderful resources for teachers of math, ELA, science, and every other content area. The Internet is a wealth of knowledge. It’s an amazing time to be able to connect to other teachers, share ideas, and learn from others. When the room is this big, it’s hard to be the smartest person in it. And that’s a wonderful thing!

The Curse of Knowledge

Every once in a while there’s a lesson that makes me take a step back and think about how hard it is to truly learn and understand something. For example, fractions are not an easy concept to grasp conceptually. It’s one thing to learn that 1/3 is greater than 1/4 because the smaller denominator is the bigger fraction. It’s another thing entirely to understand conceptually why 1/3 is greater – each fraction has one part but the parts of 1/3 are larger than the parts of 1/4.

Fractions are even a difficult concept for adults to conceptually understand. In the 1980s, the A&W company tried to compete with McDonald’s quarter pounder. They created a third pounder which was cheaper and bigger than the quarter pounder. It beat McDonald’s burger in taste tests and was accompanied by a marketing campaign. So a company produces a bigger, less expensive burger, and the public likes the taste. Seems like a slam dunk, right? No. The public didn’t go for it. Why? During focus groups it was determined that customers thought they were getting less burger for their money because they mistakingly thought 1/3 is smaller than 1/4. A&W’s problem wasn’t a quality of product problem. A&W had a math problem – literally.

This is another reminder of how difficult it is to really understand some concepts. I can manipulate the numbers in my head and explain why 1/3 is greater than 1/4. It’s easy for me to forget that it takes time, modeling, and repetition to truly understand how to compare fractions with like numerators.

This struggle with fractions reminded me of a concept I first heard in the book Make It Stick. The idea is called the curse of knowledge. “The curse of knowledge is our tendency to underestimate how long it will take another person to learn something new or perform a task that we have already mastered.”

It is hard to remember how difficult it is to first learn something. Take driving for instance. An experienced driver doesn’t think about all the decisions he makes behind the wheel of the car. He has built a knowledge base over years that allows the process of driving to become almost second nature. Now put a 16-year-old behind the wheel and you’re reminded of how much a person needs to learn to drive a car. You’re also reminded that this knowledge is not obtained overnight.

I try to go into lessons with the curse of knowledge on my mind. It is important to remember that the 9- and 10-year-olds sitting in my classroom haven’t had the years of math exposure I have. It’s why thinking through the lens of our students is so important.

In an attempt to combat this curse of knowledge, I try to anticipate prior to a lesson which concepts will give students difficulty and why. My goal is to overcome the curse of knowledge as a teacher. In the process, hopefully, my students will conceptually understand difficult concepts like fractions and know the mathematical difference between a third pounder and a quarter pounder.

Peaks and Valleys of the School Year

My first year teaching, somebody showed me a graphic similar to the Phases of First-Year Teaching. I’d also seen the research that 35% of teachers leave the profession during their first year and half of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. That visual of the Phases of First-Year Teaching stared at me, and I knew there was some truth to it.

Imagine a “U” extending for August to June. At the beginning of the year, new teachers are excited and filled with anticipation. As they move through September and October it becomes survival mode. November to January is a valley at the bottom of the “U.” This valley of disillusionment is brought on by nonstop stress, work, and the belief that things are not going as smoothly as they’d like. From February to the summer, teachers make the upturn through rejuvenation, reflection, and eventually back to anticipation for the next year.

Here’s a more light-hearted take on the phases of teaching.

Whether you’re a new teacher or a 20-year veteran, there are times throughout the school year which are more difficult than others. This time of year seems especially stressful for teachers. One of the messages shared with me as a new teacher: make sure you’re taking care of yourself and looking out for other teachers. It’s great advice for anybody in the profession, regardless of their years of service.

Smartphones and Anxiety

A couple days ago my daughter was playing the piano for her grandparents. They love listening to her play songs she’s learning or old recital numbers. At least twice a week she’s playing for them after dinner. What makes this a really remarkable feat is that my in-laws live six hours away in New England. They’re able to watch and listen to my daughter play because of FaceTime.

Do I worry about the impact smartphones and other devices will have on my daughter as she gets older? Sure, I do. I’m a parent, so I pretty much worry about everything. It’s part of the job. But I also know that there are some amazing things this technology can do for my ten-year-old daughter – playing the piano for her grandparents, virtual field trips, research at the tip of her finger.

Just this week I was involved in a discussion about the rise in student anxiety across zip codes, socio-economic status, gender, and race. The common consensus among those involved in the conversation was that technology was to blame.

New research, however, is challenging that line of thinking. The researchers, lead by Candice Odgers, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, believe that devices are not the sole culprit but are just shining a light on an underlying mental health problem a child would have even without smartphones.

After reviewing other studies and data available, the researchers stated, “The review highlights that most research to date has been correlational, focused on adults versus adolescents, and has generated a mix of often conflicting small positive, negative and null associations.” Correlation does not equal causation. Just because the increase in smartphones and mental health problems in the United States happened at the same time, doesn’t necessarily mean one causes the other.

Some evidence to support such a claim can be found across the Atlantic. Larger parts of Europe have seen an equal increase in smartphone use without an equal increase in anxiety and other mental health disorders. If the smartphone was the problem then these parts of Europe would see an increase in anxiety comparable to the United States.

According to the study, the United States has been an outlier in suicide rates worldwide. Every adolescent age group in the U.S. has seen a rise in suicide deaths from 1999 to 2017. The greatest increase has been among girls 10-14. This group has seen rates triple during that same time. Worldwide, suicide rates have dropped during this same time period.

So what, other than smartphones, could be contributing to an increase in anxiety and mental health concerns? Jeff Hancock, founder of the Stanford Social Media Lab, offered some other possibilities for what might be making our kids anxious: climate change, income inequality, or rising student debt.

“The current dominant discourse around phones and well-being is a lot of hype and a lot of fear,” Hancock said, according to the New York Times. “But if you compare the effects of your phone to eating properly or sleeping or smoking, it’s not even close.”

Are there drawbacks to an increase in technology at our kids’ fingertips? Sure. We obviously don’t want children so involved on their devices that they don’t go outside and get exercise or have healthy conversations with people. This research, however, argues that the smartphone might not be the real reason children are more anxious.

We should still allow our children and students to have access to devices, but we need to have conversations about using them appropriately. Like any technological advancement, there are benefits and drawbacks. We just need to make sure we truly understand both.

Teaching Students with ADHD

One year I had a boy named Jimmy in my class, and he was one of the coolest kids I ever taught. (I always change names of students on this blog.) Jimmy asked me almost every day how my previous night was. This wasn’t just something he was taught to ask, Jimmy was genuinely interested in what I did and how I was feeling. He had the hardest time sitting still. Jimmy was such a kind kid who seemed to genuinely care for everybody around him and had a heart of gold. He had an extremely difficult time staying focused during a lesson. Jimmy would often display his artistic talents by drawing me pictures. If you’ve worked in a classroom, you probably know a kid just like Jimmy – kind, talented, sweet, but has trouble sitting still and staying focused.

It was clear to me early on that Jimmy had ADHD. I don’t think I heard the team ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) when I was kid. The term ADD was initially used in an American Psychiatric Association manual in 1980. An upward trend of ADHD diagnoses followed a 1997 survey of parents nationwide. As many educators know, that upward trajectory has continued today.

Different students with ADHD benefit from different supports in the classroom. Some students see improved attention simply by sitting near the instruction. Other students need more supports like a timer to help keep them on task or a checklist to ensure they have the belongings they need at the end of the day. I was interested in creating a list of strategies to help students with ADHD, like Jimmy. I used a few websites to help me compile a list of non-medication strategies to use with students:

Give minimal number of directions;
Give directions in written form when possible for student to reference as they work;
Limit the amount of work on a page;
Cover up some work or text on a page to minimize distraction;
Use color coded folders to help student stay organized;
Periodically help students clean out backpacks, desks, folders, etc.;
Use checklist for assignments or homework materials;
Frequent redirection;
Peer tutoring;
Think/Pair/Share and other sharing strategies;
Give student movement breaks throughout the lesson and day;
Teach study skills explicitly;
Give student clear expectations;
Give students clear deadlines when assignments are due;
Use brain breaks;
Give students choice on assignments.

This is not an exhaustive list of strategies to support students with ADHD. It is, however, a place to get some ideas to get started. They are strategies I was so glad to discover when I had Jimmy in my class. Hopefully they can help the Jimmy you have in your classroom or school.

The Most Important Person in Somebody’s Life

The biggest news of the week, possibly the biggest news story of the year, is the death of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and the other passengers aboard the helicopter that crashed in California on Sunday. My heart goes out to everybody affected by the tragedy.

Kobe and I were the same age and graduated from high school the same year about two hours away from each other. I’ve watched him play basketball since he was a senior in high school and always respected his game. The dunks, clutch shooting, and killer instinct on the court were always impressive, whether you liked the Lakers or not. What was more impressive than the work on the court, however, was the role he played off the court as a dad to his four daughters.

Being a dad to a little girl is an amazing and terrifying job. You want the best for your child and always worry about the worst. Seeing all the stories of Kobe and his daughter, Gianna, made it clear that his children were the most important people in his life.

My daughter, Anna, and me at Hersheypark.

I think about this often as a teacher. Having a child of my own gives me a perspective I wouldn’t have had teaching in my twenties. Every student sitting in my class is the most important person in somebody’s life. Knowing parents trust me to take care of their child, the most important person in their life, is a very humbling honor.

That’s why I go into every interaction with a parent knowing the person we’re discussing is as important to them as my daughter is to me. When I have to discuss a difficult topic with a parent, I try to think about how I would want a teacher to share that same information about my daughter. When I have to share something difficult, I always start with something positive the student is doing and end with something positive.

Every child has amazing qualities their parent should be proud of and that we as a team should celebrate. That child is the most important thing to that parent, and I can never forget that. How could I forget? I have a little girl and she’s the most important thing to me.

How Much Media Do Kids Consume?

Last year I heard two boys in my class having a very heated discussion about a video they watched the night before. I kept hearing Ninja this and Ninja that. After listening to the boys talk about “Ninja” for a couple minutes, curiosity finally got the better of me. “Who’s Ninja?” I asked.

They both looked at me like I just fell off the turnip truck. “Mr. Rashid, Ninja is just the best gamer in the world,” one of the boys replied. It turns out they were just two of the 22.3 million subscribers Ninja has on Youtube.

This interaction, and having ten-year-old daughter myself, really made me wonder just how much media our students and children are consuming. It turns out, Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization who analyzes media use by children and families, had the same wonderings. They conducted a study of how children ages 8-18 use and consume media.

A few points in the key findings really stood out to me:

The number of 8-year-olds with a phone increased from 11% in 2015 to 19% in 2019;
Children, 8- to 12-years old, average 4 hours 44 minutes of screen media each day, not including time at school or working on homework;
51% of teens read for fun at least once a month;
Lower income children spend almost 2 hours more with entertainment media per day than their higher income peers (5:49 to 3:59);
Teens using a computer daily for homework has risen 30% in four years – 29% in 2015 to 59% in 2019;
Daily computer use for homework has also risen among tweens – 11% in 2015 to 27% in 2019;
Low-income teens spend less time (34 minutes per day) using a computer for homework than their higher-income peers (55 minutes per day).

What really jumped out at me was that children (8-12) are on a device consuming entertainment for almost 5 hours a day. That’s time they’re not reading, playing outside, or spending quality time with their friends and families. Children using devices isn’t a passing fad, and I would be shocked if the numbers related to children and media screen time don’t continue to rise in the coming years. As educators, and as a society, we need to figure out the implications of this increase in screen time.

Can Teachers Be Financially Comfortable?

I had a conversation at lunch today with a couple of colleagues about financial wellbeing. It’s an important conversation to have – if not with colleagues, then with a spouse/significant other, or at least with ourselves.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, a healthy teacher is better able to take care of students. One important way to take care of our overall health is to ensure that our financial wellbeing is monitored and addressed. Financial insecurity can lead to chronic stress, which can negatively affect mental and physical health – ulcers, digestive issues, migraines, insomnia, anxiety, etc.

There are many resources out there to help understand finances and improve financial wellness. One that I like, and have personally used, is Dave Ramsey’s baby steps:

Save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund.
Pay off all debt (except the house) using the debt snowball.
Save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund.
Invest 15% of your household income in retirement.
Save for your children’s college fund.
Pay off your home early.
Build wealth and give.

Dave Ramsey wrote a best-selling book, called The Total Money Makeover, which outlines the baby steps and guides readers to, what he calls, financial peace. It is an incredibly quick read, and can help anybody become more knowledgeable about finances and money. One friend recently told me the book literally changed his life.

I’ve read a number of the books on this topic by a range of authors and financial gurus. The key isn’t necessary whom you are reading but that you are reading and thinking about your financial wellbeing. Two other books I’ve found interesting are The Millionaire Next Door and Start Late, Finish Rich. These two books are wonderful because they apply to the average person, not necessarily a surgeon making $500,000 a year. They, and Dave Ramsey, discuss a common thread: financial health is not correlated to level of income.

It is no secret that teacher’s are not in the top income earners in our country. Should teachers be paid more? Yes, but we can only worry about what we can control. So how do we work with what we have, financially speaking? That’s what some of these resources will help unpack. Most of the authors and gurus boil it down to simple ideas like planning, being intentional with money, and minimizing the amount of debt you have because that means more interest payments.

There are many teachers continually improving their financial wellbeing. In fact, a recent study found that one of the top five professions for millionaires is… wait for it… teachers. (Engineer, accountant, “management,” and attorneys were the other professions in the top five.) If planning and being intentional are some of the bedrocks to financial wellbeing, then who knows how to plan better than teachers?

This study shows that it is possible for teachers to become financial successful. The goal isn’t to become “rich.” The goal is to pay attention to our financial wellbeing, continue to learn about finances, and put ourselves in a position so that money is not a constant stressor which leads to health problems. The goal is to be healthy, so we can all be better teachers!

Teacher Efficacy

What really works in schools? What can we do to have the greatest impact on student achievement? What has a greater impact feedback or homework?

John Hattie is an educational researcher whose work answers questions like these. His book Visible Learning looked at over 800 meta-studies. From those studies, which included over 80 million students, Hattie was able to create a list of the most effective teaching practices. Here are his top five:

Collective teacher efficacy (1.57)
Self-reported grades (1.33)
Teacher estimates of achievement (1.29)
Cognitive task analysis (1.29)
Response to intervention (1.29)

After analyzing data from the 800 meta-studies, Hattie created a hinge point of 0.40. The average effect size in the meta-studies was 0.40, so that’s how the hinge point was determined. Anything above the hinge point of 0.40 was viewed as having an effect on student outcomes. Collective teacher efficacy had an effect size of 1.57.

So, what is collective teacher efficacy. According to Hattie, it is more than teachers believing they can make a difference. “It is that combined belief that it is us that causes learning. It’s not the students. It’s not the students from particular social backgrounds. It’s not all the barriers out there. Because when you fundamentally believe that you can make the difference, and then you feed it with evidence you are then that (is what makes it) dramatically powerful.”

The teacher has a powerful impact on student performance if they collectively believe they’re making a difference AND feed that belief with evidence of their success. That impact on students is what makes teaching the hardest job in the world and also the most important. Go believe in yourself and make a difference!