Standup Comedian Gerry Dee on School and Teaching



Why Students "Have No Time to Study"

Number of days in a year = 365 

Sundays = 52 days
Sundays are meant for resting
Days left = 313

Summer vacation = 60 days
Weather is too hot, and it's a vacation
Days left = 253

8 hours of daily sleep = 122 Days
Sleep is necessary
Days left = 131

1 hour daily for play = 15 Days
It's good for one's health
Days left = 116

2 hours daily for food = 30 Days
Take the time to chew properly
Days left = 86

Examination days in a year = 30 Days
Assessments are necessary
Days left = 56

Winter break = 25 Days
Weather is cold, difficult to study
Days left = 31

Other holidays = 20 Days
These holidays are for everyone to enjoy
Days left = 11

Sickness at least once a year = 8 Days
Because of illness, studying is difficult
Days left = 3

Exam results days = 3 Days
Getting results is necessary
Days left = 0 

Reading

Funny Ratings of Professors

Source: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/Funniest.jsp


"You can't cheat in her class because no one knows the answers.
His class was like milk, it was good for 2 weeks.
Houston, we have a problem. Space cadet of a teacher, isn't quite attached to earth.
I would have been better off using the tuition money to heat my apartment last winter.
Three of my friends got A's in his class and my friends are dumb.
Emotional scarring may fade away, but that big fat F on your transcript won't.
Evil computer science teaching robot who crushes humans for pleasure.
Miserable professor - I wish I could sum him up without foul language.
Instant amnesia walking into this class. I swear he breathes sleeping gas.
BORING! But I learned there are 137 tiles on the ceiling.
Not only is the book a better teacher, it also has a better personality.
Teaches well, invites questions and then insults you for 20 minutes.
This teacher was a firecracker in a pond of slithery tadpoles.
I learned how to hate a language I already know.
Very good course, because I only went to one class.
He will destroy you like an academic ninja.
Bring a pillow.
Your pillow will need a pillow.
If I was tested on her family, I would have gotten an A.
She hates you already."

A Vision of Students Today

I think that a great teacher is someone who is not only good at teaching but is also good at learning, and who constantly updates his or her knowledge and teaching methods in the area in which he or she teaches.

Utilizing Native Languages in the ESL Classroom

"I now firmly side with the small minority of ESL Instructors who favor utilizing native languages in the classroom. Though, I do agree, it should be for a limited time period, and then after that, only used to clear up a serious misunderstanding of certain vocabulary.

The bottom line is that it makes the students feel more comfortable. They know that their instructor has an appreciation for their native language and culture which leads to a more accomodating classroom and ultimately greater retention." -  Eric Dondero R. 2002

Eric Dondero R. is a Certified Language Instructor and Multilingual Interpreter in Houston, Texas. He is author of the Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book: Survival Skills for Over 40 Languages. PortsideLanguages.com

Rethinking Homework by Alfie Kohn

"Teachers should be invited to reflect on whether any given example of homework will help students think deeply about questions that matter."

"How does homework affect their desire to learn?  What are its other effects on their lives, and on their families?"

"There is no perfect assignment that will stimulate every student because one size simply doesn’t fit all.  On those days when homework really seems necessary, teachers should create several assignments fitted to different interests and capabilities."

"The best teachers know that children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions."

Source: http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/rethinkinghomework.htm

Reading Out Loud As a Class

I believe that having students read aloud in class could help with pronunciation, but not reading comprehension, especially if the students are reading more than a few sentences at a time.  One of the reasons is that every student reads at a different level, and by hearing someone else read, who happens to be a "bad" reader, it could be very distracting to another student's ability to understand the passage.

Teach Your Baby Sign Language

This is such a great idea!

Don't Insist on English by Patricia Ryan

I personally think that English is a global language, naturally, but for those who speak another language, they should consider maintaining their first language.  I believe that language affects what we see, and being able to speak or see things from multiple perspectives is a plus.

"In her talk, longtime English teacher Patricia Ryan asks a provocative question: Is the world's focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? (For instance: what if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL?) It's a passionate defense of translating and sharing ideas" - TED.

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

Benny Lewis on Rapid Language Hacking

Strategies for Motivating Students By Vanderbilt University

"Following are some research-based strategies for motivating students to learn.

• Become a role model for student interest. Deliver your presentations with energy and enthusiasm.  As a display of your motivation, your passion motivates your students. Make the course personal, showing why you are interested in the material.
• Get to know your students. You will be able to better tailor your instruction to the students’ concerns and backgrounds, and your personal interest in them will inspire their personal loyalty to you. Display a strong interest in students’ learning and a faith in their abilities.
• Use examples freely. Many students want to be shown why a concept or technique is useful before they want to study it further. Inform students about how your course prepares students for future opportunities.
• Use a variety of student-active teaching activities. These activities directly engage students in the material and give them opportunities to achieve a level of mastery.
  • Teach by discovery.  Students find as satisfying as reasoning through a problem and discovering the underlying principle on their own.
  • Cooperative learning activities are particularly effective as they also provide positive social pressure.
• Set realistic performance goals and help students achieve them by encouraging them to set their own reasonable goals. Design assignments that are appropriately challenging in view of the experience and aptitude of the class.
• Place appropriate emphasis on testing and grading. Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Avoid grading on the curve and give everyone the opportunity to achieve the highest standard and grades.
• Be free with praise and constructive in criticism. Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer. Offer nonjudgmental feedback on students’ work, stress opportunities to improve, look for ways to stimulate advancement, and avoid dividing students into sheep and goats.

• Give students as much control over their own education as possible. Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you. Give students options for how these assignments are weighted.

Sources:

• Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-42.
• Linda Nilson, Teaching At Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, 2nd edition, Anker Publishing, 2003, pages 41-44.
• Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, pages 159-168." 

http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/interactions/motivating-students/

A Teacher's Advice To Young People by The Legacy Project

Below is a teacher's advice to young people from "Lessons for Living from the Wisest Americans" by The Legacy Project.

"Arlene, 83, was raised in the segrated South, became a teacher, and helped many children throughout her life. Life wasn’t always easy for her, but she feels fulfilled and satisfied by what she accomplished. She worries, however, about young people today and shares her advice for them.

My most important life lessons? Well, my marriage life, I was married about thirty years, it was a good marriage. And I was a schoolteacher; I enjoyed that for thirty years. And my parents were good, we weren’t rich, but I had good parents and that’s more important than having a lot of money. We would sit down to the table and eat. And  we went to church; church has become important to me in my older years.

I was born in the South, and I had to sit in the back of the bus, but over the years I’ve become proud of my heritage. I think we’re special.

When I lost my husband, my children became the most important thing in my life. My kids were important, two went to college. One’s a teacher and one’s a chemist.

I’m not rich or anything, I’ve got a fair income, but the main thing is I thank God that I am living, and I do have aches and pains, but they come with growing old.

A big choice for me was becoming a schoolteacher instead of a lawyer or something. I found that it’s not making as much money, but it’s been more enjoyable. Sometimes in teaching you not only teach, but you’re a friend to those kids. It’s not just teaching, it’s listening to the kids. And most of my time, being a Black teacher, I spent quite a bit of time with the white students and I found out they didn’t care about color. If you were their teacher and on their side, that’s all that matters. And my decision to go to church rather than going to nightclubs was good. I never got into drugs; I found that was a good way of doing it. I’d rather be in church than going to the bar every week and doing this and that.

Being honest is the main thing. When it’s all said and done, you have to do things the right way. There’s no outdoors or backdoors to lying. Somewhere along the line, you have to be honest with yourself. And by being honest with yourself, doors are open. I’m not “religious-religious,” but I do believe that if I do the right thing and so forth, things will open up for me.

About advice for young people: I found out two things by being a teacher: one problem is drugs, and the second problem is they are having babies. They’re out there, they never go to school, they start out on the corner selling drugs, and they don’t know anything about education and so forth. And we’re paying more money to house them in prison than we are if we could get them in and teach them the right and wrong. I cry about it sometimes to see our young people out selling drugs and they think that’s important. But their parents never taught them the right way of doing things.

Now, about getting old. As you grow older, take it day by day. I know we cry about this and that but we know we’ve got to grow old, so we should try and do the best we can. I retired about five or six years earlier than I should of, but I couldn’t help it because health problems set in and I had to. I would say if you can, try to prepare for retirement. But take a day at a time and things will work out."

15 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Becoming a Teacher by Jill Hare

Jill Hare | Editor, Teaching.monster.com


"Don’t you wish you knew the good, the bad and the ugly before you became a teacher? Find out some things to look forward to and things to avoid. Do you have something to add to the list? Please do in the comment section below or in Teaching forum.

1. Relating to every student takes research.

If you’re like me, you are decades older than your students. It takes research to figure out what prior knowledge you’re building on. Don’t just focus on what they’ve learned in school, but think about what they’ve learned outside of school. What programs do they watch on TV? What do they read for fun? What kind of music do they listen to? You can ask your students this information and more in simple survey or game. Knowing them and who they in in the context of the world today will help you connect.

2. Be prepared for anything and everything to happen on your watch.

You have to be prepared for anything to happen during school. In my first year of teaching, I got vomited on and didn’t have a change of clothes. I got the stomach bug shortly thereafter and didn’t have any medicine with me. I had to teach without power for three days during the aftermath of a hurricane. I had to stay at school with my last class one day until 4:00 in lock down while the police searched our school for an escaped convict. I’ve sewn shirts, taught with a flashlight, and written study guides out by hand when the copy machine was broken. At the time, each of these things seemed out of the norm. I learned later that “out of the norm” was the norm. Teaching is an unexpected journey that provides a great story at the end of the day. It’s better to laugh at life’s unexpectedness than to stress.

3. Student teaching may not completely prepare you for your own classroom.

Not all student teaching experiences are rosy. And even if they are, you could end up teaching a different age group, completely different grade, or school environment.
If you haven’t started teaching yet, try and choose a place that will be most like your desired job. If that’s not possible, spend time in a school observing how things will work and what you need to be prepared for.

4. What you want to teach may not be in demand when you look for a job.

Teachers are always needed, right? True…to some extent. Teachers are always needed, but what kind of teacher and where varies widely depending on area growth, retirement rate, and state budgets. The best advice I can give prospective teachers is to get a sense of the job market in your area before choosing a focus.

5. Working with parents is hard.

Teacher training doesn’t focus a lot of time on how teachers can best work with parents, but it’s a crucial part being a teacher. My first year teaching, I had a parents yell at me, cry in front of me, hit on me, and even practically stalk me on my cell phone. Setting boundaries with parents in the early years is a struggle. Some years my group of parents gave me no troubles at all, while other years seemed to be full of controversy.
Working with parents is hard, but it’s not impossible. The hardest parents for me were the ones that didn’t realize that I cared as much about the progress of their child as they did. If you can explain- with actions and words- that you are sincere in the education of their child and exhausting all avenues to help them, they’ll come around.

6. Your principal can be your greatest ally or biggest enemy.

Each school is ruled by the principal. In a perfect world, good work would be rewarded with the respect of a principal. However, the world is not perfect. Principals, like the rest of us, have their quirks. Each principal has a unique way of measuring teacher success, and it’s important to find that out early on.
I was the music teacher in an elementary school. It wasn’t my teaching the principal was concerned with. Instead, if the PTA parents thought my musical was good, she was happy. Be bold and ask your principal exactly what they’d like to see from you in any given year. If they answer you and you measure up, you should have good things in store.

7. More degrees mean more pay.

While the rest of the world works toward promotions, teachers have only pay scales related to degrees/credit hours earned. Some states now pay extra for additional certifications, too. I wish teachers could get promotions based on merit, but since that’s not the norm for public schools, it’s smart to keep learning. Not only will it pay off in the long run, but it’ll help keep you up to date on new technologies and advances in teaching.

8. Earning the respect of students is hard work: the older the students, the harder the work.

I remember being right out of college and substituting in a high school. I tried to look “old” so my students would take me seriously and respect me. Little did I know it had nothing to do with my appearance. Earning respect has to start from day one. It’s about being consistent, fair, and dependable as a teacher. Once you’ve earned their respect, all the hard work you’ve put into being someone they can respect is totally worth it.

9. Getting supplies for class is sometimes impossible unless you spend your own money.

I’ve taught in schools where money flows freely, but I’ve also taught in schools where the purse strings are tight. Be resourceful in everything you do. And if you do spend your own money, keep your receipts! I’ve seen many teachers post wish lists on their bulletins boards or websites. Don’t be afraid to ask parents for supplies that you need or would like for an extra project. If the parents of your students are not able to help, try asking your local merchants and organizations.

10. The day before a vacation day brings back child-like excitement.

You can feel it in the air when you step in school the last day before a holiday break. Even if it’s raining outside there’s a certain buzz in the school. Teachers have a spring in their step and students seem excited to learn. Breaks are great to look forward to. They help give teachers and students renewal and refocus. The bad part? The last five minute before the bell seem to last forever.

11. You’ll make some of your best friends teaching in a school.

The year I started teaching there were 15 other newbies in my school. A lot of turnover had taken place- people retiring and having babies. Although we were sprinkled throughout the school in different grades, subjects, and locations, we always stuck together. There were several veteran teachers that took us in and showed us the ropes. I still see almost all of the teachers that I used to teach with at that school. We can pick up a conversation like time hasn’t passed.

12. The internet is your friend.
When I was in college and started teaching, the internet was just taking off. I can only imagine (or hope) how teaching training has changed over the years. Start a blog for self-reflection, but make it anonymous if you really want to air it all. If you feel funny about asking other teachers at your school for help, ask a teacher on Teaching for help. Again, if you want to remain anonymous, send a questions to Dear Julia. Using the internet for your career can help give you insight about how your students use it and how you can incorporate technology in your teaching.

13. Only someone who’s been alone in a classroom full of students can appreciate exactly what your job is like.

I have a great group of friends that are teachers. (See #11) The rest don’t really understand what it’s like to not sit at a desk with a phone and a computer. Most people relate to teachers from their experiences as students. And just as we don’t “get” how hard jobs outside education might be, they might not fully understand our teaching jobs. Pick your teacher friends to work out issues at school; they’ll be the best at listening and relating.

14. A note of thanks from a parent or student will mean more than any gift.

In the bottom of my night stand I have a card tucked in an old book. It’s my absolute favorite note from a mom of three boys I used to teach. In it, she explains how she could tell I really cared for her boys and how much they enjoyed learning in my class. It’s nothing fancy but it’s hand written and honest. The best part? She wrote it two years after they’d been in my class. As a teacher, you’ll get enough apples and coffee cups to fill a cabinet, but hand written notes are priceless- the best kind of evaluation of your work.

15. Students are amazing creatures.

Each student has a unique personality and talent. Teachers have such an interesting perspective to interact with students and watch them interact with each other as they mature. From the beginning of the year to the last day of school, it’s fascinating to watch how students grow. Each year and each new group of students is a journey different from the previous year."

Richard Feynman on Reading

Gerry Dee Stand-Up Comedy

http://www.gerrydee.com

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

This is a neat idea that started with Salman Khan's passion for helping his cousins with their homework by tutoring them online.  If you are an educator, definitely watch this video.

http://www.khanacademy.org/