Sympathizing with Students

I've had two very different conversations in the past few weeks with two different colleagues, both of which relate to working with students. One of these conversations was very sympathetic to students, in a "how can we help them succeed and thrive?" sort of way. The other was...a bit less sympathetic...the sort of commiserating conversation with more of a "how do we hold students accountable to actually do the work?' sort of feeling.

I feel both of these things sometimes, as an instructor. 

But I'm coming down right now on the side of sympathizing with students. Perhaps it's because I'm taking a computer programming course on audit right now, and feeling some of the same pressures. I am an achiever, and I want to do well, and represent myself well, and really learn the things I need to be successful! Though, to be clear, auditing a course is different--as much as I want to say I sympathize with my fellow learners, I'm in a bit of a different category. I'm taking this course just for the learning, with no grade attached, and no high stakes (e.g., scholarships) riding on a grade. Also, the professor teaching the course is a friend, and is very supportive and encouraging of me taking the course. And while she is equally supportive of the other learners in the class, there is a different kind of power dynamic, I think, since I am a peer, and the students in the class really are not.

But while all of this is true, I do feel a sense of the pressures the students taking the course do. There are times when I have to re-read the text multiple times to really understand it. There are times when I am really not sure how to start coding a program that I've been assigned, and I start to trial-and-error it. (Which never seems to work out well.) My wife could tell you how she knows when I'm struggling, because I mutter under my breath and sigh a lot. The work is challenging, and it's stretching me. And I feel a very real sense of accomplishment when I solve a programming problem that has been a bugaboo for me.

But one experience in particular had me sympathizing with students. We use an online platform as part of our homework for the course. I really like this! We get immediate feedback on the snippets of code we write, and we can redo things as many times as needed to get things right. I find that this is helping me check my understanding in a step-by-step kind of way, and deepening my understanding through repeated practice when I get things wrong. Sometimes I get things right the first go. More often, it takes me two or three attempts, but I figure this is actually a good thing, because it causes me to slow down and rethink my approach, and check my understanding of the syntax of the language I'm learning.

But there are limitations to this platform, and sometimes this has me running into dead ends, because my code isn't exactly right according to the specifications of the platform. I had this experience last week with a programming problem. I wrote a piece of code that I thought would solve the problem...but no joy. So I took the error messages, and used them to try and pinpoint where things went awry. No joy. I revised, and revised, and eventually started over from scratch. No joy, no joy, no joy. I tried over 30 different submissions on this project! (I was definitely muttering under my breath about it.) I'm stubborn enough to keep working away at it, because I really want to learn this stuff for myself! But there came a point where I felt like I was banging my head against the wall.

And so...in my frustration and defeat...I turned to Google.

I found a solution, of course. And my code was about 95% correct, but I had missed a crucial step. It felt so obvious when I saw it. I fixed my code, and submitted the project. All done.

But I also felt some guilt about needing to look up help online to solve the problem. 

In this course, which I'm taking just for fun and for my own learning, I have the luxury of not caring about a grade. Did I have to find a solution for this problem? No. But I wanted to--perhaps out of wanting to represent myself well, to actually complete the assignment, do it correctly, and get 100% on this assignment. Was it cheating? In this case, no, because my professor-colleague encourages us to use our resources to help us learn, including looking things up online. But there was still some guilt there for me.

And this is where I'm feeling sympathetic with my students. They often have higher stakes attached to grades, after all. So perhaps it's no wonder that they seek out help when they run into roadblocks. And perhaps that "seeking out help" isn't always on the up-and-up. But in a moment of frustration, or uncertainty, or need to just-get-it-done-and-move-on-to-the-next-thing-because-there-is-always-more-homework, they might seek out illicit homework help.

So all of this has me thinking about what our philosophy ought to be for encouraging students to actually, deeply learn the material? Yes, I want my students to be accountable for doing the work. And, yes, I want to encourage and support my students so they will be able to be successful in learning. Both of these are true at the same time. Are they in opposition to each other? 

All of this to say, placing myself in the students' seat has been a good exercise in understanding at least some of the pressures they are experiencing. 

Image by Chris Ried via Unsplash

Taking Students Seriously

One of the things I've been really grappling with is how to take students seriously. Part of this is the fact that I'm teaching an online course right now for future middle school teachers. It focuses on how to teach young adolescents, with all of their wonderfully weird developmental changes. These changes impact the way we approach teaching young adolescents, obviously. And one of the things I've been trying to convey to these future teachers is that we need to take our students' needs seriously. Want to be an effective middle school teacher? You should know some things about how middle schoolers are developing--physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally, spiritually...all of it! And taking their needs seriously means giving them what they need to flourish in your class. Yes, they need academic input--that's what school is for! But if it's only academic, without accounting for their physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs...well, good luck to you in actually reaching and actually teaching those students!

And where my thinking is currently pointing? This approach of taking students seriously is probably true of every group of students! 

I'm mostly teaching undergraduates right now. They definitely have their own peculiar needs! And the graduate students I'm teaching have a different set of needs, because of their station in life and where thy are in their professional career.

Certainly this is not just true in a distance teaching situation, which is where I've been focusing my blogging this month. Obviously it matters in a face-to-face classroom as well! But I am thinking right now specifically about how to take students seriously when you aren't meeting up with them face-to-face. Here are a few ideas I've been trying in my own online teaching practice this semester:

• When I have synchronous meetings with students, I am trying to make sure to have an opening circle where we can just check in and see how everyone is doing. I don't compel students to share--this is at their level of comfort--but by making space where sharing about life beyond class is normalized, I think I'm taking students' needs seriously.
• I am using case studies and small group discussion extensively in one course. This allows for students to get to know a smaller group of their colleagues better (working in a small group) which will, I hope, build greater trust among them. The cases we are considering are "controversial" in the sense that they are designed to have multiple "right" answers, and I have some structures in place for the way I'm setting up the discussions to help students engage with each other around ideas. This means that even if they disagree with each other, they are disagreeing about content and not character. All of this to say, I think I'm taking students' social and emotional needs into account in the way I'm arranging for this learning experience to unfold.
• I am being even more flexible than normal with due dates. Let's be honest: most due dates are completely arbitrary and are about the instructor's convenience, rather than being driven by students' needs. I'm at a point in my teaching career that if a student reaches out and says, "I could use a little more time on this," I'm willing to extend the deadline with no questions asked. I know how much extra grace benefits me personally. I'm willing and ready to extend that extra grace to students as well.
• In my communication with students, I am checking my language to ensure I'm conveying confidence in their ability to learn, a sense of high expectations for the quality of work we will do together, and a clear message of support and encouragement from me--that I am for them and not against them. 
• I am intentionally looking for their input on how things are going in the courses they are taking with me. Soliciting feedback from students might not be a norm for you right now, but if you are open to hearing from students--and taking their comments about their experience in your class seriously!--you can learn a lot.

I hope that these suggestions give you some encouragement. What else are you doing to demonstrate that you are taking students seriously?

Image by Tim Gouw via Unsplash.

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(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)

How Are You Feeling?

I gave the first test of the semester in my World Regional Geography course this week. I've started marking them, but I'm not done yet. So far, so good, overall.

For many of the students taking the course, this is the first time they are taking a test with me. And there is a little bit of a learning curve there, I think. This is something we talk about quite a bit in the Education courses I teach: every teacher has his/her own preferences, quirks, and foibles that come out in a myriad of ways in our teaching practices. But one place this happens specifically is in the assessment vehicles we develop.

Students have agreed with me when I have asked them about this. Different instructors have different ways of putting tests together, for good or ill. And until you've taken a test with a particular instructor? You just can't be 100% of their assessment style.

I've said before that I take my work very seriously, though I try not to take myself too seriously as a teacher. Perhaps this is one way this shows up in my teaching practice in the assessments I write: I often ask my students how they are feeling at the beginning of a test. Here's what the top of the test paper looked like for this first exam of the semester in World Regional Geography:

Calling Final Exams into Question

Oh. Snap.

A tweet from one of the people I've been following on Twitter since almost the beginning, Dan Meyer:

For real, tho: what are we gaining from final exams?

❌New insights into student learning.
✅Crazy amounts of student stress.

— Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) May 22, 2018

Calling the grand tradition of final exams into question seems...almost heretical.

But does he have a point?

I guess I'm now thinking about what the real point of final exams might actually be. Are they intended to provide new insights into student learning? Or are they a way to help students summarize and synthesize everything they had the opportunity to learn over the term? Or...maybe...they are a mechanism for compliance, a way to keep the kids (fearfully, stressfully) "engaged" (not sure that this is the right word for it...) until the end?

Is there value in in continuing the practice of final examinations?

Or is this an outdated vestige of educational practice from days of yore?

What do you think?

Image by Shannan Muskopf [CC BY-NC 2.0]

Reasonable and Realistic Assignments

Hey there, teacher...

That assignment you gave your students today...how much time will it take your students to complete?

I suspect you have an estimate in mind for how long you expect it will take a "typical" student to complete it. But I want to slow you down there a minute... Who is this "typical" student? Does s/he really exist? How many of your real-life students are actually represented by this "typical" student?

Planning for Day One

This one came across my Twitterfeed today (thanks to @justintarte for sharing!)...

Image by Jennifer Gonzalez @ Cult of Pedagogy. Used with permission.

Oh. Man.

What if every teacher took this approach?

Learning from Students

My Twitterfriend, Maggie Bolado (@mrsbolado) shared this image the other day. I love it! She gave me permission to use it for this blog post. (Thanks a bunch, Maggie!)

Image by Maggie Bolado. Used with permission.

Feedback: Timely, Specific, and Actionable

It has been an incredibly busy season of writing for me lately. My dissertation is coming together, and in fact, I have finished writing all five chapters! That doesn't mean the work is complete, however. There are ongoing edits, and then the preparation for the defense when there is a "final" document ready. But it feels really, really good to be at this point.

The best part of being "finished" is that there now is THE THING that can be addressed for the edits. My advisor has been fantastic throughout this process: he gives me feedback that is timely, specific, and actionable, and the turn-around for his comments on each draft has been amazing. I am able to see the strengths and weaknesses of different sections of my writing, where the ideas are solid, and where I need to rethink things. Each draft I work through is a little better than the last, and I am confident that the next draft is going to be even better than the last one I submitted. (At this point, it feels like there is always a "next draft"...but I know the time is coming when it's going to be good enough.)

My writing desk...it's getting worse, but the writing is getting better...

This experience has me thinking about the way teachers provide feedback to their students.

Unteachable

I had a former student--who is now in graduate school herself, and serving as an instructor--message me today with a fascinating question:

Is there such a thing as a student that is unteachable?

My immediate, almost instinctive reaction was, "Of course not!"

But after thinking about it for a few moments...I wonder.

Here's my tentative, pretty-sure-for-now-but-open-to-revision response:

Planning for Next Fall

Saw this one just a bit ago via Twitter...

How you feel when the lesson really engages learners. pic.twitter.com/yfxfVeXw78

— Teacher Goals (@teachergoals) June 7, 2016

Can I get an "amen" from my fellow educators?

I wonder sometimes why some of my lessons really "work" while others feel more lifeless. And, yeah...sometimes they totally flop. What makes a lesson really engaging? What makes a lesson...less engaging?

On Teaching "Christianly"

It is the end of the semester, and I have students beginning the review process for their final exams. In Intro to Education, this means reflecting on all that they have read and discussed and studied in light of our essential question for the course: "What does it mean to teach 'Christianly?'"

This is a novel concept for some students. Most all of my students would self-identify as Christians, and most all of them are planning on becoming teachers. So they might well wonder, "Why does Mulder make such a big deal about this 'teaching Christianly' stuff?" And I do make a big deal about it in class. While I don't specifically ask that question each week when we meet up, I allude to it often, and I strive to both challenge their thinking through the things we read and discuss as well as model a distinctively Christian approach to teaching when they see me at work in class.

Welcome to Intro to Ed. Image by Dave Mulder [CC BY-SA 2.0]

I don't do this perfectly, of course. I'm still figuring out how to teach Christianly myself. I've been thinking about this for some time now, and I even shared my thoughts about teaching (and living) "Christianly" on inallthings.org this spring. But I am far enough down this path that I am convinced this is the right way to work out my own discipleship within my teaching practice, and I am trying to demonstrate it for my students.

Sometimes I think they are even starting to "get it." :-)

Fighting Procrastination

I confess it: I procrastinate.

I think I am getting better at this, but only because I have so many things going on in my life that I can't afford to procrastinate on everything.

On the other hand...I have so many things going on in my life, that there are times things get pushed to the back burner, or even set on a cooling rack away from the heat entirely...and don't seem to make their way back onto the stove.

I've had to learn a few techniques along the way to keep up. Here are my top three tips for fighting procrastination:

Our Job Is 'Kids'

Oh. My. Word.

I have some fantastic students--future teachers--and they often impress and amaze me. But every once in a while, one of my students speaks with such wisdom and clarity that it makes me take a step back.

In Introduction to Education I assign my students a weekly reflection paper about the readings and discussions we have in class. These short papers help give me insight into how they are understanding the course material, how they are making connections, how they are learning.

In a recent reflection about the tasks inherent in planning for instruction, one of my students wrote this gem:

Because we are the teachers planning for each day, we need to know what we are teaching. We need to know the content and curriculum – not just know the facts, but application also. As teachers, our job is “kids.” We learn content to teach the kids. We learn to be aware of kid development. We learn to form activities and friendly classroom for the kids. We learn to be a leader for kids.

She made connections here between several different ideas we had discussed at earlier points in the semester: she is showing how it all hangs together for her, which is great!

But that phrase right in the center of this paragraph...wow, it got me! Here it is again, in case you missed it:

As a teachers, our job is "kids."

How about it, veterans? Do you still think of it this way? What is central to your work as a professional educator? Policies and procedures? That high-stakes test that's coming up? The latest district initiative? Meeting minimum standards?

Or are you in it for the kids?

Why are we teaching? Here's the voice of wisdom from a future teacher: our job is "kids." 

Image by Ilmicrophono Oggiono [CC BY 2.0]

Would You Want to Be a Student in Your Own Class?

A question for you teachers: would you want to be a student in your own classroom?

My suspicion: your initial answer would be a resounding "Yes!" And why wouldn't you say that? I think we teachers tend to create a classroom atmosphere most like the one we would love to have as a learner.

But...

Here's the thing: usually we teachers are the ones who were "successful" in school. The kids who weren't successful at doing school...how likely is it that they would choose to spend their professional life there?

We were able to do school.

We were the ones who figured out how to play the game.

We were the ones who actually liked the game of school.

And, because we were the ones who were relatively "successful" playing the school game, we became teachers.

Do you ever think of it that way?

Beginning...Again...

Today is my 18th first day of school as a teacher. Add to that 4 years of college, and 13 years of K-12, and one of preschool, if you want to count that too...and this is my 36th "first day" of school.

I still love school. I still love to teach.

It still terrifies me.

Freshman Expectations: "You Aren't In High School Anymore!"

Yesterday I posted a bit about good pedagogy, and technology, and navigating change in today's educational environment. My friend Ed replied and his point got me thinking some more about one part of the discussion fodder I shared in that post in particular: the idea that there is a real difference in expectations for learning in high school vs. learning in college. He was responding to a quote I shared in that piece that came from an article entitled "Message to My Freshman Students."

You see, I teach a lot of freshmen, first year college students. As in, they were just in high school in May, and then show up in my college class in August.

So I'm thinking now about how I can better help the freshmen I teach in Intro to Education understand the difference in expectations for their learning from high school to college. Because if I'm going to expect them to be dramatically different learners than they were in high school, they need to understand the difference.

Moving Middle School from the Back Burner

Now that I teach in higher education I have joked to colleagues that I might look like a professor, but I'm still a middle school teacher on the inside. I taught in middle schools for the first 14 years of my teaching practice, and while I love what I do now (teaching future teachers), I do miss working with young adolescents on a daily basis.

That might sound crazy to you, if you aren't a middle school teacher yourself. Actually, it might sound crazy to you even if you are a middle school teacher. Teaching young adolescents is not for the faint of heart--and it isn't for everyone! But for those of us called to teach middle schoolers...wow. It's amazing!

The other day in my Introduction to Education class, I asked my students to participate in a poll as a hook to bring them in to the topic of the day (student development.) I asked them, "Which is the most difficult age group to teach?" Of the 30 students who participated in the poll...15 answered "Middle School."

Here it is--the actual poll results.

HALF OF MY STUDENTS THINK MIDDLE SCHOOL IS THE MOST DIFFICULT.

Clearly, teaching in the middle school is not for everyone!

A Cold and Soaking Mist

A cold and soaking mist began to fall, chilling him through. The breeze picked up and he began to shiver, even as he was trying to keep moving, trying to warm up. His shirt began to cling to his skin with the damp, and soon droplets were shaking loose and falling to the ground. Alone, in the pre-dawn gloominess illuminated by passing headlights, he longed for home. A place to dry off. A place to warm up. A place to melt away the misty misery...

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I'm describing my bike ride this morning. It was 47 degrees and fully dark out at 6:00 a.m. as I pedaled away from the house. By the time I reached the corner, the mist was just beginning to fall. By a mile in, I was shivering, and water was dripping from my handlebars. And as my shirt soaked through, I did decide to cut my ride short and head home. I was miserable out there.

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I wonder if this description could also refer to classroom climate? Do students feel warmly enfolded? Or are they shivering in the drenching mist?

The Ten Students You Have in Your Class

In my last post, I shared the nine teachers you meet at school. Today, let's consider the students. I enlisted my son and our Lego collection to help me think up the ten students you likely have in your class...

Does this look like your class?

I was amazed as I talked with my son about his insights into human nature as it manifests in the classroom. Here is what we came up with: