I Don't Come To Work For Kids To Like Me...

So now educators you have been back at work for a few weeks now and hopefully you have gotten back into your routine of things and your students have also come back to reality that they are in school. Take a look at the title of this post and think about how many times you have said this or you have heard seasoned professionals say this. I know for myself, I have said this statement many times, partly because I had heard others say it, but internally that is how I felt; I really wasn't going to work for students to like me, but I was just going to teach and not really worry about my relationships with my students. Boy...was I wrong and hurting and impacting the learning of my students.

 

Managing the Madness (Berckmeyer, 2018) is a book that the middle school that I work at is reading and if you are an educator, I truly recommend this book. This book has reaffirmed my beliefs in what I have been learning in the last few years about not only middle school students but about relationships with students in general. While this blog is about my own personal experiences in education, I will back my statements with data, that is the nerd in me. Robert Marzano, Jana S. Marzano, and Debra J. Pickering (2003) stated that teachers who develop meaningful relationships with students have fewer behavior problems and better academic performance in their classrooms than teachers who do not. If you have not gotten the picture, RELATIONSHIPS MATTER!!! Yes you do come to school for students to like you. Now, there may be skeptics that say, "Well, I do not want to be their friend, I want to be their teacher." While this is very true, there must be boundaries; schools must get back to being safe and loving environments that are welcoming for students to come. What are at loving and safe environments? RELATIONSHIPS!!!! They matter, and as an educator you should make it your mission to build positive relationships with your students. Life is about RELATIONSHIPS, how you build them, how you maintain and keep them, and how you repair them. Below are my suggestions on how to begin building relationships with students no matter what time of the year it is: 

1. Greet students as they enter the classroom. 
2. Learn the name and at least one or two significant pieces of information about everyone of your students that you teach. 
3. Say hi, good morning, how are you doing,... to at least 10 different students a week.  
4. Call home and give a student's parent a good report at least once a week. 
5. Attend extra curricular activity events and cheer for the students.  
6. Tell your classes at least three things about you that are not school or work related.  
7. Have genuine and honest conversations with your students on a weekly basis.  

As always leave a comment and let me know what you think about this addition of EduSense.  

Berckemeyer, J. C. (2018). Managing the madness: a practical guide to understanding young adolescents & classroom management. Westerville: Association for Middle Level Education.

Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. J. (2003) Classroom Management that works. 
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 

The Return

This post comes at the hinges of many educators getting ready to return to work after the Christmas holidays. If you are like me, you so much needed the Christmas break. It should have been a time for you to re-energize, binge eat, binge watch a Netflix or Hulu series, sleep in, play unlimited hours of video games, and spend time with family. All of the things that I just mentioned are stress relievers (a topic that I will deal with at length during a later post) and something that we as educators need to cultivate and learn to do more of on a regular basis and not just during breaks.

However, I want you as the educator, parent, blog reader, etc to think about our students that are preparing to return back to school. This can be a joy for many students because the environment that they live in is not the most stable or safe environment. School has become a safe haven for them. Then there are others that do not like school at all and are just coming to keep their parents out of jail or because their parents are forcing them to come. At any rate you, the teacher, will be getting both of those students back in the classroom. What will make the difference in each of these student's return to school? YOU will! You, the teacher, will be the change agent, be it positive or negative, in that student's return to school. As educators we must realize that we possess the power to literally change a student's life from simply the way in which we view them and treat them. Even though you may not want to be back at work because your break was too short, never let the students know that. You must enter your classroom knowing that you are getting ready to impact a child's life for eternity. Like the rock thrown in a ocean, you initially do not see the impact, but the waves carry on for miles. Just like that, what you will do upon your return into the classroom from the break will set the atmosphere and send waves for the rest of the semester. Below are some tips to keep in mind as you begin a new semester:

1. Reestablish the rules and procedures for the classroom-Even though you may think they should remember the rules, never assume this. 
2. Be organized- No child wants to come into an environment, especially from a break, where the teacher is not organized and does not know what he/she is going to do next. 
3.  Rebuild relationships that were rocky or had been damaged during the 1st semester- No matter what happened you will have to look at and interact with that student for the next 90 or so school days. 
4. Say hi, hello, what's up, how is your day going, to at least 10 students a day- You never know how much just these few words will change a student's day.  
5. Greet the students as they enter your classroom- This sets the atmosphere and boost morale in your classroom.  

These are just a few ideas to assist you in creating a welcoming atmosphere as your students return from the break. Feel free to leave a comment or follow me on Twitter @dbchandler28 . 

Pursuit of Happiness

This blog comes on the heels of the first week of the walkout of teachers in Oklahoma. This is a historical event that is unfolding in front of our eyes. Educators please take note on the power that we have in unity. We have been able to unite for a common cause in order to effect change for the betterment of our children. Yes this is long overdue and should have been done years ago, but educators PLEASE  stand your ground and do not give in, continue to fight for what we believe.

Pursuit of Happiness, this is what most educators go into and continue to stay in education for. So many people have asked, argued, and complained that educators are greedy, selfish, and many other not so pleasant adjectives. As I have contemplated this whole walkout situation, the only thing that has come to mind is the Pursuit of Happiness. As educators we want to see a happy society, one where our present and future students will be armed with the skills necessary to impact this society. As  educators we know what awaits them once they leave our classroom and ultimately go into this cruel and unforgiving world. However in order to do this we need adequate supplies, teaching facilities, and working conditions. Yeah a little extra pay won't hurt either; it's only been ten years since the last raise. Go figure. Every teacher that I have had the chance to speak with these last few days echos this, the Pursuit of Happiness, is why I am walking out. The teachers are saying that it is their RIGHT to have adequate working conditions, supplies, and teaching facilities. If it takes walking out to show that we, as educators mean business, then that is what we must do. I  am reminded of the movie of the movie, Pursuit of Happiness, staring Will Smith. I remember all of the things that he went through in order to make a better life for his son and himself.

I said all of that to say, educators pursue you happiness with reckless  abandonment. Pursue your happiness like your life and the life of others depended on it, because it actually does. Pursue your happiness and do not give up until you find it and it becomes yours. Educators never let anyone ever devalue our profession  again, hold your heads up high and know that without you, the educators, no other profession on this earth would be possible.

Find Your Passion

This blog entry comes two years after I first started my blog, which was actually a challenge from the OKCPS ETS department. I thought that I would do it, because I am  a techy and I like getting my thoughts out. From two years ago up until now I have learned so much about myself and about WHY  I love this thing called EDUCATION.

Allow me to introduce or reintroduce myself. My name is David B. Chandler, I am an educator, and I have been in education now for 13 years. I taught high school English for five years and I have been in administration for eight years. I am passionate in what I  do; which is assist teachers in educating today's youth and serve as a role model for young people in hopes that they too would want to become educators. I am also a husband and father, a husband to the beautiful, vibrant, and full of personality wife, Tamara Chandler. I have two unique children with their own personality, Gage Chandler and Giana Chandler. I  am a licensed minister and have been since the age of 15; attend Remnant Church in OKC, where I serve as one of the associate minsters. I am a proud member of the BEST fraternity on this earth, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.  Lastly I love to read, cook/bake, and play video games. This is me, David Benjamin Chandler.

I have shared all of the above information for a reason, as you read a little bit of information about me, realize that in all that I am, I have found my PASSION. My passion and calling to be on this earth, is to EDUCATE. Yes, I am a very spiritual  person and I believe that God equips us with talents that we use not only in our everyday lives but also to enrich the kingdom of God. They go hand-in-hand. This weeks blog is about FINDING YOUR PASSION.

As an educator, we definitely do not do this for the money, I truly believe that society could never pay us enough money for our talents, time, and energy that we put into this profession. Education must be a calling and a passion, if you plan to last in this profession. My passion, which has taken me almost 11 years to truly come to grips with, is educating young people and assisting teachers in becoming the best educators that they can be. Like I stated earlier, I started this blog two years ago, as a challenge. Little did I know that I would be laid off my job, get another job that I thought would be a stepping stone toward my dream job; only to loose that job and begin working on my doctorate all in a two year span. God takes us on journeys that many times we don't quite understand, but if we continue to follow him the fog will clear and we will see the path clearer. Since coming back into public education, I have had my PASSION ignited. I now serve as the Assistant Principal over the middle school at the Frederick A. Douglass  Mid-High School in Oklahoma City, OK. This in itself is a miracle because ever since I came into education  I always told myself that I would NEVER be a middle school educator. Since being  back this year over the middle school, I can say that this is my PASSION, middle school students. I  see  clearer than ever before that I am needed in middle school setting. I am able to work with middle school students and help them see the value of education and that middle school is their foundation. I have worked with high school students  and I have worked with college students, but those do not compare to the love that I have found for my middle school students in just one year. This is my WHY as to why I stay in education and do not change careers, I look at my middle school students each day and pray that one  day they too will want to become educators.

So,  I pose this question to you, "What is Your Passion, why do you wake up each morning and do what you do?" In life you must operate in your passion/calling in order to find fulfillment. If you do not you will be miserable, you may smile on the outside but you will be miserable on the inside. I challenge you to find your PASSION and run towards it and with it. Once you find your PASSION, the sky is the limit.

Looking in a Rear View Mirror To Go Forward....

As I sit and reflect on where I have been in my ten years of education, I can't believe how time has flown by. I have seen my students grow up, graduate from college, become successful, and start families of their own. The field of education has changed dramatically, I can't say that I am pleased with everything that has evolved in the field of education, but I will continue to work and fight for a better educational system for my children and your children.

I remember when I first started teaching teachers just taught for the fun of teaching and believing that you could teach because you were really going to make a difference in a child's life. As you taught you could infuse some life lessons into your lessons so that you could teach a holistic curriculum. Those were the good ole days! The era of education now, has drastically changed. TEST! TEST! TEST! Don't get me wrong, it is good to evaluate and determine where a student is while they are in school. I truly believe that the amount of test that the students have to take are a bit overkill. So, you have a system where students have lost their love for learning and teachers have lost their love for teaching, and you have a perpetual system that just goes in circles with no end.

I do believe there is hope for education though. I think that eventually we will get this testing thing right and only require one test for students to graduate from high school. I hope that it's the ACT or SAT, which is used for admittance into college, so why not use it as the exit exam for students to get out of high school. Where does this leave me? Still fighting for equality in education for students that look like me. I have chased money, and it did not bring the fulfillment that I thought it would. I am now on a mission to try and level the playing field of the minority and majority in education. I have renewed passion to see this generation of students have all the rights and privileges that the next student has. Hey, there may also be a charter school in the making in the near further. Only God knows.

Should I Stay or Should I go Now.....

This week's blog challenge is to blog about four reasons why I stay in the rough culture of education. This is a question that students ask me all of the time. Students and even society can't fathom why anyone would want to stay in the field of education with all of the issues that arise in this profession. I hope to fully explain the reasons as to why I stay in the field of education. Enjoy!!!!

1. A true and definite calling from God. In this time of education that we live in when there is a dire shortage of teachers in the profession and every time we look up there is a call for alternative certified teachers, I stay in the profession because I believe that it is a call from God, a mandate if you will say. Don't get me wrong I have met my share of alt. certified teachers and they do well, but if your heart is not in it you will not last. I once say a book entitled Those Who Can't Teach meaning that, those who can't make it in the business sector of the world turn to teaching. I totally hate this notion that education has now! Society looks at the amount of months that we actually teach and work and the summer break (which really is not a break) we supposedly get and society tries to minimizes our profession. But, let's get this straight, there is NO OTHER PROFESSION that would exist without a teacher. Let that sink in. So, I stay in the this profession because God has called me to be here! There have been days that I have wanted to throw in the towel, but because this is a calling and not just a job I continue to fight for a fair and equitable education for all kids and hope the student's lives that I impact will pay it forward and one day come back to education and do that same. 
2. I want the students to see someone that looks like them. With there being a shortage of educators in today's profession, there is surely a shortage of African Americans in the profession. Then let's take that a step further, there is a shortage of males in the profession too. I stay, because I want every black male that I come in contact with to see that you don't have to grow up looking to be a professional athlete, music industry star, or sell drugs. I want my black males and more importantly all males to see that you can grow up be successful and give back to your community. Many times our males don't have any focus because they don't have anyone that they can relate to or turn to. It's easy to want to be someone that makes lots of money and has lots of women, but in the back of their minds these males know that it will be very hard to attain that lifestyle because not everyone can make it to that pinnacle. I want to intentionally be a role model for all males, especially black males, and let them know that there is more to life and that it's cool to be an educator. 
3. Those that have paved the way for me. There are many educators that have paved the way for me to be where I am today. My father, Walter Chandler, Mr. David Witte my high school principal, Dr. Alex Lewis my college mentor, Dr. Joan Clark college mentor. I could go on and on but you get the idea. There have been many people that have come before me that stuck with education even when times got rough they stayed because they knew there would be a David Chandler that would need someone to guide him along the way. I stay because this generation of students need guidance from someone that is passionate about education and looks at this as not just a job but a calling and a career. Our students deserve better than a person who is just in it just to draw a paycheck and supposedly get summers off. I stand on the shoulders of those that came before me and I look to one day have many of my students stand on my shoulders to train and teach the next generation of citizens. 
4. Honestly, I think I am pretty good at! This may sound arrogant, but hey if you don't have confidence in yourself who will. As a teacher I thought I was pretty good at breaking down the English language and novels so that students could understand them. Also I am pretty good at getting students to think rationally and objectively at situations that they are going through in life. Now that I have transitioned into the administration role, I think that I am now learning how to get the best out of teacher so that instruction is impacted and that students learn what is being taught. I must admit that I have a long way to go, but I must say that I think that I am pretty good at educating students and leading teachers.  

I hope this gives you some insight as to why I stay in this profession and why I hope that you, as you read this, decide to stay in education. I am not going to lie, there are days that just make you want to give up and never look back, but trust me, take a deep breath, go hope and decompress, and go back and try even harder next time. Remember, on your worst day, you are still the best thing that many of these students will ever have. 

Keeping Calm: You Still Have the Power

This post is an unusually one because it is in response to the OKCPS Blogging Challenge. I think I might be the only administrator that is participating in the Blogging Challenge. Our assignment is to blog about any topic concerning education that we  aids us in our everyday work in education. As an administrator, I get to see a totally different side of education. I mostly deal with the political side of the profession, parent concerns, improving instruction within the school, and I deal with student discipline. During this blog I want to deal with student discipline and some techniques that I have learned over the years that aid me in dealing with student discipline.

Now, I have been in education for a 11 years now, and one of the first things that I ever learned was that in order to survive in education you must form good relationships. Not only with your fellow teachers, administration, parents, but mostly with students. Students are your customers and ultimately they are the ones that will matter the most. So, before I even administer discipline or try to discipline a student I must first get to know the students and build a rapport with the students. Students need to know that they can trust you and they need to know that even when you administer discipline that it is not from a place of hate or malice but from a place of love. Believe it or not students want boundaries and do not mind discipline, because most of the time they know that they have done wrong, they just want to know how far they are able to push the boundaries.

Secondly, when dealing with student discipline always do some investigating and find out what the root cause of the issue or behavior. Many times a student will act out because, a) they are having a bad day b) issues at home c) bad relationship with you as the teacher d) all of the above. As an educator we must take these factors into account, not saying that you won't still administer discipline, but it will help you understand and empathize with the student. Among the many things that I have learned in my years in education is that today's students deal with way more issues, be it adult issues, than I ever did while I was in school. As educators I believe that it is our duty to not only educate but to also guide our students through difficult times in their lives.

When you do have to administer discipline here are some tips that will surely aid you and not cause a major blow up:

1. Never embarrass a student or belittle a student in front of the rest of the class. This is the easiest way to damage a teacher/student relationship in a way that probably will not be able to be repaired. 
2. Many times pulling a student away from the rest of the class and speaking with that student will alleviate the problem that is going on. This is good because many times because the student will share things with you that he/she would not normally share with you in front of the class.  
3. Don't hold grudges. Now, I know as teachers we are human and many times a student will do things that get under our skin and get on our last nerve. As educated educators we must use every fiber within us to not hold grudges against the students and give them a clean slate every time that you deal with them. Remember "Foolish is found in the heart of a child." Our students are still growing and have not figured it out yet. 
4. Choose your battles wisely. Many times students will do things just to see if they can get a rise out of you, and they want your attention. So, choose your battles wisely and do let the students see you rattled. 
5. Lastly, KEEP YOUR COOL and do not yell or raise your voice. You might be reading this and think to yourself, yeah right. Believe me, it can be done. I rarely raise my voice because I realize that as the adult and the educator I still have all of the power and authority. The minute that I begin to raise my voice and yell, I have just given up that power and I let the student know what actions they can do to get me out of my element. When situations like this come and you feel yourself loosing control, breath, step away from the situation and regain composure.  

I hope this helps you in area of student discipline and classroom management.