Tried and True Teaching Hacks
I taught in the Bronx, New York in one of the toughest New York City comprehensive public schools and worked my way up to an Assistant Principal, then went into Hell’s Kitchen into another campus that had the same reputation. Let me share with you why I think those 14 years prepared me for any situation, in any school, with any kid or staff, and the hacks I developed during that process.
I remember my first day of teaching was like an absolute HBO special.
I was giving an assessment when the entire classroom was sprayed by a fire extinguisher when some random kid from the hallway thought it an entertaining and wise decision.
I must admit, he had our instant attention. An immediate combination of laughter and surprise were juxtaposed with screams, pain, tears, and eventually all became anger. A kid in the back who I later learned had a tough reputation, jumped over like 5 kids and ran out the door after the culprit. My first reaction was to follow. I went to the phone box to call security and the phone was gone. So I ran out.
I ran to the class next door and asked the teacher who I never met, as my clothes were half covered in a liquid-like solution, if he would watch my class and I ran down the stairway following the sounds of feet pounding the steps below. The teacher didn’t come. He called from his phone box, and the administration came running.
I heard the two boys exit the first floor and literally begin throwing haymakers in the hall like Hagler Vs. Hearns in the epic beginning of that classic title fight. I literally called for security and they came running. When they broke it up, I remembered my class upstairs and got back to my room in time to meet administration coming in as well.
Tip #1 — Learn your surroundings and environment.
Perhaps I should have asked why we didn’t have a phone after checking first — instead I assumed that because a phone box was in the room that a phone was there. I also assumed the door was safe to keep open. I assumed the teacher next door would “come to my aid” when that dude shut his door, called for help, and kept teaching.
I didn’t know security. I had no idea where those kids were going or how to best intervene even when I did catch them both. What would I really have done if I did? I spent time that week walking around the campus, overextending myself to custodians, security guards, deans, and other teachers that I would see so they knew just because I was 21 years old that I was still staff.
I didn’t know our policies of management, I wouldn’t have known even who to call had that phone even been in the box. Since no on-boarding of any kind was given to me, I had to take the initiative and learn these things. I learned to always carry chalk, because teachers hoarded it like toilet paper during a pandemic.
Although that situation brought us as a class, way closer together because the kids loved how I reacted, what I did, the things I screamed which were totally inappropriate for any educational setting, and the persistent pursuit of ensuring that the student was accountable and my student was seen as the victim.
In that situation, the students saw the real me. They knew their teacher wasn’t like the cat next door who was doing what was best for him and burnt so badly that he knew no other way than the easy one. They knew I would be authentic in our plight towards finding successes in our class, and this was the basis for trust. This was the foundation of our relationship.
Tip #2 — Your relationships with your students are the foundation for how effective you will be as a teacher.
If your students aren’t engaged they won’t learn much — we know that. However, the underlying message also sent if a lack of engagement reign persistent is interpreted by the student as a lack of wanting to try, a.k.a. — caring to try.
If you expect that this is a road that needs to be traveled down without the assumption that students will just want to learn from you no matter your content or delivery — this will define your relationship with your students. They will be curious as to what you will give them. They will know you know how they learn best and will give them that choice. You will be real with them and they will trust that this is always the case, so they will value what you say and want to listen.
Know your students holistically. Know their situations and homelife. Know their patterns and learning habits, or formulate them as you go via constant inquiry. Utilize that to your advantage if you know it works, and hone in on how to expand and create exploration from that starting point.
Easter Egg #1 — Teach your students how to learn.
I’ve not once, in any of my educational classes at either the bachelor’s level or master’s level, ever learned how to teach students how to learn.
I learned lesson planning, content matter, basic law and finance, your basics of classroom management, and ways to research those that dive deeper into all of the above. Yet not once did anyone address the beginning of the learning cycle, in order for the cycle to continue let alone even exist.
Why don’t we learn how students learn when becoming a teacher? If you have in your course of study, awesome. Let that drive your successes, because you may not have many unless you focus on that. The process of learning comes from being able to listen, record, organize, and revisit for the purposes of formulating new information.
If you are a science teacher and just start having students take notes, you should assume they don’t know how to do it effectively — so train them how you would do it, to maximize success. If you are a math teacher and announce a test tomorrow and your homework is the classic, “Go home and study” — do not expect solid grades that are consistent across your students. The students who somehow have developed that skill prior to your class will exceed and those that haven’t won’t.
Teach your students how to study, how to calendar their time outside of school, and in essence, how to learn. Don’t assume anything here.
Tip # 3 — Be persistent in your planning so you can maximize creativity.
My first few months of my first year were brutal because I lesson planned like an animal every damn night. A few of my fellow English teachers, once they all lost the famous, “Let’s see how long the new guy lasts” bet because I made it longer than 90 days, began to share their tricks to the trade, and I was in. The first bit of advice was this, stop nightly lesson planning without a month’s vision of what you want to do, thought out first.
I took a piece of blank paper, made squares in a worthy attempt to replicate a calendar, and began. I asked what I needed to accomplish, how far along I thought different content would take to cover, arranged the ideas in a coherent manner, and had an overview of what the month could be. Then, I began creating Aim questions and listing content matter and possible homework assignments that would connect everything together.
What this led to, was organization on a level that did alleviate the day to day grind, but also enabled the ability to increase engagement and creativity.
If I knew I was working on a listening passage, I would get on the subway twice a day for an hour and a half, and write what I saw. This made for awesome listening passages that got my students to want to listen, so they could practice recording what they heard — more effectively. Even if I wasn’t reading one the next day, I knew it was on the agenda, so I prepped when the situation presented itself and I found to enjoy it more.
Knowing I was working on quotation analysis, I would look all over the city for good ones on statues or plaques or parks and use those. Knowing we were studying conflict next week gave me a week’s worth of New York Post headlines to use as examples as to what specific type of conflict it was. Since the Post was a tabloid and made everything into something, the kids loved it.
I found more time to try student centered tasks when direct instruction was the norm.
I tried so many new and different ways, but I learned that having the ability to plan, also led to my ability to create habits. Every Monday was vocab day, Tuesday was quotation interpretation day, Wednesday was poetry day, Thursday was application day (which everyone thought was crazy yet today is the essence of quality instruction) and every Friday was listening day.
My kids knew to come in, take their stuff out, and get started, because I trained them how and why we need to do that. This took like 2 months, but it worked. This is why I always say, “Effective lesson planning will manage your classroom so you don’t have to.”
