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May 2009
Vol 6 No 5
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Back Issues
Teachers.Net Gazette Vol.6 No.5 May 2009

Cover Story by Matt Levinson
Schools and Facebook: Moving Too Fast,
or Not Fast Enough?
Schools can draw a line in the sand, with zero tolerance rules written into school handbooks, or they can shift with the changing sands of social networking and utilize social networking and Facebook to enhance teaching and learning.


Harry & Rosemary Wong: Effective Teaching
Teachers Are the Greatest Assets
On the first day of school, the teacher across the hall commented to me that my students are "always so good!" It's not the students; it's the procedures that have proven to work. The First Days of School helps me to manage my class, so that I can be an effective teacher.


Columns
»Comedy Highlights from Room K-1! Sue Gruber
»What Will Your Students Remember? Leah Davies
»My Mrs. Krikorian Todd R. Nelson
»Discipline Is a Liberating Word Marvin Marshall
»The Busy Educator's Monthly Five Marjan Glavac
»Help! Too Much Talk! Not Enough Work! Barbara Pressman
»Mayan Sites and Paris Easy on the Purse Josette Bonafino
»The Little Things that Count in Our Schools: Doing Something Different, Simple and Powerful Cheryl Sigmon
»Teacher Morale Matters Dorothy Rich
»Team Management - It’s in the Cards Rick Morris
»Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century Hal Portner

Articles
»The Document Camera: A Better Way to Present! Joe Frisk
»Need a Teaching Job? Here’s Where to Find One Alan Haskvitz
»Make Twitter an Ally in the Classroom! Alan Haskvitz
»Teaching Is... Bill Page
»Celebrating True Heroes Graysen Walles
»Digital Pens & Touch-Screens Tim Newlin
»12 Ways to Improve and Enhance Your Paraprofessional- Teacher Experience Susan Fitzell
»May 2009 Writing Prompts James Wayne
»Using Photographs To Inspire Writing VII Hank Kellner
»How to Increase the Number of Physics and Chemistry Majors Stewart E. Brekke
»Bibliotherapy Booklist for Elementary Students Lisa Bundrick
»8 Ways to Make Math Magical at School Steve Sherman
»5 Brainteasers Steve Sherman
»What Will You Do For Shy Kids? Marjie Braun Knudsen

Features
»Apple Seeds: Inspiring Quotes Barb Stutesman
»Today Is... Daily Commemoration Ron Victoria
»The Lighter Side of Teaching
»Photo Tour: 3rd Grade Classroom
»Teacher Blogs Showcase
»Carol Goodrow's Kids Running Printables
»Dolch word activities, end of first grade test, first grade memory book, map and geography lessons for all levels, IEP progress, and graduation ceremonies songs
»Video Bytes; Are You Going to Finish Strong?, Antarctica, Ted Talks - Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?, How Big Is Will?, The Sling Shot Man, Styrofoam Cup vs. Deep Sea
»Live on Teachers.Net: May 2009
»New Teacher Induction Programs
»Newsdesk: Events & Opportunities for Teachers


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Cover Story by Matt Levinson

Effective Teaching by Harry & Rosemary Wong

Contributors this month: Matt Levinson, Sue Gruber, Leah Davies, Todd R. Nelson, Marvin Marshall, Marjan Glavac, Barbara Pressman, Josette Bonafino, Cheryl Sigmon, Dorothy Rich, Rick Morris, Hal Portner, Joe Frisk, Alan Haskvitz, Alan Haskvitz, Bill Page, Graysen Walles, Tim Newlin, Susan Fitzell, James Wayne, Hank Kellner, Stewart E. Brekke, Lisa Bundrick, Steve Sherman, Steve Sherman, Marjie Braun Knudsen, Barb Stutesman, Ron Victoria, Rita Sheffield, Carol Goodrow, and YENDOR.

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Todd Nelson

The Principal Learning Curve
Archive | Biography | Resources | Discussion

My Mrs. Krikorian

Can you hear the voice of the teacher in your past who took you in; who looked past your rap sheet and outward appearances and touched your potential with a knowing look or kind word?
by Todd R. Nelson
Regular contributor to the Gazette
May 1, 2008

For a few years now, I’ve carried this poem by Sharon Olds around in my heart. Every day at school I see examples of the fulfillment of its ancient history and prophesy of the future, if you look at it as a document that could be a record of each of our school histories and each of our present school influences. “Mrs. Krikorian,” the teacher who was an “amiable giantess with the kind eyes” begins,

She saved me. When I arrived in sixth grade,
a known criminal, the new teacher
asked me to stay after school the first day, she said
I’ve heard about you. She was a tall woman,
with a deep crevice between her breasts,
and a large, calm nose. She said,
This is a special library pass.
As soon as you finish your hour's work—
That hour's work that took ten minutes
and then the devil glanced into the room
and found me empty, a house standing open—
you can go to the library.

There’s more to this poem than can be conveyed here. But I’ve shared enough to position this question: Do you remember your Mrs. Krikorian? Can you hear the voice of the teacher in your past who took you in; who looked past your rap sheet and outward appearances and touched your potential with a knowing look or kind word? Who was the gentle giant or giantess in your life; who gave you extra time in the library?

To this day (I am 52), what I remember most vividly from my own middle school years is the tone of voice of my teachers. Mrs. Tapley, Mr. Williamson, Mr. Stevens: they all had a kind of perfect pitch, a resonant tone of voice, stature, and bearing. The effect of their pedagogy and curriculum shows up to varying degrees in my adult writing, math skills, spelling, or geographical literacy. Okay, long division still confounds me, through no fault of Miss McCormack; I have a good working knowledge of the earth’s important physical features; I can spell pretty good. But what I learned from them is not necessarily the most important memory—a clue as to what I think matters in schools. It was their tone—their attitude and feeling, towards me and towards their academic subject—through which my teachers created an expectation for learning and a deep sense of aspiration. Isn’t this a kind of standards-based learning that, sadly, flies under the radar nowadays?

Good teachers create a positive tone by making children feel cared for, understood, challenged, appreciated. Of course we also remember their moments of righteous indignation, mock ire, and appropriately-timed withering glances! I can still hear Mr. Stevens, my fourth grade teacher, scolding Vicki for making a sixth trip to the pencil sharpener in order to drop yet another note on Caroline’s desk, instead of paying attention to his lesson on the apostrophe. I do not remember his lesson, per se. But Mr. Stevens somehow made it personal, and that is why I can form the possessive singular. I do not know if Vicki can say the same, but surely she too can remember his tone, and the embedded value it conveyed.

I knew from their tone that my teachers were powerful, or not; knowledgeable, or faking it; sincere, or going through the motions; secure, or insecure. Looking back, I know that learning occurred most spontaneously, deeply, and lastingly for me when the tone was in sync with my developmental timing—and allowances were also being made for the unique tenor of the given day. It was then that I allowed myself to be taught—or conspired with my teachers to learn, in spite of myself.

I’ve come to feel that this is the fundamental transaction of good schools as well as good teachers: creating an atmosphere in which students can learn because their teachers know them intimately, have their trust, and ingeniously adapt information and skills in a way that is authentic. It would be my humble privilege to think that I have effected a few of these transactions in my experience as a teacher and administrator. I can be certain of precipitating many individual breakthroughs (“So that’s what that poem means!”); confident of training young writers in some key skills (even punctuating the possessive plural!), and hopeful that I’ve recruited, hired, and supported teachers whose gift for getting the tone right assured some future grateful memories of joyous learning. It would be my tribute to Mr. Stevens to think that I had, in fact, struck the right tone for just a few of my students and colleagues, just as he did for me. It’s my standard for considering myself a teacher.< /p>

And whose Mrs. Krikorian are you?

Todd R. Nelson is principal at the Adams School in Castine, Maine.



» More Gazette articles...




About Todd Nelson...

Todd R. Nelson has been a public and private school English teacher and administrator for 29 years, in schools in Cambridge, San Francisco, Chicago and Maine. He is principal at the Adams School in Castine, Maine, a 54 student K-8 school on the town common in a little town on the coast, where he gets to play four-square at recess, play his bagpipes, and write musicals for the all-school play.


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