Why in the world would you have ‘class sets’ of dictionaries?  Because that’s what everyone else does?  You are  smarter than that, right?

To explore that further, please answer the following questions:

1. Do all of the students in your class read at exactly the same level? 

2. Does any dictionary have ALL the features, words, tools, and resources that you need?

3. Are you capable of – and interested in - differentiating instruction for your students?

Here are the answers I’d predict for anyone reading this article:

1. No.

2. No.

3. Yes.

Given those answers, let’s think about making the case with other teachers in your building about using a variety of dictionaries instead of the proverbial ‘class set.’ 

• Students read at a range of reading levels, no matter whether they are in first grade or are juniors in high school.

• Students need dictionaries that are appropriate for their reading level or there is little or no chance that they will access them.

• If students don’t use the dictionaries that are in a classroom, then there is little reason to have them in the classroom.

• Students need dictionaries that are challenging enough to make them interesting but not inaccessible because the reading level is too high.

• If everyone in the classroom is using a different dictionary (or at least it appears that way) when students are doing dictionary work, then no one feels singled out because s/he is the ONLY one with a higher or lower level of dictionary.  The idea is for all students to feel included in the learning event.

Let’s hope you can use some of these reasons/arguments with some of your colleagues.  When you do, then have a dictionary ‘swap.’  Have all the teachers (who ‘get it’) bring their dictionaries to a central location (like your classroom).  Whatever number of dictionaries that a person comes in with is the number s/he will leave with.  Everyone can wander around the classroom choosing from the piles of dictionaries that are displayed. 

An additional way to differentiate your dictionary selection is to go to garage sales (normally I’m not a fan) and buy dictionaries that are available.  Old, new, battered, whatever…buy them for 50 cents or thereabouts.

Another way is  to check out the discount tables at bookstores.  I’m stunned at the fabulous, brand new dictionaries that one can purchase for a few dollars.

And yes… yet another way is to ask parents, friends, or local libraries to donate dictionaries for your classroom.  MANY people will say yes – and this adds to the array of choices your students will have the next time you say, ‘Good news, it’s time for some word play and dictionary fun!’ 

Have you “traded” some dictionaries with grade levels above or below yours so that you have a wider range of dictionaries?

Make the dictionaries in your classroom irresistible and then students will clamor for opportunities to just enjoy them.  I know because I was one of ‘those’ classroom teachers who did things like that.  I’ll bet you are, too.  Hooray for us!!!

Student evaluations are a part of every faculty member’s life. Some consider them to be a positive part of the academic life and others dismiss them as a meaningless exercise (or even worse, as a detriment to good teaching).

You might as well know that I come down on the side of student evaluations being a necessary and worthwhile component of teaching at the college and university level. I also received – and I believe, earned – great student evaluations over the 19 years that I taught undergraduate and graduate students. This wasn’t a fluke.

Here are six suggestions for ensuring that you earn and receive high evaluations from students:

1. Teach well. This may sound like I’m making a flip comment, but it is not intended to be so. First and foremost, if you want to earn great student evaluations, you need to be a great teacher. Some people teach well almost naturally, it seems. Others have to work VERY hard at becoming great teachers. No matter how good you already are, work to be even better. That’s your first tip – and not one to ignore.

2. Determine what you want students to write on your evaluations. For example, I wanted to students to write “I’ve never worked so hard in a class and I’ve never learned so much.” You may have a very clear sense of what you want students to write or you may need to do some extra thinking about this.

3. Tell students on the first day of class, “Here is what I am expecting to have you write on my evaluations at the end of the semester.” Then tell them. You have the phrasing for this after you complete tip #5. You are letting them know what you want and are beginning to install that kind of thinking for them. This also helps them know what your expectations are – and I always assure the students how I will be working so that I earn whatever the positive comments are that they will be making.

4. Teach your classes with whatever it is that you want students to write in mind. This includes your preparation, your demeanor in the classroom, your interactions with students, the grading of their assignments, etc. You are making sure that you earn and deserve the good evaluations that you are going to receive. The idea is that you are delivering on the “goods.”

5. Begin doing course evaluations no later than the end of the third week of class. This may sound crazy and even a little scary, but…you want to begin asking early and often (within reason, of course) how the class is going for the students. You can ask them to do informal evaluations or you can do more formal evaluations. I prefer short, frequent check-ins with students to see if there are areas where I am not doing well and that I am willing to address (e.g., if they think my expectations are too high, I am not likely to change that, but if they say I spend too long explaining something that had already been explained in the syllabus and they would rather I told people to go back and reread the syllabus, well…that’s good feedback for me).

No matter how magnificent you are as a teacher, you will always have a few students who don’t give you a “high” ranking. But if you use the ideas that are in this article, you will have the majority of students providing a fair, respectful, and good evaluation of your teaching. I know from experience and from helping lots of others with this.

When I teach, I often want to use supplemental material (or even need to because the text I use doesn’t cover something). What guidelines must I follow to ensure I’m not violating copyright? If it’s just a section of a text, can I copy it and hand it out? If it’s an article from the library can I copy it and hand it out? Must I get written permission from the publisher or is there ever an “intellectual merit – sharing knowledge for the greater good” domain? I feel like I teach my students not to plagiarize, but am afraid I am probably guilty of doing it myself . . .

Here’s my response:

Oh, my goodness. This is a VERY good question and smart to ask.

I noodled around on the internet looking for some good answers and this site seems to spell it out well:

http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml

For example:

When is Permission Required?

• When you intend to use the materials for commercial purposes.

• When you want to use the materials repeatedly.

• When you want to use a work in its entirety and it is longer than 2,500 words.

I know when I was a faculty member, I could put something in the library on reserve for students to read but only for one semester. And if it was in a course packet (like a whole article that was included), I needed to get permission. There is a copyright clearinghouse that most journals have gone to so it’s easy and usually I never had to pay anything. The only time I had to pay was if I was copying a chapter from a book and then that was about $50 – I think I had to do that once. I think this is the service (I remember it was CCC: http://www.copyright.com/)

Fair use is a big term in copyright law. And teachers, in particular, have assumed that fair use meant they could do anything almost…and that got some people into trouble.

When you find a good article in the newspaper and copy it because it’s current and you bring that in, you’re fine (citing the source, etc.). If it’s a segment from someone else’s book, you may need to look into it further.

We all need to be smart about this, especially when we are teaching and trying to model it for our students!!

In preparing for a workshop I was doing recently entitled “Input, Throughput, Output,” where I used the metaphor of a conveyor belt, I found the greatest clipart!  It showed a guy sitting at his desk and the desk was a conveyor belt.  I want you to get that picture in your mind…and then ask yourself whether your desk is a conveyor belt or, uh, maybe something else. 

• Is your desk maybe a toxic dump?
• Is your desk possibly a clogged up drain?
• Is your desk a place for incoming, but not much outgoing?  Sort of an inbound terminal?

So let’s go back to the idea of ‘desk as conveyor belt.’  You have to deliberately design your desk to function smoothly or it certainly won’t happen.  I know that from experience!  If we use the word PREPARE as our acronym, here are some tips to get you going:

P – Partition your desk/workspace into its various functions.  Think about the top of your desk as VERY pricey land (real estate).  Do you have it apportioned appropriately? 

R – Reduce the options of where incoming work (mail, folders, forms, etc.) can go.  If your desk and office are not functioning like a smooth-running conveyor belt, part of the problem may be that you (and others) put things all over the place.  This gives you the sense that you have incoming EVERYWHERE.  And for many, that’s true.  It’s an overwhelming feeling and leads to frustration rather than productivity.  Figure out a place where all of your ‘incoming’ will go (Hello?!  How about an inbox?)

E – Eliminate as many knick-knacks, pictures, plants, and other paraphernalia from your desk as possible.  Your desk is a place where you work.  Put the photo-gallery/memory-lane display somewhere else. 

P – Place what you is functional FOR YOU in easy-to-reach locations on your desk.  You want what you use often to be within easy reach and the items you don’t need as often further away. 

A – Allocate the appropriate amount of space for the kind of work you do – at any particular time. There is not a specified amount of space that is ‘right’ for every faculty member.  If it’s finals week and you are in the midst of grading projects, papers, and exams, then allocate your working space for that task.  At other times, if you are in the midst of writing a grant, then allocate (and re-allocate) your space so that it’s serving you for the current work you’re doing.  Visualize your work space as fluid. 

R – Route work back OUT of your office.  A conveyor belt keeps moving.  Sometimes, faculty members have offices where a great deal comes in but very little goes back out.  Set up systems that route out-going…OUT.  When mail is ready to be mailed, have a place for that.  If you have work that needs to go home with you, have a place for that.  If you have materials that need to go with you to class, have a place for that. 

E – Educate others about your new system.  If you have been a professor for any length of time, you – and those around you – have gotten used to the way that you do things.  As you begin to set up your desk (and office) as a conveyor belt, you’ll need to educate others about how your system works.  And they may need reminding. 

Keep the visual image of a desk as a conveyor belt.  Imagine paperwork, projects, requests, and so forth that come into your work space, are then dealt with, and then go right back out….everything is smoothly running because you have systems for “input,” systems for “throughput”, and then systems for “output.”

1. Save 10% of everything you earn – right from the first job you ever have.
2. Learn 10 new words every week. There are many word books and vocabulary books for adults and I wish I had started a systematic word study program 15 years ago.
3. Get and keep a decent calendar/planner.
4. You only get one chance to make a good first impression.
5. Gain a deep appreciation of the value of self-discipline and the rarity of self-discipline in the majority of adults.
6. Do the right thing at the right time. As Thomas Henry Huxley said, “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.”
7. Certain people aren’t worth the time they take/demand/that you give them.
8. Set boundaries, i.e., time boundaries, space boundaries, people boundaries, etc.
9. Seek counseling when needed.
10. Don’t sweat the small stuff. And it’s essentially all small stuff.
11. Excellence does not equal perfection. John Gardner said, “Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them.”
12. We become what we think about (Earl Nightingale). Your unconscious mind can’t take a joke.
13. The power of optimism.
14. You choose your life. Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. (Mildred Barthel)
15. Decide what is important and do what is important.
16. Pay attention to your intuition. Your intuition is always right. Go with your gut.
17. Be a goal setter.
18. The importance of passion.
19. Power of self-confidence/image. Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have. (Doris Mortman)
20. The concept of “entelechy” – a quality, a vital force directing a person’s life to become all the self is capable of being. (Lovecky)
21. A better understanding about friends and relationships. Human beings have to have one or two or three people who care about them and about whom they care in order for the rest of life to make sense.

You can add to this list for yourself by filling in the blanks below:

If I had only known _________________ _____ years ago, I could have saved myself___________________________. Get some clarity on your own wisdom and then share it with others – and heed what you know, too!

————————

And, to make sure you are productive in your personal and professional life, you’ll want to access the resources at

**http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm)

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting.

Do you have suggestions for how to get the teachers I’m working with to respond to my emails with more reflection?

 Without seeing specific examples of what you are sending them, all I can do is give you some general suggestions… 

1. Keep the emails short. One or two questions, tops.
2. You have to have a relationship with the people or they won’t respond anyway, so take a look and see if you are getting more response from certain people. Are they the ones with whom you have an even better relationship than you have with others.
3. What’s in it for them (The old WIIFM: What’s In It For Me radio station). Why should they, in their busy days, respond to your emails? Do they recognize the benefit they are receiving.
4. Ask them individually (F2F or email) why they don’t respond. I’d be more likely to ask F2F because then you can probe further and read the body language, etc.
5. Are the teachers you’re working with very skilled on email management (probably not). If they have an email inbox with scores, hundreds, or thousands of emails, then yours are just lost in the clutter. This is true for nearly all teachers (and other professionals).
6. Are the answers easy for them or difficult? Do they want to respond or is it easier to ignore the questions, i.e., if you’re asking the ‘tough’ questions, which is your role, then some of them may prefer not to answer those. Easier and more comfortable to keep their heads in the sand.
7. Has the administrator made it clear what her expectations are as far as how they will work with you?

So, this is a lot to consider. I know you are working so hard with them and have such a wealth of knowledge and opportunities for growth for them – if they’d just access it.

 So here’s my first question to you, ‘With a title like
Teaching:  The Greatest Career on the Planet, what
educator wouldn’t want to read it now?!                                            

If there has ever been a time when teachers need to
be inspired, this is it.  It’s been a brutal period to be
in education over the last few years -now with money
being pinched tighter and tighter, with tougher and
tougher situations presenting themselves in schools
and classrooms, it could be easy for teachers to lose
heart.  Here’s the good news…Graysen Walles’ book
will help teachers who are losing heart to regain their
teaching spirit.

Graysen comes across as someone you could sit and talk with and you would know that he cares about what you’re experiencing.  He certainly has a sense about education that is the one that most of us had at the beginning, i.e., that it’s a calling, it changes lives, it’s honorable, and that it’s the best career anyone could want – although it’s not the career for everyone.

Just by reading through his chapter titles, I wanted to read more.  He uses chapter titles for Section I (Characteristics of the Teaching Profession) that start with “Teaching Is” and then follows it with words like “Challenging,” “Transformative,” “Heroic,” “Exciting,” and the like.  All of these words were carefully selected and then the chapters support the position he takes in his word choice.  Each chapter leaves you inspired and ready to continue on with your day, week, or career decision.  He illustrates his ideas clearly with stories, examples, and quotes. 

Section II of the book (Characteristics of the Effective Teacher) is again uplifting and ‘real,’ which is even the title of the first chapter in this section, i.e., “Teachers Must Be Real.”  The chapters that follow make it clear that great teachers are not run-of-the-mill folks but rather are bright, imaginative, brave, and reflective.  Those of us who know we are really, really, really teachers – recognize ourselves and are affirmed by Dr. Walles’ words and examples. 

• If you are thinking of becoming a teacher – you can read this book to see if you ‘have what it takes.’
• If you are already a teacher and could use some reminders about why you made this choice, then you’ll find that in this book.
• If you are teetering on the edge of leaving the profession because you’ve lost heart, then please, read this book so you can get your heart back. Our students, communities, and the world need the best teachers to stay and make a difference with those they teach.

Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.
Emphasis on Excellence, Inc.
Reno, NV
www.meggin.com
http://theteachersmovement.com/