To Teach or Not to Teach

1.   C
2.   B
3.   C
4.   B
5.   D

Effective Teaching Strategies:

Listening to Students

Let's review the suggested answers and delve into why these are effective strategies. In the first scenario, a student adamantly believes that 2Pac is alive and brings this up in class. The successful teacher will quickly and respectfully acknowledge the opinion and move in another direction. In this way, the teacher has heard the opinion and not belittled it; really listening to students' opinions is one of the most important attributes a successful teacher has. On the other hand, giving the student too much leeway will give him or her control. In reality, it may even be a divisive issue to debate since many have strong opinions about the music (and musicians) they hold in esteem. Therefore, moving quickly to a different direction will allow you to keep teaching your intended curriculum while your class stays unified and focused.

Understand Teenspeak, But Remember You're Not One

In scenario number two, you're asked to interpret "LOL" (laugh out loud) and to tell contexts it's likely to be seen in (online and in text messaging) . It doesn't take long in the classroom to be observant of "teenage idioms." My advice here is to draw the line with what you allow in your classroom. For example, it's wise not to allow the 4:20 allusion (a marijuana reference) when it goes beyond personal doodling inside their notebooks. In addition to the text messaging acronyms and the drug culture idioms, it wouldn't be high school without the double entendres and sexual inferences. Every teacher and school administrator will inevitably have to deal with the student who says he/she was innocent, so naturally, the double meaning has to be rooted in the gutter mind of the authority. This, of course, is just a test to see if you're going to remain the calm, cool authority who holds them responsible. Your ability to stay in control and keep your expectations high is what they need. Finally, the last piece of advice about teenage idioms is to refrain from using their lingo yourself, even if you are very close to their age. By doing such, you are the professional, not the teacher who tries to be one of them.

Strike a Balance: In Control, Not Controlling

In questions 3 and 4, what's important is that you are striking the balance; successful teachers are neither authoritarian nor are they enablers. Students coming to class without a pencil or the correct materials create prevalent disruptions in the learning process. So the seasoned teacher learns quickly to set up a routine in which the forgotten materials are neither an excuse nor a distraction. If the student is required to trade something of value to them for your pencil in the beginning, then once this becomes routine, it happens "automatically," without disruption to the class.

Forgetting a pencil is not the kind of offense to be troubling the office nor parents about; doing that only makes the teacher appear like a weak authority. Similarly, in question 4, the successful teacher chooses his or her battles. While there may be some high schools in America in which the climate is so pristine that a whispered swear word is still a punishable offense, in general, I believe it's not. The question made it clear that this was a private conversation and a mild swear word, so a mild reprimand is all that's warranted.

Inspire Lifelong Learning

Question 5 is a test of your motive for getting into education. While the A response may seem very similar to D, the difference goes back to the attribute of listening to your students. You may be the best Shakespearean teacher the world has ever known, but it's very likely that many in your class will be adamantly against literature in which English seems like a foreign language. Couple their prejudices with a few learning disabilities and the outside struggles going on in their lives, and you may be fighting a mutiny, especially if they get wind of the Shakespearean authorship controversy. In other words, teach Shakespeare if you must, but if you really want your students to be engaged, let them choose the literature or at least be sure to give them the tools to make them successful and confident in conquering the literature. In this way, teachers every day are awakening students to love reading and writing, math, science, or any other subject! Students will be lifelong learners if they love what they're doing.

So maybe you didn't answer every question with the recommended response. Just remember that every teacher makes mistakes. If you're willing to try to strike a better balance between authoritarianism and enablement, you will improve. Remember to listen to your students and practice calm, collected, and consistent reprimands for their disruptive behaviors, and you will be a respected teacher.