Specific Technique: Smith, in a personal communication via email, suggested a beginning teacher make an appointment with a veteran teacher and go through all the questions that they need to ask. He suggested that these beginning teachers make an ongoing list of questions as they prepare for the appointment.

Update: I have added in some specific techniques regarding what to do, that beginning teachers can use, which have been written in blue font.

Here are some of my notes that I took while reading Conscious Classroom Management (www.consciousteaching.com) this incredible book:

BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS

Before the year starts you should make or plan out the units by looking at the expected outcomes that you want to cover. He suggests that whatever preparation you do counts a lot!

Assumptions

• He suggests that our core assumptions that we have impact all the actions we take.

• Our main job is not to teach, but to teach people, content and appropriate behavior and that when teaching the behavior part we should not just rush it, instead we should show them what is appropriate and what isn’t and assume that they want to learn it.
• Assume that they want to learn the content that I am teaching., and assume that they are asking us , “’Could you please teach me how to behave? What do I need to do or know in order to learn the best behaviour’”(p.15.
• Assume that students want to listen to us.
• When  students are not behaving appropriately they are telling us that they haven’t learned appropriate behavior and that we should then be more thorough next time or teach it in a different way.
• We must be willing to enforce the consequences. So if one of your consequences is to send a student to the office, SEND the student.

• Be firm and have good posture and voice

Specific Technique: Each morning, write on a cue card and review it each day the following assumption about your student’s, The following is what you should believe each student is saying to you internally”Please care for us today, by holding your ground in teaching us appropriate content and behviour”. On the other side of the cue card write “I will do my best to teach you appropriate content and behaviour in a safe and structured environment”

WHAT TO DO WHEN WE FEEL ANGER OR FRUSTRATION?

• If you ever feel anger or are stressed out, take deep breaths,

• INNER AUTHORITY
  • The students should know that you don’t tolerate certain kinds of bhaviour.
  • We should believe and have it ingrained in us that ultimately “I am in charge”
  • It is okay to apologize for your response without blaming or looking for causes.
  • Understand that even good teachers make mistakes.
  • ASK For help when you need it!
  • Do what is necessary to lower your stress and increase your calmness.
  • The teacher should be the one who makes the decisions in the class!
  • The best way to absorb this knowledge is to practice what is learned and act this out and try it out.
  • PROCEDURES!!!
    • The number one key to help students succeed is to have procedures.
    • These should be taught specifically and thoroughly.
    • We should be organized and prepared in our lessons and even before the lesson we can think about al the concerns and questions that might come before they actually do and we can think of our responses.
    • Give consequences and hold your ground and be firm but soft at the same time.
    • Focus on student behavior, to  practice being in charge you should call parents and let them know about their child’s behavior, focus on what you liked and their improvement.
    • Do not expect yourself and your students to be perfect, allow for mistakes and let them know that we have flaws but that mistakes are part of the learning process and we should stay focused on the goal.
    • Be OPEN! Let others know what you are going through and if you need help seek out resources and the pros and ask for help!
    • When you have feelings like anger, or frustration, let them come, welcome them and allow them to come.
    • All teachers havce the experience of feeling inferior as teachers.

COUNTERING ISOLATION?

• Know that it is okay to not always know what to do and once you find a trusted colleague /mentor, don’t hold back, ask all your questions. Realize that we don’t always know how to make all the right decisions.
• Do not isolate yourself from your more experienced colleagues.
• Show your feelings don’t hide it.
• To survive and thrive, we need to work together.
• SHARE with others! If you want to stay healthy.
• Acknowledge and appreciate everyone.
• After you get your evaluation, share it with your mentor/other trusted colleagues.
• If you make a decision, or tlak aobut something or do something that is kinda sticky or might be controversial make sure that you document it. You should have a documentation notebook, where you document information. You can also have an index card for each student where you write notes about him/her.
• If a student is really acting out and giving you problems, you could ask the staff to reassign students.  If a child is acting up a lot he/she may have special needs.
• The first step in improving is to “Recognize the truth of the situation”(p. 40).

STRESS Reduction

Take time to figure out causes of our stress and think about solutions we can do. If you don’t reduce stress you can end up burning out.

BIGGEST Stressor: “UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF OURSELVES”(p. 44)

• While teaching, we shouldn’t keep worrying about whether we are good enough, or if the administration is happy with me, or if the kids like me. We should accept the feeling and embrace that feeling that our job isn’t finished because that is a feeling that we may have a lot!

Specific Technique for creating a good relationship with students:  For 10 days choose one student whom you talk to for 2minutes each day on what interests him/her and you will notice a difference in their behaviour and others as well. Smith, suggests that we choose the most difficult child when we try this technique out. It is called the 2 by 10 strategy.

Here are some links to useful posts that have been made in the past, good luck in your job search.

Remember Deepak Chopra’s Law of Giving; to give what you seek (e.g., if you seek money, help others make money or if you seek knowledge, help others get knowledge)

Tutoring jobs in Brampton

Websites to help you find jobs in education.

Websites for job seekers (Part 1)

Websites for job seekers (Part 2)

(Part 3)

Part-time jobs in Ontario

AIMCO Staffing Solutions

Temporary agencies in Brampton

http://working.canada.com/toronto/sectors/education.html

If you would like to share job opportunities please email mentormatch_t@hotmail.com

Assuming the Best by Rick Smith.

Two new teachers went to a classroom management seminar and referred a book called Conscious Classroom Management by Rick Smith. I believe that this is one of the best books for new teachers. It contains many jewels of wisdom that are passed down from an experienced teacher who has been through a lot! In the near future, I intend on sharing the notes that I have made while reading this book, but for now I will leave you with the following:

Here are the notes that I have made so far from a journal article by Rick Smith from the journal called The Positive Classroom (September 2008). In the future I intend to post my notes from his book Conscious Classroom Management,

Change your assumptions.

• We should change our assumptions about students because what we assume about students creates a self-fulfuilling prophesy. Instead of thinking that the students don’t want to be here and don’t want to participate, we should assume that the students want to learn and want to participate and want to learn the content and learn how to behave appropriately.  He said that we should have the following assumption about our students and this statement should be something that we should believe that students are really saying beneath all that they say and do:

“I may act out in ways that suggest I am not interested, but in truth, I really want to learn appropriate behaviour and I won’t be satisfied unless you are holding your ground in teaching this to me ” (pg. 14).

The Invisible Contract

• He talks about an invisible contract that exists when students walk into our classes. He says that when a child enters a classroom, you should assume the following. That when he walks in he/she is saying “Please teach me content and appropriate behaviour in a safe and structured setting.” Also the teacher is doing a contract whereby he/she says in return:  “I will do my best to teach you appropriate behaviour and content in a safe and structured environment. I will assume that you want to learn behaviour no matter what evidence you may demonstrate to the contrary”(p. 14)

• Students who misbehave are seeing if you will stay true to the contract and they usually are the ones who need a personal connection with a teacher.
  

  2 by 10 strategy

• This is a strategy where you talk for 2 minutes to the difficult student(s) in your class each day for ten days in a row about something that interests them. Studies found that this improved the student’s behaviour and the behaviour of other students as well. And even made the student an ally.
• Have a behvaiour rubric for noise -1=whisper, 3= normal conversation, 5=yell. and then explain and tell when each is appropriate.
  

  THE POWER OF VISUALS

• Have visuals of what you want them to do before a transition, like if you want them to open their books and turn to a specific page, you put up a picture with an open book on a desk and you can write the page number on the top corner of this visual.
  

  PLEASE CARE FOR US

• When students are complaining or acting out, he suggests that we assume that they are really saying, “PLEASE CARE FOR US TODAY” and we want to be positive and learn appropriate behaviour and are saying Please teach us appropriate behaviour.
  

  GOOD TEACHERS

• Good teachers care about students’ experiences and are more positive than  critical, they are also funny, fair, flexible, structured, talk to their students especially those in need and provide many choices.

Not all students go to school just to pass, I believe there are many students who really want to do well. Since, we pay around $5, 000.00 each year, it may be wise to learn and apply the strategies and skills that will help us thrive in university and in the real world. The three qualities that I feel we need in order to be successful in university are self-discipline, seeking clarification and remembering what we have learned.

Self-Discipline: Making and Keeping Commitments.

Self-discipline is necessary in order to do well in university. I am assuming that many NBA basketball players like Allen Iverson have self-discipline. The alarm rings at 5:00am in the morning and they get up and go out to practice and follow their routines no matter what. Each day they take one step at a time to prepare for their games.  In the same way, students need self-discipline in order to do well in University/College.  The first step is to make some sort of weekly schedule. You could do this on Sunday morning. Get a weekly time table with the days of the week on top and the times along the side, then go through and fill in the spots where you have fixed commitments like classes and then set aside time for your study for each course.

Stella Park in her article titled How to Ace College or University writes that for each class students who do well spend around 8 hours doing tasks such as reading and study. In other words, they study around 40 hours per week.  Later on she suggests that 5 hours of studying per week per course should be good. Thus, a good start would be to block out time for each of the courses that we have.

Start Small

Try to be gradual. As Stephen Covey mentions a lot, the key to self-discipline is to make and keep promises, first to yourself and then with others, so start small.  Block out 1 hour first to study for a course and if you can keep that, then maybe next week block out 2 time spots and then work to expand it gradually.  Another important aspect of self-discipline and the dimension of making and keeping commitments is to attend all classes, students who do, I think do much better than those who do not, Park (2007) says, “Attend all classes; if you don’t, you will not do well.”

Time Management

In addition to planning your week, plan your month out as well (Here is a link to where you can find both a weekly planner sheet and a monthly planner sheet-> http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/time.mgt.forms.html). Park suggests, having a separate sheet of paper where you list the months and the assignments that are due for each month, this will help you see what needs to be focused on, then the next step would be to break down each big task into small goals/mini deadlines. So for example say you have a test on June 30^th. You can make one goal to Review chapter 1 notes by jUne 7^th and so on. We need to be self-disciplined in order to succeed and planning and time management is crucial for that.

Seek Clarification

Not only do you need to manage your time, but you also need to have questions but you need to ask them and clarify what you don’t understand.  While doing your readings , if you have a question, you can write the letter Q in the margin.  Its actually better to have a separate notebook where you would just have the titles of the different courses and then you would write out the questions that you have in complete sentences and references to specific pages should be included. I remember teacher’s asking if anyone had any questions, I didn’t have the chance then to open my text and see what questions I had and check my last notes because by the time I would have done that the teacher would have moved on. If I did it the way mentioned above I probably would have been much better off.

During your lectures you should note your questions with a Q symbol as well and also your T.A.s (Teaching Assistants) and professors probably hold regular office hours, you should take the initiative to go to see them and make appointments with them and ask them questions! to be respectful of them, like it said in this article you should come prepared with questions that can not be easily found in your notes or in the text or on the website, you should show that you tried stuff to find the answer first, ok.

To conclude, it is not enough to just listen to the profs and ignore stuff that we don’t understand, instead we need to go up to the teacher and seek their help, that is their job, to teach, plus they are getting paid a lot of money to do so!

Take Notes

One of the last hints I want to share is the amazing power of taking notes!  Park suggests that , while reading, we should take notes in our own words, and summarize the main points and evidence because it will help us remember. So when reading, try to look for the main points in the article/reading. One strategy that Park suggests is that for every main point you could number it in the margin and then underline the supporting evidence, and whenever you see definitions you should underline them

Another important thing is to be active in your reading.  Reading out loud really works for me. Another good strategy to use before you read is to preview and scan what you will read and then change the titles into questions, so if one of the titles is Reducing Type A Behaviour, you can have a question like How to Reduce Type A Behaviour

In conclusion, for us to do well in school we need to be self-disciplined, ask questions and remember what we are taught! I invite you to apply these skills and strategies and notice what happens to your level of effectiveness.

Source: Stella Park. How to Ace College or University. Mindsource Technologies Inc. (2007)

Another good source is Becoming a Master Student (3^rd Edition) by Dave Ellis

This book has many strategies and tools to help students do well in school; time management worksheets, note-taking, and improving memory are just two of the topics that are covered in this great book.

The following is a story about someone I know who had an intense desire to change their health and lifestyle, she was at a point in her life where her health was deteriorating at a fast rate. In order for her to be able to work and live a painfree life she was going to have to find a solution that did not involve taking any prescribed medication. So after undergoing a blood analysis, she decided to completely change her lifestyle, starting from the way she eats and has now reaped the benefits and wants to share what she has learned with others.  So here is her story:

I worked as a Vice Principal for 11 years in a private school in Canada.    In 2005, for health reasons, I had to go into early retirement.

After having my four children, I noticed that my health began to deteriorate.   Every year seemed to age me by five years and by the time I turned 40,  I felt like I was 60!    I suffered from frequent headaches, arthritis,  joint pain, and severe lower back pain.    I constantly felt tired and hungry and couldn’t remember a thing!    Despite exercising and trying to eat right I kept gaining weight!

At times my lower back pain was so debilitating I couldn’t get out of bed for days!  I visited numerous doctors, chiropractors and specialists.    No one could pin point a specific cause for all of my various health problems.    Instead they wanted to mask the problems I was having with steriod injections and muscle relaxants.

It was by pure luck and the grace of God that I ended up having an appointment with a woman who did live & dry blood analysis.   From just looking at a few drops of my blood she knew exactly what ailed me.   She put me on a path that forever changed my life.

I started to apply the things she taught me and noticed a change very quickly after seeing her.   I started to hope and believe that I didn’t have to live the rest of my life popping pain medication and laying in bed!   Almost like a miracle my lower back pain and joint aches started to subside.   If I had not experienced first hand the change to my well being I would not have believed someone else.   I felt alive again — like I had a second chance at life!

It’s with this passion that I began to research and learn more about alternative medicine and health care.   My research took me to Toronto where I learned under Deborah Parker, who has 10 years of experience in blood analysis.

I believe so strongly in the things that changed my life that I feel compelled to share them with others.   You don’t have to go through another day feeling hopeless and exhausted.    If you have exhausted all your other options through mainstream medicine and are not satisfied with the answers you’ve been given, then you must call me.   There is another way!

Mrs. Gill is in Toronto until June 18th and is accepting clients for blood analysis, please click on the following link to get the brochure for more information ->The Secret of Good Health and also check out this website to learn more -> http://www.holisticblood.com/

Introduction

I had the good fortune of speaking with N.P. who is a recent grad from the Faculty of Education from the University of Windsor ‘08. She is currently employed with the Peel Board of Education. She shared some really important advice and strategies for success which I would like to share with you. While talking to her, I was curious to know what she did to achieve her success and what strategies and techniques she used to get to where she is today. The following are some of the main points which she shared with me:

Networking is Important: Connect with the Principals

1) Networking is really important and it’s up to you to go out and make the connections and make yourself known. You need to go out there and introduce yourself to principals and show interest in their school and events and programs and ask relevant questions. It’s not enough to just go to a school, sign in and out each visit and limit yourself to one classroom- you need to be visible and vocal! Get involved in several different schools, not just one school. This exposes you to more principals and greater networking. Volunteer with different grade levels (i.e. different grade per school) and go on school trips- this shows your versatility.

Do you remember your primary teachers?

2) She suggested to get in touch with your old teachers and volunteer with them. With that personal connection, they will be more receptive to your professional goals.

How does the hiring process work?

3) The first thing is to get on VIP (http://peelschools.org/work/board/board.htm). Apply to the job postings and you will get a call from the Principal if they would like to interview you. They pick 1 person for the job and possibly another 5 to go on the supply list (those who were really good but did not get the position). Once you are on the supply list, you are signed onto the Peel Board system. From there, you get earlier access to look at the LTO and permanent contract positions and you will get an internal understanding of how the system works.

Additional Qualifications: Which ones should I do?

4) She suggested that the most appropriate ones for the Peel Board would be E.S.L. Part 1 and Spec. Ed Part 1 . She also said however, that some principals prefer different AQ courses. Some principals give preference to those who have completed Reading Part 1. So that is also something to consider.

What’s a good strategy for volunteering?

5) She suggested the following strategy which worked for her: Try to diversify yourself in terms of the grade levels and the schools you attend. For example, she would volunteer at a different school each day from 8:30 to 3:30pm in different grades and by chance one of the schools she volunteered at posted a job on VIP and she got the interview and succeeded.

She suggested that you drop off your resume with your police check and ask to speak directly with the principal and tell them that you are a recent grad and would like to volunteer in the classrooms and for school trips.

Being a team player: Share what you learn

6) She suggested that when you volunteer and go to other schools that we should share what we learned with others. So for example, if you saw some great ideas at one school you could share that with the teachers at another school by saying, “Hey, I saw this great reading activity at this school, would you like to try this out in your classroom?” This shows that you’re not just in it to gain from the teacher but you’re also able to reciprocate some gain for the teacher- you’re a valuable member in the classroom. This also let’s the teacher know that you’re really involved in the school community at large and you’re serious about your volunteer work.

(Thank you N.P. for your help and guidance).

If you have any additional questions or comments please send them to mentormatch_t@hotmail.com

Words of Inspiration…
Did you know Thomas Edison failed 10.000 times!!!

Topic:  Resilience
By:  Mohmad Tohami

From the website:  http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Develop-Unshakable-Persistence-Even-If-You-Failed-10,000-Times&id=627634
Did you know that Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb?   When asked about his failure he said, “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

He failed 10,000 times while working on something that only existed in his imagination.

Nowadays you see people who quit after their first failure! They must not have heard about Edison.

Edison’s example illustrates how everlasting success is created.  It is crafted by persistence and faith.  Successful people believe in themselves and their dreams.  They have unshakable persistence.

Let’s face it.  The only time you fail is when you quit!

Another example is Babe Ruth.  Did you know that Babe Ruth holds the world record in baseball for hitting the most home runs?  But, did you also know that he also holds the record for the most strikeouts?

The truth is everyone makes mistakes and messes up.  We could learn valuable knowledge from those mistakes.  Life’s too mysterious don’t take it serious.

Hey,

Here is our chance to apply valuable advice from a supply teacher who I talked with on the phone, she told me that one of the best things to do now is to do an AQ course, here is our chance, the following link will take you to the ESL Part 1 AQ course, I don’t know all the details yet regarding deadlines and fees, but here’s the link:

http://profdev.edu.yorku.ca/yufe/www/source/Meetings/cMeetingFunctionDetail.cfm?section=unknown&product_major=NG09EN1Y&functionstartdisplayrow=1

Someone searched for this on this website. If you would like guidance from other teacher candidates who have went through the interview process please message the Mentormatch Staff at mentormatch_t@hotmail.com

Do you want to share advice on having a good interview for a teaching position?

Please leave a comment below.

Replies:

I was told to try to be different than everyone else and show them your uniqueness. One good way of doing this is to take pictures of you and your projects or experiences that depict your uniqueness (But do be advised that you will need permission from the authorities to take pictures on school premises). Showing pictures at the interview, I was told, is I good way to show case your abilities and what you are able to do. This is taking it one step further than just talking about your intentions because with the pictures you are indicating to the interviewers that not only do you have powerful intentions, but that you actually take the intiative and follow through with your intentions.