COLLABORATION (COLLABORATION)
The French soccer team of 1998 couldn't have won the World Cup 3-0 against Brazil without collaboration. Likewise, we teachers need to collaborate if we're to win day in and day out in the classroom.
I full-heartedly admit that I would never have been able to tread water as majestically as I do now had it not been for the help and support of many caring individuals at Clarksdale High School. First and foremost, I have to praise the continual emotional support of the biology teacher at Clarksdale High, and MTC alumnus, Mr. M, as well as my fellow math teacher, Mr. C. By acting as a true foil, Mr. M’s tenaciously genial outlook on things has provided a much needed balance to my sober and excessively cynical outlook on life. And by offering pedagogical advice related to how best to teach math, Mr. C has been an especially important person on whom to rely these past two years.
I want to begin by earnestly talking about how Mr. M has helped me so profoundly these past years here at Clarksdale. When things turned out for the worse – and trust me this happened so frequently that I might even venture to propound that this was in fact the rule and not the rumored exception – his optimism proved time and time again to be the apt antidote for my dour temperament. I recall a particular instance when my geometry lesson utterly collapsed in front of my eyes during first period. The students understood neither the set, nor the objectives, nor the methods for attaining the results, nor the necessity of at least behaving civilly. To put it bluntly, I came to the sudden realization that the ulterior seven hours were to be in vain. Abandon all hope, all ye who undertake the teaching of coordinate geometry or the conjugation of –ir verbs
Having left my first period in a state of numb shock, I exited my classroom in the sole hope of finding some much needed solace in the hallways during my second period planning séance. Lo and behold, as if sent by Providence, Mr. M emerged from the shadows of the dimly-lit 400 wing corridor. “Hey how you doin’ man, we doin’ a’right?” It was so simple, so good, so what I needed. It was manifest that goodwill towards man was his opus operandi. Clearly Deus lo vult that this serendipitous encounter was to take place. In a state of nervous agitation, I recounted in detail the events leading up to my current state of unease. Instead of feeling upset or impatient at having to endure such a melodramatic display of emotions in a professional setting – as would be the case with most people, myself included – he patiently listened to my precarious story to the bitter end. In a composed, reassuring tone of voice, he retaliated with an anecdotal diatribe of his own in which he recounted how the day prior he had a near impossible time getting the students to focus and give him his due respect in class. What was even more astounding was how he confided in me that his students did not understand his lesson and that he would therefore be obliged to change it for next year’s students. I stood dumbfounded in the middle of a near-empty hallway.
Here was a man who had been teaching biology for 15 arduous years and who still had to deal with not only classroom management, but also with planning effective lessons. One would assume that he’d have sorted out all of these potential issues in the first five years of his teaching career, but here he was sharing experiences felt by first-year teachers the world over. This commiseration in shared albatrosses had an overwhelmingly cathartic effect upon me as I all of a sudden realized that these difficulties are not unique to me by any stretch but are moreover a recurring motif to be expected continuously upon the path of teaching.
Indubitably, Mr. M’s influence has yielded a salubrious effect upon my state of mind, and by consequence he has been responsible for positively benefitting my students’ learning. By assuring me that every teacher, no matter how experienced he or she may be, experiences such pedagogical impasses due to behavior issues or inability to fully impart content knowledge, Mr. M has made me a much more grounded teacher who is less prone to being perturbed by any and all trepidations Clarksdale High may throw my way. This, in effect, has benefitted my students markedly in that one bad day of teaching doesn’t in the slightest derail my overall objective of teaching geometry or cause me to lose my momentum over the course of the week. By realizing that all teachers have ups and downs, the downs surely feel less cataclysmic and therefore are able to be surmounted with ease and confidence. I (and by default, my students) owe this invigorated and assured state of mind to Mr. M, to whom I will always be eternally grateful.
In comparison, Mr. C (who is far less apt to have his photo taken by anyone) has been equally helpful in terms of getting me to be the teacher Clarksdale deserved, but the ways in which he helped were fundamentally different. Whereas Mr. M helped me firstly with providing peace of mind and secondarily with providing me with classroom content, Mr. C has helped me first and foremost with actual pedagogical content and then, to a lesser degree than did Mr. M, with helping me to alleviate the many storms faced at Clarksdale.
As a teacher, I often feel overwhelmed by the astronomical amount of work placed on my plate on a daily basis. In true Sisyphysian fashion, keeping afloat is often hard enough work considering that just when I finish one day’s work, the next day’s work is just around the corner. Therefore, I’ve found it absolutely necessary to rely on the help of others to better help distribute the workload and manage the stresses inherently found in the execution of this profession. One man in particular, fellow math teacher Mr. C, has helped me tremendously in these capacities here at Clarksdale High School.
Considering that Mr. C has taught every math course offered at Clarksdale High over the six years he’s been there, he’s been an indispensable help when it comes to obtaining the worksheets, project ideas, tests, and other supplementary math materials needed to fully advance student learning. There have often been times when I’ve been so fully inundated with work – be it from students or from school bureaucracy – that I’ve dreaded even the thought of having to make student materials upon my arrival back home at the end of a hard work day. However, Mr. C’s constant willingness to help and provide supplies and materials for my math classes has saved me countless hours of work, and therefore innumerable quantities of stress. Math as a subject is great in this regards in that the fundamentals of algebra, geometry, and calculus haven’t changed over the centuries. And while Mr. C and I deliver the same materials using very different teaching styles – mine being more focused on independent practice and his being more focused on whole class participation – there’s no need to reinvent the wheel each time at least as it relates to obtaining the same set of supplies necessary to teach a given subject. To a teacher, time is the most valuable of resources, seeing as there is so little of it remaining at the end of each day to be allotted to personal use. I’m therefore greatly indebted to Mr. C for his goodhearted eagerness to help give me the semblance of a social life outside of school once I’ve clocked out for the day.
Another way Mr. C has been a significant help to me during my time at Clarksdale High has been in terms of his significant motivational support. It goes without saying, but in a high-needs school stress is often staggeringly high. And while some people cope to such stress by resorting to unhealthy habits (e.g. by excessively eating, drinking, smoking, etc.), the best and healthiest way, in my opinion, to cope with such stress is to learn to rely on positive, uplifting individuals such as Mr. C. His naturally cheery demeanor and consistently positive words of encouragement have been invaluable to me over these two years. There have been many instances this year when things had gotten so bad in the classroom that I wanted to transfer schools, and had it not been for him, I would have certainly sought employment elsewhere. When classroom management at one point had reached a particularly bad tipping point, Mr. C reminded me that such occurrences were common in the Mississippi Delta even for veteran teachers such as himself. This encouraged me immensely to keep on persevering here at Clarksdale. Before his words of wisdom, I suppose I had become trapped in a self-isolating bubble in which I genuinely believed that the classroom management issues I was facing were experienced uniquely by me. By reminding me that these problems associated with having an unruly class were common to countless numbers of teachers in the area, whether they be veteran or neophyte, he helped me put things back in perspective before I made a rash decision I wouldn’t be able to undo.
Depending on many factors, the challenges of the teaching can make the experience either a wonderful lifestyle or a nonstop nightmare. One of the factors which significantly aids in making the job more manageable, and therefore more fun, is the presence of willingly helpful individuals such as Mr. C. By having someone to rely on who can provide both material and emotional assistance, teaching becomes immensely more satisfying as more of a teacher’s finite mental faculties can be allotted to developing the deep emotional ties with students which make the profession so worthwhile.
Reflecting upon my time spent at Clarksdale, I find myself overwhelmingly in debt to both Mr. M and Mr. C. Being cognizant of my indebtedness to the help received from others – both motivational and pedagogical , I therefore endeavor to pay their gifts forward to others who may need my help. Thanks to Mr. M and Mr. C, I now seek out ways in which I may help my fellow teachers overcome the stresses inherent in teaching by being that listening ear, that uplifting inspirer, and/or that person on whom people can rely for help with their lessons.
I want to begin by earnestly talking about how Mr. M has helped me so profoundly these past years here at Clarksdale. When things turned out for the worse – and trust me this happened so frequently that I might even venture to propound that this was in fact the rule and not the rumored exception – his optimism proved time and time again to be the apt antidote for my dour temperament. I recall a particular instance when my geometry lesson utterly collapsed in front of my eyes during first period. The students understood neither the set, nor the objectives, nor the methods for attaining the results, nor the necessity of at least behaving civilly. To put it bluntly, I came to the sudden realization that the ulterior seven hours were to be in vain. Abandon all hope, all ye who undertake the teaching of coordinate geometry or the conjugation of –ir verbs
Having left my first period in a state of numb shock, I exited my classroom in the sole hope of finding some much needed solace in the hallways during my second period planning séance. Lo and behold, as if sent by Providence, Mr. M emerged from the shadows of the dimly-lit 400 wing corridor. “Hey how you doin’ man, we doin’ a’right?” It was so simple, so good, so what I needed. It was manifest that goodwill towards man was his opus operandi. Clearly Deus lo vult that this serendipitous encounter was to take place. In a state of nervous agitation, I recounted in detail the events leading up to my current state of unease. Instead of feeling upset or impatient at having to endure such a melodramatic display of emotions in a professional setting – as would be the case with most people, myself included – he patiently listened to my precarious story to the bitter end. In a composed, reassuring tone of voice, he retaliated with an anecdotal diatribe of his own in which he recounted how the day prior he had a near impossible time getting the students to focus and give him his due respect in class. What was even more astounding was how he confided in me that his students did not understand his lesson and that he would therefore be obliged to change it for next year’s students. I stood dumbfounded in the middle of a near-empty hallway.
Here was a man who had been teaching biology for 15 arduous years and who still had to deal with not only classroom management, but also with planning effective lessons. One would assume that he’d have sorted out all of these potential issues in the first five years of his teaching career, but here he was sharing experiences felt by first-year teachers the world over. This commiseration in shared albatrosses had an overwhelmingly cathartic effect upon me as I all of a sudden realized that these difficulties are not unique to me by any stretch but are moreover a recurring motif to be expected continuously upon the path of teaching.
Indubitably, Mr. M’s influence has yielded a salubrious effect upon my state of mind, and by consequence he has been responsible for positively benefitting my students’ learning. By assuring me that every teacher, no matter how experienced he or she may be, experiences such pedagogical impasses due to behavior issues or inability to fully impart content knowledge, Mr. M has made me a much more grounded teacher who is less prone to being perturbed by any and all trepidations Clarksdale High may throw my way. This, in effect, has benefitted my students markedly in that one bad day of teaching doesn’t in the slightest derail my overall objective of teaching geometry or cause me to lose my momentum over the course of the week. By realizing that all teachers have ups and downs, the downs surely feel less cataclysmic and therefore are able to be surmounted with ease and confidence. I (and by default, my students) owe this invigorated and assured state of mind to Mr. M, to whom I will always be eternally grateful.
In comparison, Mr. C (who is far less apt to have his photo taken by anyone) has been equally helpful in terms of getting me to be the teacher Clarksdale deserved, but the ways in which he helped were fundamentally different. Whereas Mr. M helped me firstly with providing peace of mind and secondarily with providing me with classroom content, Mr. C has helped me first and foremost with actual pedagogical content and then, to a lesser degree than did Mr. M, with helping me to alleviate the many storms faced at Clarksdale.
As a teacher, I often feel overwhelmed by the astronomical amount of work placed on my plate on a daily basis. In true Sisyphysian fashion, keeping afloat is often hard enough work considering that just when I finish one day’s work, the next day’s work is just around the corner. Therefore, I’ve found it absolutely necessary to rely on the help of others to better help distribute the workload and manage the stresses inherently found in the execution of this profession. One man in particular, fellow math teacher Mr. C, has helped me tremendously in these capacities here at Clarksdale High School.
Considering that Mr. C has taught every math course offered at Clarksdale High over the six years he’s been there, he’s been an indispensable help when it comes to obtaining the worksheets, project ideas, tests, and other supplementary math materials needed to fully advance student learning. There have often been times when I’ve been so fully inundated with work – be it from students or from school bureaucracy – that I’ve dreaded even the thought of having to make student materials upon my arrival back home at the end of a hard work day. However, Mr. C’s constant willingness to help and provide supplies and materials for my math classes has saved me countless hours of work, and therefore innumerable quantities of stress. Math as a subject is great in this regards in that the fundamentals of algebra, geometry, and calculus haven’t changed over the centuries. And while Mr. C and I deliver the same materials using very different teaching styles – mine being more focused on independent practice and his being more focused on whole class participation – there’s no need to reinvent the wheel each time at least as it relates to obtaining the same set of supplies necessary to teach a given subject. To a teacher, time is the most valuable of resources, seeing as there is so little of it remaining at the end of each day to be allotted to personal use. I’m therefore greatly indebted to Mr. C for his goodhearted eagerness to help give me the semblance of a social life outside of school once I’ve clocked out for the day.
Another way Mr. C has been a significant help to me during my time at Clarksdale High has been in terms of his significant motivational support. It goes without saying, but in a high-needs school stress is often staggeringly high. And while some people cope to such stress by resorting to unhealthy habits (e.g. by excessively eating, drinking, smoking, etc.), the best and healthiest way, in my opinion, to cope with such stress is to learn to rely on positive, uplifting individuals such as Mr. C. His naturally cheery demeanor and consistently positive words of encouragement have been invaluable to me over these two years. There have been many instances this year when things had gotten so bad in the classroom that I wanted to transfer schools, and had it not been for him, I would have certainly sought employment elsewhere. When classroom management at one point had reached a particularly bad tipping point, Mr. C reminded me that such occurrences were common in the Mississippi Delta even for veteran teachers such as himself. This encouraged me immensely to keep on persevering here at Clarksdale. Before his words of wisdom, I suppose I had become trapped in a self-isolating bubble in which I genuinely believed that the classroom management issues I was facing were experienced uniquely by me. By reminding me that these problems associated with having an unruly class were common to countless numbers of teachers in the area, whether they be veteran or neophyte, he helped me put things back in perspective before I made a rash decision I wouldn’t be able to undo.
Depending on many factors, the challenges of the teaching can make the experience either a wonderful lifestyle or a nonstop nightmare. One of the factors which significantly aids in making the job more manageable, and therefore more fun, is the presence of willingly helpful individuals such as Mr. C. By having someone to rely on who can provide both material and emotional assistance, teaching becomes immensely more satisfying as more of a teacher’s finite mental faculties can be allotted to developing the deep emotional ties with students which make the profession so worthwhile.
Reflecting upon my time spent at Clarksdale, I find myself overwhelmingly in debt to both Mr. M and Mr. C. Being cognizant of my indebtedness to the help received from others – both motivational and pedagogical , I therefore endeavor to pay their gifts forward to others who may need my help. Thanks to Mr. M and Mr. C, I now seek out ways in which I may help my fellow teachers overcome the stresses inherent in teaching by being that listening ear, that uplifting inspirer, and/or that person on whom people can rely for help with their lessons.