On page 118, the author describes "The Great Teacher" he identifies as "Mrs. Heart." How did Mrs. Heart motivate Darin to become interested in poetry? What were Mrs. Heart's attitudes toward state standardized tests, and new initiatives that were inevitably rolled out over the years? In your own words, what was Mrs. Heart's philosophy of education? Do you agree with this philosophy? Take a moment to describe your own philosophy of education after reading this book.
The author notes the advice of a friend who is a police officer: "You can look for trouble or you can look away." Similarly, William James famously theorized, "The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." Take a moment to write your reactions to these two quotes as they relate to the classroom setting. What behaviors that often occur in the classroom should teachers regularly overlook? When should they go with the flow and when should they stop and take a stand? How do they determine which disturbances are trivial and should be ignored and which should be responded to? How can they respond without escalating the situation?
Take a moment to consider the negative comments you might hear during the course of a week from students, other teachers, administrators, and parents. Recall from the text that by constantly filtering out such negatives that do not matter and instead maintaining a positive attitude, teachers can create a much more successful school environment. Write about typical negatives you might hear from any of these groups of school stakeholders and how you could, in the future, filter out such comments and even alter these perceptions by offering a different perspective.
All of us can recall an occasion in our professional lives when someone in a leadership role treated us inappropriately. Think of such a time in your own adult life when this happened. Is it, indeed, etched into your memory? Can you recall a similar situation from your own school career in grades K-12 when a teacher made a cutting remark or acted rudely toward you? Describe a situation from that time and how it made you feel. Did it change your opinion of that particular teacher?
Throughout these two chapters, the book stresses the belief that teachers should take responsibility for what happens in their classrooms. It is suggested that if teachers all look in the mirror each time they ask, "Who is the variable?" they will have made great strides toward school improvement. Take a few moments to write about your thoughts on this concept. Next, reflect in writing about the role of student, parent, and teacher responsibility in ensuring academic success for each student you teach.
Reflect back on your own teaching or a teacher you had as a student. Describe a time when you (or your teacher) entered "child mode" intentionally as a way to appropriately interact with students. Describe a time when you (or your teacher) entered "child mode" unintentionally, as a result of student behavior. What were the consequences in each instance? Describe what "business mode" means to you, in particular, dispelling the notion that this mode means cold and uncaring behavior.
Reflect back on your own journey as a student. Think of 2-3 teachers who still stand out as people with whom you had a great relationship. Conversely, think of 2-3 teachers with whom you had very little in the way of a personal relationship and perhaps even a negative relationship with? What stands out as characteristics of both groups? How were your very best teachers able to create a positive relationship with you? What was lacking with teachers in the second group?
Reflect back on a situation (or imagine a situation) in your classroom when, despite your best efforts to clearly establish proactive expectations, you were compelled to refer a misbehaving student to a school administrator. Write about what behavior prompted the office referral and the result of the student's visit to the office. Did the student's behavior change? Did the student come back from the office angry? How did you follow up on the student's misbehavior in the days that followed? In hindsight, would you have changed how you handled the misbehavior? Do you feel that the school administrator should have handled the referral differently?
In this chapter, Whitaker emphasizes the important of "saying what you mean and meaning what you say." As an example, het tells a story about a football coach who did not follow through on threats he made to this players. Think about a time when a supervisor you worked for (or currently work for) verbally stressed the importance of some rule, procedure, policy, or expectation regarding employee performance but never really followed through or help underperforming employees accountable. Was this supervisor respected? Did all employees consistently adhere to the verbal admonishments over time? Did employee performance and morale improve or decline as a result of these idle threats? How would you have handled that particular situation differently? In what ways does it apply to your classroom and what you say to your students?
On page 118, the author describes "The Great Teacher" he identifies as "Mrs. Heart." How did Mrs. Heart motivate Dari...
