Eric was another one of my non-traditional students.  He had a previous career as a reporter for a local tv station in Traverse City.  His father was teacher and storied football coach in western Michigan.  Eric brought some great life experience into the discussions of the classes he took with me at the Traverse City campus, something I appreciated with all my non-traditional students.  In 2008 Eric was starting his new coaching job as assistant Varsity football coach after serving as Head Junior Varsity coach the previous year.  He was also the advisor for the Student Senate.

The day I visited Eric in the end of May 2008 it was the unofficial Senior Skip Day and he anticipated a light turnout for his First Hour class.  He had the class agenda on his whiteboard, a common feature with all the teachers in this study.  He also had a poster on the wall entitled “Government Essential Questions”.  Along with the poster were several political campaign posters and historical campaign buttons.  There were also “attitudinal” posters, urging students to do their best, the daily Traverse City Record Eagle on a poster and a “Basic Principles of the Constitution” poster.  He also had two sets of roll down maps and 2 globes.  Eric thought his teaching resources were adequate for the task at hand.

Eighteen students appeared for his First Hour class; Economics, more than the dozen Eric predicted due to “Skip Day”.  He started with a discussion on oil production and referred to an article from “Upfront” magazine the students read about the potential price increase.  The article predicted $4.00 a gallon gasoline and the prediction came true since the publication of the article.  The discussion centered about what could be done in countering the price increase, including discussions about drilling for oil in the Alaskan arctic area, as well as the personal impact that the increase in gas prices would have on his students.  He made a personal connection to his own budget when he told his class he sold his 15 miles per gallon Jeep and bought a vehicle that now received 30 mpg (Schugars, f.n., 2008, p.1,3).  A student recommended taking the BATA (Bay Area Transit Authority) bus since that only cost a dollar and even if the price went up for taking the bus it would still be cheaper than paying for the fuel and upkeep on a personal vehicle. Eric shifted the discussion over to the factors in a Demand economy versus a Market economy and asked his students, “Who makes the decisions in a Market economy?”  The class chorused, “We do.”  Eric referred the discussion to the students’ upcoming assignment on creating their own business.  At this point he set the class to work for the next half hour on that assignment.  I asked Eric if the students were good at completing homework assignments in juxtaposition to in-class assignments.  He said that his students were “pretty good”.  Several of the teachers in this study, especially in urban areas, no longer assigned homework because the students would not complete it regardless of consequences to their grades.  He used this opportunity at the beginning of the in-class assignment to remind his class of a previous lesson involving the “factors of production” and the students were able to recite “land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship”.  At that point Eric reinforced the key question the assignment was addressing. While the students worked on creating their own business cards and answering the key question, Eric walked around the room, working with the students one-on-one.

Eric’s class was not very diverse, but there were a few Native American students.  Of the two high schools in Traverse City, Central is the more diverse, both ethnically and economically. He cited that the number of free and reduced lunch students at Central was 22% of the school population, a ridiculously low number when compared to the 80 and 90+% figures of many urban schools.

Eric explained that in his first four years of teaching he had six different preps. This situation is not uncommon with new teachers who have to deal with having little seniority compared to the rest of the faculty.  He started as a “.6” teacher at Traverse City West High School and he was now in his second year at TC Central.  He recently received tenure (Schugars, f.n., 2008, p.4). His high school was now on an “hour” schedule, but next year they would switch to a trimester schedule, a schedule that did not last.  As of the fall of 2018, Central was back on an hourly class schedule, versus a 75-90 minute schedule that most trimester arrangements dictate (TCAPS.net, accessed February 26, 2019, under “Parents and Students tab, Daily School Schedule, pdf).

Eric classroom management style varied with the types of students he had in his classes. In one area of his room he had a group of male students. Eric was glad they were still in school.  Eric said he “didn’t bust their chops for minor things” (Schugars, f.n., 2008, p.3).  He said he learned to use several sets of teaching priorities in his first few years of teaching.  I had no sense that Eric lowered the challenges he presented his students, but rather changed how he approached and motivated the different students under his care and tutelage.  He was concerned about a state-wide change in how economics was going to be taught, changing from a personal economics approach to a more classical economics curriculum.  Eric predicted that some of his students would struggle with that approach, fail and then drop out of school (Schugars, f.n., 2008, p.3).

After a second period preparation hour Eric moved from Economics to a Government class. Once again, the agenda was on the board as he led a discussion with 15 students on Supreme Court cases and their rulings.  Eric discussed Mapp v. Ohio and reminded his students of a discussion from two days ago on the “exclusionary rule”.  He also referred the class to Terry v. Ohio, and the “stop and frisk” rule.  During that discussion Eric mentioned that a student was frisked in the student parking lot the previous day and another one was pulled over.  He used that opportunity to talk about the importance of public safety.  He related that he, himself, was pulled over by law enforcement when they were searching for a robbery suspect and Eric brought up the issue of “profiling” by police officers.  Eric had the students use an organizational chart for the various terms they encountered when discussing the cases.  He discussed several other cases, all the while relating the import of these cases to the students’ lives (Schugars, f.n., 2008, p.5).

Eric had two more Government classes after his third hour class and I asked him if he had trouble remembering what he said in each class.  He admitted he did, but it was obvious he was well-prepared and organized and hit all the key points for every lesson. Eric also used personal stories and student connections in every class in order to promote better student understanding and application of content to their life skills.  Throughout the day he displayed a thorough content background for both his Economic and Government classes.

Eric’s last “class” for the day was the sponsorship of the Student Senate. This organization was composed of sophomores and juniors. He received 5% of his base pay for sponsoring this organization and said that “no one was lining up for this job” (Schugars, f.n., 2008, p.6).

Defining Success

First and foremost, Eric defined success in the classroom as developing positive relationships with his students.  He established a comfortable atmosphere within his classroom, including a good sense of humor, where students felt open to contribute while observing classroom decorum.  Eric knew at this point in his career that without that atmosphere it would be difficult for the students to buy in to the necessity of learning the content knowledge and life skills which Eric imparted.  He admitted that building those relationships with a classroom full of students was difficult, but necessary.  Eric echoed the sentiments of the many of the teachers when he said it was more important for students to show improvement versus just high grades.  Having an “A” student achieve an “A” was no big deal, but to have a “C” or “D” student achieve a “B” or an “A” was his definition of success (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.1).  “Success” for Eric extended outside of his classroom and passed his students’ high school experience.  His hopes for them would be that they would become successful people in life.  As for the state-wide tests, the MME at that time, Eric said his students understood the importance of those tests and he knew that the tests were one way to assess the students’ success, as well as his own, but it was not his sole or even most important focus.  This one statement summed up Eric’s feelings about standardized tests: “There’s not a standardized test in the world that can evaluate a student on what he’s learned in a classroom…socially and educationally” (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.2).

Content, 2008

Eric’s time in broadcasting and probably his personal upbringing and character were part of his ability in relating to his students and developing the positive relationships necessary in the classroom.  What he admitted he did not know before his education classes was the practical skills of teaching, like lesson planning and the various methods and strategies for carrying those plans out successfully.  He was not required to just “read and regurgitate” but rather actually write the lessons and display the skills through various means.  He did not necessarily see the same connection to his Master’s classes and viewed those classes as more a means to an end (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.3).

As far as his content preparation, Eric felt he had a “leg up” on other traditional student candidates due to the fact that combined with his Broadcasting major, he had a History minor through his degree program prior to entering Grand Valley State.  He admitted that his history minor centered more on U.S. history and thus he needed to learn more World History and Economics on his own in order to feel comfortable teaching that content to his students (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.3). Eric also said that trying to teach his students to think historically and develop cause and effect relationships was very difficult the first year he taught.  He was concerned mainly about the sequence of events and fitting in all the facts along a timeline versus developing his students’ historical thinking capabilities.  In other words, “How am I going to cover it all?” (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.4).

As far as developing his students’ writing skills Eric admitted a weakness in this area.  He said he became a better writer through the process of grading his students’ papers.  Eric had recently assigned a two-page writing assignment for 90 of his students.  It meant many hours reading those papers, making corrections and suggestions, but he said it was necessary for his students’ improvement.  He would not make a writing assignment without providing feedback.

Returning to the topic of Economics and his own preparation for teaching, Eric said he thought his college economics courses were rather dry and teaching his students with the same approach would not work.  He demonstrated in his class an ability in making connections to his students’ lives and one way he accomplished this connection was through using simulations. He was concerned that switching to a 12-week trimester schedule the next year would mean eliminating some of the ‘fun’ part of including those simulations and thus student interest and understanding may fall (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.6).

Methods and Strategies, 2008

Eric was concerned with the student, who, for whatever reason, had a general apathy towards learning and school.  Again, he turned to the idea of creating relationships with the students.  He worked on finding some common ground or understanding.  He made the case for treating each student according to that student’s differences. It might be the case of just elevating them just enough for them to pass (Schugars, v.t., 2008. P.6) or helping them develop the effort to succeed.  He knew that teachers could not teach just to the “middle” and reach all the students, but he was also unsure about the challenge of differentiated instruction and how to truly teach every student differently (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.6-7).  Eric knew, along the line of differentiated instruction, that simply assigning more work for the highly motivated and successful students was not a good idea.  Those students called him on that line of reasoning with the basic idea: “Why are you punishing me for achieving?” What Eric did was set a basic level of responsibility for his students’ work and actions, whether it be bringing supplies, like pens and paper to class or getting assignments completed on time.  He tried to set realistic expectations for each of his students, no matter their socio-economic status or intellectual ability.  He challenged his students to succeed to the best of their ability.

Beyond his own classroom he was concerned about how school policies were being carried out by every teacher.  He knew that teachers would have individual policies for their curriculums and classrooms, but at the same time did not want mixed messages sent to the students if each teacher interpreted or carried out school policies differently. His focus was on his students’ lives after they left his classroom and Central High.  It would be wrong creating an impression that life would allow you to interpret rules and laws to suit your own wants and needs.

At this point I brought in my coaching career and how successful coaches taught their players the rules of the game and the fundamentals of team play.  If those rules were not learned and the idea of team responsibility were not taught then the season turned out terribly and that, in turn, might impact the players’ lives after they graduated (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.8).

Eric applied this conversation to the language he heard, but did not allow, in his school.  He worried that society was “going south” and was chagrined when his students did not believe that he used bad language outside of school.  Again, to set up rules, either in your classroom or to not follow the school policies was counter-productive and sent the wrong message, even if the students were allowed to use coarse language at home or in the workplace (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.8).

Pearls of Wisdom, 2008

Eric had two words that summed up his “pearls”:  “accountability” and “responsibility” (Schugars, v.t., 2008, p.9).  He said that future teachers need to know how to stand up to students before they leave their time at the university.  Eric said he accomplished “standing up” several ways.  Sometimes to make a point without embarrassing a student it was necessary to take the student aside, outside the view of the peers and remind them of the rules.  In other cases, like the young lady in one of his classes who was wearing an inappropriate t-shirt, he called her out in front of class and made her go to the restroom and reverse her shirt.  He reinforced the school rule immediately and knew that everyone in that class knew he would enforce the rule then and there.  In other cases, he would use an analogy through a classroom lesson, embed the lesson within the lesson plan for the day, with the hopes that the students would see application to their lives and the rules Eric was applying in the school, for instance, mentioning the drug arrest in the student parking lot. He folded that incident into his Government lesson during the day, both clarifying the law and arrest procedure, while reinforcing the school and life rules about drug use.  In his estimation, one case of inaction by a teacher would have negative carryover to ten examples of positive action (Schugars, v.t, 2008, p.9-10).

2015

In my second visit to Eric’s classroom he informed me that he was just named as the new Head Football Coach, definitely following in the footsteps of his father.  He greeted students as they entered his classroom.  Some of the decoration in his classroom had not changed since my last visit in 2008.  He still had his collection of Presidential campaign buttons, framed and hanging on his wall.  Joining the buttons were football memorabilia, quotes from Vince Lombardi, a D-Day map and attitude and success posters.  As in the previous visit Eric wrote the day’s agenda on his whiteboard for his classes.

The lesson plan for his first class included news about the students’ lives, the Pledge to the Flag, a discussion on civic participation and a Supreme Court case discussion about a students’ rights case. This Civics class was a required course that included both juniors and seniors.  One of Eric’s requirements for this course was for the students to attend some kind of governmental meeting and write a reflection about the meeting.  This was a school-wide policy (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.1-2).

As with many of my visits Traverse City Central uses CNN Student News.  The reporting for today included a report on the Boston Marathon bombing, which Eric used to refer to a local case in Hesperia, Michigan which led into a discussion about capital punishment.  One student commented that executed criminals would save taxpayers the money for supporting those individuals for the rest of their lives in prison.  Another student commented that the death penalty should be interpreted as “cruel and unusual punishment” as set forth in the Bill of Rights.  All the male members of the class endorsed using the death penalty (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.2).

Eric integrated technology into his classes.  The students were allowed to use personal devices and the school provided Netbooks for their use. As with the other teachers in this study, my second round of visits in 2015 showed a more thorough use of technology in the classroom than in 2008. There was only one case where grants were discussed as the means in purchasing new hardware. The rest of the cases involved a budgetary commitment by the school district.

Next Eric had the students read an article entitled “Who Gets to Work at Abercrombie?” which involved the case of that business dictating a dress code and preventing a Muslim employee from wearing a head scarf.  Eric had the students read the article and then had them highlight a sentence, phrase or word that summed up the article.  The students quietly read through the article and then Eric had them “pair and share”.  The students followed through with his instructions and quietly discussed their findings.

Eric had a good relationship with his class.  He held them responsible for their work by stamping their homework as a check on completion and his classroom had a semi-relaxed atmosphere.  It was obvious the students respected their teacher and, at the same time, they knew he respected them.  In the ensuing discussion five of the twenty-two students favored the employee and the wearing of the head scarf while the rest of the class backed Abercrombie’s right to dictate employee dress code (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.3).  The First Amendment and the right to free speech came up in the conversation and Eric led his students to go into a deeper discussion on the latitude of application of the Amendment. It was evident that Eric wanted his students to develop a deeper understanding of the background of the rights protected within the amendment and not just recite the words of the document.  Eric used the term “stare decisis” and the idea of setting legal precedents for future cases.  He also posed the question that once a precedent is set, what are the chances that it will overturned in the future?  It was obvious that Eric wanted his students to think beyond a simple “read and regurgitate” type of learning.  He wanted them to think about what they were learning and apply the information to their own lives.

Eric’s Second Period class was Economics.  I remembered from my last visit that he was concerned for the state-wide change in teaching Economics from a more classical point of view versus a more consumer-oriented approach that he was using in 2008.  Eric’s concern was that some students would not engage in the more formal approach and that situation would lead to failing grades and potential high school dropouts.  Eric’s approach in this class reinforced what I observed in the first period class and in my last visit in 2008; he was careful in combining a discussion concerning the formation of a national budget with the personal side of students’ lives, therefore maintaining the personal relevancy without isolating the information with a formal approach national economic policy.  As the students were working on a seat assignment that involved allocation of funds, Eric walked through the desks, checking on a previous assignment.  He noticed that the students were struggling with the idea of progressive income tax and after reviewing the classwork, stopped what they were doing in order to reinforce the definition of the tax rate versus a regressive tax (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.4).  Several times throughout the class Eric checked the students’ prior knowledge, assuring that they had the correct understandings of the information and its application for this unit. In the ensuing discussion the students displayed a good background knowledge of the content involved with making a national budget and Eric used the analogy of creating a personal budget in terms of paying for a mortgage, making car payments, insurance premiums, paying for utilities and rent, economic terms and circumstances that the students either dealt with now in their lives or would soon have to grapple with in their lives past high school.

Eric’s next class was involved in a project with investing.  Before students could change how their investment portfolio was allocated they had to check with an “auditor”, a kind of think-pair-share arrangement that might give both students some valuable insight into investing by having them reviewing other student’s investment ideas.  Eric posed the question about how the portfolios should be adjusted toward the end of the students’ working lives and the class replied, “by lowering risk”.  When several students said they would rather have a heavy division of investment on the stock side in order to maximize profit, Eric warned that they should “transition” their portfolio and lower their risk, a sound admonition (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.6).

Eric adjusted his lesson plan and methods throughout the day with classes that repeated, correcting for students’ abilities and task completion rates.  He asked them at the end of their investment review time in this class if there were any “ah, ha” moments, where they learned something new that day, thus bringing some metacognition into the process and he also complimented his class on their fact checking.  He admitted to them that studying the Federal Budget is not that interesting to many people and then made the case why they should care about their government’s expenditures.  He referenced a previous assignment which dealt with living on a minimum wage and then tied the present assignment back to his students’ lives today and in the future, thus making the case for that age-old student question: “Why do we have to learn this junk?”  When a student brought in some research gleaned from a Heritage Foundation website and was criticized by his classmates, Eric reminded the class that they should not criticize someone’s research until they, themselves had done their research and were capable of citing information which would provide a factual basis for their argument (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.7).  At that point several students began citing sources of information which helped support their arguments. Eric finished the lesson by foreshadowing the next day’s lesson by mentioning the terms “mandatory” and “discretionary” spending and implied that the class would explore those terms the next day in class (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.7).

Eric’s preparation period for that day was interrupted by a college recruiter who came to talk to Eric about one of his football players.  In his teaching during the day it was obvious that Eric was a teacher and “life coach” before he was a football coach.  He wanted what was best for his students and sought ways for them to find success in their future lives, whether it was a better understanding of how the government works, through his Civics class or how the Federal budget relates to personal budgetary issues for the students.  Eric was open and honest about the athlete’s abilities and potential, as was the recruiter’s representation of his college and what it offered for Eric’s football player. Sadly, this is not always the case for high school athletes.  Success at the next level of competition brings a different reality than competing against a smaller subgroup of high school athletes. To many universities an athlete becomes more of a commodity than a person.

Eric’s last class on Economics followed the same basic plan as his previous three classes. But again it was tuned to this particular group of students and the questions and comments they provided.  Eric was not a ‘cookie cutter’ teacher and he definitely was not on cruise control for the last hour.  He modified how he checked the students’ work, making allowances for the largest class of the day.  Based on the students’ comments during the group discussion regarding the Federal Budget Eric brought to bear different facts and points to ponder, all while he checked his students’ foundational knowledge and their misconceptions.  He continually made this last class as personally relevant to the lives of this group and he did his first Economics class of the day.  He referenced to his own life as a father of three children and his grocery bill when relating personal budgeting to the Federal budget process and he went one step further in his process in developing the students’ sense of “mandatory” versus “discretionary” by having the students make reference both to the Federal budget process and their own personal budgets (Schugars, f.n., 2015, p.9-10).

Interview, 2015

Defining Success

Eric did not change his basis for success in teaching from his 2008 interview. Creating relationships with his students and student-athletes was paramount, with one small addition; showing students that they had value, that their lives mattered.  Organization was another key component for success for him, as well as being able to relate to the lives of teenagers, “speaking to their level”.  I do not think Eric meant ‘talking down’ to students in his explanation, but rather knowing how to connect with their lives in meaningful ways (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.1).  He used the words “growth mindset”, as did several other people in this study in 2015.  He wanted his students to grow from where they were to where they could be in the future and he described that process as “fun” (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.1).

You take them and their set of skills and how do you hone those skills?  How do you work on that?  How do you build upon those skills?  Through that process they learn, not only your content, but they also learn life lessons, life skills and I think it is habits.  You’re trying to instill one or two habits that they can take with them.  You know they’re not going to do everything but if you can give them a little tip or something along the way it can form a habit from it I think it’s going to be beneficial (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.2)…I mean you can go into it saying you’re on fire about your content and ultimately they are going to forget a lot of the content but I think if they’re interested in it I think they are going to retain more and again, I think it’s the energy you bring to them to engage the students and I think that’s important to me, the positive energy I bring.  Every day I have to be on and otherwise they could feed off that.  Being on is just being energetic and a lot of times being quirky with the kids because, frankly, you know, we have to entertain them at some point (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.2).

This interview was conducted on the Monday after Prom Weekend and Eric admitted that maybe the last thing his students wanted to learn about on that day was the intricacies of the Federal Budget, so he needed the same energy, or even more, that he modeled on every other day.

Challenges, 2015

Eric posed several challenges to his career. The first was examining how he was improving.  How was he adapting to new methods and strategies of teaching and how those ideas match his students’ skills and abilities?  He was certain that there was were ‘tried and true’ methods that matched both his teaching style and his students’ needs and figuring out what to use for the students under his care was challenging.

Setting accountability standards was another challenge. Did he have the resources that made his standards attainable?  Would he have the backing of the administration if parents called him on his standards or would he be left to fend for himself?  In particular Eric was following through with a school policy that had a civic engagement component. The students had to attend some type of public meeting and report on it.  Failure to do so impacted his students’ ability to graduate and at this late point in the school year he still had six students in one class who had not completed this requirement.  If he holds to the requirement but an administrator, through parental pressure, does not, where does that leave Eric (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.3)?

Attendance in class, blended learning and online education was another challenge for Eric.  In this new educational world of online learning Eric still held to the idea that being personally in the room versus a virtual presence was still important.  The opportunity to share ideas with peers and the nuances of personal interaction was still important.  Eric was transitioning to blended learning techniques, putting video of his lectures online, along with assignments and he knew he was in competition with online schooling outside of his classroom and school.  If he did not make his classes attractive to the students then they might choose to attend elsewhere online (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.3).

Part of Eric’s explanation to his students for the importance of his classes and how he connected and energized his teaching was the following:

Do you want people making decisions for you or do you want to be involved in that and that’s what I love about Social Studies, how do you want things to happen?  Do you want things to happen for you and decisions made for you or do you want to take an active role in that?  I think that’s a huge part. I’m trying to get them to take an active role in one, their education, and obviously their civic duty.  I try to frame it and joke around for my content.  Civics is pretty easy to make those connections.  Economics is a little harder, but I want them to be a smart consumer and understand that this stuff is not going to go away. (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.3).

Dealing with Stress, 2015

Turning off teaching mode, especially with email and other electronic means of communication is difficult.  Eric said that when he went home at night his focus was on his family.  He did not look at any type of communication until his children were in bed at night.  The idea of life balance was something he tried to instill in his students. This was an emphasis in all my teaching classes at Grand Valley State as a survival skill.  If you are truly dedicated to helping others grow and learn then it is very difficult to clear your mind and responsibility away if someone outside your family needs help.  Separating yourself from that responsibility, knowing that some little action by you with a student might make all the difference in a student’s life, is a burden, but not focusing on family and other personal relationships, which are necessary for anyone’s well-being leads to overdue anxiety and potentially early burnout.  Eric said his wife, his children and his faith help to keep him grounded (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.4).  Eric next comment dealing with stress was similar to many other teachers’ comments in this study, physical well-being.  He worked out and exercised. Physical exercise also helps with mental well-being.  His last comment returned to his faith.

To me it’s faith in the Lord and that’s part of it, the prayer, and it’s a mindset and it’s a “how you want to live your life”.  I think having that moral compass helps me keeps things aligned.  Helps me set my boundaries. It helps me set my priorities versus anything and that’s personally what I believe (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.4).

This comment by Eric was the most direct connection to faith made by anyone I interviewed.  Knowing many of these former students for years, both as students in my classes, advisees from their time at GVSU, phone calls, emails, personal visits outside of this study and the interviews themselves, I believe that Eric is not alone.  Having a moral compass, no matter how you attain and maintain that compass is a way of dealing with stress and survival and success in a teaching career.  I will return to the phrase that my wife has always told me that I should not tell my students, and a phrase that I learned from one of my mentors in my first years in teaching, John Klink, “You have to get up in the morning and be able to look at yourself in the mirror.” Without some kind of guiding principles for how you act and treat other people, teaching becomes all that more challenging.  Whether you received that compass from your parents, friends or faith or a combination of all of those things, without it you are faced with a much more difficult path to success in teaching and life.

Motivation, 2015

I just do the best I can and trying to motivate students to be successful human beings and successful citizens and be successful in every aspect of their lives.  I teach subjects like Civics and Economics where I can talk about…relationships and how that impacts financial success or impacts their role as a citizen. I think that helps me.  I think any time I can share just knowledge and wisdom and, like I said, “Here’s my two cents, soapbox, here’s my two cents.  You can take one and throw it into a fountain and take one and ride the penny horse at Meijer.” That’s what I tell my guys (football players) and I tell my students all the time.  “So, you do what you want with these two cents and I’ll get off my soapbox in a minute.”  You have opportunities like that to give them perspective.  And to me I always try to provide a rationale for my students.  I always say, “This is the rationale for this”, either from my experience or what I’ve seen in students and I try to provide that rationale so it’s not just, “Well, here he goes again.  Here’s some other advice.”(Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.5).

I asked Eric if he thought that kind of attitude was typical of Social Studies teachers and he said, based on faculty meetings and the discussions therein, that Social Studies content and curriculum lends itself to making those types of life connections.  He thought Social Studies provides flexibility in how teachers teach and apply their content and the skills that accompany that content.  So, whether it is the Federal Budget or Supreme Court cases and the precedents those cases set into place, Social Studies has that latitude versus Math or the Sciences.  I am not saying that in the process of the application of those curricula a teacher is necessarily precluded from the same types of discussions that Social Studies teachers enjoy, but I believe it is much more difficult.  Eric placed a high premium on classroom discussion as a means of approaching the ‘growth mindset’.  It may be more difficult in measuring the growth that happens in an involved interchange of ideas. That growth may be measured in written papers, but I feel that none of the teachers I interviewed felt that objective-style standardized tests were a good way for measuring intellectual growth.

Changes in Methods and Strategies, 2015

The first thing I noticed during my second visit to Eric’s classroom was the ease he displayed in using technology.  His school was using “Moodle”, a classroom software where assignments, videos and other classroom procedures and details were made available to his students.  Here is what Eric shared with his students:

“Just because you have access it doesn’t mean you know it or doesn’t mean you have learned it. Just because you have access to all this information doesn’t mean you know it.  Let alone learned or can apply it.”  We can put all that on Moodle for them. They have access to it but are they learning it?  Can they apply it? And I think that’s our job and I think with Social Studies, a lot of times, it is a reflection of it.  It’s the reflection type questions. Not so much where you get a desired answer but it’s their reaction to something.  How they are going to reflect on it; either a Supreme Court decision or how they are going to reflect on a spending choice by the government (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.6).

I mentioned to Eric at that point in the interview that I could not remember a single recall question that he asked during the day.  I often notice during observations of my students in their first semester placements that many of them ask predominately recall questions as a means of evaluating the basic information they gained, but, in the process, they might miss the importance of students processing the factual information and how that applies to their lives.  If anything, Eric was skewed in the opposite direction.  He used various formal and informal methods of checking for content and then focused in classroom discussion on how the students reflected on the information (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.6).

Eric also said that he used more group work than earlier in his career.  Whether that type of teaching method is due to school policy or Eric’s choice he thought it was important for the students’ futures to be able to collaborate with others.  This focus on collaboration has impacted the physical setup of his classroom in that he sets up desks in groups or pods.  It is also reflected in the fact that he had students evaluate others’ collaboration.  He believed that by evaluating others’ work and contributions it helped the student evaluate their own work.  For instance, Eric’s students just completed a ‘gallery walk’ and he heard comments like, “Oh, yeah, that was a better way to do that. Oh, yeah, I didn’t think about that.” (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.7).

Eric said that he was placing more time and effort in making daily connections to individual students, whether it was through placing a stamp (inkpad) on their homework as a check for completion or just through an informal evaluation based on questions posed to students as he walks through the classroom.

Evaluation, 2015

Recent to my 2015 visit Traverse City adopted the Marzano system of evaluation.  Eric referred to this system as “dropping things into a bucket”.  He indicated that administrators dropped in for varying amounts of time for observations and that they were looking for certain indicators set up by the Marzano system.  If the evidence for those indicators were not present in the lesson then Eric had to provide proof that he was meeting those standards.  I gathered from Eric that he viewed the way the system was operating at that time as a piecemeal approach.  By filling individual ‘buckets’ the evaluation may be losing sight of the combination of factors that lead to classroom success and student growth.  Eric thought he was “disenfranchised” by this process and how it was being applied.  It was only in its second year but already he noticed that different administrators were applying the standards in different ways and he hoped that as time passed the system would be improved upon in a way that truly benefitted teachers and was not just a process for “filling buckets”. (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.8).  He did not think the Marzano system was the way teachers would be made better.  It will be how the system is used in improving student growth and improved teaching.  He commented that this method of evaluation was adopted first by the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District and that decision impacted all the schools in that district (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.9).

At that point I asked Eric what evaluation method Traverse City was using prior to Marzano and what he thought about the old way of evaluating teachers.  Eric replied that previously the principals spent more time with teachers and he implied that the evaluations took on a more holistic approach.  He gained more from constructive comments from his principal from viewing an entire lesson than a shorter ‘pop-in’ where the administrator was checking on a particular Marzano check point or “box”.  Eric also said that some of the best informal evaluations he received was from fellow colleagues, viewing some of the lessons and assignments that Eric created and then offering their advice and comment (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.9).  He admitted that everyone needs a “boss”, someone who is going to hold you accountable.  People need direction and challenges for motivation.  If any evaluation tool was used consistently across the board by all administrators and that tool resulted in positive, constructive criticism which resulted in improved teaching then that was a great outcome.  If the tool was being used by administrators as a “gotcha”, used negatively as a way to punish or denigrate a teacher’s work then that was definitely a negative in Eric’s eyes.  At the time of this interview the tenure laws were undergoing change in Michigan and the teacher grapevine contained stories of senior staff members being “dinged” just as a way to save money for districts or to settle scores and not for teacher improvement.  On the other hand, several of the participants in this study who became principals claimed that the new teaching evaluation methods were all about teacher improvement and not about punitive measures against senior faculty (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.9-10).

Mentoring, 2015

Eric was fortunate in having a mentor early in his career and he stated that the mentor helped him learn quite a bit in terms of teaching and organizational strategies.  Eric said his mentor cared more about teaching than the stipend that came with being a mentor to a new teacher.  He also credited the teacher he had during his student-teaching experience with allowing Eric to experiment with his own ideas and learn through that experience.  Too often for my students at GVSU had classroom teachers who, through the stress of state-wide, high stakes testing, had my students follow a strict scripted curriculum which allowed for little to no creativity or independent teaching style.  When Eric had his own student teacher, he followed the example set for him and allowed his student-teacher some latitude in how they taught.  Eric said that he continues to use some of his student teacher’s lesson plan ideas because the plans were successful and not something that Eric would have thought of doing on his own (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.10).

Eric related that he was a participant in a grant-funded project entitled “Critical Friend”^[1], a program that analyzed student work and teacher collaboration. In the process he observed other teachers in their classrooms and he grew as a teacher while having the time to think about what he was doing and how he was doing it.  He admitted that the administration asked him to join the project, something that he was not keen on doing at first, but he came to appreciate the time he had in developing new ways of thinking about how he was teaching (Schugars, v.t, 2015, p.11).

Post Graduate Education, 2015

Many school districts in the state of Michigan have followed the state’s lead and de-stressed the need for further graduate credit in order to progress along a salary schedule.  That change in policy also included less tuition reimbursement for teachers taking graduate hours and that decision led more teachers away from college-based classes and toward professional development hours offered through the school districts themselves or through Intermediate School Districts or Regional Educational Service Agencies.  Eric was positive about this change in policy.  He said he often gained more by in-house P.D. than from university graduate level courses.  He admitted that many times the professional development was grant-driven and often the ideas presented in the P.D. ‘came and went’.  Eric’s attitude, knowing that change was almost constant, was that he gained what he could from those opportunities if the ideas proved positive for his classroom.  Eric mentioned that curriculum changes based on professional development always resulted in more time from his school day and his life and the work to initiate those changes potentially took time away from his time at home with his family, something that he was not willing to do (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.11-12).

Pearls of Wisdom, 2015

You know I think you, one, you want to be passionate about your profession.  You have to be passionate about what you want to do.  You have to go into it with the mindset, “Ok, what is my intent?”  To impact the next generation?  And it’s not so much content related but it is just relationally.  What can you speak into that?  What can you build into the lives of these young people?  Because hopefully that’s the goal for incoming teachers. Because you can choose a career that provides money and provides some of those financial securities but are you gaining value out of what you do on a daily basis?  Do you feel at the end of the day, “Hey, I’ve given back” or “I really enjoy what I do even though it’s hectic? Even though you have several things to do at one time but, at the end of the day, if you are into it for the right reasons and you are making a positive impact on people’s lives then I think that’s why you want to go into the teaching profession, first and foremost (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.12).

Eric talked about the energy required to do the job properly. The hectic nature of teaching with multiple demands on teachers’ lives every day, confined to a bell schedule. The limited amount of time for eating lunch, and the necessity for being prepared for every class, every day.  He added the pressure and responsibility of engaging as many students every day as possible, knowing that you will not reach every student and being frustrated that you cannot connect with everyone.  Eric talked about a breakfast meeting he had with his football players and their parents when a guest speaker said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly, achieve greatly” (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.13). Eric supported the idea of trying new things every day and then coming in the next day and trying to improve on that.  He discussed the importance of teachers being involved in extracurricular activities, whether it be sports or clubs, and the importance of community involvement.  Eric wanted future teachers to know that broadening their contact with the students and community outside of the classroom was an important factor for teacher success (Schugars, v.t, 2015, p.13).  He finished off the discussion by saying, At the end of that when you are on your death bed you want to be able to say, “Hey, it was all about relationships and I wanted to make an impact, a positive impact on young people and people I come into contact with.”  And I think if you can say that then you’ve lived a good life and that would be a great way to go out” (Schugars, v.t., 2015, p.13).

It was obvious that Eric’s greatest role model is his father.  His father retired from teaching from his school near Muskegon, but he did not retire from positively impacting young people. Eric thought that people who constantly talked about their remaining time to retirement should leave teaching now.  If the goal was set on they left their classrooms and students then their hearts were not in the right place.  Eric said that if he ever caught himself thinking in that way he would ask someone to slap him “upside the head” (Schugars., v.t., 2015, p.15).