Russ Olcheske

Dr. Richard L. Cooley

24 Russ Olcheske

Holt High School, Holt, MI.

Resources:

Holt High School is just south of Lansing, Michigan. In 2008, the school held three grades, 10 through 12, with about 500 students per grade. Before I had a chance to start my day in Russ’s classroom, he was given a compliment by my escort to his classroom, one of the school’s guidance counselors. Russ really likes kids. (Olcheske, f.n., 2008, p.1) He was a Social Studies major, with a Psychology minor and an emphasis in History. Russ had four preparations thus far in his career. Last year he taught U.S. History. He also had experience teaching Grades 9 through 12. Russ had three lesson preparations that year, with World History, Psychology and Economics. His classroom was outfitted with a ceiling-mounted projector, tied to a document camera and his computer. He projected the images on a large projection screen. Like many teachers, his daily agenda was written on the board and his classroom walls had maps, along with a large collection of Michigan State material. The high school building was fairly new at the time and there was a large tax burden on the community, which created some negative feelings amongst the population since there was also a sizable number of “School of Choice” students from outside the district. Although the out of district students equated to more state aid, these students were enjoying the new facilities without their parents paying into the tax base. It was a double-edged sword for the district. Russ also mentioned that the district’s population was increasingly diverse, in an area that had been primarily white.

His first period World History class was made up primarily of 10th grade students. The class that day started with the students reading sections of the chapter on Nazi Germany. After each student read a paragraph, Russ would stop the class and give a short explanation, beyond the textbook information, of what was happening in Germany at that time. His explanations included the background of the Hitler Youth and how the Holocaust happened in Germany at that time. He made references to a speech of Hitler’s he handed out to the class^[1]. Russ also reinforced his students’ memories of prior days’ lessons by referencing information that they had learned in the classes leading up to this day. After the class finished the textbook reading, Russ gave them about 10 to 15 minutes to read through Hitler’s speech. When the students finished the reading, Russ asked the class six questions. Two questions were on the lower end of Bloom’s taxonomy and the other four were mid to high Bloom’s questions. As Russ posed the questions, he walked through the rows of desks helping students with the reading and the questions. Beyond the Edsitement website, noted above, Russ also used resources from the Modern History Sourcebook^[2]. His students recognized the difference between primary and secondary sources as the lesson progressed.

The class next read two different articles concerning Stalin, one, an over-the-top propaganda piece in support of the leader of the Soviet Union and the other, a Russian teenager’s diary account which helped land that person in prison later, thanks to the NKVD. Throughout the reading of both primary sources, Russ made good supplemental comments, as well as asking questions which helped his students interpret what they were reading. In particular, the teenager’s diary included passages about life to which Russ’s students might relate, such as a comment about too much homework. Overall, the students did a good job pointing out the bias in both accounts.

At this point, Russ switched back to a discussion on the German economy during the Great Depression and the fact that it took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy basic necessities in life. To help his students understand the impact of runaway inflation Russ referred to a trip he took to Turkey where a hamburger cost him 54 million Turkish dollars. That statement got the students’ attention. Next Russ displayed a chart which depicted the purchasing power of a German mark from 1914-1923. His First Period class featured a Socratic model of teaching which was a mixture of sources and activities.

Second period class was Psychology. Under Holt’s trimester model, Russ had taught Psychology thirteen times in two and half years. The period started with a 10 minute “nutrition break”. Many students left the room and went to the commons area to purchase snacks. After the break, Russ started the lesson with notes on the projection screen. He used a “mouse over” highlighting feature for stressing important points in the discussion. This day’s lesson focused on anxiety disorders, like nervousness, worry and stress. Russ provided relevancy by offering examples in his own life where he had to deal with stress, which prompted students in sharing some of their own examples. One example was when Russ talked about “obsessions” and said he was obsessed with basketball and his students said they were obsessed about “songs in the head” after listening to a song. Throughout the lesson, Russ stopped the discussion multiple times, asking questions of understanding, and the students provided workable definitions for the terms, as well as real life examples for various conditions. The resources for this class included a textbook, supplementals to the text and resources shared by Russ’s colleagues in the department. Russ made good use of all the materials in their various formats.

Third period Psychology followed the same lesson plan as the previous class, with the same amount of student engagement. The students readily provided workable definitions for the terms they encountered, as well as relevant examples from their lives. They asked good questions in developing their understanding of the material and it was obvious that they were comfortable asking those questions. While he did not get as far in his lesson this period as the second period, the students provided more examples and more questions in developing their understanding of the material.

Fifth period Economics featured a lesson employing a simulation. Russ asked for four volunteers and four male students immediately jumped out of their seats. The simulation showcased mass production of a pizza coupon. One student wrote out the coupon, the next student folded it four times, the next stapled two sides and the last student added a paperclip. At the end of a minute and a half Russ counted the number of coupons they produced. Then Russ added another worker and repeated the operation. After counting that production Russ added another worker, for a total of 6. Each session was a minute and a half. The class was having fun, learning about division of labor, assembly line work and mass production. The students analyzed the job, before and after the work, with some analysis happening during the process as well. The whole simulation took about 50 minutes to complete, then the class took notes on the process. The terms “marginal returns”, “law of diminishing returns” and “marginal impact of labor” were defined and discussed. In the process the students displayed a keen understanding of the economic concepts involved. Russ then shared a Wikipedia site concerning “fads and trends”^[3] which helped the students develop further knowledge of production and the after-effects of meeting market demand.

After the class was over, I asked Russ about the resources available to him. He said he had good “people resources”, meaning his colleagues. They shared support materials. In contrast to other teachers in this study, all of Russ’s students had a textbook which they could take home at night. Russ went on to say that every Wednesday there was district-wide professional development from 7:35 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. and 50% of that time was dedicated to assessment and curriculum within departments. Russ thought the district’s commitment to professional development was unique in the state of Michigan and based on my experience with many schools I thought he was correct.

Interview, 2008

Defining Success, 2008

“For me, I want to engage my students to want to learn, to want to be here, to care and value their education” (Olcheske, v.t., 2008, p.1). Learning the content was next in importance for Russ. He thought students would not engage in learning without passion and excitement. He wanted students to be happy they were in his room and he wanted them to feel that what they learned would be useful in their lives after they left high school.

Russ thought the most valuable part of his college experience was teacher-assisting and student teaching. He thought having two different placements was extremely helpful. He did his student-assisting in West Ottawa Junior High School and his student teaching at Jenison Junior High School. He assisted with the tennis program while at Jenison. Russ thought the teacher-assisting experience was especially helpful. He admitted that he was not ready to take the lead or control of a classroom full time and the ability in being slowly exposed to teaching was helpful for him. He was able to learn the mundane duties of teaching, like making copies, but he also had the opportunity to watch an experienced teacher for two to four weeks before Russ started to take over classes. Russ said he was initially nervous about the observations conducted by his college professors, but found them encouraging, with constructive feedback which focused on his strengths, while suggesting how he might improve in other areas. Overall, he thought he had an advantage, compared to other universities’ programs because he had two field placements.

Russ took advantage of a travel abroad experience when he joined a group of History students on a trip to Egypt. He did not have much life experience with diversity so his eyes were opened in visiting different cultures. Russ encouraged other college students to take advantage of study abroad opportunities. He thought he had respect for diversity before his trip, but the chance to embrace the culture helped him appreciate the differences even more.

Content, 2008

Russ was fortunate in having a 30-year career teacher from Grand Rapids Public Schools as his instructor for the Social Studies Methods class. On the other hand, he thought the Capstone class he had was more of question of survival and torture for three hours a week. He did not enjoy that class and did not see how much of what he learned in that seminar applied to his career. Luckily, Russ did not have me as his professor for the Capstone. While his feedback might have been helpful, I would have been distraught if he found my Capstone class next to worthless.

As far as content, Russ thought the Psychology Department was phenomenal. He admitted that if Psychology was a teachable major in Michigan, he would have followed that career path. At this point in his career Russ thought he might pursue a career as a guidance counselor. He was equally positive concerning his History professors. Similar to other teachers in this study, Russ thought his World History background was somewhat weak, with U.S. History as a strength. He noted the difference between high school coursework and college level work. At college, Russ was challenged to think at a higher level. He had to explain why things happened, not just that they happened, and assessment went from multiple choice questions to essays and research papers. His college History professors helped him process history from different angles of thought. Russ pointed to the articles he used concerning Stalin in his class this day. One was a propaganda piece, totally in support of the Soviet dictator, and the other was the diary account that depicted Stalin in a negative light. Russ reinforced that his professors did not subject him to one point of view, but made him build his own arguments, using evidence, in supporting his views of history. He also credited his professors for being very approachable and available. Although he was somewhat reticent about visiting his professors’ offices when he was a first-year student, he soon realized that their feedback on drafts of papers was based on constructive criticism. Those opportunities helped improve his thinking and writing.

I asked Russ if being a Social Studies, instead of a History major, was a detriment in finding a job. He flatly said that Holt did not hire History majors. As with many districts, being broadly certified allowed the districts to move teachers into subjects where they were needed, whether it be History, Economics, Geography or Political Science. At the same time, Russ admitted that the first time he taught Economics he had a real challenge. His Social Studies major meant he only had two basic Economics courses. Unfortunately, those two classes, for Russ, were his hardest and he received his poorest grades. He felt bad for his students who had him the first time he taught the subject. While it would have been better if he had a deeper background in all the Social Studies disciplines, he would not have been hired with a specific degree in any one discipline. Russ did not see his Psychology minor as being a problem in terms of being able to teach the subject straight out of college. Compared to his 6 hours of Economics, Geography and Political Science, his 20 hours of Psychology made him feel well-prepared for teaching that subject in high school. He also thought that the classes he took in college were geared toward application in a high school setting so there was very little translation Russ had to do in making the content approachable for his high school students.

Methods and Strategies, 2008

Russ said he learned quite a bit about multiple intelligences in college and the notion that people learn differently helped him develop lesson plans which allowed for differentiating instruction for his students. He distinctly remembered a large group seminar, under the aegis of the College of Education, where an expert in the field of differentiated instruction made an impression on Russ’ future style of teaching. It made sense to Russ that different students might learn differently and therefore required different ways of learning. He thought that educational theory went hand-in-hand with the idea that different students are motivated by different things and what worked in motivating one student might not work in motivating another student’s desire to learn. When Russ was cautioned by other teachers that a student might be disruptive, Russ saw that student’s behavior as a challenge in how to best reach him or her.

When asked about any gaps in his content preparation, Russ returned to his background in Economics, all the way back to his time in high school. He had a 9th Grade, bare bones, Economics class, but then did not take any Economics courses until his junior year in college. He felt under-prepared because many of the other students in his college classes were business or marketing majors and already had some of the other basic courses. He thought his professors had a challenge in teaching a diverse classroom in terms of their knowledge of the subject.

World History was another weakness. When Russ was in high school World History was not a required class, but he did take a “World Studies” class. That elective course his senior year was the first course that had anything to do with World History since 7th Grade. Russ felt he was fortunate that his Recent World History class in college was taught by an experienced professor and Russ received so much good information out of that course that he kept his college notebook in one of his classroom cabinets. His college World History course concerning the earlier eras was taught by a professor fresh out of graduate school and Russ thought that person struggled, not with the content, but in how that professor taught the course. Because of that person’s lack of pedagogical knowledge and skill, Russ did not get much out of that course.

Strategies and Methods, 2008

Russ thought he had a good set of tools for teaching when he left college and he spotlighted his classroom management skills. He thought his content level for teaching at the junior high level was good, as were his management skills. When he shifted to high school, he found the content more difficult in teaching, but again he thought his ability in running a classroom was up to par. He never had a problem relating to his students.

As far as his skill in writing, Russ related that his college History professors made him a stronger writer through the feedback they gave him on his papers. At first Russ thought he was being punished by all the critical comments his professors made on his writing assignments, but then he realized he needed improvement and the criticism they offered made him a stronger writer. He found that some of his professors did not write as many comments on his papers as others so Russ took the initiative and the offer of office hours in seeking help. When he entered the professors’ offices Russ thought the professors were excited to see students who wanted to improve and were willing to take the extra time to do it. That experience translated into Russ saying that he liked his students to meet him “halfway” when it comes to improving their writing. He offered his students an opportunity to “revise their papers ahead of time”. If they presented their papers to him a day early, he would return them the next day, with constructive comment. Not all students took him up on the offer and those students did not usually score as well on their papers. When he returned their papers, he would write “You would have benefitted from having this revised ahead of time” (Olcheske, v.t, 2008, p.8). Russ hoped that those students would learn that writing up their essays at the last minute would not result in the best grade. Earlier preparation in writing made for better results.

Russ said that his knowledge of specific content and curriculum standards was somewhat weak upon leaving college. When he started his career his school district stressed teaching to the standards and that approach seemed out of touch with his main purpose for teaching. His personal philosophy was doing the best job for his students and a tight focus on standards did not fit his view of teaching.

Russ thought the best knowledge and advice he received at college was that the first few years of teaching was going to be a struggle and if teaching was really what you wanted to do, then you had to stick with it. He thought the University did a good job in bringing in experienced teachers for panel discussions, who reinforced the challenge, while not dissuading people from the career.

Pearls of Wisdom, 2008

Russ thought school districts looked for well-rounded individuals. He thought that his overseas study on his resume gave him a leg up in the interview process. He remembered orientation for first year teachers when he started at Holt and it seemed that out of 30 or 40 new teachers, almost everyone had some sort of study abroad experience. Potential employers did not look just at GPA, but at other skills and abilities, such as coaching and advising. Based on that knowledge, Russ advised future teachers to get involved in their student teaching placements with as many activities as feasible. Those experiences on resumes made for a good impression when all the top candidates have similar grade point averages.

2015

At the time of my late September visit, Holt School District was still without a contract from last year’s negotiations. According to Russ, the district was out-sourcing everything it could in order to save money. 35% of the student population was out of district, “School of Choice” students in an attempt to maximize the per pupil state aid. The patrons of the district were not enthused with the situation, but the district needed the influx of aid in order to meet operating expenses.

A few years before the former 9th Grade Center became the Senior Student Center. The freshmen parents were unhappy with the decision so four school board members were voted out of office and both the Superintendent and the high school principal retired. Russ thought the Senior Center had proven to be a success thus far. The seniors were in a more relaxed, college atmosphere and were taking college level classes. Russ was teaching World History, Government, Advanced Placement Psychology, and a college-level Psychology course, in an agreement with Lansing Community College. Russ was basically a teaching assistant to a Lansing instructor for the college-level course, but would teach the course by himself in 2016. Russ said that despite all the challenges in education and in his district, he taught in a “pretty good place” (Olcheske, f.n., 2015, p.2).

Russ informed me before my visit that it would be Spirit Week and the day I was there was Hawai’i Day so I wore a Hawaiian shirt I bought a few years ago in Honolulu. I was never a big fan of Spirit Weeks when I was teaching and coaching high school football. I thought the relaxed atmosphere helped my football players lose focus on the game so I seldom dressed in the suggested garb for those events, beyond my coaching shirt, for which I was also ambivalent. I always thought that when I was teaching in my classroom I should dress as a teacher and then change to my coaching gear when on the field.

The World History students were writing an essay based on a documentary film they had watched in First Period and Russ predicted that this activity would only take 15 to 20 minutes for most of them and he was right on the mark. As the students were writing and then continuing on to a map location assignment, Russ walked through the rows, checking on engagement and stopping to offer help for students who were having problems in locating an item on their map. Russ displayed both good task and classroom management, while using proximity in prompting student requests for help as he walked by their desks.

Besides sports pennants and tennis and basketball trophies in his room, Russ had a Wall of Shame, which really was a Wall of Pride. That wall had photos of his former students who had graduated. Mike had a similar wall in his classroom in Davison. There were also motivational posters. As the students finished the mapping activity, Russ explained that he would be missing 3 days in the near future because of tennis tournaments and he warned the students that they should treat the substitute with respect or there would be consequences.

At that point, Russ reviewed with the students how to read a textbook and take proper notes. He started this part of the lesson by reading a selection entitled “Voices from the Past”, which was a selection from The Prince by Machiavelli. Then he asked for an example of evil in leadership and a student said, “Hitler”. Next, Russ put an outline up on the projection screen. The first point was “The Italian Renaissance”. He stopped the lecture at several points in order to explain the meaning of words in the text and he had the students supply meanings in each case so that he could check for understanding. In the process of working through the content, he also explained what text the students should focus on, how to shorten their notes and not lose the meaning of the chapter.

Throughout the lecture Russ displayed a good sense of humor with his students. One example of his lightheartedness was his bathroom pass, a “plumber’s helper” or toilet plunger. Any student would be easily spotted if she or he varied their route to the restroom and who wanted to carry that thing around for any extra time if he or she did not have to have it in their possession?

Second period class was Government. The students were mostly juniors. Russ asked them to take out a scrap of paper and then he showed a 10-minute segment of Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” taken from Pausch’s appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Russ asked the students to take brief notes, with the admonition to focus on what the students had versus what they did not have, the importance of material things in their lives in contrast to the importance of respect and love in their lives. Russ projected a “Pay It Forward” attitude to his students. He told me later that he wrote personal notes to his students as a form of “thank you” and, in return, he received a folder full of “thank yous” from his students starting with his first year of teaching in 2006. Russ reinforced the idea that objects were not that important and life was finite. He encouraged his students to spend life doing something they enjoyed. He also said that how people deal with adversity, such as Pausch’s attitude toward death^[4], was an important part of life. Russ thought setting life goals was just as important for his students as studying the structure and workings of government.

Third period World History followed the same lesson plan as first period. Russ told me that this class was much more vocal than his first period class and his most “energetic”, but he would rather have a group of students who were a little noisy rather than a quiet class. He thought it was much easier to channel energy rather than trying to “pump up” a listless class. I totally agreed. I believe that is the reason that my teaching colleagues at Circle High School had to close their classroom doors in my wing while I taught. My voice carried, as did the conversation and discussion in my classes.

Russ reinforced the fact that many of his students were “School of Choice” students from Lansing Public Schools, a short distance but a very different culture from Holt. He knew that some of those students, and their parents, were hoping to change their learning environment and their opportunities by going to a suburban school, but Russ knew that it did not work out that way sometimes. I watched him tell all his students that he loved them when they left his class, and he told me that another high school teacher does the same thing all day long. As with his first period class, Russ stopped his lecture from time to time and asked questions of relevance in the attempt for his students to find meaning in their lives that equated with learning about the Italian Renaissance.

Interview, 2015

Our interview happened in the North Campus Building of the Holt School District. It was known as the Senior Center, but officially called the North Building because “Senior Center” sounded like a retirement home.

Defining Success, 2015

Russ thought Grand Valley did a pretty good job preparing him for success in his career. The two placements, the half day Teacher-Assisting Semester, and the full day, Student Teaching Semester were one of the best factors in his preparation. Russ was in West Ottawa’s Macatawa Bay Middle School and Jenison Junior High, which was different than most Secondary Social Studies majors, who had a middle school placement and a high school placement. The university was lenient with Russ and honored his request for Jenison because he was coaching tennis there. Russ did bring up that the Social Studies major only required that he take two Economics classes and he taught Economics in his first year of his career. On top of that he was teaching seniors, a grade level that was not part of his student teaching regimen. That assignment was “tough” for him. Russ reinforced that Holt District would not hire an Economics major to teach Economics or a History major to teach History classes. Those majors were too specific and would not allow flexibility in assigning teachers to classes from year to year. I mentioned to Russ that the university was in the process of changing the major in 2015 to require at least one more course in Economics, Political Science and Geography, plus a broader selection of History courses, involving more areas of the world, versus just U.S. and Western Civilization. Russ thought that change was a good one.

Being close to Michigan State’s campus meant that Holt had its fair share of MSU “interns”. MSU’s program in 2015 involved a full year placement with one teacher and required their students to attend college classes every Friday instead of being in their placements. Russ thought both of those ideas were a drawback. Those students missed the opportunity to be in different placements, react with different students and learn alongside different teachers. The Friday on-campus meetings meant that they missed the continuity of a full week of school and the opportunity to compare the atmosphere of Friday classes at the end of the week versus school days the rest of the week. Listening to that comment I remembered my first year at GVSU and a student’s request that he start his Thanksgiving Break a day early and miss his placement at his school the day before the school let out. I refused his request, much to his chagrin, and explained that if he wanted the best preparation for his teaching career, then he should witness the atmosphere of school on the last day before vacation. All of the teachers who read this last bit will know what I am talking about, and for those of you who have not been in a classroom as a teacher at any level just before a break, well…you should experience that “joyful” time, just to get a sense of what teachers endure throughout their careers, no matter what type of classroom management they exhibit.

Russ said that student engagement was a measure of his success in his classroom. He wanted to see wonder on his students’ faces and witness the “light bulb go on” when they realized they learned something new and interesting. Russ thought he realized student engagement through establishing positive relationships with his students. “I think you are going to get more engagement…when the student knows you care about them as a person” (Olcheske, v.t., 2015, p.3).

Next, Russ looked for growth. Where were his students at the beginning of the year and where do they finish? While the district had teachers provide evidence of student growth to their administrators every year, I believe Russ set that expectation for himself without the district’s urging. He went on to say that the district would not demand that every student reach some level of improvement, but they did want to know how teachers were providing opportunities for student growth, and if growth was not apparent, what would a teacher do to modify and improve the opportunities for growth in the following year?

Russ explained that the district had common assessments and part of those assessments included Document Based Questions or DBQs. Holt allowed for some creativity in how those questions were constructed and some individuality for teachers when fulfilling the district’s curriculum, with the caveat that each student should have a similar experience in their education.

He returned to growth. For him, it did not mean just growth in content and the skills that accompanied that content, but also social growth. Russ wanted his students to develop compassion and confidence. He wanted to see a shy student willing to raise their hand by the end of a semester and take an active role in their learning. He was not sure if that type of growth could be measured, but he still thought it was important for a student’s future success in life.

Challenges, 2015

Balance in life. 2015 was the tenth year of his teaching career. Balance was a constant theme in my classes at GVSU. It was important for my students in balancing their professional life and personal life. I witnessed teachers, especially beginning teachers, whose professional lives dominated their time, with bad results in terms of stress and burn out. Russ worked with his assistant principal at the beginning of his career with balance and came to realize that his professional and personal life were one in the same. It was still normal for him to have 12 to 14 hour days and weekends filled with teaching, coaching and other extra-curricular activities. Russ did not think he was burning out because, while he was at school or at school functions many hours a week, he saw those duties and responsibilities as separate things. Many teachers see coaching as a release from the regular classroom, even if they are teaching on the court or the field or on the stage or practice room. Russ did take one weekend day off per week to relax and separate from his various school jobs.

At the same time Russ admitted that he struggled with students who simply did not care about school. He said he did not focus on trying to engage those students all the time, but it did bother him when he could not reach a student who did not care about their learning. Again, he focused on his definition of student growth, not just in content, but in social ways. Maybe a student would never be adept at naming the branches of government or how a certain federal agency works in a democracy, but if a student learned how to better relate to classmates or how Russ was invested in their life beyond the teaching standards, then Russ considered that a challenge met.

Dealing with Stress, 2015

Russ admitted that he had to learn “not to sweat the small stuff” (Olcheske, v.t., 2015, p.6).

You just can’t, whether it’s in the classroom. Whether it’s administrative, whether it’s…you just can’t let the little things bother you and you have to continually be flexible and adaptable. If you come in and, “Here’s what we are doing today. We’re doing A, B and C” well, now a fire alarm happened, ok, “Now I’m behind the whole weeks messed up”. No, you’ve got to learn to roll with the punches in this field because if you have that kind of A, B, C mentality, “Here’s what we are going to do today”, it might not work out that way and then, “Now I’m stressed out at home because I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would and now we have a snow day and how are we ever going to…” You can’t let that stuff bother you. You have to do the best you can with the time you have. So, I had to focus on realizing that I needed to control what I could control and the things that I can control are actually very minimal. And I had to learn to be okay with that. One thing I do control though is the attitude that I bring to my students on an everyday basis. And so that’s something I can control. I can’t control the budget. I can’t control the switch of 9th and 12th graders (from having a “Freshmen Center” building to a “Senior Center” building). I can’t control these kids’ home lives and the horrible things they are dealing with. I can control the attitude that I bring every single day to that classroom. So, focus on that because that, actually, really, gives me quite a bit of control. I still have a great influence on these kids. I can still do great work with them. I can still be a great role model for them in their lives. So, focus on what I can control, which actually isn’t much, and, but when you look at it from another perspective you still do have a lot (Olcheske, v.t., 2015, p.6-7).

Next, Russ learned from his coordinating teacher at Jenison during the student-teaching semester not to take himself too seriously. While school is important, a teacher’s job is important and the content is important, a teacher still has to have fun doing their job. There will be losses and there will be failures, but you just have to do the best job you can do with the situation you are in and with the students in your classroom. Russ’s teacher at Jenison was a 30 year pro. Russ was upset one day because his perfectly planned lesson plan was being cut short by 10 minutes by a school reading policy. Ten minutes was set aside for reading for the students and that meant the lesson would not be “perfect” that day. Russ’s teacher reminded him that he could just pick up where he left off tomorrow and everything would be okay.

Motivation, 2015

Russ, after 10 years, still loved his job. Despite all the bad press that education was receiving in the media and in public dialogue, Russ kept his positive attitude. His students showed him love, respect, fulfillment and enjoyment. Even when he started to get a little down about his job, a student’s comment or note to him re-charged his spirit.

On top of the reinforcement from his students, Russ volunteered at a local crisis center, answering phones. He was dedicated to helping other people. Helping them learn. Helping them grow. Helping them survive. Russ dedicated himself for service to his school and community.

Strategy and Methods, 2015

Russ was a believer in “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” He felt that education, in constantly reinventing itself, sometimes gave up on strategies and methods of teaching and learning that were still working. Sometimes change came before the old reform really had a chance of showing results. When working with statisticians during my teaching career I was told multiple times that five years of data were necessary before there was enough information to prove that a change or a reform was working or not working. Russ said that a lecture format was not bad, but bad lecturing was bad. If students responded well to a teacher’s lecture style and there was data in showing a positive gain in their learning and skills, then why make a change?

Russ did say that he made the move away from multiple choice tests as a form of assessment. In his mind, multiple choice questions are good for measuring rote memorization, which led to students cramming for tests and forgetting what they crammed. He changed to more written assessments and thus he lectured less and led class discussions more often, a more Socratic style of teaching. He thought a more standards-based type of assessment might now best fit his teaching and his students’ learning, but he had not made the switch at this point. He related that his school’s Math Department did make the change and, similar to the situation at another school in this study, the parents were concerned that their students were not receiving percentage grades. Russ thought that better communication with parents might alleviate some of the problems when a change like that is made in assessment and the reporting of improvement.

I asked Russ about the impact of technology on his teaching and he said he had just purchased his first “smart phone” after using a flip phone for almost a decade. His students thought that situation humorous. Russ also thought there was an overabundant use of PowerPoint slides in classrooms. He was not convinced that a parade of slides was the best method for student learning. He wanted proof through data-driven research that technology use was worth the time and effort for teachers in implementing it into their classrooms. At the same time, he thought the ability for students to create reminders on their phones was a useful tool. On the other hand, he heard too many times from students, “I will just Google that”, as if Google or any search engine, provided all the critical thought needed or that any single source for research was the best way in searching out verifiable answers.

Evaluation, 2015

Russ told me that he was not formally evaluated a single time the previous year. On the other hand, all the teachers in his school had to provide evidence of how they were measuring student growth and what the teachers would do in improving growth for the next year. Russ thought that approach was sounder than an administrator dropping into a classroom, sensing that the learning atmosphere was good, the teacher’s disposition was positive and letting the evaluation go at that. He knew there were multiple components to his yearly evaluation, although he was uncertain, with all the state-mandated changes to teacher evaluation, exactly what those components were and how they were weighted. Some of the teachers in this study said that 30-40% of their yearly evaluation was based on student scores on state standardized tests. Russ thought that Holt teachers and the teachers’ union were not “keen” on that kind of data for evaluating teacher effectiveness. He thought that the amount of reading that parents did with their children contributed greatly to their development and ability to learn. Russ also thought that a factor which should be taken into consideration was the ability of the students assigned to a teacher. What if a teacher had a higher percentage of special needs or low achieving students? How should those factors equate in evaluating a teacher’s effectiveness? Should a teacher be considered “highly effective” just because he or she had high achieving students? Did that mean that only teachers with AP or Honors classes were “highly effective”? To Russ that would be comparing two dentists’ performance, one in a highly educated, affluent area and another in an area that was poverty-stricken with a low level of education. Russ’s view of teacher evaluation was impacted by the fact that he achieved tenure and good evaluations in the past and the administration was no longer concerned about his teaching ability. He had proven himself.

Early in his career Russ had the benefit of two supportive assistant principals. When Russ thought he was not doing a good job in the classroom, these two administrators buoyed his spirits and gave him constructive feedback for improving his classroom performance. The evaluations were low pressure and very constructive and positive. Russ knew that these individuals were helping him become a better teacher. There was nothing punitive in the evaluation process.

After tenure, Russ was evaluated less often and feedback was correspondingly less. The administrators were, quite correctly, spending more time with younger, less experienced teachers.

Mentoring, 2015

Russ said that he was supposed to have a mentor teacher at the beginning of his career but that person never really materialized. His two vice principals served in that role. Russ refreshed my memory from our meeting in 2008 in that he was the only U.S. History teacher in the building in which he taught. He had no close, day-to-day contact with the other U.S. History teachers. He was also the only Psychology teacher in the high school so there was no colleague who might offer lesson ideas or teaching support for that subject. He did have a teacher who might have helped him with Economics, but Russ was so far over his head and the other experienced Economics teacher was not able to offer helpful advice for a rookie who was ‘lost at sea’. Despite that situation with those three subjects, Russ thought the experience, though painful and full of stress, was a positive one for him. He was forced to work things out for himself and he noted that his department was somewhat dysfunctional in terms of helpful communication and guidance. There was not even an opportunity to talk “shop” during lunch, due to physical separation between the buildings and a departmental atmosphere of rugged individualism.

Continuing Education, 2015

Russ, like many of the other teachers in this study, decided early on that he did not want to be an administrator, so he pursued his graduate degree in General Psychology. Because of that degree and Russ’s ability to teach a college level Psychology class, the district started an AP Psychology course. The degree opened opportunities for him and allowed him to progress on the salary schedule.

As for non-college continuing education, Holt had “late-start Wednesdays, so that professional development (PD) was built into the school weekly calendar. Sometimes the PD is within the Social Studies Department and sometimes the meetings are interdepartmental. Russ thought some good ideas came out of the interdepartmental meetings, but he was less positive about the departmental meetings, which he characterized as being more about complaints and arguing rather than constructive dialogue about teaching.

Russ also said that he attended monthly professional development for new teachers at the Lansing area Intermediate School District (ISD), but those meetings ended for him after the first year. I know most ISDs and RESAs (Regional Educational Service Agencies) in Michigan offer continual PD, but with cutbacks in funding and the lack of substitutes in the last few years, it has become more and more difficult for teachers to attend, unless they go to those meetings after school (not a good option for people who have afterschool activities) or during the summer.

Russ was considering another master’s degree, maybe along the same lines as his first degree in Psychology. With his work in the Community Crisis Center, he thought graduate study in Mental Health might be a good prospect but those plans were on hold at the time I interviewed him in 2015.

I asked him if his graduate degree was applicable to the Psychology classes he taught. He said the coursework was designed for high school teachers so he found the information beneficial. The entire graduate coursework was online and Russ admitted he struggled at first with this type of learning. That struggle was balanced by the fact that he was able to teach and coach full-time without taking classes on campus. He could “attend” at midnight or on Sundays. Russ said that he appreciated the fact that his district allowed for an online degree versus attending classes at nearby Michigan State University.

Pearls of Wisdom, 2015

Russ was another teacher who wished his undergraduate program included some information about school politics. He said he did not know anything about teachers’ unions or how they operated when he graduated from GVSU. He was dismayed that teachers and education had become vilified by the public and the media. He thought too much focus was on ‘bad teachers’ and while he admitted that there were ‘bad teachers’ in the profession, he thought they were a small minority. He warned future teachers to be prepared for the negativity that issued from society in general, from parents and politicians. He was frustrated by the state budget cuts to education. Russ did not blame his school board or the administration. At the same time, he thought that in the process of outsourcing custodians or security guards there was an impact on the teachers and the students. Instead of a community member, with some connection to the school, someone with no connection to the students or the community was just there to do a job and might not be dedicated to the betterment of the district.

Russ advised future teachers to make sure they were getting into teaching for the right reason—the students. If a person’s passion was solely for the content, then perhaps a doctoral degree that led to a college position would be a better career choice for someone. He knew that many students did not care about a teacher’s academic passion for their subject. That passion was necessary as a means for engaging students in learning, but teaching was more about finding ways to improve students’ lives and contributing to their later success in life, and not becoming experts in a teacher’s subject matter. Russ thought Psychology and Government were two subjects where he could find ways in making the content relevant to students’ lives, but World History was a challenge. How do you engage students with something that happened during the Renaissance?

Russ said future teachers need to be aware of the time commitment they will be making. Just the daily time at school equates to a 40-hour work week and that does not include lesson preparation and grading. Coaching, sponsoring clubs or directing theatrical productions might easily add another 20 hours per week, if not more. All told, Russ calculated that after ten years in his career he was still spending 60 to 70 hours a week in order for him to do his job properly. Add to that time, the responsibilities to your family if you get married and the week gets chewed up quickly. He remembered his high school days when he thought teachers only worked six hours a day and had their summers off. Now he knew that pursuing a graduate degree, keeping up with the content and pedagogy, re-examining and improving upon lesson plan ideas meant long hours and many days passed a six-hour day and 180 days of school. Russ also reinforced the importance of supporting students in their extracurricular activities, like attending sporting events where he was not the coach, and attending plays, musicals and concerts. His attendance signaled that he cared about his students more than just when they were learning in his classroom.

Lastly, Russ said that future teachers should get involved in extracurricular activities during their student teaching placements. Not only does that experience look good on a resume and may lead to a job, but those activities are another way to build relationships with students, to show you care about them beyond the subject you teach. It is also a way to relieve stress and have fun.