Engagement & Your Teacher Persona

1. Freshmen Boys – God bless their hearts Engagement & Your Teacher Persona

2. Why Engagement? • Love = kindness • What is the opposite of love? • “Discipline is hard, warmth is easy, and both are necessary.” (cf. Warm/Strict) • Teachers who care enough to correct are the ones who care. Those who don’t care enough to correct don’t care enough. • We care enough about kids to fight for their engagement and to guide them along the right path even as they stray. • Talk is cheap, and attention spans are short. Now what?

3. Engagement Tricks for your Tool Belt • Rigor • Challenging questions • Teacher Persona • Joy Factor peppered into lesson • Mr. Whitley • Create your own persona and PRACTICE! • Connections to scholars lives • Videos for instruction • Internet Memes in lessons • Competition • Rewards and consequences

4. One note before we proceed • “Eighth graders are crazy, and ninth graders are just big 8th graders.” ~ an administrator said this that one time… I can’t when • Focus of the day – freshmen boys givin’ you the blues? • We need to keep all scholars engaged; however, as you train yourself to engage 14 year old boys, you will also learn how to keep all other high schoolers engaged (my opinion, but I’m convinced it’s true). • I’ll share tricks I learned from Tindley Prep teachers, so a few items will be boy-centric. • Practicality – I want these tips to be as useful as possible… for Monday!

5. Rigor Examples from taxonomy videos • Ms. Verrilli – 12th grade – Literature • Mr. Rector – 7th grade - Math

6. Teacher Persona

7. Teacher Persona – The Why • Mr. Whitley’s persona and experience • How he grew so quickly • Why a persona • How do you act differently in these situations? • In a job interview • In front of your kids • On a date with your significant other • In Wal-Mart • After being pulled over by a cop • In a graduate class • At church (as applicable) • In a parent meeting • Alone • Teaching twenty-four freshmen boys

8. Teacher Persona – The Why • “Teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theater.” ~Gail Godwin • Theater matters when you teach… • But this quotation ignores the fact that we can prepare the theatrical component of teaching, so teaching is more than ¼ preparation. It’s all preparation. • You need a teacher persona, and you have to practice one to develop one.

9. Teacher Persona – The What • Examples of Personas • E-40http://youtu.be/fyQhFpXCOmM • Daniel Day Lewis – Personal Life VS…http://youtu.be/Oi-VHXpNauM?t=2m59s • Daniel Day Lewis – There Will Be Bloodhttp://youtu.be/_9k6Mf-FfXQ?t=1m00s

10. Teacher Persona – Testify! • Ms. Chambliss • Ms. Blackwell

11. Teacher Persona – The How

12. Teacher Persona – Example • Background: • Grew up in a hyper-strict religious community. • Loves rules. Obsesses about rules. Fanatical about following the rules. • Will exercise the demons out of your soul if you can’t follow the rules.

13. Teacher Persona – Example • Pastime: • Following rules • Finishing work on time • Sounds made: • Hallelujer! • Eghghghghghgh! • Aye-yai-yai-yai-yai • What you used to do when people disrespected you: • Scholar elbow (Jimmy-Snuka-style off the top rope) • “My rebukes will upper-cut your psyche so hard that your id will be touching your super ego.” • “I will Darth Vader your trachea.”

14. Teacher Persona - Practice • Spend 7 minutes developing your persona. • After 420 seconds, we will partner practice. • Then we will film you. • If you doubt yourself, just remember the wisdom of Henry Ford: • “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

15. Teacher Persona – To conclude • “Teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theater.” ~Gail Godwin • Yes, but… • Teaching is still 100% preparation. It all depends on how we prepare.

16. Engagement by Connecting to Scholars’ Lives • Humorous and or interesting videos resonate with boys. • Videos are best when they connect content to your scholars’ experiences. • Alexander Hamilton was an OG • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNFf7nMIGnE • Too Late to Apologize – Declaration of Independence • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfRaWAt\BVg

17. Engagement by Connecting to Scholars’ Lives • Internet memes

18. Math Memes

19. Reading Memes

20. Teacher Memes

21. _____________ Meme • Brainstorm three different lessons to which this meme could apply.

22. Engagement through Competition(35 seconds)

23. Engagement through Competition • Keep Score • If… • Everyone begins the Do Now silently within 30 seconds • We start the independent practice by 9:15 • You get more points than I do • Then • You don’t have to do numbers 11 and 12 on the homework • We can watch the 2014 slam dunk contest • We can watch the trailer for Interstellar (Ride Along, Transformers, The Hobbit, The Interview, Exodus… whatever interests the scholars). • How do I know what interests the scholars? • ASK THEM! (conversations, surveys, dabble in their culture)

24. Why Engagement? • Scholars who learn at the edge of their seats are the ones grow the most.

25. Work Time • Rigor: Add 10 rigorous questions to Monday’s lesson plan. • Rigor through questions • Rigor through discuss habits you teach scholars • Engagement: Add 5 pieces of engagement to Monday’s plan. You can get engagement through… • rigorous questions • your teacher persona • connections to scholars’ lives • Videos that relate to content • Internet memes • Competition • “If we start the Do Now silently in 30 seconds, I’ll take one questions off the homework.”