Teach like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56

School is a place where individuals grow, develop, and explore their future interests. This necessitates that the classroom is an environment where students feel supported, respected, and competent. I

A consistent approach to behaviour helps pupils learn right from wrong and to appreciate that rules exist for the good of everyone.

In The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer, it begins by saying that the premise of the book is: “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes identity and integrity of the teacher.” Through the first chapter Palmer talks about good teachers make themselves vulnerable and available to be of service to their students. He also says that bad teachers are the ones who make themselves distant and disconnected from the class and their students. Palmer says that a teacher must have a strong sense of self before he can impart his knowledge on students, to deepen the understanding of one’s own integrity, experimentation is key. Chapter two discusses the subject of fear as it relates to students and teaching. It talks about fears that may hold one back in the classroom such as fear of embarrassment or fear of bad marks, things that can lead to students who were born with the love of learning grow to hate the idea of school. It also talks about potentially positive fears such as the fear of being a bad teacher showing that one has a passion for their subject. Palmer gives an example of “the student from hell” and how Palmer had his fear that he was being a bad teacher and that he took the wrong approach to the situation, leading to anger and disappointment. He later talked to this student and found out that the student had his own fears. Palmer decides that good teaching is an act of hospitality toward young people, and hospitality in general always benefits the

Dimension 3.1, classroom environment, routines, and procedures, the teachers is expected to organize and maintain a “safe, accessible, and efficient classroom” (TEA, 2016, p. 15). Dimension 3.2, managing student behavior, focuses on establishing expectations for behavior. And dimension 3.3, classroom culture, consists of creating a culture of mutual respect in which all learners are engaged (TEA, 2016). The focus of this domain is to ensure an orderly and safe environment for all learners by maintain high

Another policy which could fix the current punishment policies in schools is the Restorative Justice system which focuses on improving the student-teacher relationship and the overall classroom environment because this would help keep the students content and safe. When a student is satisfied with the environment of the classroom, they will be more willing to be involved and engaged in classroom activities. This is why, Teasley feels it is important to focus on restoring the mutual respect in schools and have students take responsibility for their actions (Teasley). When a student has a respectable relationship with their instructor, or any adult figure for that matter, they will be more inclined to be obedient. They will also be more willing to learn and to be more affable to their superiors.

One fall, I sat in a crowded auditorium about to begin another year teaching when the words of the school head, Tom Hudnut, rang deep. His charge to the faculty was simple. “Be great teachers!” Be like the loon 's voice on a summer night. Be that great teacher whose memory and instruction reach into the heart and soul of those you teach. Born and raised in the private school world, I learned from many great teachers. However, none figure so prominently as my middle school teachers: Jim Gardner, Arnold Klingenberg, Jim

Rafe Esquith teaches fifth grade at Hobart Elementary School in California. In his novel, Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire, he reflects on his experiences as a teacher at an inner-city school located in the not so safe side of Los Angeles. Rafe is aware he has to be forceful with his students for them to learn, but he also focuses on their enjoyment of learning in his classroom. Each chapter has useful tips on how to be a successful teacher by incorporating fun activities into the lesson plans and making students want to be involved. To be his best, he learns from other teachers ' mistakes as well as his own. Helping students reach their full potential does not stop in the classroom. Rafe also creates after school programs to show movies

Spending time in Ms. Gibson’s 1st grade class at Birney Elementary School in the Long Beach Unified School District presented many fascinating learning opportunities. Prior to my experience at this school, review of the STAR report and the School Accountability Report provided interesting background information on the school. While background information set a certain expectation at a school level, it did not offer any insight into my classroom experience. Consequently, I did not have any expectations on what I would learn by working with an experienced educator. Even though I did not have any specific expectations, I did learn a few tips on classroom management and teaching that I plan to take forward. Additionally, my early fieldwork experience assisted in helping me discover my weakest areas in respect to teaching, to focus on in my education.

Throughout this last semester, I have been student teaching at Shawswick Middle School where I was able to take a critical look at myself as an educator. Though the teacher and I did not see eye to eye, this disagreement helped me to better form my own pedagogical beliefs and establish confidence in myself as an educator.

TEACH LIKE YOUR HAIR’S ON FIRE: ANECDOTAL WISDOM OF AN EXPERIENCED EDUCATOR Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire by Rafe Esquith is a book, where one finds pieces of wisdom of an experienced educator on how to become a better teacher, parent and person and also a student (prologue). By sharing such wisdom extracted over the years and inviting teachers to a difficult self-training in the shape of “true sacrifice, mistakes and enormous amount of effort,” (prologue) instead of providing them with “simple solutions to complex problems” (prologue), the author intends to map out the terrains of possible problems and suggests strategies for dealing with them. As the book shares such wisdom in anecdotal form, it is easy to apprehend what the author makes of a particular experience, therefore user-friendly as a guide not only for many teachers in need, but also parents.

In the book, Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire, Rafe Esquith has a lot of words of wisdom for future or current teachers. Rafe seems like a very wise teacher who has been through it all during his journey. He teaches at a school where many of the students live in households under the poverty level. Out of all of the lessons in this book, there are a few that stick out to me. A few are classrooms are managed by fear when they should not be, the six levels of moral development and how we study. Rafe goes into great detail about all of these lessons and how we can better ourselves as teacher and people and how these things will make our classroom a better environment for everyone.

Teaching requires creating a classroom where all students are able to participate in the learning. Chapter 1 discusses the importance language, expectations, and integration. Chapter 1 introduces the topic of multicultural teaching.

The overall functioning of a classroom is impacted by trust, safety, and consistency. When a student does not feel safe he or she will reflect this through his or her behavior. Trust is important for students to take risks and allow learning to occur in the classroom. Trust, safety, and consistency are beneficial in the learning environment. A classroom where students feel safe, realize the teacher is consistent, and trust is developed, will allow students to grow and change socially, emotionally, and academically. This will offer a positive learning environment.

Although I have had many different types of teachers, there are two that stick out more than any others. The first was my third and sixth grade teacher. She was the best teacher I ever had. The second was my seventh grade teacher. She was the worst I think a student could have had. Both, these teachers had very different teaching styles and very different out looks on teaching. To be an effective teacher the teacher must respect the student and be willing to go the extra mile to help the students learn all they can. In this paper, I will discuss the effectiveness of these two teachers and how their teaching styles differed.

Classroom management and classroom discipline share a correlation with one another yet; they are uniquely different issues and should remain a separate focus of the teacher. (Cantor, 2006) Behavior and misbehavior also share a connection but represent different degrees of infraction. (Charles, 2008) This essay focuses on the differences and similarities of these topics and their relation to the classroom.