The Non-robotic Heart of a Teacher

 

I teach online now after spending 20 years in the classroom. This year, we are using a new learning management system. I don't particularly like it, so I will admit I was not very engaged initially. In rebellion,  instead of working my way through the new lessons to teach my students, I decided to give AI a try. I copied and pasted and allowed AI to write my lesson plans for me. 

Huge mistake.

 First of all, let me say that I pride myself on writing very creative lesson plans. I like to know what my students are learning and then supplement it with questions, images, games, examples, whatever it takes to reach them, right?

However, after only spending a couple of hours writing out lesson plans for four different English resource preps, I thought, “Hey, I am onto something!” I even had a little free extra time to grade and take a little crafting time for myself.

What happened, you ask?

Well, without really paying attention to what I had created because, mind you, I'd only put in the subject title and subtitles and not really looked at the depth of the content, I started my class.

 I began going through slides that even I could not relate to because I didn't know the content, and the information made no sense. 

 It was awful, and then I realized I had preached to my kids about using AI responsibly and using the suggestions but not taking it at face value for completed work, and I face-planted. My students, who are always game for the crazy ideas and concepts I throw at them, were bored.

The joy that I usually have when presenting a lesson to my students and hearing positive exchange did not come. There was only me drowning in AI slop-like content that was dense, unfriendly, mechanical, almost nonsensical

 I have learned my lesson. 

So now it's back to old school: going through the content, creating helpful worksheets and resources for my students who require modifications and accommodations. 

I return to my old ways,  knowing and loving what I'm teaching to the students who deserve so much more than a robotic, formulaic approach to instruction. I realize they require and deserve the human touch. No robot can ever take the place of a teacher with a heart for kids.

"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you." ~~B.B. King

A-Rated Leadership

 

J.Sanders-Nelson, Spring, 2025

-rated Leadership

Working in a successful, high-achieving school with stellar standardized testing scores is hard work. Working at the very opposite end of that spectrum is even harder.

  An academically struggling school's leadership is often under tremendous pressure from its higher-ups. Trying to rally the team to meet expectations and raise campus scores is a daunting and delicate task. Leadership approach can either make or break the teaching team they are counting on to achieve those goals.

 I believe that collective perception(1), in my opinion, is when a group of people working or living together experiences a negative shift in their environment and react to it accordingly. In a restrained environment, this could breed an atmosphere of contempt. Where does the contempt derive from? From negative comments, actions, and even emotions. Thus, if leadership presents hostile or passive-aggressive comments but then tries to follow it up with the standard “We're All in This Together” comments, the team only hears the negative. In this state of reflection and the replaying of the negative comments, corporate teamwork jargon is lost. Instead, heads turn, eye contact is made with other co-workers, and the collective perception that the leader does not believe in them is born. This perception may manifest into lackadaisical attitudes with very little motivation to do well because doubt has been cast on their abilities to bring up achievement in the first place.

 Is it feasible to turn such a toxic environment around and bring the team together for the good of the students?  Who, by the way, are watching and learning how adults treat each other via the leadership’s interactions with the educational team. According to Corwin Connects, "...it is critical for teachers and administrators to take time to connect with students. Students will remember the connections and connection attempts, and it will help them shape their behaviors." One way to make that connection is to demonstrate appropriate behaviors towards colleagues.

In the midst of turmoil and low morale, it is possible for leadership to reinvest in their team, but it may require inner reflection and honesty. 

• Have I been an honest leader? 

• A helpful leader 

• Did I blame others when I knew the initial responsibility fell on me?

 I believe it's okay for a leader to backtrack and say, “Let's start over, before this gets out of hand.” If the delivery is sincere and without the “buts”:

• But you all have to …

• But I can't …

• But you have to realize…

     These are all self-preserving excuses shoddily tagged onto an apology for a mediocre leadership style. I'm no expert on leadership, and I am not currently involved in academic leadership. However, I have served under both good and strained leadership and learned a great deal from observing. I'm a classroom teacher, I love teaching my kids, I don’t mind following the curriculum, and I am a team player. Looking back, I have found that the best leadership I thrived under was humble, honest, and secure in their ability to lead. These attributes were passed on to the teaching team, and we therefore excelled. Working hard to raise and maintain academic goals came easily because, in the end, we had leadership right there in the trenches with us. Leadership has to stand with their teaching teams; they must trust and believe in them, help to develop their skills, and not look for last-minute remedies that render very little impact on students. When we teachers know that leadership is on our side, it empowers us and inspires us to be the absolute best that we can be in our classrooms.  

After all, we are all in this together.

Teachers Helping Teachers

am very proud of my online store where I sell helpful reading lessons and project-based learning slides to teachers who need a quick way to engage their students.

I have been a seller on TpT since 2007 and it has grown tremendously over the years. However, I am NOT just a seller I am also a buyer. I tutor part-time, so I always look for helpful assignments for my students who vary in grade level.

I know that many teachers are on a budget so I wanted to list a few sites I like to use and find lesson sources for free. After all, teachers are ALWAYS on a budget!

Great School Partnership - This site featured my lesson plan on Ukrania poetry and offered great classroom engagement tips and ideas.

Education World - Education World is a complete online resource that teachers, administrators and school staff can visit each day to find high-quality and in-depth original content. 

Education.com - This site provides content that will "Nurture each child’s passion, curiosity, optimism, and educational success."

EdHelper.com - I have always loved Edhelper. They have a tremendous variety of lessons covering tons of topics.

These are just a few of the available site to help you plan optimum lessons for your kiddos. Just Google "lesson plans".

19th Year and Counting

his will be my 19th year as an educator and as the new school year is about to begin I am excited, nervous, and a little sad about leaving summer vacation behind.

Since I began teaching in 2005, so much has changed in the classroom, the access to technology, learning management systems, online tutoring that occurs in class while the teacher is teaching, the massive exodus from the profession of teaching, unfounded claims that teachers are indoctrinating students...and I could go on.

"Why do you stay?" They ask. "I couldn't do it!" They exclaim.

I stay because I love teaching kids, I do it because I love teaching. It's quite simple for me. I have several former students who are now educators and even former educators. It's a tough road, I have encouraged them to persevere and most have; some have moved on to other professions and that is understandable.

 

I look forward to another exciting year of teacher and student triumphs. I am hopeful for support administration and staff to make sure that the school year is one of learning and a safe space to be creative and grow.

Burning On

by Paula J. Sanders-Nelson ~November 13, 2022

Everyone has heard of teacher burnout, right? More students, more paperwork, more discipline issues…daily. It’s enough to make many take off their teacher hats and hang it up.

“It's caused by chronic stress due to unrelenting workplace demands. The National Education Association defines teacher burnout as “a condition in which an educator has exhausted the personal and professional resources necessary to do the job.” It's not just about the ability to educate effectively, though.Sep 15, 2022 Teacher Burnout: A Growing Problem in Schools - Talkspace

 

My last year teaching high school was a bit much. There were some nights when I couldn't close my eyes without dreaming about the noise and violence. Yes, I said violence. 

My plate was already full with work, plus family health issues and now pile on the daily discipline issues, fights, lack of administrative support, apathetic students and the list goes on, I was teetering on the edge of good-bye teaching profession.

So many at this point ask, well, why didn’t you just quit?

Reasons, well there are many…not only was my family depending on me financially, but I had students who became like family depending on me for emotional support. How could I, in the midst of all of the chaos, simply walk out on them? If I was feeling anxious, nervous, stressed and borderline traumatized, how were they feeling?

 I looked out each day at a group of students who should have been elated to be back in school and moving into the normality of school days: homecoming, prom, field trips, athletics…instead, I saw a lot of blank faces. Many turning to artificial substances to escape the raucous. How could I just leave? I couldn't, I toughed it out. 

I am still toughing it out. It's a new year, new school, new kids, but I look out and see the similarities. They are keeping their heads above water, trying to be in the norm, but there is a lot going on inside of those young minds. So, my teacher hat is still on, I enter the classroom everyday, a little bit older but hopefully a little bit wiser. I’m burning on.

Teaching and Making Real World Connections

 July 2022

J. Sanders-Nelson
Dallas, Texas

In the spring of 2022, I was creating a poetry unit and I somehow wanted to make a connection between poetry and what was going on in the Ukraine which had dominated all news on all sources of media.

 

My students and I had brief conversations about it but never really delve deeper into it.

I decided to Google "Ukrainian poetry" and bingo, I found this article: “You’ve got to live somewhere you aren’t afraid to die.” Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry From Kharkiv

Here I discovered the most amazing and relevant poetry by Serhiy Zhadan, a punk lyricist and definitely poet. 

With this singular resource, I created an engaging lesson that many of my students could absolutely relate to. Many commented on the poems being relevant to the social justice protest right here in our country. 

If you would like to use this poetry lesson for your students, please click here from the Great Schools Partnership Blog by Kate Gardoqui .

Lesson Plan: The Poetry of Serhiy Zhadan

The Teaching Challenge

April-2022

by Paula J. Sanders-Nelson

This has been a challenging year. I truly want what is best for my students, but sometimes feel as if I am set adrift all alone. I do give a lot of challenging work. I am working with young people who will soon be off into the world. Mom or Dad cannot call the college professor and demand you have a second chance. Nor can students put off completing classwork until the end of the semester and try to play "catch up".

I want my students to feel confident walking into an arena-size English 1301 class and understand the reading and writing assignment; how to format an MLA-styled paper. I want them to KNOW what MLA is! I do not want them to feel lost, left out or worse, dumb, because they did not meet the demands my of senior-level class. I dread hearing "they didn't teach us that" on some social media confessional video. I tried. I stood up in front of many who ignored me to watch Tik Tok videos of dogs on skateboards or the latest dance challenge. Only to forcibly charge me with leaving them out of the loop when it's down to the wire and the assignment is due and they absolutely have no clue what they are supposed to do or where to find it.

This has truly been a challenging year, but out of the hardships, I have observed first and second-generation future college students rise to the challenge and sometimes going above and beyond with their assignments. They actually enjoyed the work, learned from the articles and the stories, and demonstrated this in their on-time submissions. They were not kissing up to me, they were simply following instructions and getting the job done. No, they were not all straight "A" students, but they are the ones who will excel post-secondary, whether it be academically or in the workplace. They have the work ethic, they are teachable and coachable, and sharp. And I am proud of them because had it not been for these hardworking, ambitious, and entrepreneurial students, I might have just walked away from the job I love the most.

Teaching💗

🎓Hat's off to the hardworking survivors of the class of 2022