Difficult Students are MY Responsibility

I'm reading a book about math differentiation and it talks about the negative attitudes many students have towards math. WHY? What did math do to these children? NOTHING, of course! So where does it stem from? Is it that math is naturally frustrating, or maybe it is that teachers have frustrated students through their perspective on math or their inability to effectively teach it.

The deepest question from all this is, does any of that matter? Nope, none of it does. I have no control over any of the above, nor does any other teacher. In fact, to justify why students don't learn math, or any other subject where it inserted in math's place, is to scapegoat the failures in our classroom to the others before us (oh how we've become so like the politicians in Washington.) Of course, the failures of others does make the tasks in our own classrooms that much harder, but when did EDUCATORS decide that they weren't going to educate? That is our job! However, many teachers have determined that if they can't simply speak it and a student learn it, it must be because of the student's home life, previous teacher, or their own lack of effort. Accountability, professionalism, and commitment are lacking in the field of education. What are your thoughts?

Who has the time? A multitasker...

I find myself multitasking a lot. You do to. I mean, we are always washing our hair and thinking about our day. In the classroom, teachers have to be a super-multitasking fool. From the time students walk in, to the time they walk out, a teacher is responsible for the management of billions of items. Consider all the behavior, assignments, student ability levels, teaching strategies and assessment a teacher has to keep track of. The ability to multitask is a must have skill. And the biggest issue is that this list doesn't even begin to consider all the extra stuff that comes from administrators.

Managing a classroom is the most important aspect of teaching. Teaching is secondary to the management of all the things listed above. You can know the content, deliver it perfectly, but if the classroom is mismanaged, all is lost. You have to ask, considering all that must be done in the classroom, and the demands that MUST be met, who has the time? The only answer is that you have to multitask to get everything done. With the expectations placed on teachers, the idea of simply teaching is a ridiculous notion.

The question of the day, maybe of our teaching careers, is how do you effectively manage the classroom without losing track of all the goals you have?