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| Celebrating Great Teaching by WKCD| MAY 14, 2015
Robin Williams in the movie "Dead Poet's Society" (1989) For the past school year, National Public Radio has broadcast a wonderful series of stories about what it means for a teacher to be great and how they get that way. Every piece has inspired us, from a round table of educators who've thought long and hard about teaching to a story about a teacher who believes math equals love. To mark the end of this school year, we figured we'd pass on some of our favorites. We've provided the NPR introduction that accompanies each piece. Follow the link to savor the full transcript, the audio broadcast, and accompanying videos.
Today, NPR Ed kicks off a yearlong series: 50 Great Teachers. We're starting this celebration of teaching with Socrates, the superstar teacher of the ancient world. He was sentenced to death more than 2,400 years ago for "impiety" and "corrupting" the minds of the youth of Athens. But Socrates' ideas helped form the foundation of Western philosophy and the scientific method of inquiry. And his question-and-dialogue-based teaching style lives on in many classrooms as the Socratic method. I went to Oakland Technical High School in California to see it in action. It's the first period of the morning, and student Annelise Eeckman is sparring with teacher Maryann Wolfe about Social Security. They get into the roller-coaster nature of the U.S. stock market and the question of what role the market should play, if any, in workers' retirement plans. . . . Full story: http://n.pr/13aLNq2
When we began our 50 Great Teachers series, we set out to find great teachers and tell their stories. But we'll also be exploring over the coming year questions about what it means for a teacher to be great, and how he or she gets that way.To get us started, we gathered an expert round table of educators who've also done a lot of thinking about teaching. Combined, these teachers are drawing on over 150 years of classroom experience:
Teachers are a type in Hollywood, as bound by convention as the guys who wear white hats in Westerns. They're mostly young, they're always energetic, and they answer to honorifics: Mr. Chips, Miss Brodie, Miss Moffat, Mister Miyagi, or just plain "Sir" (with love, of course). They'll also answer to "Hey, wassup teach?" if that's what it takes to get their students to stand and deliver, to be great debaters or to form dead poet societies while heading up the down staircase in a blackboard jungle. You know the type: hard-working, earnest, and most of all, inspirational. And they're all that while confronting—because Hollywood never does anything halfway—the sort of challenge that would give pause to a miracle worker. . . . Full story: http://n.pr/1vZlGgG
Under the bright lights on a cold November Friday, the Panthers of River Rouge High are about to play for the district championship. On the other side of the field, the visitors' stands are packed. The River Rouge side is pretty empty as the Panthers take the field. The Panthers' head coach, Corey Parker, is used to this. He works it into his pregame speech. "All we have is us!" he shouts, as his players bounce with nervous energy. "Fight for each other, love each other, let's go get it Rouge!" Love. Right there under the lights, right before the biggest game of the year, is a window into this educator's philosophy and his unusual approach to molding young men through a sport many think of as violent. Love. Right now, though, he's got a game to win. . . . Full story: http://n.pr/15IvZeU
A French teacher who made the language come alive ... a drama teacher stading on his desk proclaiming, "I love you" ... the gift of reading through Shakespeare and Harry Potter. All week you've been sending in stories of your inspiring teachers. Here's another installment. Let's start with Meghan Sickmeier on Facebook:
Full story: http://n.pr/1vzeapl
Some great teachers change the life of a student, maybe several. Anna Julia Cooper changed America. Cooper was one of the first black women in the country to earn a Ph.D. Before that, she headed the first public high school for black students in the District of Columbia—Washington Colored High School. It later became known as the M Street School and was eventually renamed for poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar was a citadel of learning in segregated Washington, a center for rigorous study and no-holds-barred achievement. A steady stream of superbly qualified students flowed from this school, largely because of the vision of one educator. Anna Julia Cooper knew it could be done because she had her own life as a powerful example. . . . Full story: http://n.pr/1FRljXM
For her trigonometry class, Sarah Hagan (center) uses everything but the kitchen sink: a flower pot, garbage basket, rolls of tape, rubber balls, even loose spaghetti. Sarah Hagan has a passion for math, and the pi-shaped pendant to prove it. The 25-year-old teaches at Drumright High School in Drumright, Okla. The faded oil town is easy to miss. Fewer than 3,000 people live there, and the highway humps right around it. There are no stoplights, no movie theater and no bowling alley anymore. Just a clutch of small houses and hearty businesses: a funeral home, Family Dollar and a Dollar General. That makes it hard enough to attract good teachers, says Judd Matthes, Hagan's principal. But it gets worse. "We don't pay a lot in Oklahoma for beginning teachers," he says, laughing from behind his desk in the school's basement. "If you go next door to Arkansas, they're about a $10,000-a-year starting salary difference." Which made Matthes wonder why a National Merit Scholar who had gotten a full ride to the top-notch University of Tulsa would want to start her teaching life in a place like Drumright, earning just over $30,000 a year. . . . Full story: http://n.pr/1FbVIuW
Each weekday morning, promptly at 7:20 a.m., Robyn King's students go live. "Are we ready?" King asked on a recent Monday, holding up a single finger pointed at two wide-eyed students sitting at a desk in front of a tripod-mounted iPad. "OK, here we go." King teaches Journalism and Broadcast Media at Truman High School in Independence, Mo. Besides writing stories for the school's online newspaper and making the annual yearbook, her students produce the school's live daily announcements, broadcast over the Internet. "Even though it's live, I tell them they have to be prepared" she says. "You can't just sit down and expect to sound good." King should know—every Saturday and Sunday, she works as a disc jockey on Hot 103 Jamz, a hip-hop radio station in nearby Kansas City. So while her students can hear her in class during the week, cajoling them to get to work and lecturing them on how to have good on-camera presence, they can also listen to her every weekend afternoon as she plays the latest hits from Bruno Mars and Kendrick Lamar. . . . Full story: http://n.pr/1AUCwwu
We're highlighting some tweets and emails we received from folks across the country ...Many are woodworkers, metalsmiths and musicians. . . . Full story: http://n.pr/1EBjxrl
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