Teacher as Organizer

One definition of intelligence suggests that it is being able to keep two opposing thoughts in the mind at the same time and still think.

jkl “Put your little foot, put your little foot . . .”

Understanding the importance of Teacher as Organizer and using those principles gives a teacher more quality time in the classroom. Historically, every time we have focused on the human dimension in the classroom we have rigidity and structure confused and found them incompatible with building relationship. Structure and relationship are not antithetical. In fact, structure is crucial in establishing and maintaining any type of closeness and a hallmark of relationship is the expectation that there will be trust and consistency, both being forms of structure.

Teacher as organizer is a crucial role. It takes on greater value during innovation and change. When we have the sense of safety which organization gives us, we feel more able to risk. Perhaps it’s a little like sky diving or bungie jumping. We can make a dangerous leap into space because we have made provisions for ultimate safety.

Organization is a difficult role acquisition for many teachers because:

This is a habit pattern and it takes a while to initiate it and keep it in place
(do not couple organization and rigidity)
Material on organization generally comes from business rather than education which makes it difficult to assume this role without further information - knowledge, of necessity, must precede planning and organization
Modeling from our own teachers may not have come through as organization
There is a mind set in education that structure and organization take away freedom, creativity and openness in relationship. Nothing could be more inaccurate, but it has been an unwritten folk wisdom all our lives!
Another misunderstanding has been that organization is too time consuming
Some believe that it is a natural right of children to be free, and that has been equated with not structuring the school day. This also is a myth!
Many people have equated “shooting from the hip” or “teaching out of the hip pocket” as sure signs of genius or intelligence-- again unfounded, untrue, and ````` most often very uncomfortable and unproductive
Organization in education is a very complex set of skills, hard to define and the result of experience, self knowledge, maturity and reflection

Teachers spend a great deal of time in this role. If they don’t then they spend a great deal of time reexplaining instructions and being frustrated. I know because I spent a lot of time at the end of every day feeling frustrated last year.

In my classroom, “getting ready to go home” turned into a nightmare. I found we were always working up to the last minute or engrossed in what we were doing. Five minutes before dismissal I would suddenly look up and realize the bell was about to ring. I had not given out the homework or completed closure on the lesson. I would frantically push it all together, knowing that the next day, half the students would have failed to get the information straight and would be complaining about mixed messages on assignments.

Rather than stop and realize why the students were so disorganized about homework, I kept getting more and more frustrated. by the second half of the year homework discussions were chaotic. I can imagine what the students must have felt now that I look back at the way I was organizing my time and giving out assignments.

I wasn’t modeling my expectations. I wasn’t giving students consequences until I was angry and they had failed to live up to my expectations. Then I was blaming them for not being organized. I even bawled them out repeatedly for not asking questions and getting clarification until the next day when the assignments were already due.

This summer I had a college instructor who gave out assignments the last minute before class was dismissed and then he disappeared. The third class period, as I was slamming down the hall feeling infuriated that I did not really know what to do and did not know how to get my questions answered, I got the insight. I was doing the same thing to my students.

This coming year I am going to change that practice. I have developed a better sense of how my lack of organization and time management was creating student lack of organization. It finally all makes sense.

1. Assess self looking at identity, growth points, uniqueness, untapped potential, purpose in life, purpose for teaching, successes as a professional, and as a person.
2. Assess self looking at interactions with others: sensitivity to personal welfare of others, personal presence and genuineness, compassion and empathy, flexibility and willingness to receive and consider feedback, integrity, modeling human dignity and appropriate humility, social insight - generalizing and utilizing personal experiences with others .
3. Assess self as reactive or proactive:

   Reactive stance		Proactive stance
   Blame Reject responsibility Boss Get even Tune out Become anxious Gripe or whine Put others in a bad light		Problem solve Look for opportunities Delegate and trust Communicate and control self Look for options Choose an appropriate response Rest - and then try again Increase productivity

4. Visualize your personal and professional roles and goals
5. Spend 10 uninterrupted minutes each day listing and prioritizing goals
6. Give yourself credit for the things that are working and that are getting completed through good work and effort
7. Open self to issues that aren’t going well and assess them in the daily time for problem solving and prioritizing

1. Review the ordering currently used in the content field and literally draw it out on a chart for the students. (This is like a mind map of a book)
2. Know the scope and sequence of the subject matter to be taught and outline the overview for self, students and parents, thus making it possible to know the instructional beginning point, ending point, and the road between. The teacher steers the course and no one flies off the road into dead-end tangents or gets stalled with no content progress being realized.
3. Provide numerous cues or hooks, and describe those cues to students as the subject is being shared and learned.
4. Move the cognitive and rote learning from declarative knowing to applied knowing by giving opportunities in varied situations, assisting the student to transfer the learning into multiple strategies. This gives dimension to the material and better assures retention and the development of a schema.
5. Practice needs to continue until whole chunks of knowledge become organized and images arise when a problem requiring the information is presented. This is also known as “practice makes perfect,” (which is not to confused with repetition and drudgery makes perfect).

1. Help students see and accept reality and abandon defensive distortions
2. Show students how inappropriate behavior is self defeating
3. Help with clarification of beliefs and behaviors with respect to outcome
4. Suggest strategies for dealing with learning difficulties
5. Clarify thinking and facilitate decision making
6. Provide friendly reminders and cues
7. Help students become aware of repetitive behaviors which are emotional cues
8. Provide appropriate forms of acceptable vents for overcharged emotions and assist the student when the emotions are overwhelming
9. Encourage and reward students for efforts to self control and self discipline
10. Assist students to value education as “money in their own account”

1. Teachers can help students think about the decision they are going to make while learning and the strategies they might use in completing assignments.
2. Teach youngsters to plan ahead and to outline the task they need to do in order to successfully complete the work.
3. Review student plans and outlines - showing them ways to be certain that crucial points and important facts are covered.
4. Assist students to first verbalize and later jot down questions they might have about the material to be learned.
5. Allow time to review the questions with peers and to self evaluate the depth of insight being generated through questioning.
6. Offer several different perspectives on issues when practical and encourage students to think about the relative accuracy of those portrayals and the strengths and weaknesses of the varying positions - blind spots, ignorance, bias, etc.
7. Invite students to paraphrase their work and tasks for other students and to share an analysis of their efforts and need for further thinking.
8. Assist students to use terminology which fits the material being studied. This assists students to become active learners,extends learning and makes accessing other written material about a subject less threatening.

1. Define the final outcome or performance expected
2. Think through the proposed task, organizing into discreet steps or concepts
3. Once the basic skills are outlined, search for and note subskills to be taught
4. Decide if the concept can best be taught by starting with the simple and building to the complex - i.e. write a term paper, or “backwards”, going from the completed task in reverse order. An example of this would be tying shoes. By letting the student pull the bows into place and complete the tying, there is a sense of satisfaction and thus motivation to learn the rest of the steps. Once the student learns the final step, the skill is backed up to the next to last subskill. This continues until the complex task can be accomplished with competence.

1. Mentally step through the set of behaviors involved in the procedure
2. Diagram the steps, paying special attention to behaviors which flow both ways or which might circumvent some of the behaviors currently in place.
3. Analyze the flow chart for simplification and change as possible.
4. Teach the procedure.

Flow Chart Sample

1. Informs the learners of the objectives
2. Provides learners with advance organizers
3. Checks for prior learning which is relevant
4. Gives directives slowly and distinctly
5. Checks for nonverbal cues that directions were / were not understood
6. Knows the ability level of learners and teaches at each level
7. Uses examples, illustrations and demonstrations to explain and clarify
8. Provides a review or summary at the end of each lesson

1. Develops unit and lesson plans that reflect the curriculum
2. Handles adminsitrative and clerical interruptions effectively
3. Stops or prevents misbehavior with a minimum of class disruption, awareness
4. Selects the most appropriate instructional model for the objectives being taught
5. Establishes cycles of review, feedback and testing

1. Knows how to and elicits the desired behaviors
2. Provides opportunites for feedback in a nonevaluative setting
3. Uses group and individual activities as motivational aids
4. Uses meaningful verbal praise
5. Monitors and adjusts practice, presentation
6. Provides for and monitors appropriate seatwork and drill
7. Involves students in a desire to work on the materials at home

1. Establishes unit and lesson content that reflects prior learning
2. Presents materials which are developmentally appropriate
3. Gives students “hooks” to set up assimilation and accomodation of information
4. Divides instructional stimuli into bite-sized pieces
5. Varies instructional pace or tempo to maintain momentum
6. Assists students to augment any partially learned ideas -adapted from Borish, 1988

1. Refer to yourself as an Honor Teacher or an Excellent Teacher.
2. Model maturity and intelligence.
3. Keep the classroom looking organized and tidy.
4. Plan ahead so that activities come together well and parents involved in helping feel that the teacher was at the helm and alert to procedures and outcomes.
5. Thoroughly prepare for each lesson and activity.
6. Give thought and prep time to the processes involved in lessons and activities.
7. Teach to reach stated goals and objectives.
8. Strive for continuity in activities, lessons, and evaluation procedures.
9. Keep knowledge base alive and current.

1. Clearly understand the power base which is inherent in being a teacher
2. Understand and utilize the practice of centralized and decentralized power with students; the teacher always maintaining the ultimate position of “say” or control as the executive as well as holding the ultimate responsibility
3. Involve students in flexible utilization of power concepts of centralization and decentralization through mechanisms like:
   1. flexible grouping
   2. cooperative learning
   3. individualization
   4. peer tutoring
   5. student as self evaluator

Go back to Teaching Roles

E-mail J'Anne Ellsworth at Janne.Ellsworth@nau.edu

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