Facial Hair

My first mistake was thinking I could teach middle school because I was a successful early childhood and elementary educator. My second mistake was gaping at the 8th grader with facial hair. What in the world had I gotten myself into?



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 I was a part-time technology teacher at a private school; I taught the elementary students in the morning and Mrs. K taught the middle schoolers in the afternoon. On the elementary side of the computer lab were 6 Apple IIe and 2 Apple IIgs computers (color monitors!) and a host of games on 5.25 inch floppy disks. The middle school side had Macintosh (1984) machines with 13 inch screens and Microsoft Word installed. During my second year at the school the Parent Teacher League purchased a lab of Dell desktop computers with Windows 95 and Microsoft Office installed. Mrs. K and I were creating our own curriculum on the fly that year, repurposing the older computers to classrooms and training teachers how to use them, developing one-computer classroom procedures, and a host of other activities (the semi-annual book fair comes to mind and not in a good way). Then, in October, Mrs. K unexpectedly passed away. The administration called on me to fill the middle school vacancy. Sure! I could do this. Then Facial Hair walked in the door.

Facial Hair was huge! He was almost as tall as my 6'4" husband, and had this attitude - today we would call it swagger - that told me I was in deep doo-doo. I had to tell myself to close my mouth and stop staring. He proceeded to ignore the Microsoft Word and Keyboarding lessons I had planned that week, and instead typed some strange code into his computer. He said he was creating a website. I decided to sit and watch while the other students were keyboarding. I really wanted to see if he was hacking the new machine, but he was actually writing HTML script. Soon other students joined us, and the color changes on the screen drew the entire class' attention. "Cool!" "Sweet!" and other comments abounded as Facial Hair performed his scripting magic. To quote Gru from the film Despicable Me, "Light bulb!" Why not teach HTML scripting to these kids? No matter that I don't know anything about it, let's do it - Facial Hair and me.

Enter Harry Wong. My sister gave me a copy of The First Days of School by Harry and his wife Rosemary. Dr. Wong (2002) lists 3 attributes of an effective teacher:

1. Establishes good control the first week of school
2. Does things right, consistently
3. Affects and touches lives

With the death of Mrs. K, I first needed to establish classroom control immediately. Behavior was going to be the first issue, and I was overly stern, demanding total quiet and handing out discipline referrals like they were Halloween candy. I was amazed one day when a middle schooler wanted to know why only the elementary kids got stickers from me. What about her? She had been behaving, where was her sticker? The chorus of "Yeah!" brought me up short. I was focusing on negative, not positive reinforcement. Together the classes and I created a new behavior modification game plan that included not only stickers, but "high fives," classroom networking and coopertive groups, presentating and publishing good quality student work, in addition to an early warning system of soccer style yellow and red cards. Soon the middle school classes were under control, and all of us could relax and learn.

My second task was to focus on doing things right, consistently. I focused on grieving Mrs. K's loss in positive ways, fair grading procedures, equitable one-to-one student time, and working with Facial Hair to develop a unit on HTML scripting. I needed this kid on my side, and by giving him the responsibility to teach a lesson we developed together, he quickly became an ally.

By the end of the year I discovered the middle schoolers and I had developed quite a relationship. We all grieved together, learned together, grew together, helped each other in innumerable ways, and most of the boys had facial hair by May. In the end I can honestly say we touched each other's lives.

I continued to teach grades K-8 at that school for 13 years, even adding a high school class the last 3 years because the students demanded more. High school? Sure! I'm a successful elementary and middle school teacher. I can teach that! And, with Harry's help, I did.

Wong, HK. (2002). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher.  Mountain View, CA: Wong Publications.

Wong Publications website

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