Textbooks? Not Yet—We Must Teach Character First!

Textbooks?

Not yet—We Must Teach Character First!

Leah C. Tolbert

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© 2011 Leah C. Tolbert. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 1/26/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1742-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1743-3 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1744-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011901339

Printed in the United States of America

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To Gregory, for being so loving to our beautiful children. And, to mother and daddy for making my life worthwhile.

Thank you.

Contents

Chapter 1: The First Day of School

Why the First Day Matters Most

Day 1

Table 1.1

Table 1.2

Chapter 2: The Second Day of School

Day Two

Table 2.1

Table 2.2

Chapter 3: Day Three: Textbooks Are Out for Now

Day Three

Table 3.1

Chapter 4: The Fourth Day of School

Day Four

Chapter 5: Ending Week One

Day Five

Table 5.1

Chapter 6: Building a Theme and Teaching Skills without the Textbook

Sentence Structure Example:

Homework Example:

Table 6.1

Table 6.2

Table 6.3

Chapter 7: Plan with Other Teachers as

Often as You Can

Chapter 8: TCF for the Teacher- Make Use of Professional Development Opportunities Early and Often

#1 Classroom/Behavior Management

#2 Effective Use of Technology

Worksheet #1

Worksheet #2

Chapter 9: More TCF for the Teacher- Allowing Student Evaluations as another Type of Professional Development

A Personal Story

Worksheet #1

Worksheet #2

Worksheet #3

Chapter 10: More on Management—How to Reach the Unreachable: Dare to Think Outside the Box

Chapter 11: Putting It All Together

Resources

Introduction

I had been pondering over writing this book for quite some time. However, each time I decided to put my thoughts down on paper, I hesitated. The topic, I knew, would be about educating children. Only, I thought, what is the big deal about that? All you have to do is get children involved in the learning process and treat them as though they matter. Then, students become so motivated you do not have to do anything but facilitate. Then it hit me—hey, just because teachers have a passion for educating, that does not mean the teacher has the tools with which to exercise that passion in an effective manner. Some people who are really interested in teaching children may not really know what works. So I began developing this work. Although the format may seem a bit informal at times, please understand the desire I have to move away from delivering a set of theories and generalizations as we often hear. Rather, I seek only to share with you what I know to be effective and practical when working with students based on what has worked for me. All children can and will learn. The key is that we must give them the tools they need with which to attain success. Without those tools, we are wasting both their time and ours, neither of which we can afford to do. I love working with children and want to see all educators be successful in their efforts to reach every student who enters their classrooms. The concepts discussed here are universal. The principles discussed are timeless. So my prayer is that you will enjoy this simple yet quite practical approach to reaching kids in any school, at any age, at any time. Thanks for your desire to educate children.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The First Day of School

First things first—let us address the ever-present question asked by all. How do we get all our students involved in learning to the point that they are trying to be successful in any environment? Well, that is easy. We engage them from the beginning. We make them know we care about who they are, their family lives, what they like and consider important from day one. Then, we never stop. What teachers fail to realize is that we cannot engage students only in the first nine-week period of school! It has to be a continual effort throughout the entire school year.

Consistency is the key. There is no such thing as being somewhat consistent with your approach to teaching children. You either are or you are not. And guess what? Contrary to popular belief, students do know the difference no matter what grade level they are. So, for the remainder of our discussion together, we will start at the beginning. I am going to take us through some initial classroom principles that, if started on day one and used consistently, will last us the entire school year. This will be direct and to the point.

We will discuss strategies for success that will assist you in developing students who are excited about learning, but please know that they will only work if done on a consistent basis. If your plan is to engage students for the first nine weeks or only the first semester, I advise you to do one thing—close this book.

Otherwise, let us begin.

Why the First Day Matters Most

Because we live in an often rude and immorally driven society, it is important that we begin school with the TCF approach. This stands for teaching character first. Please understand that by character, I do not just mean the empathy and kindness part. When we talk about character, we also mean respect and responsibility. Often, students cannot act with kindness and compassion because they do not know how to be responsible for their day-to-day actions and obligations. Nor do they know quite how