I think new teachers and teachers in training are often too focused on being popular with their classes.  They don't want to be labeled as the mean teacher or the strict teacher, so they hold back on anything that might be construed as negative.  Let me just say this about that:  STOP IT.

The truth is that a class will respect you more - and appreciate you more - if you maintain control and organization. They don't like the chaos of an unruly class any more than you do.  Not only that, but your relationships with individual students will blossom in the process.  You can maintain a positive relationship by adding some expectations to your daily activity.

• Demand eye contact.  Yes, demand is the correct word.  It will take explicit practice.  You should not - and cannot - expect students to keep their eyes on the speaker without teaching them what it looks like and how it is done.  Teach them and practice with them.  Have students track conversations with their eyes, whipping their little heads around from speaker to speaker like they're watching a tennis match.  I want to feel the wind of their collective pivoting.  Of course, eye contact is a part of active listening, in which they listen to learn and not listen to respond.  It includes that all-too-important skill of staying quiet until it is appropriate to speak.  All of this is best taught in the beginning of the school year, but I assure you, it can be taught anew at any time. And don't think it will happen when you're being observed if you don't demand it all the time.

• Do not tolerate backtalk.  My former students might tell you that this is my number one pet peeve concerning kids.  Most teachers don't even recognize backtalk most of the time.  Backtalk includes body language - gestures, sighing, crossing the arms, rolling the eyes, etc.  Sometimes it manifests as talking without being asked a question - especially in conflicts on the playground or in the cafeteria.  Typically, two kids have a fight.  They both approach the teacher for mediation.  The teacher asks one for the story, and the other answers, not waiting his turn.  In another case, it might start with, But I..., or I was just...  That's not something the teacher asked for, and it is backtalk.  Teach your students to respect your mediation process. You cannot listen to two voices at the same time, and someone who interrupts or dominates is usually not the one the teacher will believe.  Don't let them do it:  call them on it every time.

​

• Manners matter.  You won't find it in the curriculum, but etiquette (an old-fashioned word for manners) is invaluable - and again, it must be explicitly taught.  They will not get it if you don't teach them through the steps.  You can find lots of entries on this website about firm handshakes with eye contact.  There are steps to getting that right.  I came late to this game in my career, but once I adopted a policy of giving my students employable skills (Some call them soft skills.), my classroom completely changed.  In fact, we changed the culture of our entire 500-600-student elementary school.  Visitors noticed.  Not only that, but I started teaching students to respond with Yes, sir and No ma'am when addressing adults.  I expected them to let others go first.  I expected them to help one another.  Of course, I expected to hear Thank you, Please, Excuse me, and You're welcome.  I wanted to hear those words, spoken appropriately, often during the course of our school day.  All of this radiated beyond the school walls and academic hours, too:  Parents and community members were impressed and appreciative.  People quickly got to know which students were Hoggatteers, and students were proud of themselves.  Their posture improved, they were more confident, and they were more intentional in their efforts to learn from mistakes and persevere in difficulties.

Dear Student Teacher, you can achieve these things in the first days of teaching, in the first year of your career. Just as your students need to practice, it's going to take your own consistent attention to details to get this right. Trust me, though, you're going to love the results.

Let's Think:
There are some things to notice in these two verses.  A single angel announced the arrival of the Savior - a baby lying in a manger - but now, an "army of angels" joins in.  We don't often read about a large group of angels visiting humanity on earth, so this occasion must be something different, something larger than usual.

Is this a group of militant angels?  Quite possibly so, in the sense that they are warriors in battle for the salvation of souls.  The large group must impress upon the shepherds that they have been drafted onto the battlefield, as well. the message being delivered is one they intend for the shepherds to join in spreading.  Otherwise, they might have confined their praise to the boundaries of Heaven.  Why else would they collectively appear to these men of the field?

While the angel in the first verses of the chapter addresses the shepherds, this group speaks to the Almighty. They bring a message of praise to God through their acknowledgement of His glory, and they ask Him to apply His glory to making peace on earth for a specific group.  Presumably, that group includes these shepherds, but in broader terms, the specific group the angels pray for is a group that includes people with who God is pleased.  It's important to note that God is not pleased with every person, and that this calling for a blessing of God's glory does not include all of humanity.  That being said, the blessing is offered to all of humanity, and God's glory is attainable by every individual living.  Our question then necessarily becomes:  "How do I please God and receive His great blessings?"

I was honored with the opportunity to return to Cecil Floyd Elementary as the master of ceremonies of the 2023 school spelling bee.  I was in familiar territory on stage with 16 fourth and fifth grade students - two finalists from each classroom.

Happy was I to recognize two Hoggatteers - ANNA and RAMONA - who sat in my final fourth grade class, last year.  These were two of the final three on stage.  RAMONA battled it out with a gentleman for the championship title, and for that, she gains a hearty huzzah! from us all.  We will proudly support her as she competes in the regional bee in the coming weeks.

After the contest, I spent some time with former pupils in their classrooms, receiving some much needed hugs and handshakes from them and being reminded of the impact that a teacher has on his students.  It helps me recall this young lady (fourth from the right, below), a Hoggatteer named MICHELLE who topped the regional competition years ago and remains in the newspaper's banner on their Spelling Bee page.

I recently sent this to the student teachers I supervise for Pittsburg State University, but I think it is worthy of a grand place on this website, as well.  There are so many things to notice in this video that it takes a couple of times through to see everything there is to see.  No matter how long you have been teaching, no matter how recently you became a teacher, and no matter that you're still in training, this video packs a punch.

I talked to many of my student teachers about embedding callbacks, embedding praise, embedding celebrations, embedding differentiation, and embedding reteaching (In case you didn't pick up in it, the key word here is embedding.).  The best example of this that I can share is in this video from 2009, which demonstrates how a master teacher makes it all fit together.  The teacher here is Ron Clark from the Ron Clark Academy in inner-city Atlanta, Georgia. 

I sat in the same seat as the person taking this video, and I watched a different lesson in which many of these things happened as well.  I took the ideas back to my classroom and made them work for my own teaching style.

​Now rewatch the video and take note of these points (You'll need to pause or rewind the video several times.):

• ​0:09  Student provides the process, not just the answer. ​
• 0:23  Embedded praise/callback - Teacher prompts classwide applause followed be callback which includes positive peer support. ​
• 0:30  Teacher's voice changes, indicating that he expects an overt group response. 
• 0:45  Teacher embeds reteaching, though I suspect he's just showing off for the visitors; it is still a demonstration of a good method. Again, notice his voice changes tone, speed, and volume. 
• 1:15  Teacher does not allow a student to answer out of sync with the rest of the class. 
• 1:23  Notice that student voices also change in response to the teacher's change of tone. 
• 1:30  Where are the students' eyes?  Always in the speaker. 
• 1:43  Embedded celebration - students are up, coordinated, and energetic. 
• 1:54  Be impressed by how quickly students get back in their seats and the teacher picks right back up with the lesson. 
• 2:11  Embedded differentiation - Teacher asks a student who needs the reinforcement of this rule. 
• 2:15  This answer is almost like a callback, because it's a predetermined rule of math.  They have clearly practiced the answer many times in context. 
• 2:24  Embedded praise - "I'm so proud of y'all."  This is broad praise to include the whole class. 
• 2:31  This might be a small embedded brain break; at any rate, these add up to allowing students movement throughout the lesson, and the teacher doesn’t have schedule a separate time in the day for a break. 
• 2:51  Here is another energetic callback of sorts:  they've done this before. 
• 2:54  They don't miss a beat!  Be impressed again with how quickly the lesson continues, with nearly perfect eye contact on the teacher. 
• 3:00  Suddenly, the teacher asks a girl (off screen) for a step to solving the problem, and she does not provide the correct response (This may be my favorite part of the whole lesson.). Notice, the teacher does not call on another student to give the right answer:  he stays with the one who needs more assistance.
• 3:16  Another student raises his hand, wanting to show that he has a better answer than the first kid.  The teacher does not allow this. He doesn't even look at the kid; he maintains tight eye contact with the student who needs extra coaching. 
• 3:36  She’s still giving the wrong answer, but the teacher doesn’t give up on her.  
• 3:42  When the teacher walks closer to her, other students track the conversation with their eyes.  Their attention is not allowed to wander. 
• 4:07  Student is still unsure of her answer. 
• 4:17  The struggling student still gets applause and praise for working through everything and being put on the spot. 
• 4:29  End of lesson - Embedded celebration like you’ve never seen. I couldn’t work out all the logistics, but we did do a form of this in my classroom (only when the class earned it).
• 4:45  These desks are specially made, and this is a private school.  I recommend against you or your students getting on the desks and chairs in your classroom. 
• 5:14  Teachers goes directly into the next lesson - American history - not letting a moment go to waste. Students quickly get back into place and reestablish eye contact (but not fast enough for the teacher - 5:18).​

Discoveries do not always present a complete picture of history.  This mural on a cliffside wall adjacent to the Mississippi River in Alton, Illinois, is one of those incomplete findings.  When combined with known history, ancient legends, and inference, a story begins to emerge.  What do you think?

The same is true when scientists discover a fragment of Scripture.  Only when combined with other known fragments and manuscripts do we get a complete picture of the accuracy and impact of the Bible that we read.  Each fragment, in combination, is further evidence that we have the Spirit-breathed Bible we are intended to have.

Further discussion in this chapter refers to the Chester Beatty collection of papyri, the Bodmer collection, and other important fragments which reinforce the accuracy of the New Testament.

Today, I'm listening to my original vinyl copy of the Dr. Dolittle motion picture soundtrack.  I'm especially interested in the lyrics because of the recent production of Dr. Dolittle Jr. at Joplin's North Middle School.  The show starred some of my favorite people - former students like LIAM and BROOKLYN.  In fact, LIAM played the title role in this production.  This was a nicely done show with a large cast and crew to wrangle, and the final product was very nice.  I think the productions at NMS continue to get better each year.

I was also able to attend the presentation of Joplin High School's show choirs a couple of weeks ago as they hosted a show choir competition.  Sound Dimension and Touch of Class performed in exhibition for the standing-only crowd at the high school auditorium.  I was able to talk to KRISTA, who was sitting out on the injured list, and ALI, who along with sister SOPHIE shine on stage in the all-female Touch of Class presentation of 9 to 5.  Sound Dimension includes some Hoggatteers, as well, but with all of the zombie makeup, it's hard to determine who is who.  Things have changed since the show choirs of just a few years ago, and now they are putting out full-on live music shows.  A day at one of these contests might be exhausting, but it is also quite entertaining.

As always, it's great to see my former students in and around town.  Another couple of graduates have been spotted when I donate plasma.  Usually I hear something like, "Mr. Hoggatt, is that you?" and I turn to see an fully-grown adult staring back at me.  I make them introduce themselves to me, since it has been so long and they've changed so much.

​Keep truckin', Hoggatteers.  OOHAAH!

In the past few weeks, when visiting classrooms to observe student teachers for the local university, I have noticed that some have difficulties in common areas.  These student teachers are probably no different from all in their roles.  I also have to note that many experienced teachers never looked for some of the items that I'm trying to highlight to my students.  I often found myself finding little keys to teaching when I didn't know I needed them.  Only when stumbling into something that I didn't know I was missing was I able to raise the bar for myself and feel the professional improvement that I longed for.

So let me put a little more wisdom into your world.  I never figured out every secret to mastering this craft, but I did often reflect on these things that are common needs among the student teachers in the world.
​

• Stop helping students to completion.  We are, by nature, people who want the best for children.  We want to to help them - even at great expense to our own time and patience.  However, there is such a thing as addiction to a teacher's help.  Certain students will drain a teacher of these things by constantly shooting their hands in the air to get her attention and ask for help - even before they have even tried to work out a solution for themselves.  Shame on us for falling for this!  Students should not be allowed to hog a teacher's attention and time at the detriment of others in the classroom.  So, stop letting them do it.  I don't mean stop helping them; what I mean is this:  acknowledge when they have don't part of a problem correctly, get them to the next step, and step away.  Help someone else and someone else.  Work the room before coming back to them.  It's likely that they will actually look at the problem for themselves, this time, and figure out where they need to go to complete it for themselves.  Instead of enabling them to rely on you for answers, give them opportunities to work on it independently for while.

 

• Get out of the text and off the script.  Too often teachers stand before a class with a teacher edition in hand, reading someone else's lesson to a class rather than engage students in honest, raw conversation. Students might refer to this as "calling it in".  Wouldn't you rather be creative with your lesson, work something out that might just be better than the textbook, and make your class special?  The bottom line here is this:  your class will never stand out or be better if all you do is the same as the teacher across town.  Students will be less likely to thing your class is magical and special if you don't do something to set it apart.  I always wanted kids to beg to be in my classroom.  The reputation that I had as a classroom teacher was one of structure and serious, interesting, hard-working fun.  Oft times, the principal would receive written and verbal requests from parents to place their children in my classroom.  That reputation is one that I worked hard to get...but I would have never achieved it if I hadn't gotten away from the textbook and taught the standards and objectives in brand new ways.

 

• Use callbacks to maintain attention.  I hated callbacks.  For years, I had only one:  I would say, "I'm talking," and students would echo, "I'm listening."  They weren't, by the way.  I thought callbacks were only used to get attention when students made mental explorations into la la land.  A teacher claps a pattern and the students mimic it in return.  A teacher shouts, "Class class," and the students come back with, "Yes yes" (That one is a particular pet peeve of mine in that it is only a portion of a teaching method that is much more complicated...but teachers only use this simple section of it, because the rest is too difficult.).  However, I discovered late in my career that callbacks can be embedded into lessons to keep attention rather than to get attention.  They never worked for me in the latter, but once I discovered the former, magic started to happen.  Students listened with sharper ears when they knew they needed to be ready for an energetic, fun, and unique callback.  We worked out actions to go along with the words, and suddenly we had embedded brain breaks in our lessons, as well.  It takes practice and constant tweaking, but you'll feel it in a big way when it works so smoothly in your class.

Did you miss the first two of these commentaries?  Here they are again:
​
Takeaways from Observing Student Teachers I
Takeaways from Observing Student Teachers II

So how important is it to you that the Bible can be proven true?  Do you believe there is irrefutable evidence to its validity?  Is proof something that strengthens your personal faith in the existence of God?

Should faith alone be enough to drive you to drive you to your knees?  Is "blind" faith a stronger kind of faith?  If so, then why did God provide so much evidence?

In the early 1700s, a different culture was brought to South Carolina shores.  The Gullah culture still exists in pockets, but their unique experiences with slavery and survival are present in much of today's African American culture.  It has been said that the Gullah people are the nearest link to Africa we have in the United States.

This culture was well established and still developing in the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina while Francis Marion was mounting his surprise attacks on the British during the latter half of the 18th century.  Brought to the U.S. for their expertise in the rice fields, these people continued to survive in the islands for many years, but slowly the culture is dying out.

In 2005, the first full translation of the New Testament into the Gullah (also called Geechee or Sea Island Creole) language was produced.  I received my copy two years later.  It can be purchased online, but it also available in your browser at the Gullah Bible website.

It can be understood by English speakers.  In fact, someone unfamiliar with the language is forced to slow down and consider each word and its meaning.  It is not often that one can read an unfamiliar language and understand it.  Try for yourself with this passage from Matthew 14:

I assure you:  if I, a teacher, am tired of other teachers fleecing their friends and community members, so are others.  I am not estranged from the idea of having a wish list on Amazon:  as a classroom teacher, I developed a unique list that I placed in the margin of this website.  Anyone willing to contribute to the cause was able to point their browser in that direction to find ideas that would support our classroom, and I made it a point to have items from a variety of price points on that list for people of varying incomes to purchase if they were so inclined.

However, I don't think I advertised that wish list other than to put it there and make it available, or to refer to it when someone asked what they might do to help out.  These constant social media requests for friends and relatives to fund a wish list or to adopt a classroom and match the funds of a corporate sponsor on a site like Donor's Choose can get to be too much.  And in some cases, they may even get to be astronomically high-priced projects that just aren't necessary for doing the job.

I never found myself lacking the funds to purchase just about everything I thought could enhance my classroom. Between the district's own allotment and the PTO/PTA's generous support, I seemed to have what I needed, and then some.  Oh, there's always something shinier that appeals to me out on the horizon, but it might just be something that I could put off until next year.  No reason to spend my own cash or beg my relatives for money.  I learned that with a little creativity, I might be able to replicate what I needed out of the school's butcher paper supply.  Maybe that's a result of growing up in Central Oklahoma, where I always heard about things being held together by bailing wire and duct tape (and if it needed to be loosened up, WD40 was the way to go).

The constant requests for donations, however, make us look desperate, and I can only imagine that our friends get tired of buying markers and glue when they could actually donate to a cause that supports rehabilitation for homeless people or foster care for orphans.  There are many causes to donate to in this life without buying wobbly chairs for kids who wobble too much already.  And besides, there is just something about professionals asking for handouts that seems unseemly.

Some Questions:

• Why shepherds?
• Since when will the Savior of God's people be for "all the people" (verse 10)?
• Is the birth of the Christ in David's city a coincidence?
• ​Which is more surprising - the anger shining all around them or hearing that the Messiah is born in a manger?
• What is a Christ?  Who is the Lord?

Let's Think:
So here we go:  in this section of Scripture, the angel of the Lord announces the birth of Christ the Lord.  Is it even possible the angel of the Lord to know about the Lord if the Lord has just been born?  This speaks to the timelessness of Jesus.  He is the Lord.  He is present since before the genesis of creation, and He continues past the end of time.  The angel, His messenger, announces the King's earthly, human arrival just as a court officer announces the king of England when he arrives in a room.

But the angel does not announce it to the royal court or even to a bunch of knights and ladies in waiting:  the angel announces Jesus to lowly, smelly, sweaty, dirty shepherds in the field.  They haven't washed.  They aren't dressed in their Sunday finest, but the angel is sent to them first - to announce the Savior.  Had they been expecting the Savior to come as a baby?  Had they expected the King to be lying in the straw of an animal's feed trough?  I doubt it.

The fact that the Bread of Life (That's one of the titles by which Jesus refers to Himself.) is born in the the city of David should not be lost on us, either.  Bethlehem literally means City of Bread.  The Christ (also known as the Messiah) is born in the most humble of ways to a couple of humble people and is announced to humble shepherds.  There is nothing regal about the account.  Perhaps God wants us to regard these shepherds with an eye that says, if these can respond to "good news of great joy", anyone can.  And maybe the image of the Great Shepherd (again, Jesus) is announced first to a bunch of shepherds amidst the bleating of their flocks of sheep is one of deeper meaning, as well. 

Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, the One sent by God and Who is God in the flesh.  No wonder the glory of the Lord shone around them.  Make no mistake:  that's not the angel's glory that's shining in your eyes!  It is the Lord's glory.  No angel ever shone with that kind of light.