Teaching Tips

Adding this section because I recently heard that high school graduating seniors in this country have seriously poor reading and math skills. Even to the point of barely being able to read and do basic arithmetic problems. My credentials? Some experience tutoring. Some interesting life experience. I read a lot.

Probably the most important thing in teaching is to not abuse the students. Don't violate the terms of the Geneva Convention, don't use things like group punishment, don't get snippy with students just because they aren't absolutely perfect, don't take out your problems on them, don't believe in the "adult is always right because being an adult means you have greater access to the truth" authoritarian upbringing bullshit. That sort of thing. Treat the kids as human beings with human rights. I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating because if you don't get this right nothing else you do as a teacher matters. It still applies for homeschool. Some of this also applies to college.

Everything

Overhaul entire Department of Education - vote everyone out. Vote new people in with actual experience teaching and far better credentials: no felonies, clean background check, a Master's degree at the minimum in one specific subject (not a teacher's degree in that subject, an actual degree in that subject, there is a huge difference), and at least 10 years of experience teaching students, with a track record that long of being beloved by those same students, AND work experience in that specific subject - not just work experience in teaching that subject. The old maxim that "those who do, do, and those who can't, teach" should be history in this country not current fact. Look into this when you vote. Require anyone in Education Administration to have the same level of experience and make a real point of voting in only those who have it. Get rid of almost all middlemen and administrative bloat in said Department of Education and each school, particularly people who never see much of the students since they don't teach or interact with them and are only there for an easy paycheck. Federalize all education so each state has to be up to speed, no more of this state-by-state some crappy some good education bullshit.
Increase minimum wage of all public school teachers in this country. Double minimum wage for all of them.
School counselor should not exist. School nurse needs to have M.D. after their name, as well as a degree in psychology and/or psychiatry and at least 10 years of clinical experience, 5 in emergency medicine, 5 in mental health. Double minimum wage for them too.
School security guards must be veterans who saw combat. No exceptions.
Ban all teacher's unions in this country and childcare unions in this country. It's for the protection of children and teens from abusive people and believe me, it really matters.
Choose all the textbooks with the utmost care and hard work. If you're going to be working through these things and having them define like 80-90% of what you do, they'd damn well better be good. I would actually say that much of if not most of the problems with education in this country are a direct result of how shitty the textbooks are.
At every opportunity, if you can help the students teach one another, it helps everyone learn. I know this from experience and I think it's pretty underrated.
If you teach at all, make this your mantra: "With, not at." Try to meet each student halfway to collaborate with them on their education. They aren't cookie cutter people but unique individuals and you can't really help them or reach them if you don't do this. It's important.
Your school needs some kind of ethical rule book that everyone has to follow, and it has to make sense as well as be you know, legal and looked over by an actual lawyer. Make one, do your best, and make damn sure the staff follows it to set the proper example. Firing and expelling people should also be straightforward and logical and have a logical procedure outlined in that rule book.
See Rights section. I went into education related stuff there in pretty good detail

Math

Throw out everything you think you know about teaching this, particularly things like New Math. No one ever uses New Math. Ask yourself: when have I ever actually used math in my adult life? Start there. Teach the kids what you know about math that has helped YOU. If you have to teach something else, find a professional in a field that actually uses that math and ask them to explain it to you or better yet come in and explain it to the kids. If they don't know why it matters, they won't care. It's that simple
The Sir Cumference series of math teaching books is so great because it has easy to understand mathematical proof in visual or comprehensible form. That's what students really benefit from - understanding how math works. If you can find ways to do that, it would really help.
Logic is also a major part of mathematics. It's "going above and beyond," but not really. Logic is life-saving and critical stuff, especially when it comes to discerning lies from truth, do your best to teach it. If you don't know it, learn it!

Science

Do the same thing you did with Math. Ask yourself: when have I ever used science in my adult life? Start there. Teach the kids what you know about Science that has helped YOU. Again, bring in professionals for new fields in science, or ask them to explain it so you understand, and make your lessons with that.
Science projects are dangerous, or at least weird. That is what makes them fun. Do them.

Reading and Writing

Start with the alphabet, of course. This and writing it down is rote memorization, monkey see monkey do. No real way around that afaik. Then read to the children with picture books. But the most important thing here is to have the kids see you reading, then take them to book fairs, libraries, and bookstores, and let them choose the books they want to read. Read with them for an hour every week to few days (or even every day). Help readers who are having trouble deciphering things by explaining to them what stuff means. "Sound it out" can help (remember? Sound each letter out like you do with the alphabet and then mash those sounds together). Comic books, magazines, text messages, iPads, it doesn't matter how the children are learning to read so long as they're learning to read. The Libby app for libraries is also available on iPad.
For parents or teachers of really small humans: putting subtitles on TV actually can help small people learn to read. There are also several several educational programs on TV that can help kids learn letters, vowels, numbers, etc. and many library books and toys for same. Whatever works.
Penmanship is actually important. Not for cursive, but for making handwriting legible. If you can teach kids about that, it can prevent at the very least doctors from misprescribing stuff by sending illegible notes with a patient to a pharmacy.

Social Studies, History, Government, Civics

Here is where you can make rote memorization fun. Provided you learn the subject material as well as you can yourself, you can then figure out what parts are the most interesting, relevant, and helpful to you and your loved ones and your community, and highlight those while still covering everything else. In particular you can make all this come alive through many, many field trips, DIY projects, cultural exchange things and so on. Believe it or not, both the book Girl Scout Badges and Signs published in 1980 and the entire Boy Scout book set really cover this stuff well. Eyewitness Books published by DK (Dorling Kindersley) also have some great stuff.
To go above and beyond here, regularly ask the students for projects that involve interviewing their grandparents (or someone elderly they want to interview) about their family history, history from that person's life, or lessons their grandparents want to teach them, as extra credit, and either have them report it to you the teacher or the whole class. It's really important.

Work Related

The #1 biggest problem with school in this country is you maybe get a month of education in Senior Year of High School to prepare you for a working adult life. That's it. I know work is not the end-all-be-all, but it's likely the school system was devised to chuck as many people as possible into boring factory assembly-line jobs after graduation, so you don't learn things like say, accounting, budgeting, writing a resume, etc. and therefore it isn't really helpful for adult life. Heck, even the boring assembly-line factory job stuff isn't helpful for adult life, as that kind of life without any sort of end to it sucks. Humans need more to life than just that. Here are some things students really need to learn, and it would be wise to pepper the rest of their curriculum with stuff that prepares them for it: again, accounting, budgeting, time management, goal planning and achievement, writing a resume, social skills, business, taxes, self-care and family care to stay healthy and keep family healthy while working, basic economics, basic home economics. That's the bare minimum. Any and all work internship programs would also really help as would interfacing the school with vocational colleges for trade skills, and elective courses for said trade skills. Finally, electives and clubs could help a student learn to stay sane with hobbies in adult life, and I think they're very important for that.
Dunno bout you but my high school was adamant that whatever we didn't learn there, we would learn in college. Not really. I think my generation and those that followed know it. Very important to merge this information with all the other stuff you learn in K-12.
Would really help if the senior year of high school, you had a job fair every week and a bulletin board in the high school advertising jobs, affordable colleges, and paid internships for graduating high school seniors

Recess

Students need free time at their school for sanity, learning to understand themselves, personal growth, socializing, exercise, fresh air. Recess is important and needed for everyone in K-12, and adults too. Why are we not teaching students that breaks are critical to maintain personal health and even personal productivity? Oh right, No Child Left Behind. Speaking of which, good idea to get rid of that.

A Better School Than The Bare Minimum As Described Above

If you really want to go above and beyond with teaching, and I think it's important, then no matter what you are teaching show the students why learning things is such an overpowered, wonderful thing. Do your best and you give them keys to unlock a golden future for themselves and many others and that is not hyperbole. Really good teachers know their subject well enough to know the really cool things in it. Find those cool things. Share them.
If you're going to be teaching religious anything, I am always going to maintain you have to balance it out with the religions of everybody. Well, except the Satanists and other religions that are too questionably ethical, you know (i.e. Scientology). So if you're going to teach say, the Bible, or visit a church, you also should be teaching the Vedas, the Quran, the Talmud, Buddhism, etc. etc. etc. and going on field trips to all these places. See what a can of worms not separating church and state opens up? If you're not going to separate them, at least do it right. You should also be aware that any bias in religion you show the students will not make them more likely to want to be in whatever religion you're arguing for - in fact, the opposite. I know this won't sway many people but no matter what else you do with religion as it relates to schooling, please, at least be kind. Doesn't do anyone any good if you aren't.
Ethics courses... well, I don't see schools anytime soon doing these correctly, so I'm not going to say much. But far into the future they could help. I don't think any other discipline can help humans quite as much as that one. Til that far distant future I suggest reading many different things.
Afterschool programs with as many different things to do as possible for every grade are really important, especially for kids from backgrounds with parents who have to work overtime, and that's most students with parents in lower income brackets. It helps them make friends, it helps them learn things, it keeps them out of trouble. In some cases it even ensures they get enough to eat.
Connect (after very carefully screening) the school with as many intellectual, humanity-benefiting, and scientific institutions as you can: colleges, bookstores, research institutions, hospitals, libraries, gyms, parks, charities, airports, even coffee shops. Hey, they're called penny universities for a reason. You can have field trips to these places, carefully screened guest speakers, demonstrations by scientists or professionals, research projects with the students, work experience programs, field trips out to the coffee shops or parks just to study in a group there. Both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have a long tradition of doing things like this with the troop members and you can learn a lot from how they do things.
For each subject, show the students paths in each that they can explore further on their own time if they want to. Every subject is a nexus. An aiport terminal, if you would. Connects you with other subjects related to what you're studying. All of these are frontiers and mostly unexplored ones. It's scary, but hey, what a time to be alive, right? Learning is a pioneer's journey in a very literal sense
Large, large school library, with large collection of ebooks. And many banned, censored, or challenged books. With the best school librarian possible.
Allow community donations for school lunches and breakfasts. Sometimes parents can't pay. It's mortifying for the student.
Link the school to a charity place or a few that has community donations of things like hygiene products, clothes, school supplies, etc. and accepts community donations of these things. Again, helps the students. Would also let them know that someone cares about them, and too few of them know that.
You actually could program a video game much like Mass Effect with the entire contents of a K-12 school and an interesting enough gameplay and story plot and give it to kids and it would work. It would work well. The amount of stuff you have to learn for each is comparable. You see, the problem is interest level of the student. Not their capability of learning.
More involved adulting lessons, such as home construction, organic homesteading, electrician work, plumbing, vehicle repair, repair and maintenance of material goods, upcycling, home workshop/makerspace DIY and all that other Depression era stuff would really help not only the individual but it would conserve the planet's resources, improve the economy, and cause massive societal change in a positive way.
Give the students keepsakes of their time at this school that they can use in their adult lives. Things like, oh you know, books. Pamphlets. Flashdrives with data.

Everything Else

Entertaining demonstrations and hands-on experiments involving the students
Group projects doing really interesting, really important to learn, or really random stuff each group wants to learn about that involves things no one has ever done before
Guest speaker demonstrations
DIY projects done individually or as a class, with something that the whole group is at least a little interested in. This will usually involve, again, something no one has ever done before. Or at least it should be something unfamiliar to the class that is really interesting to them
Field trips, field trips, field trips

Big Brain Time

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