For some reason, math teachers tend to hear, “When are we ever gonna use this?” more than teachers in other content areas. I have often thought about this fact and wondered about the reason for its prevalence in the math classroom. Is math truly something that we don’t use outside of the classroom walls? Is proficiency in math not necessary for success in college? Of course these are questions that we can answer with a resounding, “No.” I suspect that the answer runs deeper than that.
 We have been exploring Michael Stallard’s “Six Needs to Thrive at Work” and analyzing how they relate to a student’s success in the classroom. So far we have studied the first four needs: respect, recognition, belonging, and autonomy. This month we will look at the fourth need: personal growth.
It was the first week of school and I held up a chessboard in my honors class. “How many squares are on this board?” I asked. One student raised his hand and said there were 64. I asked him how he got the answer. “I multiplied eight times eight.” I asked him to stand up along one wall of the classroom and instructed anyone who agreed to stand with him. About ten students remained in their seats. I asked one of them what he thought.  My eighth grade students expect that the first day of school will be spent learning all their new teacher’s rules, so they are surprised to hear me say that I don’t have any rules in my class. “You can do whatever you want, as long as you are willing to accept the consequences.”
One time I began the year with that statement when one of my bolder students blurted, “So can I hit her?” Dear parents,
As we begin a new school year, you have probably heard much about the new Common Core State Standards. Some of what I’m hearing is true, and some is not, so I’d like to dispel some myths about the standards and address concerns you might have.  For the last few months, we have been discussing an article in Fox Business by Michael Stallard, president of E Pluribus Partners titled “6 Needs to Thrive at Work”. I mentioned that Stallard’s principles apply as easily to the classroom environment as they do to the workplace. The first need that employees–and our students–have is the need for respect. The second is recognition. This month we will explore our students’ third need: belonging.
In my previous post I referenced an article in Fox Business by Michael Stallard, president of E Pluribus Partners titled “6 Needs to Thrive at Work”. I decided to apply these six needs to the classroom environment to explore how we can improve our working environment at school and maximize student engagement and success. The six needs are:
· Respect · Recognition · Belonging · Autonomy · Personal Growth · Meaning In this article, we will take a look at the second need, recognition. We just completed our third and final awards assembly of the year. As my 8th graders received their awards for academic honors and attendance, I began to wonder if they were the same students who received those awards the previous year and the years before that. If that is the case, then a small fraction of my students are receiving this level of recognition. How are the larger majority of the students who remain watching from the bleachers being recognized? I recently read an engaging article in Fox Business by Michael Stallard, president of E Pluribus Partners titled “6 Needs to Thrive at Work”. While Stallard’s six points did indeed describe the characteristics of an ideal workplace, I also saw that they also applied in a larger sense to our lives in general. In this series of articles, I want to address how they specifically can maximize the work environment of our students.
Stoddard explains that employees have these six needs:  I teach at a small school in northern California. Mistletoe Elementary is a winner of the “Schools to Watch” award. We are the second K-8 school in the history of California to win the honor and the first to have earned it twice. I asked myself what made that happen.
What makes a real teacher? Is it the training we received in college? The credential we hold? Is a teacher born or is a teacher trained? We have all wondered about these questions. I found myself asking these questions as I recently attended a California League of Schools dinner honoring local educators for their service and excellence. I had the pleasure of listening to nine inspiring candidates try to explain what teaching meant to them.
 Recently I read an engaging article in the USA Today, “Saved by the bell? Sorry kids, not anymore” that reported on a revolutionary movement among some middle schools that were getting rid of bells at passing time. What amused me was recalling when I first came to work at my current school, Mistletoe Elementary, in 1997. Mistletoe had just transitioned from a K–5 to a K–8, and one of the first things I noticed what the absence of bells. Mistletoe had never had them as an elementary school, so they were not added when grades 6–8 came on board. I couldn’t imagine how that would be possible. My previous middle school had bells to start and end each class.
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AuthorBrad Fulton is an award winning teacher and nationally recognized provider of professional development with over three decades of experience in education. Categories
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