The Egoless Teacher

By Jacob Schilleci

For anyone who has taught secondary education, this is for you. Year after year, we are slammed with what to do and how to do it. Well, after teaching for 16 years, I feel it is time to take the gloves off and speak with zero filter, realistically, and practically look at the inner workings of the high school classroom. This is not for the faint at heart. You will be a bit uncomfortable. Through the highlighted discussions of Discipline, Lesson Planning, Instruction, School Spirit, and Team Building, I explain what honestly works and how to conduct oneself in order to become the Egoless Teacher. Just remember, It's not about you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jacob Schilleci
• Release date: Apr 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386382041

Book preview

The Egoless Teacher

It is not about you

Table of Contents

Title Page

The Egoless Teacher

Earning My Street-Cred

Discipline

Lesson Planning

Instruction

School Spirit

Team Building

Becoming Egoless

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Table of Contents

EARNING MY STREET-Cred 

The lack of letters after my name.

DISCIPLINE 

It’s not as hard as you think.

LESSON PLANNING  

Make it fun for you.

INSTRUCTION 

Know Your S**T.

SCHOOL SPIRIT 

Get silly and be aware.

TEAM BUILDING  

We are in a relationship. It’s going to take some work.

BECOMING EGOLESS 

It is not about you

Earning My Street-Cred

The lack of letters after my name.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME—MOTIVATION? I’m here on a free vacation.  I don’t give a flying fuck what that lady is talking about.

Finding myself dizzy with frustration, I think my brain just about short-circuited. The woman sitting in front of me, whose ass was touching both of her friends on either side, started squawking and sipping on her, I only drink the soy because I’m on a diet, latte.  A presenter from Kagan Publishing and Professional Development was delivering a seminar on different interventions and ideas on how to better motivate our students to want to come to school every day.

Seventeen colleagues and I were given an opportunity to attend a summer trip from Las Vegas to Seattle to be the first in our schooling zone to learn Kagan strategies.  Our principal did an exceptional job hand-picking who was invited. He chose veteran teachers, mid-career teachers, and a few new teachers in order to reach and tap into all of the new and old-school teaching philosophies. I was very much looking forward to this trip.  Yes, it was a free summer trip, but intended to be a highly educational one.

After the first day of meetings, coffee breaks, and sharing ideas with teachers on my campus I honestly would have never spoken to, I found myself not taking notes on what the presenters were saying, but what the seemed 5000+ attendees of the Kagan seminar were saying around me.  For those of you who attend these events, I would recommend you not talk shit about your students, principal, or IEP meetings while sporting your school logos. It speaks poorly of you, and frankly makes you appear less educated than your dumbass students.

By the end of the entire event, I found I filled four Kagan notepads full of peoples’ comments, ideas, opinions, and complete neglect of privacy.  On our flight home, I popped in my headphones and read over my notes.  There was so much to decipher, I overwhelmed myself.  It was not until a year later that I rewrote my notes, outlined them, and gathered the courage to write this book.  Now, as educators we are all aware that roughly every four to five years some high-repped, statistical educator of the year decides they have the best new way to teach our students.  By no means have I won any awards, gathered district shattering data representing my achievements, or been mentioned in a magazine or newsletter.  I am simply and proudly a rough and tumble teacher who has been put through the ringer more times than I would have liked.  I got into this profession to educate and motivate—not for the summer breaks, first period preps, or pay.  I find myself constantly questioning my delivery of material in a way that can reach every student, yes, even the ones who don’t want to be there and refuse to learn.

Therefore, for those who need validation due to the lack of publications, awards, or recognitions to authenticate the following information here are my credentials—street cred rather:

Bachelor’s degree in English.

Master’s Degree in Curriculum Analysis and Development.

Master’s Degree in Administration and Organizational Management.

Graduated with the highest marks in my credentialing program.

Successfully lived through a school riot; a student setting fire in my room; parents meeting me at my car and walking into my classroom in the middle of a lecture; kicking; an unknown at the time, a gun within a student’s backpack out of the isle only to hear later that he pulled the gun on a student two minutes after leaving my classroom.

Highest passing rate of proficiency tests on site(s).

Created curriculum that is still in use today.

Co-created an annual poetry slam where students perform in front of 400+ of their peers.

Successfully Chaired an Accreditation committee my second year at a new site.

Chaired departments.

Have or am teaching English 7, English 8, English 9, English 10, English 11, English 12, Mythology and Folklore, Reading and Writing for Proficiencies, AP Language and Composition, AP Literature and Composition, and Vietnamese immigrants how to speak English in order to successfully pass their citizenship test.

Have taught at six different schools.

Have been accused of using my size as intimidation, to where anyone who knows me laughed when they heard such an absurd accusation.

Was bullied out of a nine-year stint at my first school in Las Vegas.

Was fired twice in one year and still to this day do not know why.

Have raised over $75,000 in scholarships and grants for my students.

Have made house calls.

Mentored new teachers and students.

Saved a foreign exchange student from an abusive host family.

Successfully created websites, staff developments, and cross-curricular curriculum for sites.

Nominated three times for the Heart of Education Award and was a runner-up for Best