Capturing Minds by Capturing Hearts: 40 Ways in 40 Days to Be a Better Teacher

By Kay J. Mahne

When you finish a school year of teaching, do you ever say to yourself, I could have done more, I should have done more. I could have helped more, I should have helped more. I could have done something different, I should have done something different?

At the same time, you felt exhausted, like you really needed a break. Whether you are training to be a teacher, or you already are one, Capturing Minds by Capturing Hearts will offer 40 ways in 40 days to be a better teacher.
Its practical workbook style helps you think about and apply the information immediately. The information in this book has been time-tested by the author, who is a forty-year teaching veteran. This book will pique your curiosity, challenge your outlook on teaching, and expand your vision of who you are and who you can yet become!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483667270

Kay J. Mahne

The author, a professor of mathematics and mathematics education at Georgia Gwinnett College, resides outside Atlanta with her husband. In August 1974 the author received an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Georgia State University, and in December 1980 the author was awarded a masters of arts in the teaching of mathematics degree from Georgia State University. Professor Mahne taught high school mathematics for thirty-seven years, and three years ago she started teaching college. During her career as a high school teacher, she earned many awards, which include Teacher of the Year 1993–1994 (Phoenix High School-Gwinnett County Public Schools), Star Teacher 1996–1997 (Providence Christian Academy), and Star Teacher 2005–2006 (Providence Christian Academy). She has been nominated as Teacher of the Year six times. The most recent nomination was this last academic year at the college where she currently works. She was nominated for the Outstanding Teaching Faculty Award. Professor Mahne is currently certified (grades 6–12) in mathematics and is AP certified. She is a member of the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and has spoken at the conference for Future Educators of Georgia. This is the second of many books she hopes to write in order to pass on the knowledge she has gained about teaching in general.

Book preview

Chapter 1

TEACHING IS PSYCHOLOGY

If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably

right.

—Henry Ford (industrialist and automobile inventor)

Learning is definitely a head game. After teaching mathematics, going on forty years, I have learned that you have to make people believe that they can learn whatever you are trying to teach them. A teacher can make or break a subject for a student. As a teacher of mathematics, I have realized that math causes trouble for a lot of people. Math anxiety is not just slang phraseology; it has been identified by experts as a real fear.

So how are you going to get people to learn? There is a kid in my neighborhood whom I taught in high school, and then he went on to a prestigious college and got his engineering degree. He still stops me when I go on my walk in the neighborhood and says, You are still the best math teacher I ever had. You made me believe I could do it.

So how did I make him believe he could do it? And how did I help thousands of students with varying abilities believe they could do it?

It all started with my philosophy of learning. My philosophy of learning started way back when I was a child. I grew up playing school in my neighborhood. I had a chalkboard. I was the teacher. When my friends would say, I want to be the teacher now, I would say, I don’t want to play anymore! I guess you do need to be a person who likes to be in control. So I definitely enjoyed playing teaching. But what really shaped my philosophy of teaching was a teacher in elementary school who took a special interest in me. I still don’t know why. I remember her name and her face to this day. She taught social studies, so I thought I wanted to be a history teacher. Halfway through college, I took a calculus course—I don’t know why. I made an A+ in the course and said to myself, I can do this stuff. I am switching majors to become a math teacher. So I guess it was destiny.

Questions to Ponder

•   Can you make people learn?

•   Think back to your own schooling. Was there a person who had a big influence in your life?

•   Do you have a philosophy of learning?

Write one thing you can do to help your students learn.

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Chapter 2

TEACHING REQUIRES GOOD COMMUNICATION

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.

—Emily Dickenson (American poet)

Great teaching is both an art and a science. In order to teach, you need to know the science of that particular subject matter in detail. However, teaching is also an art because you need to be able to explain the details of the subject matter to your students. Remember, students are people too.

Emotions play a huge role in our lives. Students will know whether you like them or not. It will come out in your voice and your body language. I have observed many teachers. In less than five minutes, I can tell whether a person likes their job and likes their students. The philosophy of a teacher will definitely be exhibited in the classroom. Good ideas and behaviors are caught as much as they are taught to our students.

My students know that I collect poems, writings, and sayings. I would like to share with you my own poem written about teaching. I am coming up on my fortieth year of teaching. You would think that I would know it all by now. But I realize that I still don’t.

WHAT IS TEACHING?

Teaching is pressure; teaching is fun!

Teaching is working until all the papers are done

Teaching requires knowledge, for I need to know

something in order to impart

All the information that is constantly changing

in my head and my heart

Teaching is friendship, psychology, and cooperation

Lord, help me to teach this nation

How to live a civil life

One without violence and strife

Teaching requires selflessness, discipline, and time

Teaching requires consistency and simplicity of crime

Teaching is rewarding and yet the hardest work to do

Teaching is not for everyone; in fact, it is only for a few

If you are being called to this, a special place

Then you will know without a doubt as you look upon each face

That teaching is a gift given to you from up above

And your teaching will indeed be an act of love.

Questions to Ponder

•   Do you feel that you are a good communicator? If yes, why? If no, why not?

•   Do you like teaching? Do you like young people?

•   Why did you select teaching as a career?

Write one thing you can do this week to be a good communicator.

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Chapter 3

TEACHING REQUIRES EXPERTISE

Out of clutter, find simplicity, from discord, find harmony, in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

—Albert Einstein (German physicist)

When you teach, know your subject matter. In other words, do your homework. It has always been my job to be prepared for class and my student’s job to come to class ready to learn. What if we all went to classes for an hour or so and the teacher had nothing prepared? We have all been to those classes, but that is not the type of teacher that we want to be. That is a bad example, and that’s not what we want. You have a great responsibility by being a teacher for many reasons. Not the least of which is this: teaching is the profession that makes all others possible!

Also, it is obvious that not every student comes to class with the motivation to learn. Since students also have a responsibility to respond properly, I would like to include another poem I wrote about being a student.

WHAT IS A STUDENT?

Being a student can be a lot of pressure

Especially when I did not study all that information about Escher

Being a student requires a lot of studying about things

I don’t even want to know

Information that the teacher says I will need in order to