Each of us can be better than we are. We can be better thinkers, better learners, better friends, and better human beings. But we must want to be better. This is the message I give my students on the day I meet them: set goals to improve, work toward them, and don’t be discouraged by failure. To err is human, but the best among us realize that a new approach often leads to success. I want my students to be the best among us–to be capable of making good choices throughout their lives. I want my students to respect themselves and others, to weigh evidence, and to see through lies and propaganda; in short, to realize that learning about the world around them has value beyond school grades.
To that end, I work to build strong rapport with everyone involved in their education. I act like I want my students to act. I model patience, imagination, good humor, preparation, creativity, and critical thinking. I let them know I care, that I am on their side, that my goal is to help them reach their goals, and that I will always deal with them fairly. Insofar as possible, I resolve problems in the classroom, between teacher and student, as we are the ones working closely together each day. I give them chances to make mistakes and to learn from them. I set high standards, and do my best to guide students toward meeting them. Students know what to expect in my classroom, that I won’t shout or lose my temper, that there are consequences for going off track, but that there are rewards for hard work and good citizenship. I have learned through years of experience to resist the regressive pull of working with adolescents, and have mastered being friendly while maintaining a respectable divide between the roles of teacher and student.
My students’ parents and I want the best for their kids, and they are my partners from day one. Open channels of communication are critical, and I maintain them through frequent newsletters, prompt emails, and phone calls. As a result, parents are never surprised by a summative, never without the tools to know what’s going on in the classroom, and never left feeling as if they are not part of the learning process. The newsletters I email home provide resources for further reading, topics of discussion, and ideas for small projects that parents can complete with their children. All of these are tied closely to desired student learning outcomes. When kids see that their parents know what is going on, are interested in the material, and care about the subject, their motivation to engage seriously in learning flourishes.
My colleagues are another important stakeholder in the educational process. I work to maximize the benefits that collaborating with them provides. I have learned through experience to avoid clinging too tenaciously to my own ideas and ways of doing things. We all feel safer when holding the rudder, but one thing teachers eventually learn is that sacrificing total control in favor of cooperation and collaboration allows us to accomplish bigger and better things for the benefit of our students. There are five essential lessons I have learned through collaboration. First, to let go of my ego—I am prepared to have my ideas criticized, accepted piecemeal, or rejected outright if something better is on the table. Second, we can all become better at collaboration through practice and holding to norms that all agree on. Third, sharing resources, work, blame, and credit is the mark of a successful team. Fourth, to be open-minded and admit when the ideas of others have more merit. Finally, everyone must have a voice, contributing the best of what they know while striving toward a shared goal—student growth. What each of us can accomplish on our own in this regard is insignificant compared to what we can accomplish together.
Much of how a teacher feels about their work falls to the school administration and the role they play in the workplace. I have learned a lot during my career about how to build effective relationships with my supervisors. I am dependable, organized, and professional. I don’t let my ego get in the way of my work, deal patiently with stressful situations, and have strong mastery of the content I teach. I don’t spread gossip or whinge about things in the staff room, and work to maintain a positive attitude. I put my students first, and am the first to admit when I make a mistake. In return, I count on administrators to work with me in the best interest of the kids. I often turn to them for advice and use their suggestions in my classroom. If I have a problem with something at the school, I go to them and state my case. While I don’t expect that my approach will always be seen as the best way forward, I believe it is extremely important for teacher morale to be heard, supported, and to have one’s professional opinions and efforts valued.
While a teacher’s being prepared is an expectation of the administration, the importance of having a solid plan becomes clearer when one realizes the magnitude of their role in student lives. Student growth—as learners and balanced human beings—is my first concern as a teacher. Regarding the former, I constantly work to produce and improve upon goal-oriented plans that focus on the big ideas my students need to understand. On the first day of school, I have a yearly plan, unit plans, and lesson plans ready. While these sometimes change to accommodate student needs, they are an essential part of my preparation as an educator. I am a strong proponent of backwards planning utilizing the Teaching for Understanding framework and the research of Project Zero. While planning, I always keep the developmental needs of adolescents in mind, for practice tells me that academic standards and objectives are unattainable if the activities devised to achieve them ignore the developmental and emotional needs of students. All children deserve to live balanced and meaningful lives, and I believe strongly in the role of play both in and out of the classroom. Activities that allow students to work with peers, move freely, speak their minds, figure out the answers to things on their own, and be active participants in their learning are required to maintain interest and forward progress.
The key to determining whether students have made such progress is assessment linked to clear standards and learning outcomes. I have extensive experience with standards-based planning, teaching, and assessment. Before creating or revising an assessment, I unpack the standards and create a set of student “I can” statements through which they will provide evidence of meeting their goals. Rigor is in the forefront of my strategy, and I analyze standards for the depth of knowledge they require before deciding the best way to assess. One particularly useful set of tools I use in this regard are Marzano scales, which allow me to measure student progress toward proficiency throughout the year. While differentiation and scaffolding play an important role in instruction, I feel that good feedback on assessments followed by re-teaching of the objectives is usually the best way to improve student achievement.
And yet, student achievement stalls without effective classroom management. Sadly, many teachers underestimate the importance of managing the classroom environment. They teach and, if something goes wrong, they discipline. I aim to remove the need for discipline through consistent classroom procedures and routines. From the first day of school, I work to establish these in an effort to enforce positive behaviors from the outset. Part of this involves working bell to bell and not wasting time. I have clear procedures established for entering the classroom, completing bell work, handing in assignments, using a hall pass, and quieting the class, to name just a few. While a rule is a dare to be broken, a procedure is a positive step to be learned. As Harry Wong notes, “One of the greatest gifts a caring teacher can contribute to children is to help them learn to sit when they feel like running, to raise their hand when they feel like talking, to be polite to their neighbor, to stand in line without pushing, and to work when they feel like playing. By introducing procedures in the classroom, I am introducing procedures as a way of living a happy and successful life.”
