Mar

11

What makes a teacher a good teacher?

Filed Under The Way I See It | 9 Comments

It’s Tuesday the second day of The March Break , and I’ve been able to start catching my breath after the first five weeks of a busy, busy second semester. Little Lauryn, granddaughter #1 , is staying with us for a couple of days. I love it when she comes to stay. I learn so much from her. Yesterday while on the way to the craft store to buy some more wool to finish the sweater I’m knitting for her mom ( I didn’t have enough to finish the sleeves. Luckily I was able to get what I needed) I asked Lauryn if her grade three teacher Miss M. was a good teacher. Lauryn didn’t hesitate one second to say that yes Miss M. was a good teacher. I asked her how she knew that. She told me ” because she makes great elephant and monkey noises”. I wonder what Miss M. would say if she knew that her ability to make great elephant and monkey noises makes her a good teacher. I would say that her willingness to make those great elephant and monkey noises is what helps make her a good teacher.

Lauryn’s answer reminded me of what I’ve been reading about on that very topic- what makes a good teacher. It’s interesting how everything seems to be linked. Over at Fireside Learning: Conversations About Learning a group of us is exploring Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach. The book’s a great read and so are the comments about the topic made by Connie and others providing lots of food for thought by challenging some of the commonly held assumptions, mine included, about what makes a good teacher. If you have a moment, I invite you to check the discussion thread out or even participate in the discussion. I think it would be of interest even if you haven’t read the book.

Back to Miss. M. Now, I don’t know Miss M at all. I’ve never met her, but I do know that Lauryn thinks she a good teacher. After reading the first 2 chapters of The Courage to Teach I think that Palmer would probably agree with Little Lauryn that making great elephant and monkey noises in class is one of the signs of a good teacher. Why? Because by making those great sounds she is connecting to her students through her enthusiasm for her subject . You have to be enthusiastic about your subject, and you have to be comfortable with yourself if you’re willing to make great elephant noises to help bring a poem to life for your students. Actually, I’d like to hear Miss. M. recite that poem. She’s obviously very comfortable with herself and according to Parker being comfortable with yourself is another sign of a good teacher. “Good teaching cannot be reduced to techniques; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher” he argues. Isn’t it ironic that so much of teacher PD is about teaching us new improved teaching techniques and not about helping ” us uncover what fits us and what doesn’t; who we are and who we’re not; what gives us life and what kills our spirit”- the really important things according to Parker.

I think it’s crucial to know what fits you as a teacher. I learned the hard way what fits me and what doesn’t. A few semesters ago I volunteered to teach a new program at our school that is designed to help kids who need extra support to recover credits for subjects that they almost passed. Instead of just failing the student, the credit would be deferred until the student did or redid whatever part of the course was the problem. The Credit Recovery Program was created to help those kids who are at risk of dropping out of school because they haven’t earned 16 credits by the time they are sixteen. Studies have shown that kids who do not have 16 credits by the time they are sixteen tend to drop out of school and not graduate.

Now I was so excited about teaching Credit Recovery classes, but unfortunately it turned out that I liked the idea of teaching Credit Recovery classes more than actually teaching them. Let me tell you, teaching Credit Recovery Classes was not a good fit for me. But I didn’t know that at the time. When I found myself teaching eight different students eight different subjects or levels at the same time, I started to clue in. I realized that I liked taking a group of kids from point a to point z. I didn’t like taking individual students from points a,b, c to points x, y, or z. I didn’t like the individual tutoring aspect of teaching the Credit Recovery Classes. Some teachers do. Some teachers love it, but I hated it, absolutely hated it. Teaching those classes was killing my spirit. Tutoring all those kids in all those subjects wasn’t a good fit for me even though teaching that type of student is a good fit .

Now, happily I’m teaching classes and kids that are a good fit for me, and I love it. I’m energized by it. I know that I’m lucky to be able to do this because I know that there are teachers out there that are teaching classes that aren’t a good fit for them and their spirit is dying. It’s easy to say if the class doesn’t fit, then don’t teach it. But, we all know that sometimes our options are very limited to the point that it’s either teach what isn’t a good fit or don’t teach at all. That’s a hard choice for someone who wants to teach or maybe it isn’t that hard given that more than 50% of new teachers quit within the first five years. Teaching is not for everyone. It’s important to follow your bliss. Life’s too short.

At this point I just want to say that at long last Sean Donahey and I have finally gotten together to do that interview I’ve been wanting to do for so long. We’ve both been so busy and didn’t seem to have time to get together. finally Sean said let’s just do it, and we did. I’m going to edit it later this week and hope to have it ready to post by the weekend.

Sean’s a really cool guy and has done many other cool things other than teaching . I know you’ll find the interview interesting. It’s amazing what you don’t know about people you pass in the halls everyday and sit with at committee meetings each month. I’ll be posting show notes so check here for any links.

 
icon for podpress  What makes a good teacher? [6:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (379)

Jan

29

It’s Deja Vu All Over Again

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Dealing With Stress, Evaluation, The Way I See It, Useful Handouts | Leave a Comment

homeworkHomework
It seems that the debate about homework is gathering speed. I wrote about it here last December, and I was interested to read Doug’s idea for taking the sting out of homework. He has his students blogging their History homework! I think Doug is going to have a problem: he’s going to kids lining up to take his History class.

Taking Care of Yourselfjumping through hoopd
It’s the end of semester and tomorrow is the deadline for marks so of course there would be problems with computers and printers. What did we expect? Teachers were running around everywhere (not me thankfully) looking for computers and printers that would work. Talk about stress. I wanted to grab them and have them read David’s post “How to Be Good to Yourself”, but that would have just added to their stess. So, I think I’ll just wait until things calm down a bit.

Reflecting Back (Can you say reflecting back, or is that redundant?)
Today I was reflecting upon the past semester and what worked well and what could have worked better. In all the hurly-burly of the last day of classes, I forgot to ask my students to give me my report card on how I did as a teacher. Mind you my group of kids don’t hesitate to tell me what they like or don’t like and that’s ok with me because as long as we get the job done I don’t really care how we do it. I’m open to suggestions if they don’t like my suggestion. I just tell them what the outcome has to be, how we get there is open to discussion. The only stipulation is that we get there. I like Dustin’s philosophy for managing his classroom and his Course Evaluation Handout, too. It would give valuable feedback. In fact, I like it better than the one I was using. Thanks for sharing, Dustin. A+



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