I used to see best practices in instruction as a "one size fits all" prescription for teaching. After 20 years of teaching across grades 1-4, I knew that best practices were so powerful that they were extremely portable; if more teachers believed this, perhaps more might be willing to try teaching different grade levels.
But as a coach, I've come to not only see the uniqueness in each grade level but in each teacher--indeed, in unique circumstances each year. Even when you teach the same grade level, each year is always different from the rest. The obvious reason is that you have different students. Most years are impacted by changes of standards and/or book adoptions that alter the materials primarily used to teach a given content area...some are teacher- and student-friendly while others leave us yearning for something better. Parents are different in how they interact with their children and teachers each year, sometimes supporting us in amazing ways and sometimes moving us to tears or frustration. Even our colleagues change over time. Evaluation procedures change, and ridicule from politicians adds to our stress. But what is constant is the idea that best practices can help us to become more effective while appreciating and addressing the unique learning needs of our students.
Even so, what must remain unique is our implementation of best practices, the human factor in teaching. Even a teaching manual that is chalked full of scripted "best practice" cannot create a lifelong learners; nor can it make anyone into a great teacher. What is unique about those we deem as great teachers? I think it is a combination of attitudes, including:
--A willingness to take risks in instruction, understanding that education IS theory that begs us to use our unique teaching spirits to mold it into what works best in any given class or with certain students. We try new approaches, reflect on what did/did not go well, and then we tweak the next lesson to improve the learning experience--all in the framework of our own unique ways of viewing our teaching, our students, and success. Each teacher's uniqueness in how s/he delivers best practices with any given class or student is what makes a classroom and learning experience joyful and alive. There is no curriculum, no script that can plan or dictate this. Only living, breathing teachers with human minds have the capacity to reach other humans in this way. This is where working with an instructional coach can help: a coach can guide you into seeing ways to keep your instruction true to your unique strengths and beliefs while meeting the pressing demands of day-to-day life at school.
--Being actively engaged with students by planning and delivering instruction that builds on what is known, provides support only as much as needed and at the precise moment that it's needed so that it is timely. We stretch students while planning support that lifts them, enabling them to grow. This is true of instructional coaches, as well; we are there to help teachers stretch while providing timely support and feedback that only another person walking in your shoes can provide.
This leads to another concern: online schools for children. How do computers deliver instruction in a thoughtful, reflective manner, keeping the unique needs of each student in mind? How do computers (or online teachers) note the subtleties of a sigh, the flash of an eye, or a breakthrough moment on an individual's work or response? We know that one major key to learning is timely and specific feedback. Can a computer do that? How unique does our standardized world see our children? Where does quantitative meet qualitative instruction? Teaching more students as cheaply as possible doesn't make for creating an educated, democratic society.
My thinking: only in the uniqueness of instruction that can be provided in a live learning environment with a teacher who can see, hear, and touch each student, breathing the same air in the same physical space as the learning, can each student and teacher recognize how special they are and how much each and every human uniquely brings to our world. Living in a crowded world--or crowded classroom-- doesn't make us less unique; instead, it begs for us to have more appreciation for each other's differences than ever before.
The best teachers know this and uniquely deliver best practices to their students in order to build a love of learning and humanity. That's what our world needs now.
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