I have been reading Cathy Toll's LEARNERSHIP: INVEST IN TEACHERS, FOCUS ON LEARNING, AND KEEP TEST SCORES IN PERSPECTIVE.
Simultaneously, I am reading John Maxwell's 21 IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF LEADERSHIP: FOLLOW THEM AND PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW YOU.
Both authors have a focus on influence. I'm thinking about how we influence learning in our students, our peers, and our leaders.
Cathy Toll (p. 75) poses the following.
"I'd like to ask you, the reader, to draw on your learning experiences. Please grab a piece of paper and jot down 10 things you know now that you didn't know when you began your career as an educator. This is not a top-ten list, so don't try to come up with the 10 most important things you have learned. Rather, jot down the first ten things you think of."
Okay, Cathy, here is my list of what I didn't know back then (only 10 items, eh):
- I will never be a "master teacher." No one can master anything so complex.
- Teaching will always be challenging. I will never be able to open a file or Teacher's Edition of a text and feel like my plans are ready to go.
- I will love my students and colleagues almost as much as family; I will certainly spend more time with them.
- I didn't dream that there would be pundits who would seek to blame teachers for virtually every ill of the world and then pay testing companies to prove themselves "correct..." and that the public would be so easily fooled.
- The digital age was right around the corner.
- I am responsible for my own professional growth.
- I didn't know how to spiral curriculum or evidence learning/growth in authentic ways.
- I didn't know how to teach reading workshop or writing workshops.
- I needed to initiate change and cultivate it with my peers.
- I didn't have a deep understanding of how to analyze students' work in order understand learners' needs.
Stay tuned for Part 2, coming up on tomorrow's "Slice of Life" in which Cathy asks us to consider the influences we had in HOW we learned each of our "truths" (stated on the top ten list).
What do you know now that you didn't know "then?"
Your list is pretty amazing. I agree that NO ONE will ever MASTER teaching and share your list - all of it! PS THanks for the PD suggestions!
ReplyDeleteYou are insightful to garner ideas from here! I am doing the same with other people's blogs, books, requests, etc. :)
ReplyDeleteSo many things on you list are so true. I didn't know these things either. I think of so many things that teacher education didn't prepare me for that I've had to face. My first year teaching, how am I supposed to react to an 8th grader who writes about her most memorable moment--giving birth to a child. How do you tell your students that one of their classmates has died, or a parent has died? How do you reassure a child that he or she is not a failure despite a low standardized test score? I may never be a master teacher, but I keep asking questions that will make me a better teacher every year.
ReplyDeleteKay, you've hit on many aspects of which no one could ever dream when they are imagining being a teacher. If you teach long enough, pretty much all of these things do happen. I love your positive thinking--you get better every year. If we're lucky, we all do. There is nothing like experience well-lived to teach us what we need to know, adding to our tremendous repertoire of skills.
DeleteGreat post. I liked your idea so much that I wrote 10 of my own before I read your list. My favorite one from your list is "I am responsible for my own professional growth". So true. The 2 last items on my list were that teachers need to be with other teachers and teachers need time away from the classroom.
ReplyDeletePatricia--LOVE yours. I certainly have learned a LOT about needing to talk with and WANTING to talk with other teachers in recent years. Now I can't imagine life without conversations and thinking together. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteWhat a wonderful list...number 10 resonated with me, it's such a key ability and I had no training in that at all. Terrifying!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea for reflection. Will try it later when feeling better!
ReplyDeleteI have always considered myself to be a learner, but used to do more waiting for the time to arrive-now I just go in search of and seek out sources who can lead me to what I need to know-I am more proactive on my professional growth now!
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about what I didn't know, it's a miracle anyone gave me a job! I completely agree with your inclusion of being responsible for our own professional growth. I'm always amazed when teachers tell me they don't bring work home or read professional journals or books. I used to wonder what was wrong with me, now I when someone tells me that I ask them if they'd take their child to a doctor who hadn't done any professional reading since medical school. That gets them thinking!
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