Seven, fingers-down-the-blackboard, cringe-worthy statements that we cannot accept from any educator.
1: That’s how I’ve always done it.
The best
teachers constantly reflect on their professional practice by asking
themselves, “How can I do this better?” As education reformer John Dewey
stated, “We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.”
As
teachers, we must constantly reflect and adapt. We must harness the power of
reflection in our daily practices. Failing to reflect leaves the teacher—and
thus the students—in the dark. Oppositely, reflective teachers constantly
question their choices so they can become more effective.
2: I’ve taught it, they just don’t get it.
Highly
effective teachers create a positive atmosphere in their classrooms. Carol
Dweck categorized teachers into two categories, those with a growth mindset and
those with a fixed mindset. Those with a fixed mindset immediately and
permanently place students into preset categories with the responsibility for
meeting their unique learning challenges on the students. Those teachers with
the growth mindset viewed learning as a shared responsibility. Needless to say,
in classrooms where teachers have a growth mindset, student gains are
significantly higher with even the lowest-performing students making
significant gains.
When
students don’t get it, instead of saying, “I’ve taught it, it’s on them now,”
we must instead ask ourselves, “What do I do now to make sure they’ve learned
it?”
3: I don’t believe in redos and retakes. They’ve had their chance.
Again, I’ll
go to the seminal work of Dweck. If we teach students that their intelligence
can increase, they’ll do better in school. Failure is part of the learning
process and provides an opportunity to improve. We must teach our students to
rise to the challenge of our high expectations, to continuously learn, and we
must reward students for their sustained efforts.
4: My responsibility is to teach the content.
Before reaching our students’ minds, we must reach their hearts
and souls. Great teaching starts with building personal relationships with our
students. Each student enters our classrooms with unique needs, strengths and
differences.
Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We must take the whole
student into account to ensure the success of each student.
We cannot ignore these differences if we want students to reach
their potential.
5: The student doesn’t have the prerequisite skills.
We must
take the time to pre-assess and teach students and prerequisite skills they
lack. Assessing and addressing student performance must occur prior to
full-blown instruction.
Doing so
requires additional and creative planning and often it requires a school-wide
effort. Whether it’s through differentiation or devoting extra time, energy or
resources, plowing ahead without ensuring students possess the prerequisite
skills is futile.
6: The student has no support outside of school.
While
impactful, we can’t use lack of support, socio-economic status, or a student’s
family situation derail what we do. We have tremendous ability to overcome
these obstacles simply by believing in our students and their abilities.
Equally important we must believe in our abilities as teachers to make a
difference.
7: I can’t be held accountable for each student.
We ARE
responsible for each student in each of our classes. It’s an incredible
responsibility, but one the best teachers embrace.
