Teaching is Hard

Teaching is a complicated business.  I thought the December - January issue of Educational Leadership did a nice job of presenting some good points about effective teaching.  Some themes I noticed  (or looked for) throughout the issue are:

• Teaching is hard - it's a complicated human activity
• Humility - great teachers understand they don't have all the answers and there is not a magic bullet
• Reflection is key - the effective teachers are reflective about their craft and adapt their strategies
• Great teachers are learners - they always look to improve their instruction
• Purpose - the best teachers have a passion, and their excitement transfers to the students

When you put some of these together it seems evident that we need to recognize the complexity of teaching and foster growth among teachers in every stage of their career.  I think a pretty commonsense approach to helping teachers improve would be:

• Define a model or language of instruction- Marzano and Danielson provide a couple good ones that are more than the quick checklists
• Have teachers set some goals - let them decide what they want to improve upon.  Marzano suggests that about three goals a year per teacher.
• Promote professional development - Charlotte Danielson writes that this is "not because teaching is of poor quality and must be 'fixed' but rather because teaching is so hard that we can always improve it."

This notion of continuous improvement is what we expect from our schools, so it seems natural that we provide a way for each teacher to reflect upon and improve their practice.  The notion of incremental gains as opposed to a massive "fix" is more appealing as it provides a differentiated approach.  How much more will our students learn if all of our teachers get a little better at a few things each year?

Toby

The December - January issue of Educational Leadership can be viewed at 

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec10/vol68/num04/toc.aspx