ONE QUESTION BUT TWO ANSWERS

 

A few weeks ago, I had the great honor of speaking to 84 seniors at Longwood University who were heading out to do their student teaching in the schools throughout Virginia.  These students were entering the teaching profession at a critical time in our history.  They were going to be changing many lives, hopefully for years to come.  When I say that I was honored to speak to them, that is absolutely true.  We all need to be cheering loudly for every person who is starting a career in teaching. 

The theme of my presentation was “One Question but Two Answers.”  The question was straight forward.  It was one that I think every teacher should ponder on a regular basis, “Be honest with yourself, how good do you really want to be?” 

Whether you are a teacher or a politician or a computer expert, no question is more important.  You are never going to be better than you want to be so you need to arrive at an answer that is both honest and personally satisfactory.  To address our problems, the world needs more ambitious people, especially people who are willing to become teachers.  In my mind, every college and university should be working diligently to produce more teachers.  That should be a top priority at every school in this country.

Okay, how good do you really want to be?  I gave those students two, connected, answers.  The first was, “GREAT!!”  I led off with a favored quote of mine from Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who, as President of Liberia, gave the 2011 Commencement Address at Harvard and challenged the students with, 

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” 

I wanted every member of my audience to walk out with the dream of becoming a great teacher.  I wanted that dream to be gigantic.

No one dreams of being mediocre.

No one yearns to be average. 

As teachers, if we are going to change the lives of our students for the better, we need to challenge ourselves to become great.  We owe that to our students.

I could have preached forever on the importance of great teaching.  However, I only had 45 minutes and I had a second answer for my question that I also wanted to explore with the students. 

How good do you really want to be?  The second answer should always be, “BETTER!!”   It is awfully hard to be great.  For a teacher, that might truly be the impossible dream.  Nevertheless, we can all work to get better.  Everyone can get better.  In the 51 years that I have taught, I have never once arrived on campus when I did not want to be better than I was the day before. 

I then gave those 84 seniors four tips that I firmly believe will help each of them to become better teachers.  They will not become great teachers all at once but, if they work to become a bit better every day, every week, every month, it is only a matter of time until they wind up being GREAT TEACHERS.  And, the world needs more of that.

So, here are the tips that I gave to the 84 Longwood seniors a few weeks ago.  I could have given them 52 tips but I am sure that these four tips can truly make a difference in their quest to get better.

1—Give as many pats on the back as you possibly can.  I firmly believe that one of the problems with both the work place and the school classroom is that we don’t compliment people/support people often enough.  Whether it is a student, an assistant, another faculty member, a dean, a provost, a president, we should all be passing out more pats on the back.  That doesn’t mean we have to be pleasant and smiling all the time.  A poor effort should always be corrected.  However, where possible, seek out reasons to say supportive things to your students.

2—Keep a diary of your teaching.  This comes from a person who has written over 300 essays on teaching on this blog.  I firmly believe that taking 15 minutes at the end of the day (especially for a less experienced teacher) to record your thoughts can be extremely helpful.  It forces you to think about what happened, why it happened, and what you might have done differently if you wanted a different result.  I think writing about your work is one of the most underappreciated aspects of learning to be a better teacher. 

3—Find the teachers in your building who seem to be the best at the job.  Then, take them out for coffee and pick their brains.  Don’t get into a conversation.  Have specific questions and then listen carefully to what they say.  You are not trying to become their clone.  Rather, you are trying to pick up ideas that might (might) work for you.  Listen.  I used to have a good friend who was a great teacher.  He died about 18 months ago but, until then, I loved to take him to lunch and ask him questions about some aspect of teaching.  He would think for a long while and then he would give me a wonderful answer.  I paid close attention and then tried to figure out what applied to me.  I didn’t always agree but I always listened and considered. 

Too many people will do this and then automatically reply, “Let me tell you why that won’t work for me.”  Don’t do that.  Listen and consider.

4—View students as individuals and not as a group.  It is easy to think of your students as the “9:00 class” or as the “sophomores.”  Don’t do that.  Each person deserves to be considered as a person with their own wants and needs.  Nothing in teaching is ever absolute.  Nothing applies to everyone.  You can have guidelines but each student who talks to you or who concerns you is dealing with their own particular case.  Listen to them carefully before deciding how to proceed.  I have heard it said that when a person talked with Mother Teresa, she treated them like them like they were the only person in her world at that moment.  Whenever a student talks with me, I try to remind myself of Mother Teresa. 

I could have given lots of other advice to those 84 student teachers but those four thoughts seemed to me to be a good way to address what I think it is the key question in becoming a great teacher, “How do you get better?”