by JESSE SCACCIA
Teaching is not a profession where one can assume their proficiency grows along a similar upward trend to years in the field.
Yes, you’ll pick up tricks along the way. If you’re smart after a few years you’ll also have a pile of lesson plans high enough to reach your shoulders.
But you lose things too. You might lose passion. With that age you’ve hopefully gained wisdom, yes, but you’ve also gained a social and cultural dissonance between yourself and your students. As the line from Dazed and Confused goes, you keep getting older, but they all stay the same age.
What you gain might be a loss if what you have added is bitterness. Or cynicism. Or a foot out the door.
The point is, just because you’ve been teaching longer doesn’t say a damn about whether or not you are actually teaching better. That is why we must always be reflecting. If we are to be the generation of revolutionary teachers we believe we can become, we must eternally and perpetually be teachers, revised.
Which leads to the question: How do you know what to change?
If the kids like you better than when you were younger it could be because you’ve gone soft. If they like you worse it could be because you’ve gotten better, and they haven’t learned how to face challenges with the amount of grace they display when handed back papers with big juicy A’s on top.
Here’s what I do: I ask the kids directly.
At the end of every term I give my students a simple evaluation sheet. I make it clear that these are just for me, for the purposes of identifying what I’m good at so I can keep doing it, and sorting out what I’m bad out so I can fix it or avoid it. My bosses won’t see it so nothing they write can get me in trouble. In fact, I don’t tell my supervisors about it because it has nothing to do with them. This is all about fulfilling my own potential as an educator, not getting a pay raise or a recommendation or a passing evaluation for a portfolio or such.
There are just a few questions. It doesn’t take them more than 15 minutes. But it’s the most valuable quarter hour as far as improving me of the whole term.
Here’s what I ask, in case you’re curious:
- What do you think were Jesse’s strengths as a teacher?
- What are the areas where you think Jesse needs to improve as a teacher?
- What, if anything, do you think you will remember from this class in five years? (It could be assignments, readings, something said in class, an epiphany you had about yourself through this course, how much you hated it…)
- Would you recommend Jesse as a teacher to your friends? Why or why not?
2 Comments
December 24, 2009 at 1:40 am
Teaching always involves the brainstorming with students. Asking questions from students usually leads to collecting creativity. Students are young while teachers are getting older. In fact, the reason why they are young is because they are allowed to see the world in a way that teachers will never see. They are the pioneers or avant-gardes. As a teacher, we only watch them grow and allow them to do unimaginable things. We work as a helper only, but we do listen to me. Because they are bold enough to tell us what the new world is as long as we allow them to. Intelligence is not to limit a certain group of people, so they can’t speak. Instead we embrace the cause of… *I believe Jesse will continue to inform you what it is. (^_^)
December 25, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Teacher “report cards” are one of the most authentic evaluation tools for improvement… especially if you’ve been able to build enough trust with your students to have them tell you honestly where you need work. It takes humility, but that’s what it’s all about right… Growth.