Getting Personal about Teaching

Abstract

SO MUCH of is now driven by data (i.e., test scores) and dictated by best that teachers are losing confidence in their own creativity. Yet despite these unfortunate consequences of No Child Left Behind, the important work of teachers remains unchanged--the work of connecting personally and passionately, intimately and individually, with real children in real time. It is enduring work that begins when a teacher enters the classroom for the first time and ends only when he or she exits on that last day. Connecting personally with teaching is an odd phrase for today's classroom. Each day typically progresses in such a skill-jammed, test-locked, other-directed format that teachers have little room for experiencing satisfaction or for having constructive thoughts about their work. The average classroom is a pressure cooker crammed with so many shoulds, oughts, and musts that creativity, joy, and a sense of teacher ownership have lost their place in the conversation about teaching. The long-term consequences of viewing teachers largely as workers to give feet to the ideas of others are obvious. But there is an interesting question behind the problem, the question of whether creative can coexist with scripted teaching. At least for the next few years, if teachers are to get personal about teaching, they will have to do so in connection with a script. Is this possible? Is there a way for teachers to build a personal niche in the uptight world of to the dictates of others? There is no quick fix to embrace, no 10-step program to follow. Getting personal simply requires that teachers do what they can to give life to their talents and dreams. Doing so means thinking about what they value in and searching out practices that bring success and satisfaction. Getting personal asks teachers to trust their instincts and intuitions and requires that they learn from what they do. Getting personal is hard. But it can be done, and it is being done every day in classrooms all across the country. Whenever teachers choose their own ideas over those in the script, they are getting personal. Whenever teachers locate needed resources for at least a few of the dreams that motivate their work, they are getting personal. Whenever teachers believe enough in themselves to care about making a lasting and individual mark in the classroom, they are getting personal. The process is both wide and deep, driven by highly individualized motives and styles. Scripted programs and detailed rules don't help, nor does leaving teachers completely on their own. Over the years, I have experimented with various ideas for helping teachers find their personal centers in the classroom. Some ideas have worked; others have failed. But I have stayed with the challenge through my varied roles as teacher, teacher supervisor, public school administrator, and university educator. The simple, commonsense ideas that I have found to work invite teachers to think about why they entered teaching, to visualize those purposes in action, to target models to learn from, to practice the skills of negotiation, and to engage in regular reflection. Reconnecting to purposes. Teachers benefit from going back to their own beginnings and thinking about why they wanted to teach. What goals did they expect to accomplish? What fulfillment did they anticipate? Perhaps they love learning, and the excitement of a world to be known and understood by youngsters inspires them. Perhaps they like order and purpose, and helping youngsters become disciplined and directed gives them a strong sense of achievement. Perhaps they are highly creative, and the classroom is their chosen stage for expressing their gift. Perhaps they like youngsters, and whatever moves children forward motivates and encourages the teacher. When teachers think about their motivating purposes, letting them slip deep into consciousness, renewal begins. …