Today I start my ninth year of teaching.
Since I began teaching, I have had about 700 students, taught all four main subjects, taught four different grades, worked at three schools, served under four principals, been part of a California Distinguished School and a School to Watch, funded 14 Donors Choose Projects, gone on over 30 field trips, and ran two marathons with students with training that totaled around 800 miles.
In honor of my ninth year, here are nine beliefs I have developed about teaching along the way.
1. Read stuff
This seems obvious, but to be a teacher, you need to be a voracious reader. Whether you are an English, Math, History or Science Teacher, you need to read. I try to read as many young adult novels as I can, so I can talk to my students about them. #TeamJacob
I recommend everyone read Esperanza Rising. I cried (but then again, I cry a lot. I cried during a faculty meeting yesterday…).
2. Try Stuff
If someone gives me a tip, I almost always give it a try, no matter how skeptical I am. It costs nothing. And it can result in a gem of a teaching strategy.
And that’s actually how I stumbled upon the next tip.
3. Never say “Are There Any Questions?”
YES. There are always questions. But when you say it like that you sound intimidating and condescending. Someone told me once that instead I should say “Tell me your questions.” Changed. My. Life. “Tell me your Questions” is much warmer, inviting and assumes they have questions.
4. Do the work
If you expect your students to do something, you need to do it first. Do the math homework. Write the essay. Do it yourself. You will learn a lot about how to teach it just by doing it.
5. Don’t Go To Conferences
I hate conferences. I am not talking about trainings; I am a big believer in trainings. I am talking about conferences where people sell you stuff. In my opinion, conferences really serve people who aren’t willing to read the literature. Sure, they have some cool things, but mostly it is a place where people try to up-sell you. I’d rather be in the classroom, teaching. Here is a better move: find someone else who went to a conference, and just mooch off their stuff.
6. Try Not to Use Your Sick Days
Let me say this upfront: Don’t go to school sick. It gets the kids sick and then they miss school. But, if you are using your sick days as personal days, you are misusing them. Sick days accumulate and can be transferred between districts. At the end of your career, they can be transferred into your retirement plan as days worked. Plus they are a good back-up plan, just in case.
7. If You Are Bored, You Are Doing It Wrong
If you find something boring, it is likely that the students find it boring. A lot of people have this weird vision that teachers just implement the same lessons year after year. I know very few people who do this. Instead, I am constantly reinventing.
8. Film Yourself
Let’s state the obvious: it is awkward to film yourself. But there is nothing more revealing than watching your self on film. I constantly film myself teaching, so that I can review the tape and improve.
9. Data Matters
People gripe all the time about how tests can’t measure student’s growth accurately. I disagree completely. In all the years I have taught, I have never really gotten a surprising result from state tests. The students who score low are students I expected to score low.
If you are surprised by your data when you get it back from the state, the problem is not the test – it is your analysis.