Kudos to those of you who caught the Star Wars reference in my title. My husband would be proud.
I was very encouraged the other day while working with a student teacher. I am mentoring her through the incredibly difficult year of learning basically everything there is to know about teaching. Of course we learn and grow so much over our careers, but besides your first year, student teaching is one of the most intense times of growth. At least it was for me. And the worst part is, not only are you learning how to do it, you are being constantly monitored and judged at the same time.
This brings me to a thought someone planted in my head a long time ago, and I've never forgotten:
It is very difficult to be a mentor and an evaluator at the same time.
Think about it.
This is the flaw of the student teaching program, being highly dependent on the teacher you are placed with. Some are mentors, some are evaluators, and very few are both.
The first thing I told Emily (aforementioned student teacher) is that your student teaching year is one where you are supposed to LEARN. You don't have to be perfect at everything at the start (or ever after that!) She compared herself to her classmates, many of whom taught overseas or as an EA in a classroom for many years. So many of us hold the expectation that we have to enter our student teaching year already knowing everything. You don't. But you do have to be able to take chances, reflect on your practice and be constantly learning and evolving.
So this brings me to my blog post title- and why I was encouraged with the new generation of teachers coming up through the system.
Emily and I were looking at differentiated instruction in math. We talked about how it is important to assess your students before you teach them, to see where the students are. For a lot of (ahem) older teachers like myself, even this is a novel concept. It is not just giving them a pre-test worksheet and then doing things the same- it is a whole paradigm shift of how we teach.
For Emily, it seemed this was common practice in her university studies. (1 point for UBC!)
After assessing students, there are many different ways to address their needs. We talked about guided math, small group instruction, games for fluency practice, and more. Then after lessons and, of course, units, there is more assessment of their learning.
Ok, now I'm getting to the exciting part.
She asked a very simple, but profound question. It separates the older generation from the newer generation of teachers (which has nothing to do with age or years teaching, but philosophy).
She asked, "So what do you do with the students who still didn't get the concept?"
For so many years, we have been evaluators. Teachers, yes, but in the end, we are judgers, putting kids into Good, Satisfactory or Needs Improvement. Gets it or doesn't get it.
What if we didn't stop until they did?
I know, we all immediately go to the logistical frustration/ impossibility of this concept. That is, if you are looking at it with the same lens you have always had, and teaching the way we always have.
NO WONDER kids get so behind by the later grades- we've moved on and stamped a "didn't get it" on their report card. I am the teacher who works with the struggling students. The ones who think they are not smart, and yes, the ones who have been left behind. I applaud Surrey District for taking away some of the pressure to label kids through letter grades. What if we were more cheerleader and less of a judge? What about leading them through their learning where they are at?
I believe this is where education is headed- what all those buzz words like differentiation and student-directed learning are trying to say.
Even if you don't agree with how it can work, it's an interesting conversation.
