What
Really Matters
Six Characteristics of Outstanding
Teachers in Challenging Schools
Gail L. Thompson and Cynthia Thrasher Shamberger
(2012), ASCD
Express, Vol. 8, No. 2
Countless homeless, foster, low-income,
and abused students are enrolled in K–12 schools nationwide. When students with
special needs, English language learners (ELLs), and students who've been
suspended from school are added in, it's apparent that being a teacher isn't
easy, especially now when teachers are expected to raise test scores at all
costs. In fact, today teacher morale—particularly in high-needs schools—is at a
20-year low (MetLife, 2012). Nevertheless, it's still possible for teachers to
work effectively with "challenging" students (Thompson, 2010). During
my travels throughout the United States to conduct professional development
workshops, I've been thrilled to meet outstanding teachers who've earned this
reputation.
For example, in Mobile, Ala., I met Ms.
Samuels, who teaches at a predominantly black, low-income elementary school.
When introducing me to Ms. Samuels, the principal announced, "Ms. Samuels
can teach a tree to read!" Later, during lunch at a restaurant, a parent
rushed over and bragged that, thanks to Ms. Samuels, her son was now
college-bound.
In Fayetteville, N.C., I was mesmerized
watching Ms. McKoy teach a math lesson in a high-needs school. As she modeled
on the whiteboard how to solve a math problem, her class of black 3rd graders
listened intently. Then, when she asked them to solve additional problems
independently on their mini-whiteboards, the children eagerly complied. I was
especially impressed at how excited the six boys who were sitting in front of
the class were as they waved their hands in the air, hoping to share their
answers with their classmates.
Several months later, I was able to work
directly with students in a low-income, predominantly black 6th grade school in
North Carolina. In addition to giving
two motivational speeches on "How You Can Have a Great Future," I
sponsored a related essay contest for which students could earn extra credit.
While measuring the essays against the
rubric I'd created, I noticed that many contestants mentioned two teachers—Mrs.
Gause, a language arts teacher, and Mr. Shiver, a math teacher—as reasons why
they knew they'd have a great future. They cited several examples of how these
teachers had helped them.
What Sets Strong Teachers Apart
Regardless of their backgrounds, these
teachers and other great teachers in challenging schools whom I've read
about—including Esme Codell (2009), Salome Thomas-El (2003), Erin Gruell
(1999), and celebrated author and former teacher Frank McCourt (2006)—all have
a lot in common.
1. They have the correct mind-set.
They believe their students can learn;
have high expectations; are willing to give extra help; find ways to make
schoolwork interesting, relevant, and comprehensible; and use diverse
instructional strategies (Codell, 2009). They believe it's their job to provide
students with high-quality instruction (Kafele, 2009).
They live with Carol Dweck’s Growth
Mindset as the lens for envisioning and guiding their work. You
demonstrate this spirit every day! LB
2. They have good classroom-management
skills.
At the beginning of the school year,
they make their expectations clear. Instead of pushing students into the
"prison pipeline," they enforce rules fairly, don't show favoritism,
don't overreact to minor situations, and don't allow any student to prevent
others from learning (Thompson, 2010). Ms. Samuels had such strong
classroom-management skills that less effective teachers often sent their
"problematic" students to her.
And we know from incredible
teacher-authors such as Stevi Quate (PEBC colleague and author of Clockwatchers) and her writing partner
John McDermott; Carol Wilcox (Denver Public Schools; Samantha Bennett (PEBC
colleague and author of The Workshop Book)
Ron Ferguson (Harvard); Ron Ritchhart (Harvard’s Project Zero); Robert
Marzano,
Debra Pickering, and Tammy Heflebower (The
Highly Engaged Classrooms); and
Bonnie Campbell Hill and Carrie Ekey (The
Next Step Guide to Enriching Classroom Environments), engaging students in
authentic and relevant learning as you do with your Thinking Strategy
instruction and Workshop Model structures promotes a community of learners – a
key hallmark of good classroom
management. LB
3. They create a classroom environment
that is based on mutual respect and make their classrooms a safe learning
community so that students can concentrate on schoolwork.
Ms. McKoy's students admired her so much
that they wanted to behave in her classroom. Both her principal and other teachers told me
that she has a special gift for nurturing students, especially black boys.
"I love all of my students," Ms. McKoy told me, "but there's
just something special about the boys. I want to reach them to the same extent
that the teacher who went out of her way to help me when I was a child
did."
You have shared so many stories with
me about your students. What you know
about them from your interactions with the kids in your classrooms and beyond
your classrooms reflects your respect for students. You continuously nurture relationships with
your students. You listen to your
students in conferences. In fact, you
remodeled your classroom environments to make the fellowship of conferences,
small group collaborations, and focus/crafting lessons rituals of your caring
teaching. LB
4. They strive to form positive
relationships with their students by making it clear that they have students'
best interests at heart.
Gruell (1999) and McCourt (2006)
convinced students that developing good writing skills would benefit them.
Codell (2009) began and ended each day with activities that showed students she
cared about their overall welfare.
While diagnosing students’ needs and
problem solving their struggles, you name student strengths first. You focus your teaching on what will move
students to their most urgent learning goals.
You engage students in reflection so that they can better understand –
and remember – what they have learned and what they can now do. LB
5. They use assessment data to improve
their teaching.
For example, after doing a beginning-of
the-school-year assessment, Codell (2009) realized that students lacked basic
decoding skills, so she created phonics-based lessons. Because of her
willingness to give students what they needed, her students' standardized test
scores improved dramatically.
While I know you have earnest goals
for deepening your efforts, you PLC/Data Team efforts are laser focused on
student data so that you are pinpointing specific
6. They are realistic.
They understand that even when they do
their best, some students will misbehave; reject their efforts to form positive
relationships; and complain of boredom and act apathetic, no matter how
interesting, comprehensible, and relevant they try to make the curriculum.
Nonetheless, effective teachers continue to focus on what they can do, instead
of on what they can't control, and they keep doing their very best (Thompson,
2010).
I know we have talked about this often
and you think about this often. For me,
a chief way that I have been able to stay in education for over 34 years now is
to focus on 7:30 – 3:30. In other words,
I only have control over what happens when students are with me…but that is a
lot! As an elementary teacher, I had a
full day for 180 days and as a secondary teacher I had at least one period
everyday for 180 days to offer students unconditional love, a safe and inviting
community of learners, and responsive instruction. Some or even many of our students face hard
and sometimes horrific challenges. Some
have been read to but many have not. Some
students have learned about numbers, the history of July 4th, how to
make the color green, what causes plants to grow, and the give and take of
dinner time conversations before and during the time they are with us. Some students come into our schools with
fewer such experiences. Whatever the
schema blessings and challenges are, we never give up on our students. Yes, we are realistic. But we don’t let realities get us down
because we know our teaching impacts our students to grow beyond their current
circumstances. We set no ceilings on our
students’ potential – and the same is true for us! LB
All Teachers Can Reach Challenging Students
In an ideal situation, all
teachers—especially those in challenging schools—would have supportive school
leaders who would offer mentoring services, ongoing professional development,
and other types of support.
School principals, such as Alisha
Coleman Kiner in Memphis, Tenn., who dramatically raised her school's
graduation rate; Baruti Kafele in East Orange, N.J., who views himself as a
surrogate father to students; Mary Hales of Fayetteville, N.C., who greets
students and parents in the parking lot each morning; and Marva Carter of
Mobile, Ala., who invests every penny she can into professional development for
teachers, are leaders who attempt to groom teachers in challenging schools for
greatness.
Everything we are able to do is
because leadership had the vision to take this journey and because leadership
passionately supports each step of our PEBC collaborations. This support includes gaining leadership at
our learning table. What we value is
reflected by what we give our time to and we are all so thankful to be able to
share professional learning time so often with our leadership colleagues! LB
Some of the excellent teachers I've met
and read about had great leaders, but others didn't. Regardless of where they
work or the type of principal they have, effective teachers remain true to
their overall goal: to offer an outstanding education to all students whom they
have the privilege of teaching (Benard, 2004; Thompson, 2010).
References
Benard,
B. (2004). Resiliency: What we have learned. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
Codell,
E. R. (2009). Educating Esme: Diary of a teacher's first year (expanded
edition). New York, NY: Algonquin.
Gruell,
E. (1999). The freedom writer's diary: How a teacher and 150 teens used
writing to change themselves and the world
around them. New York, NY: Broadway.
Kafele,
B. (2009). Motivating black males to achieve in school and in life.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
McCourt,
F. (2006). Teacher man: A memoir. New York, NY: Scribner.
MetLife.
(2012). The MetLife survey of the American teacher: Teachers, parents, and
the economy. New York, NY: Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company.
Thomas-El,
S. (2003). I choose to stay: A black teacher refuses to desert the inner
city. New York, NY: Kensington.
Thompson,
G. (2010). The power of one: How you can help or harm African American
students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Gail L. Thompson is a Wells Fargo Endowed Professor of
Education at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Cynthia Thrasher Shamberger is an assistant
professor of special education at Fayetteville State University.
P.S.
This month’s Educational
Leadership (October, 2012) is dedicated to the theme “Students Who
Challenge Us.” I continuously find this
journal chisels my thinking. If you do
not currently receive it, maybe we can look at gaining a subscription for your
school. J
*****************************************************************
Trust
Mary Lee Hahn ~ Choice Literacy
As
soon as you trust yourself you will know how to live.
Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
When the basket of
meditation stones was passed to me at the writing retreat, I knew I would
pick the black one. My favorite rock is obsidian, so I could almost feel the
cool smoothness of the flat black stone before I picked it up and turned it
over to see what word it held for me. I lurched in my seat when I saw the
word. How could this rock know about the uncertainties and fears I try so
hard to keep locked up inside me?
My meditation
stone’s admonition?
Trust.
The writing retreat
is long past, but I am still carrying my rock. I have made it a point to be
still and listen to it whenever I find myself slipping into a place of doubt
or hesitation, when I question myself and wonder if I am “good enough.”
Here’s what my trust rock has taught me so far:
10 Reminders to Trust Yourself as
a Teacher in These Times of Change and Challenge
1. You are a
reader.
You read widely,
even though you’re not always aware of it. Make a list of all of the
different kinds of reading you have done in the past week. You’ll be amazed.
Your students will be, too, when you share your list with them. You know the
reading process from the inside out, and some of the most powerful lessons
you teach begin with, “Last night after I turned the TV off and I was reading
for my half an hour before bed, I was noticing the way I . . .” You can have
a successful reading conference just by sitting down beside a student and
asking the kinds of questions you love to be asked when you are chatting with
another reader: “What are you reading? Why did you choose that book? What is
this book making you thinking about or wonder?”
2. You are a
writer.
You have stared at
a blank screen or a blank piece of paper, struggling to choose just the right
words for the email to a parent, the paper for class, or the letter of
complaint to the company. Every piece of writing does not earn royalties, but
when your writing reaches the intended audience, it is published. And whether
or not you actually share your writing with a critique group, you know the
leap of faith it takes to ask someone for their opinion of your writing.
These are things you ask students to do every day in writing workshop, but
because you are a writer, you will do so with the encouragement and patience
that come from living within the writing process yourself.
3. You are a
learner.
You savor all the
new experiences life brings you through travel, classes, reading,
documentaries, and the challenges of adult life (“what’s the best roof I can
buy on my budget, and which company do I want to hire to replace my roof?”).
Every time you encounter an opportunity to learn, you are interested not just
in the information, but also in the process you use to comprehend it and the
effectiveness of the presentation of that information. Because you are a
learner, you will create a classroom that accommodates all kinds of learning
styles, and you’ll present information in rich and engaging ways.
4. You continue
to push the boundaries of your comfort zone with technology.
You have quit
trying to keep up with “everyone else” when it comes to technology. You are a
learner, and as you are introduced to tools that will make your work easier
(or possible), or that will allow you to create things that are useful or
beautiful, you add that tool to your technology toolbox. You are keenly aware
that sometimes it is better for your soul to spend an hour walking in nature
noticing the clouds and the birds and the trees than it is to spend that hour
online.
5. You nurture
professional relationships with colleagues.
You know the
students come and go in nine-month waves, but the lighthouses in your
teaching life are your colleagues. Whether that is one person in your
building, a group in your grade level or department, or a far-flung
hodgepodge of teacher friends you know and keep up with through blogs,
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or other online communities, you know how
important it is to have at least one person you can depend on to help you
find your way in this complicated and challenging journey we call teaching.
6. You
understand the importance of community in the classroom.
You have a keen
sense that the work you do in your one classroom will impact the future of
our entire nation and, possibly, the world. Even more than the skills and
information that you teach, you know that the attitudes of collaboration,
civility, patience, kindness, perseverance, flexibility, and acceptance
(among many others) are what will serve your students well in whatever walk
of life they choose. And because your students will be running the government
and corporations of your future, as well as theirs, you know that your own
future depends on the kind of citizen you release to the next grade level or
the world.
7. You accept
every birthday treat you are offered by a child.
You believe that
every child is a unique and valuable part of your classroom community. You
bring this belief to life when you accept every birthday treat (even if you
just take one bite and “save it for later”), learn to pronounce and spell
every name, value every religious holiday and tradition, and take the time to
make personal one-on-one contact with every child every day.
8. You’ve seen
what a difference a positive note or phone call home can make.
You never let
yourself forget that each child in your classroom is someone’s baby. You
develop a set of educational hopes and dreams for each child, but you always
remember that on the other end of the bus ride, there is a family who also
has a set of hopes and dreams for that child. Your connection to the child’s
family through your positive notes and phone calls creates a web of caring
and support for the child.
9. You are not
afraid to make mistakes.
You are human. You
have learned that it takes more energy than you possess to try to be, or
appear to be, perfect. One of the best lessons you teach every year is not
simply that you make mistakes, but that you pick yourself up and carry on
after you make a mistake. You learn, apologize if necessary, repair any
damage . . . and carry on.
10. You know
that some of the most powerful lessons you teach will yield results that
cannot be measured on any test.
You are at peace (most
of the time) with the realization that teaching is at least as much an art as
it is a science. Some years, no matter how well you teach, the results will
not show in the test scores, but that does not mean that the results of your
teaching do not reside within the hearts and minds of the students you
taught. Every test is a snapshot of a child as a learner. In the same way
that snapshots with cameras reveal bad hair, closed eyes, and accidentally
unfortunate composition, testing snapshots will capture all kinds of
momentary results along with the lasting results you are hoping for. And
that’s okay, because you trust yourself.
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*Choice Literacy is a lighthouse. The brave and brilliant authors of Choice
Literacy continuously grow my thinking and edify my understanding. If you do not yet have a subscription, run –
don’t walk – to get one!
