I love teachers

I will always cheer and support a person who chooses to be on the front lines of a young person’s development. I remember the very first day of school after I had become a teacher – just spending a minute in the presence of learning and having a role in causing it was so powerful that I was convinced immediately that I was in the right profession. On the flip side, we have to recognize that along with the feeling of reward, our job comes with great responsibility.

Early in my career, I was chatting with a teacher during one of the school’s professional development sessions and he said “I don’t see what the big deal is. Teaching is so simple! They’re over thinking it – just give the kids the textbook and get them to read it”.

I can see what that teacher meant. Being an ok teacher can be pretty simple – show some notes, give some assignments, mark them, give a test, mark it, write some report cards, and repeat. However, being a great teacher is incredibly challenging and complex. Do you understand how your students are thinking and learning? How are you using that information to inform your next move? How do you ask questions? How do you answer questions? How do you empower students to see themselves as able to learn? How do you inspire? There is nothing simple about even beginning to explore these questions.

I try to never judge a teacher without understanding where they’re coming from. We only know as much as the experiences we’ve had. If a teacher spends 60 minutes of class with the lights off getting kids to copy notes that are already in a PowerPoint, that just happens to be where that teacher is at in their own learning based on the experiences he/she has had. Educational leader and author Brian Aspinall said:

“It’s OK to be where you are, it’s NOT ok to stay there.”

No matter where we are in our journey as teachers, how do we make sure that we stay on a path towards excellence? In reflecting on that question, the answer comes to me resoundingly: build relationships. There were people I met along my journey who have challenged my ideas, pushed me to think deeper, asked questions, and celebrated successes! Building trust and collegial learning environments is a powerful tool for developing professionally.

Maybe I am a bit jaded, but I believe this can be particularly tricky with math teachers. I’ve been a part of math departments that have felt like “Fight club” in that the first rule of the math department was:

1. We do not talk about math pedagogy

The second rule was:

2. We do NOT talk about math pedagogy

Everyone just minded their business and closed their classroom doors because they knew that philosophies were just too different and that conversations would lead to arguments. Math education has been a hot topic for a while now. I think this has caused it to be a sensitive, sometimes dichotomous issue. You are either a supporter of inquiry and project based learning, or you were completely against it – actually blaming it for the drop in math scores across the country. I get a sense that the “math wars” are coming to an end, or at least I am hopeful that they are. Math teachers are starting to find common language around learning that is centred on the student. How do we continue to build trust within the teams we work with so that we all move forward from wherever we are?