On: Teachers as Their Students

On:  Teachers as Their Students

Colleen Rogers

When I was in grad school I was in a cohort team—sixteen teachers, meeting every Thursday night, for two long years, jonesing to earn our Masters Degrees in Teaching and Leadership. 

Since we were shackled together as a “group”, virtually weekly, we generated sibling-isms that bonded us. We learned each other’s quirks, petty annoyances, and educational boundaries well enough to manage not to kill each other before graduation.

As I was one of the older “sorors”, I was slightly less socially interactive and a tad bit more observational with my “peers” in the group.  My secret objective was to smoke my younger companions in academics and be considered a valued member of any subset project. I did NOT want to “get picked last for gym”.

Occasionally, our Oxford-trained professor (you should have seen her garb at graduation) would grace us with mental breaks.  It was during one of these breaks that I noticed something peculiar that, unfortunately, I did not consider for a thesis project. 

Each one of us teachers, in our own subtle ways, acted like the grade level of the students we taught.  Since our cadre consisted of primary, middle school, and high school teachers, our grade level behaviors were ridiculously apparent and blatantly obvious to differentiate.

You could surmise the levels we instructed from the moment we entered our classroom.  The primary school teachers always carried in three bags—a purse, a fashionable, “cutesy” snack sack, and a tote.  The tote was a fountain of crayons, construction paper, markers, glue sticks, scissors, and such.  During breaks, primary teachers would spend time cutting out shapes, writing students’ names on these shapes, and affixing the shapes onto colorful bags.  Each of the bags was seasonally color-coded, and more shapes were also traced to represent seasonally-themed animals.  If these teachers were not crafting, they were knitting, crocheting, or scanning through Pinterest posts.  They seemed to heavily concentrate, as if each task was something new that they had to bring home and show their Mom, or their Principal.

The middle school teachers acted as quintessential bullymeisters.  They came to class with a folder, a notebook and something gadgety, which was more electronic than a fidget spinner.  They enjoyed showing off their technology, pics of their hot girlfriend, their high octane car, and whatever else they had that was shinier than what the other middle school teachers’ owned.  If they had more “junk” (ha ha, she said “junk”), they made fun of those who did not. They REALLY mocked the lowly elementary school teachers.  They swapped gossipy barbs about the inferiority of their students at school, their colleagues, and all the other cohort members.  They were there for the hazing and the salary bump up.

The high school teachers, my group, were the SPECIALISTS—all in caps, peons.  High school teachers arrived to class already masters of sanctimonious self-importance.  After all, no one really remembers the professional coaching and direction provided by a third grade teacher.  It is always the high school teacher that serves as a mentor to future doctors, NBA All Stars, and rappers.  They remain eternally and invaluably treasured for having undertaken extra coursework and concentrations in areas of advanced Warlord expertise.   They have lesson plans in half a dozen dusty file cabinets to be passed along to the next specialist who carries their torch.  Their condescending smirk is affirmed by a “justifiably” higher pay scale and a frightening ability to welcome students as colleagues in less than five years turnaround.  High school teachers don’t need to take notes…they, themselves, are one notch away from professorship.  Unless, of course, they are the “clipboard coach”.

Seriously, though, when you look at your instructional behavior in a classroom, ask yourself…

·      Is your personality really suitable for the grade level you currently teach?

·      Have you reduced yourself to the behavioral traits exhibited by your own students?

·      Do you prepare lessons that are slightly more challenging for the students at the grade level you instruct? 

·      Is your teaching substantive, not just “fun and fluffy”?

·      Do you inadvertently bully your students when you speak to them?

·      Are you distracted by your personal life off campus?

·      What are you extracting from personal development and advanced coursework?

·      Do you feel superior to your colleagues, or do you value their insights and instructional support?

·      Do you see the “chain of instruction” stemming from those who taught your students before they reached your grade level?

With the egregious effects of school bullying, and the shortage of classroom teachers, these questions are important to address on a personal level.  Such reflections are essential for the success and health of both you and and your students.

Graphic:

https://www.lookhuman.com/design/342018-i-m-the-teacher-so-i-m-like-smart-and-stuff/mug