Reflecting on reflecting

Finished up the National Boards and put 'em in the mail two weeks ago.

I first certified in 2001 and it was time to renew. Eight years in, you can re-up if you don't mind paying the $1000 renewal fee.

Looking back over eight years turns out to be a lot of ground to cover. Who knew?

When you are in teaching it is often difficult to see the forest. There are so many trees --probably because a teaching day is akin to a work week in most professions.

I think I can make that comparison fairly since I have done other work besides teaching - radio broadcaster, advertising copywriter, a summer stint at the Economic Development Commission. The only job I found comparable in terms of the sheer number of human interactions among various groups while simultaneously making dozens of decisions was the year I spent working as a bartender.

Most days in a high school match the cerebral firing of mixing and serving the multitudes on a Friday night.

A teaching day is intense and dynamic (and often fun). And in the midst of the millions of decisions made while we stand and deliver, it can be hard to see what has happened.

Reflecting is good.

What did I discover? Some things that are second nature now were learned at great price early on.

For instance, how do you offer highly motivating choices while keeping everybody headed toward the same goal? It's a no-brainer now. It wasn't always so.

How can you prepare students to lead and learn from their own discussions? Scared the heck out of me at first. (Trust them to do it themselves? You're kidding.) Pretty natural now.

How can you get a group of adults learning at high levels and teaching each other? Learn the model from those who have already done it. Set up the parameters and let them go. Most people enjoy intellectual work anyway.

These are the things I know I know--now. After taking the time to reflect in writing.

The writing process lets you define what you've learned. Its all about talking to yourself so you don't forget that the little trees planted have grown in to a full fledged forest.

Taken as a whole, I enjoyed looking back. I had done more than I realized. The change was clear in the 2001-2010 slice of experience and I felt good about it.

Kids need time to reflect too.

Writing down what they have figured out lets them see what they have accomplished. They feel proud. I don't have to tell them they did it. They tell themselves.

Much better than bubbling in a circle on a standardized test.

Teachers Teaching Teachers

I am at the point in my summer odyssey with this year's cohort in the Summer Institute when I, along with all the fellows of the group, must take stock of what we have accomplished this year. My focus for my current position is on the power of simplicity.

With all the talk of reform roiling around in the education world, I have yet to see a program as transformative and lasting as the work done by the National Writing Project. Like Occam's Razor suggests, I believe its power lies in its simplicity. Over my years of teaching I've found that the fewer goals I have for my students, the easier it is to direct them to their own learning. The same holds true for the work of the project. The precept is simple.

The NWP model dictates that reflective teachers join with one another in examining a best lesson. Though most teachers can identify a high point in their teaching year, that is just the starting point for the deep work they engage in as they discover the underlying principles of effective pedagogy. It is one thing to read about pedagogy in a pre-service textbook, it is quite another to incorporate those theories into daily practice.

The simple premise of self-study is often the hardest work these professionals encounter and results in professionals who can speak confidently about what works with their students in their chosen subject area.

It is empowering.

The best conversations of the summer, in my opinion, center around the evaluations of the presentations done with small groups of professionals who have observed the lesson and are willing to dive into a focus on "What worked?" "What didn't work?" The conversations sometimes cover wide areas of practice but are often one of the few times these professionals have been involved in a deep discussion with other practitioners about teaching rather than the usual focus on system or school-wide politics.

The emphasis of the summer is to always return the inquiry questions back to the learner, in this case a teacher. New knowledge is then constructed by the teacher and ultimately changes their view toward both their classroom work and their image of themselves as professionals.

The key to reform will always be in improving the quality of our teachers and their teaching. To heck with all the other mandates. (Back to Occam's Razor: Keep it Simple Stupid.) Just ask Bill Gates, who spent 4 Billion figuring out that we need high-quality teachers.

As a classroom teacher I know that getting teachers to collaborate during their working day, properly done, - which would mean less time in the classroom and thus a call for more teachers - can grow good teachers and create a solid, sustainable profession. It would take training in how to work with one another, but I've seen it work in other professions. (Nursing, for example. I watched many health care professionals work effectively in teams for the benefit of patients. We can do the same with the focus on our students' achievement levels.)

Reform dollars can be spent on developing a quality teaching force. The model is already out there. We don't need to reinvent the wheel.