(This is the last post in a two-part series. You can see Part One here.)
The new question-of-the-week is:
Who should teachers listen to when it comes to advice on classroom instruction?
In Part One, Andrew Sharos, Cristiane Galv茫o, Allyson Caudill, John Cox, & Ashley Blackley offer their answers. All five were also guests on my . You can also find a list of, and links to,
Today, Roxanna Elden, Luisa Palacio, Julia Stearns Cloat, Ph.D., and Luiza Mureseanu provide their perspectives.
Mentors
Roxanna Elden is a teacher-turned-author whose most recent book is . The Washington Post calls it 鈥渁 funny but insightful look at teachers in the workplace 鈥� reminiscent of the TV show 鈥楾he Office,鈥� but set in an urban high school鈥�:
You鈥檝e probably heard about how important it is for teachers to have a high-quality mentor鈥攁nd it is. But even the best mentors get busy, and sometimes the person you turn to for one kind of help isn鈥檛 the right person for every kind of help. That鈥檚 why, as a teacher, you don鈥檛 just need one mentor. You need a whole board of advisers. Here鈥檚 who should be on it:
1. Someone who gives great all-around advice.
How do you know whether you鈥檙e getting good advice? Think about how you feel afterward. Or read this piece on
2. Someone whose teaching style you admire.
The best teachers you鈥檝e ever seen won鈥檛 necessarily become your confidantes鈥攊n fact, you may even be too intimidated to share your most humbling moments or embarrassing questions with the teacher of the year. But you鈥檒l gain a lot if you gather the courage to ask if you can observe their classes.
3. Someone who teaches a similar subject.
From this person, you want tips on explaining concepts, lesson plans in an editable format, and help troubleshooting your own lesson plans. As a bonus, this person is more likely than other colleagues to think your grammar-joke or periodic-table-pun coffee mug is funny.
4. Someone who teaches similar students鈥攐r even the same students.
This can be the same person you talk lesson planning with, but it doesn鈥檛 have to be. If you teach remedial biology, it can be helpful to get lesson plans from an AP bio teacher, but you may be better off holding strategy sessions with a remedial English teacher.
5. Someone you complain well with.
Sometimes you have to break the 鈥渟tay positive鈥� code to stay sane. But picking the right complaining buddy is an important decision.
6. Someone who remembers your strengths, even when you don鈥檛.
Often, the people in this group aren鈥檛 teachers at all. Rather, they are friends, family members, or significant others who know other sides of your personality. Nonteachers don鈥檛 always know exactly what to say about specific classroom challenges, which is why they occasionally blunder into But after a hard day, it sometimes takes people who know you outside the classroom to remind you of all that you bring into it.
Listen, But Apply Advice Selectively
Luisa Palacio is an ESL and Spanish teacher from Colombia with 19 years of teaching experience. Currently, she teaches K-12 at the Northampton County schools and Spanish with South Carolina Virtual Education:
It is all about collaboration, and when it comes to professional growth, we should value everyone who has been in the field!
- Veteran teachers: They know the field and even if times have changed, they are knowledgeable of strategies they learned empirically. Although some of them might be reluctant to try new strategies, they sure know what has worked and hasn鈥檛 worked in their classrooms.
- New teachers: They come with that fresh mind, new ideas, creative and fun activities that are appealing to students. From new teachers we can learn new tendencies, social networks, slang, anything that can help us connect with students.
- Students: We have to know their interests, what motivates them, their learning styles. When we listen to students, we learn exactly what they need, and it helps generate new strategies and activities to reach their diversity and to meet them where they are so we can bring them where we want them to be.
- Administrators: They are data-driven and they know exactly where they want us to take students. Administrators have a different vision, and when they conference with teachers, they can offer different perspectives that we can be missing when we are in the classroom.
I believe one can learn from everyone. We just need to be selective when deciding what we want to implement in our classrooms, what we want to adapt into our own teaching style, and what we definitely do not want to replicate.
Listen to Students
Julia Stearns Cloat, Ph.D., has spent the past 25 years working in unit school districts in roles including literacy specialist, instructional coach, and curriculum director and has earned awards for her work in student services. Julia currently works as a coordinator in Kaneland School District 302, in Illinois, and as an adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University:
Often, it seems that most everyone has an opinion about schooling that they feel compelled to share. It can be overwhelming and even a little frustrating to teachers to be the recipient of some much unsolicited advice. However, there are a few key people that teachers truly should listen to when it comes to advice on classroom instruction.
1. Students: The most important people to listen to about the effectiveness of your instruction are your students. Students often have insights about issues related to classroom management, equity, and even instructional practice. Here are a few ways to establish a learning environment that encourages students to share and opportunities for you to listen:
a. Community Circle
Having a community circle at the beginning of the day or even just once a week will provide opportunities for students to listen to one another鈥攁nd more importantly鈥攆or you to listen to them. Among the insights that they will provide will be suggestions about classroom management that work for them.
b. Funds of Knowledge
Listen to your students and learn about their cultures. Get to know them and make the instruction culturally relevant and responsive.
c. Instruction
Teachers should check in with their students frequently and consider their feedback about the instruction. What is helping them to learn? What isn鈥檛? Most students will have ideas about how to make what is done in class better for them.
2. Their Own Inner Voice: Perhaps the most important lesson that teachers can learn is to listen to their own instincts. Take the time to know their students and take into consideration their needs. Use that information, along with your own professional judgment, and do what you know to be best for your students. No prepackaged curriculum will know your students as well as you do when it comes to their day-to-day needs. As a group, teachers are very conscientious people who want to do their job well. Sometimes they don鈥檛 give their own instinct the credit it deserves.
3. Research and Data: Consider your data and identify areas for potential improvement. Using that information, do some research on effective instructional practices and consider what some changes you can make to make a difference. Often, it is just a small change鈥攍ike explicitly identifying the student learning target of the lesson鈥攖hat can make a big difference.
Don鈥檛 Ignore Student Feedback
Luiza Mureseanu is an instructional resource teacher - K-12, for ESL/ELD programs, in Peel DSB, Ontario, with over 17 years of teaching middle and high school students in Canada and Romania:
Teachers can gather a lot of relevant data about what works best in their classroom instruction by listening to their own students.
For many reasons, this is the first and best source that can inform our practice because it is authentic, responsive, and it leads to effective ways to differentiate instruction.
Students generally have a good sense of who helps them learn best. As a secondary school teacher, I notice often that students line up in the guidance room during the first two weeks of the semester to change their timetable. They usually ask for time accommodation or a change in the course selection, but it is common knowledge that sometime they want another teacher from the faculty. Why is that?
Students will always say that they want such and such teacher because 鈥渢hey teach well鈥� or because 鈥渢hey help them get the content.鈥� In essence, the teacher will perfect their repertoire of strategies by constantly adapting their classroom instruction for and with students. Learning does not happen by teaching in isolation, and it is effective only when it gets constant input from the learners.
Many aspects of teaching instruction鈥攆rom finding relevant curriculum to perfecting the teaching strategies鈥攎ust be informed by the student results and feedback. We need to validate our teaching by measuring student impact. Using student input is not the only element needed in perfecting instruction, but it is definitely one that should not be ignored.
Thanks to Roxanna, Luisa, Julia, and Luiza for their contributions!
Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
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