Tag Archives: teaching

Cookie Cutter Education Can Take its Toll on Job Satisfaction

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Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do

and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George S. Patton

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Scripted curricula, manualized education plans with uniform outcomes and detailed discipline/ classroom management guidelines may be making schools more uniform, but what do they cost in terms of teacher health and children’s learning?

The latest federal schools and staffing survey reveals that teachers are continuing to feel they have less professional autonomy in every area from teaching strategies and amount of homework given to discipline. The loss is felt most by veteran teachers, those with ten years of experience or more. Sadly, a recent Gallup poll showed nearly 70 percent of teachers surveyed reported feeling disengaged from their work.  When teachers no longer feel connected to their work, they find it difficult to bring energy to the classroom and are less available for caring positive relationships with their students.  The emotional connection between teacher and student is one of the core elements of the learning process, one that cannot be prescribed in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model.

To be fair, there may be such a thing as too much autonomy.  Not everyone works well with little direction.  When not managed well, an autonomous workplace can be seen as disorganized and chaotic and newer, less experienced teachers, often placed in high-needs areas, may struggle without greater administrative oversite.  Too much control and teachers burn out, too little and they can feel isolated and unsupported.

Students are expected to learn critical thinking and decision making skills, in essence generating their own critical independent thinking skills.  This can only be accomplished in an environment that embraces autonomy and creativity and allows for learning through trial and error.  When the school culture prohibits teachers from collaboration and innovation, when decisions are made top-down and void of input from teachers, students are robbed of the chance to see leadership in action.  Students need teachers who are enthusiastic about their craft and models for how to embody a love of knowledge and to create their own fulfilling work.

Teachers interact with the students of their schools on a daily basis. They know what works and what doesn’t.  Schools wishing to empower greater teacher autonomy can start by finding ways to include teachers in decisions concerning hiring and firing; learning materials; discipline; scheduling, budgets and salaries. Teachers can help encourage a more teacher-led approach by welcoming opportunities to collaborate, mentor and learn from one another.  In the end, it will be the students who reap the rewards as their teachers remain excited and committed to their passion for the profession.

 

At the Intersection of Shame and Guidance: An argument against the stoplight

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CaptureIt’s the start of another school year, a time full of expectation and hope for teachers, students and their families.  Take a moment now and picture the faces of the children in your class.  Really see them in front of you.  Of course you hope to inspire them with a love of the subjects you will teach them and to build their skills and confidence in learning.  But as you picture their faces, imagine them moving through the other parts of their lives, maybe with peers, family, maybe as adults in the world.  What else do you hope for these young people?

A recent letter from a former teacher and psychologist Jennifer Bradley to teachers everywhere (www.beyondthestoplight.com)  is making its way around the internet.  In it, Dr. Bradley asks us to reconsider the ubiquitous stoplight behavior posters that fill classrooms across the country.  For the uninitiated, this is a three color stoplight with names of the students attached by clothespins or paper clips.  Throughout the day, the teacher slides children’s names from green, where they presumably start each morning, to yellow and possibly to red, creating  a visual cue for who is ‘on task’ or using appropriate classroom behavior and who is not.

The thinking behind this method is that the stoplight can serve as a reminder for children to consider their behaviors and the fear of being ‘on red’ will keep them focused on the acceptable ones.  But the research on shame doesn’t support this theory.

Imagine if there were a stoplight in the teacher’s lounge.  Mr. Trieshard and Ms. Duzwell’s names are posted in the green ball for the third week in a row but your name has been slid up into the yellow for all your colleagues to see.  Would you be encouraged to seek support from your peers to move back to green or would you avoid the lounge and stress over your job?

Children who are shamed become afraid, and this fear does not go away as they get older.  Often these children grow into adults who are filled with self-doubt, depression and anxiety.  In the short term, children who are shamed in the classroom develop a belief that they are incapable of the behavior their teachers expect and often continue to behave in ways that continue to reinforce their shame creating an inescapable spiral for them and an ever-challenging classroom for you.

Dr. Bradley’s letter encourages us to move away from shame-based discipline and look for methods that support every child, not just the ones on green.  Turning away from methods we were taught in training and that are encouraged throughout the school can be anxiety provoking and frightening. Consider joining with other teachers who are looking for alternatives so you can feel supported.

See the faces of your students once again.  Imagine yourself or your children among the faces and believe yourself able to create the classroom you or they once needed.

Coaching and courses offered through Teacher Coach can support you in exploring and trying new ideas in your work and family life. www.teachercoach.com

 

 

 

What Makes a ‘Whole Teacher’? Part I

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gestalt image 5My ten year old daughter found this to be a silly title, rather obvious that arms, legs, torso, etc… was the answer….and her point was not lost on me. If everybody looks relatively the same on the outside, how do we define wholeness and how do we apply this ambiguous concept to the life of an educator? Perhaps we can start by exploring what a teacher who isn’t whole or fragmented might look like, so we know what to look for.

There are warning signs of fragmentation we fail to recognize, serving to reinforce their degree of stress. For instance, we may overlook yelling at a student, disproportionate to their actions and then feel badly that we acted so harshly. We may feel lethargic about going to work, chalking it up to a more temporal condition like a busy weekend, chiding ourselves for not being more energetic. How about reacting to something a colleague says or does as if they have mortally wounded us, not talking to them and increasing our sense of isolation. What if these weren’t merely signs we are having an off day, but the indices of something deeper?

Not feeling whole means lacking the resiliency to easily bounce back from everyday stressors. We aren’t able to let things bounce off us nor can we easily locate peace during times of moderate stress. We may have difficulty calming ourselves or bouncing back from disappointment because our energies are going into self-protection as opposed to self-discovery. When we don’t feel whole, we guard against the world as if any perceived threat may further dis-integrate us. If a parent for instance sends us a scathing email, blaming us for their child’s poor grade, but we ruminate about it becoming resentful instead of curious. Yes their approach was offensive, but what really set them off and what does this mean for the student?

A teacher who isn’t whole could also be called disintegrated or fragmented. Both of these terms means all the pieces aren’t working together to form a cohesive self. As complex human beings we have many moving parts including needs, wants, fears, fantasies, drives, impulses, etc… that come together to form a whole person, only these parts are seldom fully understood, valued, or appreciated as driving forces for our existence. Perhaps we fantasize about yelling at our principal, but keep that urge buried. Maybe we imagine ourselves being nominated teacher of the year, but dismiss this as a silly dream. Each time we disavow a piece of who we are, we become a bit less whole.

Most often these forces are underneath our own radar, having subtle or even overt influences on how we live. If we aren’t aware of our fear of rejection, we may not recognize how we keep people at a distance to guard against this risk. The less aware we are of these forces, the less intentional we can be about taking steps to feeling more secure. As a mentor to young children, we want to model leaning into discomfort so that we can reveal what is hidden. Just as we are illuminating young minds with knowledge of the world, we also want to improve awareness of the self.

If we become too fragmented we experience life as hectic, disorganized, pressured, deflating, overwhelming, restrictive, redundant, oppressive and/ or threatening. We may become anxious, agitated, or dysphoric. We may isolate ourselves, relate on a surface level, and overpower or manipulate others to get our way. We become less authentic, being one way at times and then another way at other times with different people, trying to hide from the world what we are experiencing. As a professional, our teaching becomes less than optimal reducing our sense of meaning and purpose.

On the contrary, when we move toward feeling more integrated, we generate more energy, passion, and vitality for life. Our relationships improve, our work becomes more productive, our intimacy deepens, and our sense of self becomes more fluid. We learn to appreciate those parts of ourselves that we aren’t okay with while moving to make changes that help us with self-acceptance. This entire blog and all the subsequent posts are designed to help with this goal.

Here are some simple but important questions to consider that will help you determine how whole you feel at this point in time.

  1. Happy in one’s personal life
  2. Feels a sense of meaning and purpose in one’s job
  3. Has freedom of autonomy and creativity at work
  4. Students are learning and growing
  5. Enjoys one’s colleagues
  6. Feels safe at work
  7. Experiences good work/life balance
  8. Appreciates the direction/support of administration
  9. Stress level is at a manageable level
  10. Curricula is fun and interesting for the class

It should also be important to note that while feeling/being whole is a desirable condition, it’s not a destination so much as a lifestyle. We are either moving more toward being whole or further away from it. The more we engage our protective mechanisms, such as blaming administrators, policies, students, families, etc… the less likely we are taking stock of our own lives and how we can make them better.