Seaside High School, Seaside, OR
Retiring from teaching was tough for me, mostly because I was conflicted about whether or not I was making the right decision. Even if I did retire for the right reasons, I knew I would have regrets. Regrets, of course, are inevitable, because no matter how self-confident a person is, when it comes to making a really important, life-changing decision, doubt always finds a way of rearing its ugly head. So I felt that the best way to deal with my decision was to examine what it was that I was doing as a teacher that caused me to now experience doubts about my decision.
What was it exactly that would I miss about teaching?
Time for self-examination.
What I came up with was, really, quite simple. I missed the learning. You see, one of the reasons why I even became a teacher in the first place was that I loved learning. I loved attending institutions of learning, being around people who enjoyed learning and wanted to learn. I know it must be possible, but I can’t imagine any teacher in any classroom who does not love learning. So what job could be more perfect than working in a building full of teachers who love learning and students who “came to learn?” Though I know, of course, that not all students come to school to learn, or at least not by the time they come into my classroom. I missed the learning that was going on in my classroom. I missed watching, observing students who were learning, especially those kids who weren’t used to learning or didn’t know what learning was all about, what it looked like, what it felt like, and then watch them recognize they could learn, even to a small degree.
The act of teaching, no matter the subject matter, has two major components: the content itself, what it is that you want to teach, and they manner in which you present that content. By whatever measure you define learning, a student’s ability to learn is just as much affected by attitude as it is by the content.
If learning has purpose, and the teacher’s approach in the classroom shows the value and importance of that learning (that is, everything we do in this classroom has a specific purpose: to experience some kind of positive result in the same way adults experience some kind of positive result from their daily routine), then all students, eventually, will recognize that they have the ability to learn.
The importance of modeling adult behavior is apparent to me as a substitute. Though a substitute, I am still a teacher. Students need to know that the reason I am subbing is that I enjoy helping them further their learning in some way. In return I get to help a variety of students in a variety of subject areas, and I enjoy that. I tell them my expertise is in English, so I may not have enough expertise to help them in math or science, but that I would expect that they could help me understand what it is they’re learning and how the day’s lesson is supposed to help them reinforce that learning.
Regardless of the content, the principles of instruction and the social construct of the classroom are the same: there is something that needs to be learned and a group of students who need to learn it. I subbed for a teacher who teaches an elective course in alternative energy. The lesson plan included a tough reading assignment that involved understanding how energy calculations can help a family make intelligent decisions about how to efficiently heat a family of five’s hot water. I thought the best I could do is get them comfortable with me, prep them for the assignment with a little personal information I already had about solar water heater use, read the assignment to them, and then help them with some possible strategies for understanding the material. They were used to working in teams, so those who were interested enough in participating were going to hash through it in some way, and those that weren’t interested, well, they weren’t interested.
Here’s where the modeling came in: I joined a few of the groups as Devil’s Advocate, helping them help me to…well, them. It wasn’t difficult to model interest and enthusiasm for them; I was really interested in learning something about solar water heating efficiency. For some groups, students fell instantly, automatically into the role of instructor. I didn’t know much, so they shared what they knew about the subject with me. What some students discovered, indirectly, was how much they knew about the subject (or how little), that by “teaching” it to me reinforced what they already knew (teacher maxim: the more you teach a subject the better you know it), and that one of the functions of learning (of all schools in general) is to become confident enough to share that learning with someone else. In time they learn about learning: sharing of learning validates the importance of learning by sharing or collaborating or teaching.
Call and Response 