schoolhouse are long gone, and working with a group of colleagues is an essential part of being a teacher. Just as we teach a group of students with a wide range of abilities and experiences, the teachers and administrators we work with are vastly different in their experiences, knowledge, and philosophies.
We’re not all teachers for the same reason, yet we’re all expected to do the same job. With over 17 percent of our colleagues leaving this job within the first five years (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2015), it’s time for all of us to own the fact that, as educators, we are truly dependent on each other. That’s why the chapters in part 3 provide practical and real strategies you can use to incorporate, not eliminate our differences, and draw upon each other’s strengths.
It may seem, at times, that the issues and challenges I call out in these chapters have traditionally been the responsibility of principals and district administrators to address. However, owning it as teachers means stepping forward and utilizing creative, collaborative solutions that are practical and effective for the work that we do each day.
Offering strategies ranging from coming up with creative ideas for staff meetings, to addressing the generation gaps (yes, gaps!) between teachers, to strategizing for how to approach a colleague to have a difficult conversation, I based this part on the belief that the number-one factor in the success or failure of a school is the relationships of the adults in the building.
Part 4: Owning It in Your Community
I devote part 4 (chapters 20–24) to the role that we play as public professionals, representing our schools, our students, and the whole convoluted concept of education. Teaching is not just what we do. Teaching is what we are. It doesn’t end when the last bell rings or when vacation starts. The time has come to own this role too.
As a profession, we often feel under attack from lawmakers, parent groups, and the general public, so many of whom buy into the idea that our education system is failing and that the solution is to simply “fire all the bad teachers.” The strategies I offer in this part include how to positively represent our schools and our profession in the public eye, how to utilize various media to do so, and how to step up and become a teacher leader by sharing what you know, not just with colleagues at your school, but also at regional, state, and national conferences. When teachers lead, we elevate our profession, and everyone wins.
How to Use This Book
This book is like the friend that you go to when you just need some straightforward answers. I mean for you to read it easily and efficiently, and I designed every strategy to be immediately implementable with little to no cost to you.
You don’t need to read this book from cover to cover (though I hope you will!). You can leave this book near your desk or nightstand and pull it out to read just one section on an issue you’re dealing with at the moment or to get a little jolt of motivation on a hard day. I also hope you will consider reading it as a group with your school or district staff teams and work on the strategies together. In fact, that’s precisely why I included a section for reflection questions at the end of each chapter. Use these to reflect on your own teaching practices and stir the pot for discussion with your colleagues.
In the end, use this book however it works for you, to inspire yourself to own it by owning your complex and expanding role in the most important profession during one of the most rapidly changing times in history.
Let’s own it together and show the world that the future of education is brighter than some may think, with teachers like us taking the lead in our classrooms, our schools, and our communities.
PART 1
Owning It in Your Classroom: Strategies for Creating an Environment of Achievement
1
TIME TO GET REAL
Revisit Your Personal Philosophy’s Value
A component of teaching I think is important for every educator is having a personal philosophy or some core beliefs that underpin how you view your role as a teacher. If you are just beginning your teaching journey, this might be something new for you, or at least something not yet fully formed. If you have many years or decades of teaching behind you, this is something you can easily articulate. Regardless, allow me to take you back to the days when I was training to become a teacher.
When I enrolled in a credential program in 2001, my first assignment was a two-page essay on my philosophy of teaching. A year later, at the end of the program, the director told us that the first question a job interviewer would ask us would be, “What is your philosophy of teaching?” Although no interviewer actually asked me that question during interviews, I always saw its importance for teachers new and seasoned. It makes us think about what we do and why, and it holds us accountable.
After more than ten years on the job, having worked with countless students and having experienced all of the challenges, rewards, thinking, and rethinking we associate with teaching, I have finally pieced together enough information to truly answer that first important question. My philosophy can be summarized in two words: be real.
In this chapter, I want to share this philosophy with you, as a motivation to start off a new teaching year or semester, as a reminder for myself, and as a call to reconsider (or consider for the first time) your own teaching philosophy in action. Using the strategies I provide, you can adapt and use my philosophy as you see fit. As fellow teachers in the trenches, I think it will resonate with you.
What It Means to Be Real
Be real means be real with yourself and be real with your students. Teaching is an art, a science, a passion, and an opportunity. It is an opportunity to prepare students not only for the world as it is but for the world as it can be. It’s an opportunity to summon the past, to examine the present, and to shape the future.
Real teaching is not perfect teaching, and real teachers are not flawless people. We have moments where we stumble, and entire days we’d rather forget. Students and colleagues say things to us (sometimes good, sometimes not so good) that will forever imprint on our soul. Yet we allow those moments, and those days, to become a part of who we are, to strengthen us, and to keep moving forward. When we own it, we’re being real.
True teaching takes courage. It takes persistence. It takes honest self-reflection in order to continuously improve. It requires being real with oneself about what is necessary to be a great teacher.
Strategies for Success
My philosophy for being real includes three core strategies: (1) teach what is real, (2) be reliable (or be realiable, if you prefer), and (3) be realistic. I detail each of these strategies in the following three sections. You can use or adapt them as best suits your own teaching philosophy.
Teach What Is Real
No student can truly learn a subject, especially the mathematics that I teach, if he or she does not see the relevance of the information in his or her everyday life. To help build connections between the content I teach and students’ own interests, I constantly look for ways I can meet them where they live. On
