The Simple, Hard Truth About Teaching

"It's really all quite simple:

• Learning is hard work
• People learn better when they feel valued and supported
• To value and support learners, we must know them"

"It's really quite simple:

• Teaching is about building sound lives through the medium of the most worthwhile knowledge, understanding, and skill"
• "Effective teaching is responsive teaching.  It begins with creating ties to each child" (Tomlinson, 2003, p. 90)

We really want to care

BUT

It's hard to care deeply about the kid whose questions make us feel dumb; the child whose temper destroys the tone of the classroom in an instant; the child whose demeanor seems threatening; the one who stares with blank eyes; the one who literally says "I hate you".

WHY can it be so hard to care?

• Because we don't know how to see through someone else's eyes or speak another persons' language
• Because there are too many students to connect with
• Because the people at home need us too and there's never enough of us to go around

WHY can it be so hard to form ties with students, teach responsively, and become exemplary?

• Because ofttimes many of us have never been taught that way.
• Because political and societal messages seem to counter all we know and think good teaching should be and we might feel like we'll be punished if we do what good teaching - responsive teaching - is.

WHY can it be so hard to teach well?

• Because teaching well can be hard to do when you have 30+ students studying your every move, when you're seeking insight into topics that are foreign to you, when you're trying to shape the lives of students who are taken from us just when "we can pretend to know them"
• Because "through trial and error [we] seek to develop the managerial skills beyond those necessary to run a large corporation" (I laughed out loud at that! Did you?)

Some encouraging words of understanding:
"Of course it's hard to teach.  It's likely impossible to always teach well, to teach responsively, to differentiate instruction to the benefit of each learner in our charge. . .there is no formula for excellent teaching - for responsive teaching" (Tomlinson, 2003, p. 91).

Tomlinson's guarantee:
"The more promising for students our decision is, the more complex it will be to live out. The more fully professional we want to become, the greater the risks we take. The more artful we want our work to be, the clumsier we will look along the way. . . The more willing we are to take the risks, the better the lives of our students are likely to become and the grater the fulfillment we are likely to feel at the end of the day" (p. 91).

Here's the key: 

Your challenges, if you choose to accept them:

1. Cultivate passion for what you do!

2. Remove your protective armor and allow your students to shape you; Reflect on and learn from what you see!

"How do we begin [our journey] when there is no paved road for us to travel?" (p. 93)

Take a step, make your own path, change your course if you need to! We learn by simply doing and making route changes when we find ourselves at a dead end.

Reference

Tomlinson, C. (2003). Fulfilling the promise of the differentiated classroom: Strategies and tools for responsive teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.