Weekly Commentary 2

1) Write several reflective paragraphs on how you might apply ideas within the article to your
teaching practice. How does relationship development with students, staff, and parents support or
contradict these ideas?

The article John Adams’ Promise (how to have good schools for all our children, not just
some) makes the case that “professionalizing” the industry of teaching, similar to the way the
medical or engineering industries require rigorous education, licensure, and professional
development programs, will result in higher achieving outcomes for students at all levels. The
case is based on several studies that have shown consistent results of highly significant
improvements among students who have had consecutive years of instruction from teachers
who have been shown to be effective by various measures after having had less effective
teachers in the past. Though the author does not lay out a specific plan of implementation, he
does identify six broad categories of research derived “expertise” highly effective teachers
utilize, and he implies that these categories could form the basis of a professionalizing structure
for the licensure, training, and development of new teachers.

Many of the ideas presented in this article made me reflect on my own experience and
on the nature of the profession in general. For example, the author states that “we cannot
expect novice teachers to be high-functioning professionals”. Based on this statement, it
logically follows that in order for a person to become a highly effective teacher (one who
utilizes the repertoire of skills needed to be effective in the appropriate circumstances), it
would require numerous years of practice and experience. This means that the current high
level of turnover in the teaching industry would have to be reversed in order for there to be any
possibility of having a decent percentage of active teachers who would meet this threshold.
This would presumably require a change in incentive structure. Teachers would both have to be
compensated in a way that would attract talented and dedicated individuals into (and to
remain in) the profession, and there would need to be some sort of filtering process for
teachers who have proved ineffective. Also, it would presumably require a much longer
apprenticeship period for new teachers before they took the reins and had full control over a
classroom. The article states that one to two years is not enough to learn the “tricks of the
trade”, so perhaps a “residency” period of closely monitored teaching or co-teaching for new
hires would improve effectiveness.

In my opinion, the types of overhaul in professionalism that the author would like to see
implemented industry-wide are unlikely to occur in the near future. Budgetary shortfalls and
current public notions of what is needed to be an effective teacher are lower than what is
actually required. Therefore, it is incumbent on teachers newly entering the field (myself
included) to develop the necessary repertoire of skills in an intentional way. The author has
identified six broad categories of teaching expertise requiring very different skill sets. These
diverse categories of expertise include: management, motivation, instruction, planning, content
craftsmanship and content expertise. It is very unlikely for an individual teacher to be
simultaneously expert in all realms, so it is important to do an honest self-evaluation of
particular strengths and weaknesses.

As a new teacher candidate, I do not feel particularly “expert” in any of these categories,
but some categories follow more closely with my existing aptitude and experience while others
will require more work. An example of an area that I feel particularly weak in is as a
motivational expert. The article describes this skill as akin to being a “spiritual leader and
psychologist”. My strategy in this regard has primarily been to inject humor and
lightheartedness in the instruction. It is not always easy for me to read the emotions or
anticipate the needs of individual students. I use humor to at least ensure that there will be
some positive association with my instruction and the environment will feel generally safe.
Social studies content (economics notwithstanding) always seemed to me to be subject matter
that that is intrinsically interesting to pretty much everybody and not much external motivation
would be necessary. Based on my experience this year, I have learned that this is clearly not the
case. Regardless of content, some students just have little motivation to do more than the bare
minimum. I have also found that younger students (5th grade) are easier to motivate than high
school aged students. Being expert in adolescent developmental psychology is a goal that can
only be achieved by experience, but constructing engaging instruction as a means of motivation
is something I feel that can be done relatively early on with intentional planning.

Another category I feel I have great room for improvement is in being an expert
craftsperson. I feel as though I have a fairly decent existing store of knowledge regarding my
content area, however, conveying that information to a group of people is where I lack
experience or natural skill. Some people are natural storytellers, I am not. I am the type of
person who has a tendency to go off on tangents instead of maintaining central focus. I also
feel as though I could improve on making content relatable to students. These are things that I
actively work on through imagining different ways I would describe things and thinking of
useful analogies before instruction.

Related to content craftsperson is the content expert category. This is where you are
able to show the big picture of your instruction to students and relate all of the seemingly
disconnected facts to the broader narrative you are trying to convey. For social studies content,
there are obvious connections to be made in terms of historical timeline continuity and other
thematic or conceptual connections that may not be as obvious. It is important that I know why
I am choosing to teach what I teach and how these choices relate to prior and future
instruction. Without knowing this myself, I cannot make the connections to students.

An important set of resources for me and other new teachers to support the
development of expertise in these teaching categories is to continue to develop relationships
with students, parents, and staff. For example, to become expert in the realm of student
psychology and motivation, presumably one would want to know students on an individual
level as much as is feasible. Experience and book knowledge will assist in making general
inferences about student psychology and motivation, but direct communication and trust
building is probably more important and effective for the specific needs of individual students.
Cultivating relationships with trusted staff members, particularly those in your content area is
another way to assist in pedagogical expertise. I have learned quite a bit from auditing
classrooms of teachers whom I consider to be highly skilled storytellers and/or who have
mastered classroom management for example. Communication and trust-building with parents
is also a valuable tool to assist in teacher effectiveness. Valuable information can be gleaned
from parents who see students in a different context from teachers. Working together with
parents can potentially help reinforce some of the motivational or classroom management
strategies by including more trusted voices and positive messages for struggling students.