Doing A Disservice To the Profession: Put Down Those Textbooks

What is the most important subject in a student's elementary education (and no, I'm not talking about their ability to test)? What I mean is, which single subject is most important to that child's development as a lifelong learner, with the ultimate goal of them graduating high school and either landing a nice job or going off to college?

Different schools of though obviously exist, but there seem to be two sides primarily to this. On one side, we have the math/science, and on the other, liberal arts (social studies mostly)/literacy (reading/writing). Now, I know that these subjects can all be seamlessly interwoven by the master teacher, but I'm obviously not quite there yet, so I do see these two sides of the coin.

From what I have seen, I have to believe that literacy is primary at an early age. Yes, math is important, but without those reading and writing skills, students will struggle all around, with math too. The weak math student can be a good reader, heck, that basically sums me up, I've learned the math that I need to know (which is increasing now that I'm pushing myself into the upper realms of my own education), but it never came naturally to me.

So there's my side of things, which in part explains why this blog exists. I work in a department (grade level) that has four teachers. I teach one of the general ed classrooms, along with two other teachers, and we also have a bilingual teacher that has a dual language classroom. My general education counterparts are both very new to the elementary classroom, one just completed their first year of teaching, and the other their first year at the elementary level.

It was very encouraging, what I saw from the new teacher. This person underwent a similar undergraduate education that I did, although at a different university. This person understands student choice, critical thinking through authentic literacy, and the importance of teacher read aloud, student read aloud, and silent reading all taken together.

The other teacher, the one with prior experience, but none at elementary, showcases a problem to me. This teacher went to college around 15 years ago, and teaches basically from textbooks all day every day. In fact, I gave this teacher each and every one of my reading textbooks, because I stay as far away as I possibly can from them. Textbooks symbolize a crutch to me in many ways. The material is there, just follow it, and you'll be fine.

That may largely be true, but are you truly doing your students justice by following a basal series? It was quite obvious that in the case of this teacher, no. Not only did various diagnostic data show much slower growth from that class as compared to mine, it was severely low in comparison, and I had the group of 'lower' readers.

I think I could go on for hours here, because I'm very passionate about what I do and have spoken out against the practices of my colleague and others who also teach this way. It's cheapening to the profession, if we wanted everyone to teach from textbooks, we could just hire some schmo from off the street and tell them to follow the script. I'm going to stop now, and just be happy that I got this out there.

What Doesn't Make A Good Teacher

Today's posting is all about the things that many teachers do that give them and others the perception that they are great, when in fact they are irrelevant to their students, their instruction is ineffective, and they embody a lot of bad qualities teachers shouldn't have. We all know these people, those teachers who walk the halls like they're changing the world. The ones who stay late and believe that their sacrifice means they are doing more, the ones who lecture their students and believe they've changed them forever. Yet, in the mind of every student, that teacher is a meaningless relic, and every word that went in one ear went right out the other. Hopefully if you're reading this, it doesn't describe you, if it does, it's not too late, but if it's not you, think of that teacher next door it does describe.

Here are many different things teachers do that they think makes them amazing teacher of the year candidates, but in reality, don't. And yes, I'm saying that many teacher of the year candidates aren't good teachers, it's a reality, we reward people for the wrong things in this profession.

• Staying late does not make a teacher a martyr: I work at a school that has a 'give more of yourself' culture. I never stay late, I have kids at home, and plus I get everything done during the day. So I've always had difficulty with those teachers that stay until 7:00 everyday and come in on weekends, and then say "some of us care enough to give that extra 150%." Well, to me it means that you aren't efficient enough at your job to get it done the first time around. OK, this isn't bashing on everyone that stays late, just the ones who use it as reasoning to showcase how great they are.
• Straight lines do not equal quality teaching: I know you know this person. That teacher who prides themselves in how straight and quiet their kids are in the hallway. Yes, good hallway behavior is nice, especially in elementary school, so you're not disrupting other classes. But come on, this doesn't make you a good teacher, it makes you a good drill sergeant.
• The high test score teacher with the advanced students: There's one in every school. That teacher who somehow weaseled their way in to landing all the advanced students that year. They then sit back, watch dreams come true, and reap all the benefits when the kids score at high levels. DUH, they would have done that with my three-year-old as their teacher, stop patting yourself on the back.
• The department head power hungry teacher: I've seen this a million times, and I'm still in my twenties. I was department head last year, and ran things by trusting everyone else. I delegated responsibilities, let everyone in my department know they didn't answer to me, that I was just there to keep it organized, and then this year I handed it off. I've seen so many department heads who DEMAND that decisions go through them, who DEMAND that they're kept in the loop on everything, and get all hurt when anything is done without their express consent. They also walk around like they're gods gift, but you know, they're not.
• The boring teacher who doesn't teach anything but thinks they've changed the world: This is just reality. We're not changing the world, especially in 2nd grade. I see this all too often, teachers who act as if they're the students "last chance." OK, the kid is 7, they'll have more chances, stop acting like you're Ghandi or something, get over yourself, and teach.

It's fairly obvious I could go on forever here, so I'm going to stop. If you know of anything that should be added to this list, let me know.