"Teaching is from the heart!"

After seeing the title of this post, I would be curious of your immediate reaction....  You probably went one of two ways....  "That's right!" or "That's absurd!"

(I hope you make it to the end of this post.)
I heard this statement recently at a conference.  Not only was this statement one of the central tenants, and the implied driving force behind a person wanting to be a teacher and their ability to be effective, but also something I read recently that went to a great number of people, "Teaching is a work of heart."  Two times in one week I've been told that (to be a great teacher, reach children, change the world, etc.) you have to teach from the heart, have a heart of compassion, want to love the children, love them into learning.  Heart is the driving force, the ultimate determining factor of your reason to be in the profession, the guide for your qualifications.  (I would posit that is actually why I became a teacher.)

I would agree with a colleague that has stated, "You teach children, not a curriculum."  I would agree that your motivations for being a teacher might determine your effectiveness in helping your students learn the subject matter.  "If you don't love your subject matter, you're not going to make it as a teacher."  If you loved your curriculum but didn't like children, you're going to have a problem "teaching" because teaching involves a teacher and a student, not a teacher and a curriculum.  This could go on and on, but you get the idea.

What does this have to do with TKES (and the teaching Profession)?  To me, everything.  As you review the TKES evaluation process, the Evaluator's observations, your lesson plans, the 10 TAPS standards, the 72 TAPS elements--for some reason or another, the Government/Legislators did not include anything about our heart, our feelings, our motivations, our caring.  Nothing.  Never have, never will.  Teaching from the heart will not make you an effective teacher, and you could get obliterated by TKES.

It is irresponsible for conference speakers, leaders, and anyone who has a microphone in front of educators to have a throw back to the early 20th century and pull on the "heart strings" of the audience to imply that is what they need, and that is what will make them successful in teaching: just "care" enough.  Tell that to a first year teacher (I have been a mentor for years) and you will see them at the end of each day leaving the school in tears.  (Another reason 50% leave in <5 years.)  Heart has (almost) nothing to do with it!  You have to be prepared, equipped for all aspects of the classroom.

I have previously summed up what I have seen in teacher education over time (40 years) from ever changing Government expectations from highly motivated to highly certified to highly qualified to highly effective.  "Which do you want to be?"  I posed to my audience.

Don't get me wrong.  I believe you must love your subject matter to be an effective teacher.  I believe you must love working with students to guide them to greater learning.  I believe you must love this profession to stay in it, irrespective of the huge imperfections and shifting legislative landscape.  I believe you must have great empathy and concern for each child to reach them where they are so that you can help them meet their needs.  But, I also believe that you must have real tools at your disposal to use, frequently, to be flexible and facilitate the learning process so that your students can learn as much as they can, as quickly as they can, as permanently as they can.  I want my students to be propelled into the future.

Yes, have a huge heart; pray for discernment each day; teach from the innermost of your being with all of the energy and excitement you can muster; walk in to your classroom each day with enormous compassion; "reach for the stars," "dream big dreams."  But also search for and acquire as many of the time-tested, research-based tools that you can possibly get to help your students learn as much as they possibly can, as quickly as they can--you owe them that.  During research on my doctoral study, I was astonished (shocked, alarmed) to find there were so many research-based, effective teaching techniques that have been discovered--that I had not known about.  Why hadn't I been exposed to them?  We were still working (only) out of the "teach from the heart" mentality; TKES is not going to allow that.  To the goal of disseminating quality teaching ideas, I continue to post pamphlets, handbooks, and resources to help you out.  Review and use "75 Instructional Strategies" or "Learning is a process, not an event" or "The Perfect Lesson Plan" or "How to pass all 10 TAPS Standards in one lesson" or "Some ideas for new teachers" or "Instructional Strategies That Work" under "Handbooks and Other Resources" posted at the top of this blog.  Need more?  Review "Links for Teachers."

Respectfully,
Glenn

TKES Documentation--what can be said....?

The two white ones on the left were my original pieces of evidence for each of the 10 Standards and 72 Elements; in many cases, there was more than one piece of evidence for each item.  The middle notebook, "Curriculum Notebook" is our school's place for our lesson plans, data samples, samples of grades, charts, etc.  The brown/gray notebook is our "Communication" notebook for parent contact, student contact, e-mails, behavior log, etc.  The new yellow folder is the result of Georgia doing away with the SLOs (see earlier blog posts) after barely implementing them; it contains professional learning sessions, reflections of those sessions, how to implement that professional learning, etc.

It is "funny" that all of this was encompassed in my original two white notebooks.  What is also funny is that none of these documents are "fluff" in any way; they all document what I do, why I do what I do, what I plan on doing, why I'm qualified to do what I do, etc.

Teaching has changed over the years....

Read this: Practical ideas to implement and demonstrate the 10 Standards

Notebooks are worthwhile to organize your documentation (I've posted about that previously).  We have a school-wide Resource Notebook (communication, meetings, etc.), Curriculum Notebook (lesson plans, assessments, etc.), and a Professional Development folder (that now gives me a total of 4 notebooks and 1 folder).  But, as a reminder, you can't document your way to a 4 rating.  We use e-mail, web sites, and Remind among other means to aid in communicating with parents.  The detailed ideas listed below for the Standards are slightly edited from a colleague of mine (she gave me permission).  Read it slowly, apply it lavishly.  You should revise your lesson plan to include all of the elements listed under Standard 2 below.  Hope this information helps.  

Standard 1: Professional Knowledge

This standard focuses on your content knowledge, pedagogical skills and the extent to which you facilitate relevant learning experiences. Professional Knowledge can be gleaned from your lesson plans, but is primarily observable through instruction.

Standard 2: Instructional Planning

This standard is all about INTENTIONAL planning. The emphasis is on planning standards-based lessons, incorporating strategies to engage students and using data to address students’ differentiated learning needs.

You should have your curriculum resource notebook available for your evaluator to see your plans and student data.  Current (as well as previous lesson plans) should be in your curriculum resource notebook.

Lesson Plans should include:

• Standard(s)/Topic(s) and Essential Question(s)
• Vocabulary
• Opening, work session, and closing.
• Instructional strategies to engage students in active learning
• Reference what data is being used and how it is being used to address students’ differentiated learning needs.
• Plans to differentiate instruction and/or assessment based on students’ needs.
• Assessment strategies (informal, formative, summative)
• Consider how you are planning for higher order questions as well – these have to be intentionally planned. It helps to be specific because that is when they are used the most and relevant to the instruction.

Standard 3: Instructional Strategies

Student engagement & active learning are the keys to this standard and should be observable during the observation. Also, lesson plans should indicate that you are using a variety of instructional strategies to engage students and facilitate active learning.

Standard 4:  Differentiated Instruction

This standard focuses on the extent to which you incorporate remediation and acceleration (based on data) to address students' learning needs and readiness. Your lesson plans should include how you are differentiating as well as the data used and how it was used to differentiate. Remember: Differentiation can be by content, process, product, or learning environment. 

Standard 5: Assessment Strategies

This standard focuses on the extent to which you are assessing students -- diagnostic, informal, formal, formative, summative and whether the assessments are appropriate for the content and student population. During the observation, ongoing informal assessment is observable through questioning and other means through which you determine if students are understanding the material. Your assessment strategies should also be listed in your lesson plans.

Standard 6: Assessment Uses

This area supports differentiated instructional practices and specifically, how you are using assessment data to meet students' learning needs. The Evaluator will look at how you gather, analyze, and use data to inform instructional decisions. This standard also incorporates providing timely and constructive feedback to parents and students.

Standard 7: Positive Learning Environment

The keys to Standard 7 are rituals, routines, and procedures, which are the foundation of a well-managed, safe and orderly learning environment. In addition to rituals and routines, this standard is observable through positive interactions and mutual respect between teacher(s) and students as well as among students.

  

Standard 8: Academically Challenging Environment

This standard looks at the extent to which the learning environment is student centered, students are being challenged (for their level of readiness) and are self-directed, productive learners, all of which are observed during the observation.

Standard 9: Professionalism

This standard focuses on the extent to which you are following established local, state, and federal practices, participating in professional learning, working well with your colleagues, meeting deadlines and generally performing your duties as expected. This standard is observable through your participation in professional learning, collaborative planning, and activities beyond the classroom. Good sources of documentation would be to make sure the collaboration and meeting forms are being completed and placed in your resource binder and that you are participating in professional growth opportunities to support student learning.

Standard 10: Communication

The standard focuses on how you communicate with parents, students, colleagues and other stakeholders to support student learning.  Information to parents should go out once a week and email should be checked daily. All other communication like phone calls should be organized in your communication binder. Communication is observable through the documentation in addition to ongoing observation of  your fact-to-face interactions with students, parents and colleagues, etc.