Thoughts on Training Effective Teachers

My husband and I had an interesting conversation on the way home from our annual Thanksgiving trip, a five-hour drive through Kansas and Missouri. We had visited some old friends with our daughter, a Teach For America alumni who fulfilled her corps program in an inner-city Dallas school and has continued to teach after her obligation ended. A couple of times during our visit the need for changes in education were discussed. All of this stayed in the back of my mind and as we drove home, I brought them back up.

You know what I'd change first about teacher preparedness? Universities need to adapt the strategies TFA uses. I'd put student teachers through a 5-week boot camp in a difficult, challenging environment. It would be sink or swim and they'd learn classroom management and lesson planning through constant feedback in a real environment. My daughter learned more about classroom management and lesson planning in her TFA boot-camp weeks than I did in my focused undergraduate courses. Their model is simple: recruit natural leaders to a profession that tests their skills and provide them resources to better equip students for college and career by using teaching as leadership strategies. The same model of preparedness is true for the KIPP organization.

Next change I'd make is the school year. Students do not need 2 months off in the summer and teachers don't either. There's too much enticement in a job that provides such a vacation. Lengthening the school year would filter out anyone from choosing a career for its vacation time. Hit the curriculum hard for 6-8 weeks, then have a breather to re-organize and re-think planning and collaboration for the next unit of learning. Learning is tremendous when the time is used effectively. When the time in class is used for deeper understanding, student achievement is distinct, as noted by the National Center on Time and Learning.

Both of these changes require passion and dedication. We have too many teachers that haven't developed a passion for their career. I have aspiring teachers that visit my classroom periodically, and I can spot the dispassionate ones immediately. I'm unable to draw them out when I discuss their interest in education. Lack of enthusiasm and inquiry from a student about the profession is a red flag. This is always very worrisome to me. The classroom is no place for timid leaders. No teacher is perfect, but we should always strive to become better at what we do on a daily basis, and curiosity on how that occurs should be natural for someone passionate to the career.

Finally, I would require all teachers to become competent at teaching students to use technology to personalize their learning. Personalize the tool while it's in the hands of the student. Technology best serves the learner when the learner uses it, not the teacher. Instructors must understand the tool, of course, but understand it also from the student's perspective as a constructive and necessary element in the curriculum. Without using tools of construction and collaboration, we cannot provide students the preparation they need for careers that demand technology skills, which nowadays means most careers.