Good to Great Teaching

My sister is a teacher for Mustang Elementary School and she told me that she was going to be featured in a book about literacy! How awesome to be part of teaching legacy! The book is titled Good to Great Teaching. Focusing on the Literacy Work that Matters, by Mary Howard. I am only on page 5, but I felt compelled to share what I have read so far! Have you ever read or heard something that hit home so well that you start having a dialog with yourself?! (MmmmHmmm, Tru Dat)

The first of my moments begins with a reference to a business book called Do More Great Work, by Stanier 2010. He makes a plea to Stop the Busywork, and Start the Work that Matters. Nothing is more true than now as schools are moving into Common Core State Standards. He says that our work falls into three categories: bad work, good work, and great work. Of course the book starts with bad work! Not to discourage, but to say "Yep, we've all been there and sometimes fall back there, but here's what we're going to do about it." Good teachers reflect on the value of their work. By noticing the quality of work they have their students to do and by creating plans of action based on their reflections is what sets the good teacher apart. Every teacher does bad work and anyone who says they don't is delusional (Howard). Curious to know if your work falls under the category of "Bad Work"? I can tell you a lot of my work did, especially during my first years in the classroom!!

• passive worksheets
• round-robin reading
• irrelevant computer tasks
• fill-in-the-blank, circle, underline
• teacher sitting passively at desk
• one-size-fits-all grade level texts
• trivial games and activities
• crosswords or search-and-find puzzles
• cut-and-paste or meaningless coloring
• "stuff" over substance (learning)

I'm not going to admit to you which of these things I'm guilty of doing! But I will say that as I learned more about the way kids learn and research based strategies to engage my students, my items from the list started to decrease or morph into something better. If the items above are just a piece of a bigger and deeper understanding, one that leads students to gain a deeper understanding of real-world issues then they are not such time wasters. Howard cautions teachers to not start doing "good bad work" though! Ways to make the above list into a more meaningful list is to ask yourself if what you are having your students do will deepen understanding in a meaningful, real-world way.

Instead of/ why not:

• passive worksheets/ sticky-notes on visual charts (Chartchums)
• round-robin reading/ Socratic Seminar or Jigsaw
• teacher sitting passively at desk/ teacher facilitating groups and conferencing
• fill-in-the-blank/ Mock Trials

As I get deeper into this book, I will continue to blog on issues I feel are worth your time!