What Drives Your Instruction?

 

Once in awhile I have the honor of having other educators visit our classroom, room 235D.  While it is always nerve-wracking to have strangers watch you teach and ask your students questions, it always leaves me feeling so very grateful for the district I teach in, for the colleagues I have, for the students I teach.   Yesterday was no different as I heard the students explain why we start with reading, why books matter to them, and what learning in this classroom looks like.

Later in conversation, I was asked what drives our instruction?  Having only 45 minutes to teach all of English, what is our ultimate goal?  How do we possibly fit it all in and feel like we are not just getting things done? Before I talked about the standards that shape our choices.  Before I talked about how our quarters are split up on their focus.  Before I talked about the power of choice when it comes to what we teach, before I talked about how we listen to the kids in order to make it about them again, I knew what the answer was.

What drives our instruction?  Helping kids fall in love with reading and writing (again).

Not the Common Core.  Not the standards.  Not covering content or getting-things-done.  Not checklists, nor grades.  Not comprehension or skills.  Not things, nor projects.

Love.

And not just love for reading, for writing, for speaking, but for being immersed in an environment that focuses on learning for human development.  Not for test scores, next year, grades, or honor rolls.  Not for rankings or best of lists.  No.  What drives our instruction is much more simple, yet so much bigger.

Being a teacher isn’t just about teaching things, it is about teaching human beings, and those human beings need to know that what we do is bigger than a skill.  Bigger than a subject.  Bigger than getting through 7th grade.

So what drives your instruction?  What would the students say?

If you are wondering why there seems to be a common thread to so many of my posts as of late, it is because I am working on two separate literacy books.  While the task is daunting and intimidating, it is incredible to once again get to share the phenomenal words of my students as they push me to be a better teacher.  Those books will be published in 2017 hopefully, so until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.  Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

Filed under: being a student, being a teacher, inspiration, Student dreams