Key Concepts Key Concepts♦ Even when a group of students look pretty much the same, great teachers know that every student has unique strengths and needs, ideas and emotions, troubles and joys. Great teachers work effectively with all students by remembering to put themselves in their students’ shoes periodically.
♦ Schools today serve students of all backgrounds with all manner of special needs and circumstances. Effective teachers do not shy away from these challenges; instead, they embrace them. Great teachers have the ability to see the world the way their individual students do.
♦ All teachers know about the part of their job that involves teaching their content area. Great teachers give equal weight to the part of teaching that involves teaching “people skills.” They think of this task as shaping the good neighbors, responsible citizens, and capable parents of tomorrow.
♦ Effective teachers have a keen sense of self-awareness. They know their strengths and weaknesses and consistently try to build on the former and improve on the latter.
♦ Great teachers take time to focus on their physical self. They realize that taking care of themselves helps them “get out of their own way” so they can see the other person’s position.
♦ Great teachers are lifelong learners who regularly attempt to learn something new. Becoming “students” again allows great teachers to put themselves in their students’ shoes.
♦ Great teachers realize they are not perfect and are constantly trying to improve their skills as a teacher. One way they do so is by inviting other teachers to observe them while they are teaching and by soliciting tips for connecting with students.
Discussion Questions1. In what ways is every classroom in America heterogeneous regardless of how similar students may look on the surface?
2. Whitaker suggests that many teachers today were “teacher pleasers” when they were students. What must such teachers realize when they move from the role of student to teacher?
3. In what ways do great teachers model what they expect from their students? What do ineffective teachers do instead?
4. Why is it so important for teachers to accurately perceive how they come across to others—in particular, their students?
5. Do you agree with what Whitaker suggests about staying physically active, eating properly, and being a lifelong learner? Why or why not? How does each of these habits impact your effectiveness in the classroom?
6. Why does Whitaker suggest that teachers ask a superstar teacher in the building to observe them while teaching?
Journal PromptWhitaker notes that “in one way or another, every classroom is heterogeneous.” Think about the students you teach (or have taught) in the course of a school day. How many are male? Female? How many live with both their mother and father? How many are identified as having a learning, behavior, or physical disability? How many are students for whom English is not their primary language? Are some living in poverty? Are any experiencing traumatic situations in their personal lives? How many different religions, races, and cultures are represented by the students you teach? In what ways are your personal characteristics similar or different from those of the majority of your students? Do you have ways to learn more about the individual circumstances of each of your students outside of school? If so, can you better relate to and work with these students once you know them better? What steps can you take to intentionally put yourself in your students’ shoes from time to time?
Group ActivitiesAsk participants to put themselves into their students’ minds, looking out through their eyes: how would the teachers and their classrooms come across? Suggest that the best way to find out how they and their classrooms come across is to actually ask their students.
Have individual participants jot down several questions they might ask their students that would provide them with meaningful feedback. Next, group participants into teams of two or three (grouping by content area or grade level, if possible). Have group members share the questions they devised and why they chose those questions. Then, allow fifteen minutes for each group to compile a list of fifteen to twenty questions that would be appropriate to ask their students in order to gain student insights into their teaching, their content, and their classrooms.
For example, it would certainly be appropriate to ask, “What was your favorite unit this semester?” but also ask, “Why?” Specific details are much more useful. Questions could involve everything from the teacher’s classroom management style, to the seating arrangement, to the assignments and assessments students are asked to complete.
Have participants take this survey back to their classrooms and have their students complete them—anonymously. Students will often give teachers great ideas and very honest feedback. Study group leaders should also consider having participants create a second survey to be completed by the parents of students they teach. Participants may want to use Survey Monkey or another online tool to administer both surveys.
Place four pieces of chart paper around the room with one of the following headings on each:
♦ Disengaged Student
♦ Distracting Student
♦ Attention-Getting Student
♦ Disrespectful Student
Arrange participants into four groups and ask each group to move to one of the four chart papers. Each team should write on the chart paper a one-sentence “definition” of the student type to which they have been assigned. Next, ask them to write answers to the following questions: What behaviors might such students demonstrate? What work habits might such students have? Why do you think these students act in these ways?
After each group has completed the above directions, ask one person from each group to share with the whole group the definitions, characteristics, and motivations of students in their category. After all groups have presented, distribute sticky notes to each participant. Allow each group to travel to each of the four posters and list as many ideas as they can for dealing effectively with the student type described on the chart paper, listing one idea per sticky note. After five minutes, have them rotate to the next poster and continue until all groups have traveled to all four posters.
To debrief the activity, have participants move back to their original poster, reviewing all suggestions and deciding on the three they think are most helpful. Ask each group to share the three suggestions they found most useful with the whole group.
ApplicationIn this chapter, the author stresses the importance of practicing empathy, the ability to understand or imagine things from another person’s perspective—in this case, the perspectives of individual students. He closes the chapter by exhorting teachers to become the type of teacher they would want their own children to have. One way to achieve this lofty aim is to continuously find ways to connect with the students they teach.
Upon returning to your school, take up Whitaker’s challenge in the final paragraph by asking the best teacher in your school to observe you in your classroom and give you tips about connecting with students. Ask the superstar teacher to provide honest feedback about any students who seemed to be disconnected from you, the lesson, or the classroom, why that might be the case, and what you might do to reengage them. Inviting a colleague to observe you teach a lesson can be nerve-wracking, but remind yourself that your goal is to refine your craft and improve yourself as a teacher. By asking a trusted and valued colleague to spend time in your classroom, you will not only receive valuable feedback, but also place your colleague in the position of following Whitaker’s advice to put the teacher in the students’ position. Hopefully, your colleague will reciprocate and ask you to do the same, allowing you to be a student in a superstar teacher’s class for a lesson.