Happy new year! With each new year, we embrace the opportunity to reset. We set resolutions in our personal lives and new goals for our professional ones. And so in time for your new you, I offer you a perspective on my own journey towards professional growth...
“What do you actually want students to learn?” This question has stuck with me through all manner of initiatives and reforms. We let so much, educational jargon and minutiae cloud our path to what we want our students to learn. A single lesson might address a myriad of arts standards, and it might even reinforce a variety of Common Core Literacy or Speaking & Listening standards. But what do you really want your students to learn? That is what you are assessing. Those are the standards you want to focus on. Those are the standards to which you want to align everything else you do in your classroom. And it doesn’t need to be a very long list.
After over a decade at the same school, kids know. They know I won’t take their crap, but I will take their cell phone. They know that drama class isn’t an “easy A.” They know that I am very invested in their success in my class, and I’m going to push them. This doesn’t always make me the most popular teacher. It’s not everyone’s style. But it's mine.
If there is one thing theatre teachers want (more than being understood by their administrators), it’s “where can I find a curriculum to teach?” I’m not sure if this transcends other subjects, though I suspect that it does, but theatre teachers are desperate for curriculum; not just ideas, not just cool projects, but daily lesson plans with materials. I hear it all the time. And I get it. We’re alone. We are islands in schools filled with teaching teams and co-teachers and departments with other people who are familiar with their subjects. We just want someone to say “teach this” so we can worry about all of the other minutiae of teaching.
If, like me, you’re a public school teacher then measuring your effectiveness as an educator is most likely tied to your ability to maintain employment. In some districts, perhaps it’s even tied to your pay. It matters because our jobs are quite literally dependent on our understanding of how it our teacher evaluation framework…works. You don’t need to adopt it as the ultimate teaching philosophy, but a basic understanding of its principles and how it is being used to assess your competency as an educator is necessary.
Good educators know that students are most successful in the classroom when they receive detailed feedback that celebrates their strengths and provides them with concrete next steps for improvement. While you may not need to know the ins and outs of Component 2.3a of the Danielson Framework for Teaching, you surely want to create an environment of rapport and respect in your classroom. And so I challenge you to read on.
