The hardest most rewarding profession

Learning is hard work. People learn better when they feel valued and supported. To value and support learners, we must know them. We honor learners by caring for them as they are and simultaneously expecting more of them. People learn differently. Teaching is more effective and efficient when it matches learner need. Virtually all learners benefit when they learn in places with high instructional ceilings and lots of ways to climb to the top.

"If we allow ourselves to fall in love with what we do, we will be reborn countless times, almost always in a form stronger and more fully human than the one that preceded it."

The Simple, Hard Truth about Teaching

"What is essential in learners is difficult for teachers to see. Teachers accept responsibility for students about whom they genuinely care."

James Stronge defines effectiveness as creating a positive effect on student achievement as well as other important outcomes that have positive and lasting effects on the lives of students. He tells us that research says:

• Students consistently want teachers who respect them, listen to them, show empathy toward them, help them work out their problems, and become human by sharing their own lives and ideas with their students.
• Caring teachers who create relationships with their students enhance student learning.
• Effective teachers consistently emphasize that their love for their students is a key element in their success.
• Teachers who create a warm and supportive classroom environment tend to be more effective with all students.
• Caring teachers intentionally develop awareness of their students' cultures outside of school.
• Effective teachers spend a great deal of time working and interacting directly with students.
• High levels of teacher motivation relate to high levels of student achievment.
• Teachers' enthusiasm for learning and for their subject matter is an important factor in student motivation that, in turn, is closely linked with student achievement.
• Teachers whose students have high achievement rates consistently talk about the importance of reflection on their feelings.
• Effective teachers have a solid belief in their own efficacy and in holding high standards for students. This is common among reflective teachers.
• Effective teachers carefully establish classroom routines that enable them and their students to work flexibly and efficiently.
• Effective classroom managers increase student engagement and maximize use of each instructional moment.
• Effective teachers clearly identify learning goals and link them with activitites designed to ensure student mastery of the goals.
• Effective teachers use a variety of support systems to ensure student success.
• Effective teachers emphasize hands-on learning, conceptual understanding, and links with the world beyond the classroom.
• Effective teachers develop and call on a wide variety of instructional strategies proven successful with students of varying abilitites, backgrounds, and interests.
• Effective teachers set high expectations for themselves and their students with an orientation toward growth and improvement evident in the classroom.
• Effective teachers are more concerned with student understanding of meaning than memorization of facts.
• Students achieve at higher rates when instruction focuses on meaning conceptualization and builds on their knowledge of the world.
• Student engagement is higher when they take part in authentic activities linked to the content under study.
• Teachers in schools with high achievement rates pre-assess in order to do targeted teaching.
• Effective teachers know and understand their students in terms of abilities, achievement, learning preferences, and needs.
• Effective teachers reteach material to students who need additional help.
• Effective teachers use a variety of flexible grouping strategies to support student learning.
• Effective teachers demonstrate effectiveness with the full range of students in the classes.
• Effective teachers match instruction to learners' achievement needs.
• Effective teachers accept responsibility for student outcomes.

Differentiating with Hallmarks

Differentiation takes place when teachers strive to do whatever it takes to ensure that struggling  and advanced learners, students with different cultural backgrounds all grow as much as they possibly can everyday.

To have a differentiated classroom we begin where the students are, not where the curriculum guide tells us.  Learners differ in important ways, and we have to accept that we must be ready to engage students in instruction through different learning modalities, by appealing to different interests, and by using different varied rates of instruction.

There are 9 Hallmarks of a differentiated classroom. Differentiation is apparent when teachers have combinations of the following traits:

1. A strong link between assessment and instruction. In my future classroom, I will make sure that I pre-assess students before teaching important units so that I can ensure that I am meeting the needs of students individually, based on what they already know. By continually assessing throughout the school year, I can make adjustments to my lesson plans that will help, instead of hindering my students.

2. The teacher's own absolute clarity about what he or she wants the students to know, understand, and be able to do-about what is truly important to learn in this unit. I want to be a good teacher, so I want to ensure that I can determine what the students truly need to know, understand, and be able to do.

3. Shared responsibility for the classroom is between teacher and students, in the goal of making it work for everyone. In my ideal classroom, my students will contribute to the day to day functions of the "classroom family" and community. Students will learn to work together and learn the strengths and limits of their classmates.

4. Individual growth is emphasized as central to classroom success. I want to give goals to each student that will challenge them individually.  I will support and guide my students in all that they do.

5. A "way up", usually through multiple and varied pathways, and never a "way out." I will never teach down to a student. I will constantly cause learners to stretch and include opportunities for scaffolding that will help each child "up". I want to know my students well enough that I will give different learning options and pathways.

6. "Respectful" and engaging work for all students. I want all students to think at his own highest level in order to complete work. My students will know that the work they do is just as important and challenging as the work each classmate does.

7. Proactive thinking and planning for different pathways. I will plan in advance for differentiation. I want my students to succeed and not have "knee jerk" reactions to the needs that students have.

8. Flexible grouping. I will make sure my students have opportunities to work with many different groups within the classroom. This will help them to know that I will balance their needs with a wide range of purposes.

9. Flexible use of time, space, and materials. I will arrange my classroom in a way that will help students work in a variety of ways and formats. I will do my best to have lots of materials for readiness levels and interest categories.

Work is demanding and Scaffolded

We teachers understand that we must begin planning curriculum to ensure that work is important, focused, and engaging. We also know that each lesson should be scaffolded and challenging to ensure we maximize the potential for each learner.

Strategies for demanding and supported curriculum and instruction:

• Use tiered approaches.
• Incorporate complex instruction.
• Use a variety of rubrics to guide quality.
• Provide learning contracts at appropriate times.
• Aim high.
• Take a "no excuses" stance.
• Become computer savvy.
• Help students realize success is the result of effort.
• Use the New American Lecture Format.
• Designate a "keeper of the book."
• Try ThinkDots.
• Directly teach strategies for working successfully with text.
• Use think alouds.
• Use small group Instruction as a regular part of instructional cycles.
• Establish peer networks for learning.
• Promote language proficiency.
• Use weekend study buddies.
• Make peer-critique or peer-review sessions a regular feature.
• Cue and coach student responses.
• Team with resource specialists.

Curriculum and Instruction for Responding to Students Needs

"How the teacher guides teaching and learning will inevitably sculpt the learner's sense of self worth-and how the teacher directly and indirectly affects the student's sense of value will necessarily shape how the student learns"

Here are some strategies for important, focused, engaging curriculum and instruction:

• Focus student products around significant problems and issues.
• Use meaningful audiences
• Help students discover how ideas and skills are useful in the world.
• Provide choices that ensure focus.
• Look for fresh ways to present and explore ideas.
• Share your experiences and invite students to do the same. 

In teaching content, the teacher helps guide instruction by focusing on learning strategies that foster thinking skills in relation to the content. In connecting new information to what a student already knows, learning becomes more meaningful, and isn't just learned for test taking. To give one information is not difficult, but to help one be able to develop the tools to both know what information is relevant and to retain it is the most important tool for any teacher.

Curriculum and Instruction that are Demanding

Demanding curriculum and instruction means the teacher ensures that every student develops the habits of mind and attitudes, necessary for success in school and in life. Those include such things as working hard, concentrating, being curious, persisting, working independently, enjoying work, being open minded, and looking at ideas and issues from different perspectives.

These also ensure that each student experiences success as a result of hard work. When students believe they are capable of success, they are more likely to persist. When they believe the effort will not result in success, they are more likely to give up on the task. "When students become frustrated because a task is well beyond reach, they are likely to lose motivation and, in time, experience a decline in their level of achievement."

Curriculum and instruction techniques that are demanding include:
Guide students in working and thinking like experts
Place the level of difficulty of work just beyond the reach of the learner.
Make student growth nonnegotiable.
Establish high standards for work and behavior.
Eliminate "loose" time.

Great teachers ensure that learners extend their reach and succeed at new levels. Teachers should scaffold growth in many different ways. "We make sure students understand the learning goals and are aware of how each segment of their work contributes to their growth to achieving those goals. We use multiple modes of teaching and a wide range of teaching and learning strategies. We teach in small groups. We provide varied materials for students to gain access to ideas and information. We use varied groupings of students, we ask probing and clarifying questions. We help students develop effective study groups. We use vocabulary that helps learners develop awareness of how they are working and the ability to make adjustments in their work..."

When we focus our lessons on these things, we give students things to do, establish an environment that welcomes success. Students become inspired and encouraged to learn.

All of this shows us a couple of different Hallmarks. Hallmark 3: Shared responsibility for the classroom is between teacher and students, in the goal of making it work for everyone, Hallmark 4: Individual growth is emphasized as central to classroom success and Hallmark 5: A "way up" usually through multiple and varied pathways, and never a "way out."

Using Curriculum and Instruction to address Student Needs

"If the world is right, the teacher agrees to form that bond with the student. The agreement is the first step. It is the teacher's contract with the child to care intelligently, unyieldingly, and deeply about the individual's strengths and weaknesses, dreams and nightmares, uniqueness and commonality. The agreement responds with a pledge to bring investment, invitation, opportunity, persistence, and reflection to the time, place, and interactions that will bind together teacher and learner. It sets the tone for what is possible."

This quote completely resonated with me. These are the reasons teachers want to be teachers. This is also the reason why our jobs are scary.

Once we know what we will teach, our next job is to make sure we guide students toward a high level of competence and knowledge, understanding, and skill that has been deemed critical. We will pre-assess students to determine their group and individual strengths, weaknesses, understandings, and misconceptions.  There is no way we would be able to teach students effectively if we don't know what they already know. This brings us to the first Hallmark: A strong link between assessment and instruction. they are inseparably connected. The teacher pre-assesses student knowledge, understanding, and skill in both formal and informal ways.

Each lesson that we teach is to ensure that each student develops and extends their understanding. This brings us to the second Hallmark: The teacher's own absolute clarity about what he or she wants the students to know, understand, and be able to do. The clarity allows the teacher to focus on essential learning goals with all students, but at varying degrees of complexity.

So, what is it that makes the classroom and the lessons we teach magical? Engagement. We must deliver lessons to students in a way that is irresistible to our students. Some of the things that students are motivated by are: novelty, cultural significance, personal interest, personal relevance or passion, emotional connection, product focus, potential to make a contribution or link with something greater than self, and choice. This brings us to the sixth Hallmark: "Respectful" and engaging work for all students.