This summer I made the mistake of picking up golf as a hobby. I went in deep, my wife bought me new clubs, I got a range pass, I went golfing as much as possible, and I recorded 24 hours of PGA coverage. (Go Rickie!)
When I first started golfing my goal was to keep each hole in the single digits. Then as I practiced more my goal was for bogeys. Then I occasionally got pars. For most of the summer I thought that birdies were not actually possible, and anyone claiming to have gotten one must be a liar (I like squares better than circles anyway.) My greatest athletic achievement to date is shooting in the double digits for 18 holes (96 baby!) This golfing experience made me think of 2 blog posts I read this summer.
Blog post #1
This blog is written by our technology coach Mr. Badura on his blog entitled Comfortably 2.0. In early July he got his PLN buzzing with the catchy blogpost "Is the "F" Word Holding You Back in Your Classroom.
Mr. Badura talks about his experience when the district he taught at went 1:1 Macbook Pro. Here is a really quick excerpt:
Fear immediately set in...
I was afraid that the device was going to be more interesting than me...I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to engage my students...
I was afraid that I was going to have to change a lot of the things I was doing in my classroom...
I feared that the technology rich lesson I had planned would fail...
He strongly encouraged teachers to overcome their fears of trying new things in their classrooms.
I faced similar fears when I first started golfing. I was to scared to go the the course because:
Fear immediately set in...
I was afraid that I would miss the ball on my tee shot...
I was afraid that I would 4 putt every hole...
I was afraid I would hit my drive into the wrong fairway...
I feared that I would have 8 groups waiting for me to finish my hole...
When I actually did go golfing, I realized that most players aren't that much better than I am and most players wait to make fun of you until you can't hear it... All of my fears were unfounded and I could have had a lot more fun hunting for those elusive birdies.
Blog post #2
This blog is entitled Living in the Cracks and is written by Amanda Kruysman a teacher near Charlotte, NC. Her blogpost also had an intriguing title I Quit that made me anxious to see what had her so fired up. Once again reading her post is well worth your time (it is a super engaging blog) but I will provide a brief synopsis:
Amanda is a super motivated educator who works hard to become the best educator. She is often met by resistance by people who are content to do the bare minimum and just get by, because they are scared she will raise expectations for them. I will give you an excerpt and a quote because they are both awesome!
...As teachers, we constantly fight the battle (whether we know/admit/like it or not) against the age old saying "Those who can't do, teach." I am as smart as my friends who are attorneys, medical students, veterinarians, and engineers. I could do anything I want to do, and what I want to do is teach. But there is this stigma that teachers JUST teach. ...
When was the last time you told your students that the bare minimum was acceptable?
I have one personal story about this. When I was at college at Wayne State College, I had a professor who told me that I was too smart to be a teacher and that students switch from health care to education only if they are struggling to keep up. ( I also had amazing professors that I loved like Dr. Christensen, Dr. Ettel, and Dr. Dilliard) Why aren't good science students encouraged to get into education?
When I started playing golf, it was with the intention of getting better. I knew my goal would not always be to finish a hole in 9 strokes or less. Shouldn't that be the same with our teaching? How can our goals remain the same from year to year?
Reflection
According to Mr. Badura's blogpost, the reason for this push-back that Amanda experienced is fear that they will have to change what they are doing. I have a slightly different hypothesis based on personal experience. It is also a 4 letter word, but instead of fear I think the word is LAZY. When I am exposed to a new idea for my classroom, I don't think about how scary it is, I think about how much work it would be to implement. Last year, my district volunteered me to be a part of ALP (we've all been volunteered before, right?). I had a horrible attitude, not because I was scared to implement these techniques, but because I was convinced it would be a lot of work and a waste of time. Thankfully it didn't take long for me to have an attitude adjustment, but it is kind of surprising how skeptical I was of something just from sheer laziness.
Amanda's blogpost reminded me of a recent conversation I had with my friend Darin Garfield. We both coach wrestling and we were discussing the use of a new term that drives both of us nuts. The term is "try hard" and I hear it used all the time in my Biology classroom. It is used to make a student (or athlete) who meets expectations feel like their efforts were a stupid waste of time. It is a new twist on the classic "teacher's pet." This is what students' do to make their lack of effort acceptable, but teachers do the exact same thing.
This year put in the extra effort to be the best teacher you can be. Do not let laziness slow you down. If it helps your students learn, put in the effort to make it happen. Do new things this year. Do all the things you have been considering, but never worked on. Do not be this guy...
...As teachers, we constantly fight the battle (whether we know/admit/like it or not) against the age old saying "Those who can't do, teach." I am as smart as my friends who are attorneys, medical students, veterinarians, and engineers. I could do anything I want to do, and what I want to do is teach. But there is this stigma that teachers JUST teach. ...
When was the last time you told your students that the bare minimum was acceptable?
I have one personal story about this. When I was at college at Wayne State College, I had a professor who told me that I was too smart to be a teacher and that students switch from health care to education only if they are struggling to keep up. ( I also had amazing professors that I loved like Dr. Christensen, Dr. Ettel, and Dr. Dilliard) Why aren't good science students encouraged to get into education?
When I started playing golf, it was with the intention of getting better. I knew my goal would not always be to finish a hole in 9 strokes or less. Shouldn't that be the same with our teaching? How can our goals remain the same from year to year?
Reflection
According to Mr. Badura's blogpost, the reason for this push-back that Amanda experienced is fear that they will have to change what they are doing. I have a slightly different hypothesis based on personal experience. It is also a 4 letter word, but instead of fear I think the word is LAZY. When I am exposed to a new idea for my classroom, I don't think about how scary it is, I think about how much work it would be to implement. Last year, my district volunteered me to be a part of ALP (we've all been volunteered before, right?). I had a horrible attitude, not because I was scared to implement these techniques, but because I was convinced it would be a lot of work and a waste of time. Thankfully it didn't take long for me to have an attitude adjustment, but it is kind of surprising how skeptical I was of something just from sheer laziness.
Amanda's blogpost reminded me of a recent conversation I had with my friend Darin Garfield. We both coach wrestling and we were discussing the use of a new term that drives both of us nuts. The term is "try hard" and I hear it used all the time in my Biology classroom. It is used to make a student (or athlete) who meets expectations feel like their efforts were a stupid waste of time. It is a new twist on the classic "teacher's pet." This is what students' do to make their lack of effort acceptable, but teachers do the exact same thing.
This year put in the extra effort to be the best teacher you can be. Do not let laziness slow you down. If it helps your students learn, put in the effort to make it happen. Do new things this year. Do all the things you have been considering, but never worked on. Do not be this guy...
Instead be this guy!!
Love your post! I too was told many times I was too smart to be a teacher. Don't we want smart teachers??? Look forward to seeing you at ALP again this year!
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