"Teach to Make a Difference"

The other day an esteemed colleague of mine asked me to answer a few questions for a class she's taking. She had to ask a group of teachers, parents, and administrators the same three questions about education. I answered the questions while staying true to my teaching philosophy, but it left me thinking how different my answers may be in comparison to other people who are also as greatly invested in the education system as I am.

Here are the three questions she asked me and my responses:

1) What is a good student?
Simply enough, I think a good student is any youth who has made the choice to try and learn! Obviously, as an alt ed teacher, I have many students who struggle. Life is hard and there are many obstacles so school is often a last priority. My school is a choice school for “at risk” youth, so if they’ve made the choice to be here, then I consider them a good student! Once they are here, we work on the affective skills that make a textbook “good” student. Those skills include, but are not limited to producing, being polite, being prompt, having a positive mental attitude, participating and being prepared. Since I believe that every student is capable of having these skills if they make the choice to, I think that every student can be a good student.

2) What is a good teacher?
A good teacher is one who is in the classroom not because they love the content that they teach, but because they love their students and care most about their education and growth as a human being. A good teacher is unbiased and recognizes that every person, regardless of their background, is capable of learning. A good teacher is empathetic to every walk of life and does everything within their means to help their students explore and shape their own education.

3) What is a good school?
A good school focuses on what’s best for students and how best to support them. At the end of the day, every person in a good school (administration, certified staff, classified staff) should ask themselves, did I complete the necessary tasks to ensure that students learned today? Have I given students access to everything they need to learn (not just school supplies, but food, rest, love, respect, trust, etc.) If a school puts students’ needs first, then it is good.

I still haven't seen the results of her research, but I'm sure that if you ask a group of teachers why they teach, you would get many different responses. Ask them why they think it's important to educate our youth and you would also receive various replies. Then if you ask them what they think a school's role should be for it's students, the list of answers may differ so greatly you'd wonder how we all work in the same place. But, despite our different answers to those questions, there is one common factor I have noticed amongst the best teachers I have met along the way. We are all focused on what's best for our students.

The first day of my first year of teaching, Dawn Kral-Kueter had the following quote posted at our staff meeting. It is a thought that has set the tone for every year I have taught since. It has completely shaped my teaching philosophy (if you can't tell by how it connects to the responses I gave to the questions above).

"Children sit in our classrooms behind the enemy lines of poverty, hunger, pain, loneliness, and illiteracy. That they dress and come to school at all is a testament to their courage and belief that this day might indeed be a better day. That they look to us for guidance and perhaps survival is a tribute to each teacher of this nation. Endings are beginnings: Teach to make a difference." - Kylene Beers


I will spend every day of the rest of my career teaching to make a difference as long as I always have the admiration I do now for my students. They really do have to face amazing hardships to walk through our doors everyday and that inspires me. They do have courage and they are paving their way to a better day.
lovemaura