Lien On Me

It’s shocking that a year has elapsed in uncharted territory with evolving learning environments without categorically acquiring the wisdom from the exclusive authorities in teaching and learning. As far as I’m concerned, teachers who have been teaching for the past year are the “exclusive authorities.” How could anyone, such as myself with 36 years of teaching experience pre-COVID, allege they know how to teach today? The disruption to educational systems was not temporary, yet we didn’t foster or preserve the knowledge of the pioneers in teaching and the engineers in learning. It’s not surprising a pandemic could not crumble the barriers to unleashing teaching and learning expertise from the primary sources. The barriers are historically systemic, pervasive and uncomplicated. To reduce the barriers, it would require investing in autonomous conditions, relinquishing control, and professional trust. We can trace how teacher wisdom has been placated and dismissed over time, therefore th...

Did you know teachers do not believe teaching matters? This has bothered me ever since I read the Learning Forward article, “ Flip the Script on Change” by Thomas Guskey   in April 2020. Guskey cited research by Evans, Teasdale, Gannon-Slater, La Londe, Crenshaw, Greene, & Schwandt, 2019 that investigated teachers’ perceptions of student achievement data. This study found teachers associated students’ performance to instruction merely 15% of the time. More often, teachers believed that student achievement was a result of student characteristics, like behavior and backgrounds, although decades of compelling studies have indicated teachers have two to three times the impact of any other school factor. What worries me is that if teachers have little confidence in instruction, then we have not been focusing on what makes a difference for student learning. Curriculums and assessments are meaningless without instruction and ineffective without teachers believing instruction influence...

For the past 20 plus years, I have worked in the world of mentoring. Even though our profession is about teaching, we weren't routinely paired with a mentor and it was often viewed as a luxury. In fact, I will always remember how my peers would tell me that mentoring was not needed for new teachers because "we never had one" or "we never needed a mentor." Well, we did need mentoring and we likely did have a mentor as a new teacher. Informally or casually, we were guided by veteran teachers. Nearly every teacher in my generation recalls someone who supported them. When I immersed myself in mentoring, I read how teachers "eat their young." I took exception to that until I paid attention. The above experience is one example of "eating our young." If we didn't believe mentoring was necessary as we became veteran teachers, then our beliefs and actions weren't supporting our newest colleagues. One of the most outrageous acts teachers do is ...

Like no other year in history, the lessons we experienced were inexplicable and life altering.  The human race found itself fighting a relentless global pandemic which changed lives forever. Undoubtedly, we willingly or unwillingly learned a lot individually and collectively. In education, we assessed if the initiatives we chased for decades were essential. We examined if the expensive reforms remained relevant or unnecessary. We discovered if corporations and think tanks recognized all the factors teachers have to consider while engaging students in learning. When school buildings closed, leaving teachers and students without the mandatory models, schedules, measures, environments, or policies, we identified what truly makes a difference. School had to be reimaged and with minimal external control. Teachers led their own learning on how to renovate teaching and learning. They were given an inconceivable problem to solve on behalf of their students. The challenges were insurmountab...