Chapter_8

=//To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher//=

Chapter 8: Beginning Again: If I Only Had a Home

A key theme in chapter 8 deals with the belief and understanding that good teachers are always learning themselves. While Ayers' indirectly discussed this in other parts of the book, it is a central discussion in this chapter. While I"m sure that this is not a new concept for any of us, his discussion focuses on learning from our students in daily dialogue, interactions, and other learning experiences. As Ayers' states, "...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). What does he mean here, and how can this belief impact effective teachers?

“We speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed.” What does this mean and how can effective teachers put this to use? Dialogue is the most important part in teaching, being able to understand each other and how each other work.(teacher-student relationship)

Another aspect of this quote is change. Ayers states, “Teaching is tougher than learning because it requires the teacher to let others learn.” In other words teaching requires ability to change. The ability to change is key, because with every student we encounter the teacher has to make a change. Why should the teacher have to change? Because every student is different, each student has different morals, cultures, cognitive ability, and the list goes on and on.” I truly believe we are getting closer to great education we the right tools and theories we just need enough of the right people to make it happen.

In summary an effective teacher needs to have dialogue with each and every student, to figure out who they are and what they stand for. An effective teacher also needs be able to change what methods, approaches, and strategies based on what they learned from the dialogue with the student. (Josh J)

And if we're not willing to change, are we simply a mindless robot doing the same thing everyday, regardless of whether anyone is "getting it"? Probably a rhetorical question, but for each to determine. Once again, the key point here is helping all teachers understand this vital concept. Thanks Josh. (Dr G)

As Ayers' states, "...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). What does he mean here, and how can this belief impact effective teachers? This means that education is a two-way street. The students learn from the teacher and the teachers learn from the students. I am a firm believer that relationships are key in education. Many of the problems that arise in education for teachers can be avoided if the time and effort is taken to develop meaningful relationships built on mutual respect with the students and the fellow educators in the buildings. However, the problem that we often see is that some are not concerned with developing these relationships, which in turn impacts their effectiveness as an educator.

I enter the classroom every year seeing 30 individual students. No two students are the same and therefore I need to take the time to get to know these students as individuals. What are their likes? Their strengths/weaknesses? Their history? All of these aspects contribute to the student as an idividual and taking the time to better understand these aspects will allow us to approach these students in a way that is most beneficial to them. Entering in with a blanket approach to education is going to leave many uncovered and out in the cold.

I will always be grateful for my first teaching job in a school that was very diverse culturally and economically. This experience really allowed me to see that I need to listen to the students because there were students who were experiencing things that no fourteen-year-old should ever have to face. It really opened my eyes to the situations that I could only dream about and when I took the time to listen to these students and make the necessary adjustments not only were they able to be successful as a student but I was also able to grow as an educator. (Joe D)

Joe: I know that the old coaching cliche has been overused, but I'm pretty darn sure it's accurate. Great coaches (and teachers) adjust their game plan each game, day, weekly contest, etc. And this change is based on what we know about our opponents and the athletes that we are given. In other words, we learn from them and adjust instruction (game plans) accordingly. I have coached with veteran coaches that believe the only way to win is with a certain offense or defense. Sometimes they were successful, and sometimes they were not. I also know that when they weren't successful it was because they tried to run an offense without the athletes necessary to get it done. Doesn't the same thing ring true in our classrooms everyday? The lost a game or had a bad season. If we do that with our students, and don't pay attention to what they are telling us, can they afford to have a lost year? We all know the answer to that one! (Dr G)

As Ayers' states, "...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). What does he mean here, and how can this belief impact effective teachers? On p. 156 Ayers talks about how "teaching is always undertaken without any guarantees. Teaching is an act of faith." I speak to my students during band lessons to give them constructive feedback, but does my advice always take root? Probably not as often as I'd like to admit to myself. Some students will always take 100% of what we say and use it to their best ability and other students you need to have the same talk (in a different way) at every single band lesson. How many ways is there to explain that if you never practice your trumpet you will not play as well as the first chair trumpet?? I have still have some elem. band students who are using the "magic" approach to learning the clarinet. Understanding that each student is different and that what you say isn't always heard, understood, or interpreted the way you intended is part of being an effective teacher. You must be willing to re-teach the same concept multiple times to a certain number of your students. However, in order to do this you as a teacher must "listen with the possibility of being changed." This is something I think I improve at each year and maybe that is just a natural part of becoming a more veteran teacher. I have to build the type of relationship with my students that lets them know that if they come and ask me questions that I will not be upset, but willing to do cartwheels in order to help them learn that C# trill fingering. For me, personally, listening to my students with a more open mind has helped me to become a more reflective, kind, and (hopefully) effective teacher. (Kerri)

“…we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed.” Teachers learning from their students should be unintentional and natural. Great teachers do not have to “work” or make a conscious effort to learn from their students. It happens in the every day dialogue and interactions that the teachers and students have with one another. Teachers should never stop learning from their students. “If we already know everything, we are terrible students and bad teachers.” (p.158).

Thinking back to my teaching experiences, there are so many things that I learned from my students. Students I will never forget and ones I wish I could. But each and every student has always had an impact on me in some way. I want to stress that not only was I learning from the diverse students in my class, all the classmates learned from each other as well. I tried to build a “family atmosphere” in my classroom and encouraged building strong relationships with each other. As in the example from the last chapter I gave where one of my students was threatened with death, he was not the one who told me about the threat – it was the other students in the class who came to me to defend their classmate. I was very proud of the relationships that we built together and feel that we were all changed because of it. (Jeni R.)

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As Ayers' states, "...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). This simply means teachers have faith in their students and in their selves to learn and become transformed. This faith is touched on in many parts of chapter 8, especially on page 156 when it says, “Teaching is an act of faith.” How this impacts effective teachers is, or at least should be, extraordinary. Whatever has called us to be teachers and future educational leaders has not come from a cheat-sheet or an answer key. Instead we have build up within ourselves the value(s) to continuously commit to questioning, to explore, to inquire, pay attention, dig deeper, and allow ourselves to be transformed (page 158). ======

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Now what has become even greater than that (and how this further impacts effective teachers) is we have an ethical motivation to pass these values on to the many students we interact with daily. Teachers pass these important values on by being reflective and open-minded, creating relationships, and through promoting open-minds, but another way this life-style can be passed on is by modeling to students how to question, dig deeper, pay attention, and hot to allow yourself to become transformed. So in reality what Ayers speaks of impacts effective teachers by having the desire to be and create life-long learners. ======

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I do fully agree with Josh J. that teachers need to change as education does, and I also agree with Joe D. about the importance of establishing relationships with our students, and I too would do cartwheels with Kerri if it meant students learned. However, without us modeling to students how we learn, how we answer the tough questions, and that we even have faith at all, we may or may not adhere to Hannah Arendt’s reminder “that education is where we determine whether we love the world enough to take full responsibility for it” (page 159).- Josh Saba ======

Nice reflection Josh. Love your last paragraph especially! (Dr G)

When I first started reading this chapter, I thought of a quote from another author.

Carol Ann Tomlinson [|says] :

> Excellent teachers never fall prey to the belief that they are good enough. The best teachers I have known are humbled by how much more they need to learn. They don't add to the chorus of voices chiming, "I already do that." > High-quality educators are determined and often voracious learners. They seek daily to understand their content more fully, to probe the mystery of the young lives before them more deeply, and to extend their pedagogical reach beyond yesterday's boundaries. They know that the parameters of their own lives are extended every time they extend possibilities in students' lives. > These teachers seek out the best professional development opportunities. They read about education. When a district or school fails to support their learning meaningfully, they become their own professional developers.

Ayers said, "Teaching is intellectual and ethical work; it takes a thoughtful, reflective and caring person to do it well. It takes a brain and a heart" (p. 152). Teaching is both a science and an art. I think that's what Carol Tomlinson was getting at, too, in her quote. Even though Ayers' continuous improvement suggestions are fueled by student behavior, I believe there is a compromise. "Kid watching" is a part of self-reflection. Humility seems to be the key. The best teachers know they don't know, because as Ayers says they become "students of their students" (157). This chapter was one of my personal favorites. I wanted to send a district-wide memo quoting so many sentences from p. 160 including "Becoming a wonderful teacher, or a great or awesome teacher, is a lifetime affair." That pretty much summed up the book for me. I didn't always agree with Mr. Ayers on some of his specific assertions, but it was hard to disagree with his emphasis on continuous improvement through the lens of ever-changing student behaviors and personalities. (Matt T.)

Matt: A reflection that I'm guessing would accurately sum up many of our thoughts. Ayers' can be controversial and certainly bold in his assertions, but he knows how to end a book! (Dr G)

Matt, I agree with everything you just said: "...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). Wow! This chapter is full of quotes we could post all over the school or use as letter head for every memo we ever send as an administrator! As I have went through this year I have learned so much and have often sat wondering what other teachers in my building have learned this year? Through this class I have learned about SBG, using Twitter as a learning tool, following blogs, etc. I have had more meaningful discussions this year than I probably have had in the last nine years combined (or at least if feels that way).

As for the Ayers quote, I believe the best teachers are ever changing BECAUSE they are connected to their students. The best teachers seek the best for all students. We are never going to be truly there! We need to be self advocates to learn on our own and from each other. "Good teaching is forever pursuing better teaching; it is always dynamic and in motion, always growing, learning, searching for a better way" (p. 160). (Aaron B)

>  As Ayers' states, "...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). Listen with the possibility of being changed, gets at a fundamental of teaching. This fundamental is acknowledging the students in your classrooms or as Ayers calls it “kid watching”. Being able to determine where your students are mentally and emotionally is significant in providing a valuable learning experience. If we witness students struggle, but do nothing to support their struggles we have created an educational injustice. If we identify with our students and learn from them we can more effectively meet their learning needs while becoming stronger as educators. We speak with the possibility of being heard has an entirely separate meaning for me. I learned the meaning of this quote in my 4th year of teaching. It was in the spring of the year, students were writing essays for a local scholarship opportunity. I was one of the selected evaluators of this particular scholarship. When reading several, I came across one that talked about the most influential person in their life. It happened that the student wrote about me. I was shocked, the essay was anonymous, but after a process of elimination I figured out who wrote it. The contact I had with this student was limited to junior high basketball and an engineering design class he took his freshman year. I never felt a connection with this student, but apparently in junior high basketball, I told him that “I wanted him to shoot the ball”. He scored 9 points in that game and did O.K. in several others. I never thought twice about him shooting, apparently that was the first time someone encouraged him to shoot. He said it was the best season of his athletic career. He is currently in his junior year of college pursuing engineering in Oklahoma. That has meant a lot to me. I often forget that the actions we demonstrate and the “possibility of being heard” can make a big difference in many lives. (Joe B.)

And the reason why we teach!!! Thanks for sharing Joe. (Dr G)

Early in chapter 8, Ayers states, "Recognizing that the people with the problems are also the people with the solutions, we realize that waiting for the lawmakers, the system, or the union to "get it right" before we get it right is to wait a lifetime" (p. 153). No more 'Waiting for Superman!' I interpret this to mean (and Ayers goes on to state) that all the pieces of the equation for a successful educational experience are on the table: teachers and students. And, as teachers effectively learn from their students - by being a student of students, or "kidwatching" as mentioned above - then we learn how to apply our content meaningfully so that learning takes place. The learning process is a process. My 1st hour Psychology class is a different group than my 8th hour Psychology class. Each has its own dynamic, its own personality, to which I must adjust in order for application of the same content to hit home.

I've also experienced that the more invested I become in students' lives, the more invested they become in the content I teach. Perhaps it's their desire to reciprocate my investment in their lives. Perhaps it's my ability to use illustrations that relate more closely to their worlds. Perhaps it's because a relationship exists, and learning takes place more naturally in the context of meaningful relationships. Ayers' challenge to be changed by the students that cross my threshold everyday is a noble one. Ayers' challenge to use knowledge of students as a motivator to strive toward applying content to their lives is equally noble. It takes time to learn about students. It takes time from which I might be taking care of record keeping, or preparatory, tasks. But at the end of the day, the most meaningful and memorable activities in which I have engaged are those which make an impact on the lives of people around me.

When I finished reading the Introduction to this book, I thought that one day I might make copies of that to have veteran teachers read when they are "on cycle" in the evaluation process. I thought a pre-, or post-, observation discussion about why they went into teaching in the first place might be an empowering one for both of us. I think I will now makes copies of the last chapter as well. Seems like some good conversations might begin with questions about life-long learning, and life-long caring. I honestly think that is why the vast majority of teachers went into education to begin with. Whether or not they can readily identify that 10 or 20 years into their career might be another matter. Hopefully an administrator can fan that original flame from time to time. (Rick)

And I still believe, even with the plethora of responsibilities that we have, the role of the cheerleader is one that will always rank as a high priority! Thanks Rick (Dr G)

One of the most important aspects of teaching is that of being a role model. As the old saying goes, "you reap what you sow". If I model to my students that learning and education are lifelong processes by being reflective, open to new ideas, and constantly "reaching", as Ayers discusses on p. 161, then hopefully they will see that learning is an ongoing process that never really ends. You may all feel free to disagree with the next thing I am about to say. While each of our subjects and grade levels have specific importance, relatively few of our students will enter professions that require all of the specific skills or content that we taught to them. The greatest thing that we can give them is usually not specific content knowledge, but rather an interest in the process itself. Teaching students to actively question, seek knowledge, and desire to improve themselves goes far beyond knowing state capitals or vocab words. Part of the reason many of us are doing this right now is because we had teachers that inspired us to constantly reflect, question, and strive for self-improvement. As Ayers says on p. 157, "The teacher must try...and convince students to reach out, to reinvent, to seize an education fit for the fullest lives they might hope for." In order to allow students to accomplish this, we need to model this behavior and be willing to do these things for ourselves, as well. (Travis)

Thanks Travis. Seems like something hard to argue with; put the way you did! (Dr G)

"As long as I live I am under construction." (p.160) This is true not only for our students but also for ourselves. "Good teaching is forever seeking better teaching" (p.160) An effective teacher is always searching for ways to improve, and one way to do this is through dialogue with our students. Conversation with our students allow us to see beyond the curriculum, the standards, and objectives. We see the students as individuals and learn from their experiences and understanding of the world. (Katie F.)

“The fundamental message of the teacher is this: You must change your life. Whoever you are, wherever you’ve been, whatever you’ve done, the teacher invites you to a second chance, another round, perhaps a different conclusion. The teacher posits possibility, openness, and alternative; the teacher points to what could be, but is not yet,” (p.161) Ayers. I think we all must be open to being heard, to listening and to changing. We have to help give ourselves and students a voice, but also take the time to listen and be willing to change ourselves and help our students change. Being heard, listening and changing are all hard things to do, but usually the result is worth it! (Amy)

//It’s important for teachers to show and model their learning for students. For one thing, I think it helps students realize you are not perfect and you do not know everything. Sometimes teachers develop an arrogant attitude; they are always right and they certainly don’t appreciate students correcting them. By showing students that you too are a learner, you can develop a connection with them. If you model lifelong learning, maybe that will inspire your students to become lifelong learners too. One quote from the reading that stood out to me was, “If we already know everything, we are terrible students and bad teachers” (p. 158). This quote reminds me that no matter how much we know, we don’t know everything and we shouldn’t think or act like we do. Modeling your learning for students will, hopefully, reinforce the importance of learning now and in the future. (Whitney Bowen)//

//Whitney:// // Thanks for reminding me, and all of us, that quote from the book. That is certainly one to highlight for ourselves and our staff. (Dr G) //

A huge district wide push is to make sure that you are modeling your thinking. Especially it is important for the students to hear out loud your thought process and be able to hear that you needed help too! I love to be able to be a role model for my students. During writing time I am writing with them and we can have discussions on what we noticed. My first graders are watching my every move. It is so important to be explicit and model the expected behavior multiple times because of this. Each and every student is different in the class and always will be and they will require different things. I hope that my students will become better learners because of my modeling in class. If you are not reading you are not leading, as Dr. Pace would say! I hope that someday when I am principal I can be the leader who is knowledgeable and able to be a person my faculty comes to for information! (Katie O)

"...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). This is a quote that I will be sharing with my fellow colleagues. If we, as teachers or administrators, are the ones talking all of the time how can we learn anything? I always tell my students that we are given two ears and one mouth for a reason. It is amazing what we can learn from just listening. When we listen to our students, our ideas might be changes. I have one student, let’s call him Josh, that can drive me nuts at times. I spent a lot of time telling him to make better choices. It never worked. I finally sat him down in the library and just asked him if he knew what a “good” student looked like. He looked at me and said he didn’t. We made a list of what a good student looks like and I haven’t had many problems with him since. I just took the time to listen and my thoughts were changed about this student. I spoke hoping he would listen, but I actually listened and was changed. This, in my opinion, is a perfect example of what Ayers is talking about. (Derek Philips)

Ayers' states, "...we speak with the possibility of being heard and listen with the possibility of being changed" (p. 158). The second part of this quote is the part that really spoke to me. So many times as educators I think we fall into the trap that what we have to say is most important and we forget to listen. Even if we do listen we don't listen with an open mind, an open mind that is willing to be changed. I think Ayers would agree that the best teachers seek opportunities to listen to what others have to say. They listen to students and colleagues alike with the understanding that by listening they may learn something and forever be changed because of it. They are open to ideas and even seek them out. (Erin Burmeister)