What are The Stages to Excellence in Teaching?

I want to excel at teaching. This goal is probably the goal of any truly wishes to teach rather than who just stumbles into it by as it is the only job that is realistic with the degree they perused. However is it realistic to expect to be an amazing teacher right out of college? Is it fair to put that enormous pressure to not mess up on myself? Is it believable that I can be as great a teacher as those who have far more experience than I. It is not realistic, fair, or believable; it is a fantasy.

The idea of a teacher preparation program making an immediate success is a common mistake (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.). There is a great deal of pressure that is placed on novice teacher to be better than they could possibly be. They state that before a novice teacher can become good at teaching they must go through four phases. They consist of the fantasy phase, the survival phase, the disenchantment Phase and competence phase.  Each phase can take anywhere from one to several years (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

The first phase a novice teacher goes through is the Fantasy Phase. This phase begins with the decision to become a teacher.  At this point one views teaching only in the good aspects and believes that if they are a good teacher they won’t encounter bad behavior, fatigue or annoying parents. “The fantasy teacher is a legend in his own mind”. This phase typically lasts through college and teacher preparatory stages into the first few days of school as a teacher (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

During the first week of school a novice teacher will discovered they are not as prepared or amazing a teacher as they thought they were.  They also realize they don’t have enough time to do everything they need to do, and compensate by staying late or coming in early and bringing home piles of work.  As a teacher they move quickly though the lessons use a college level vocabulary and are either very ridged or permissive in their punishment. This phase comes to an end when the novice starts picking up tricks of the trade usually around the seventh month (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

The Disenchantment Phase occurs during the survivalist phase but tends to last much longer.  After a period of four to five weeks the novice teacher becomes aware of various “failures”. First is that they are not popular. Not with the administrator who is looking for greater control in the classroom; not with the parents who are constantly questioning their decisions and competency; especially not with the hormone driven, dumb students. Second the novice realized they are realizes they are not “good” at teaching. Due to the high level vocabulary and abstract concepts the students fail or do poorly on their first test. Thirdly because they did not see discipline being an issue, they are unprepared to deal with the discipline problems that occur. “The novice inexperience with managing misbehavior only serves to stimulate further misbehavior of resentment” (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).This makes the teacher feel that they have no influence.

It is critical that the novice not remain in the phase for too long. If they do teacher will become quickly leave the occupation or bitter.

Usually by new teacher’s second year they have ended the other phases and are becoming competent.  They have learned the necessary “tricks,” how to balance their social and professional life, and understands that remarks and attitudes of students are not a personal attack. They have learned to limit school problems to school and not let it intrude no their personal life. This shift to competency is slight but very important. These teachers have fewer discipline problems, bring home less work, interact with students on a more personal level, and are less fatigued (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

The road to competency is hard and stressful but these phases have given me a little more confidence that I can succeed at teaching. Also it has helped me understand better what it will be to be a new teacher. Now I know that teaching is hard and you become good at it through experience.

Littleton, M. & Littleton, P. (n.d.). The evolution of a teacher. Inspiring Teachers. Retrieved February 19,               2011 from Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context Database.

The Importance of Teacher Development

            One of the most inspiring teachers I have had was my AP (Advance Placement) US history teacher. She truly had a passion for her subject. She also understood all of us which allowed her to make the lessons relevant to each class. Rather than take the same approach to teaching for each class she instead had a lesson tailor made to the students in that class. She focused on helping us understand the meaning of history rather than just memorize facts.

A great teacher is eager to learn and to share with others. However that eagerness does nothing if not coupled with development both professionally and personally.  A new teacher will never become a better teacher if they are unable to find a way to grow and an experienced teacher will never reach their best if they do not embrace change. In order to develop teachers need to be given attention.

Teacher supervisor, Danielle Nyman, feels not enough people in education understand that how qualified a teacher is does not matter if the teacher is not helped to develop their abilities. She says that a promising teacher is bright, knowledgeable, and relates well to student. However it is also vital they are open-mind and enthusiastic in their approach to teaching (Nyman, 2008).

 What I do to better myself and my teaching will not be very effective if I do not have support professional. As a teacher, I will be expected to nourish my students. In turn I will need nourishment in the form of encouragement and guidance. As a new teacher I will need help and feedback; I cannot be expected to figure out everything by myself.

To provide an idea on how to nourish and develop teachers into the best teacher they can be Nyman discussed a few guidelines (Nyman, 2008). These guidelines are primarily meant for supervisor but I also found encouragement and guidance in them. For the rest of this posting I will follow her structure to discuss what I learned from them.

“Recruitment is Key”: Good teachers are rarely found but rather trained (Nyman, 2008). That means that the teachers that have inspired me did not necessarily start out as amazing as I found them to be. For me this means that if I work at it I can be like them.

Teachers pay attention: Good teachers are attentive to their students. They make sure they know about them so they can best teach them. Teachers need the same attention. “Just as teachers work to understand their students’ lives, so too should a supervisor attempt to understand the context of the lives of teachers” (Nyman, 2008).  

“Differentiate:”  Teachers have different ways of teaching. No teacher is the model of perfection (Nyman, 2008). This gives me the freedom to explore and discover what works. While I should take my cues from others I should all not feel stuck with what everyone else does.

“Revitalization is Critical”: “Teaching is a demanding profession.” As such there is a high rate of loss of effectiveness after the first few years. To prevent this “brownout” a good teacher will continually revitalized their lessons (Nyman, 2008). Rather than accepting that the lesson is good enough I should look at it critically before and after teaching it.

           

Teachers should try to be the best they can be. They should be eager to learn and develop. However, teachers should not be the only people devoted to ensuring that they are the best. Supervisors, principles, and other higher ups should be committed to give teachers the supplies and nurturing that they need to stay at a level that benefits the students.

References

Nyman, D. (2008). Nourishing teacher development: A subject supervisor's perspective.    Encounter, 21(2), 41-45. Retrieved February 3, 2011, from EBSCOhost Database.