Satisfaction
Good teachers refine their craft, constantly honing their skills, refining their methods, and expanding their reach.
A veteran teacher told me early in my career that good teachers are never satisfied. They are always striving to improve upon their most recent performance. Any lesson, no matter how well delivered and no matter how great the impact, can always be improved upon. Good teachers refine their craft, constantly honing their skills, refining their methods, and expanding their reach. They seek out sources of inspiration, adopt new technologies, implement stronger practices, and continuously assess the learning and engagement of the students within their care. How did today go? What did they learn? What went well? What could have been better? Indeed, for many
teachers, the summer vacation months so envied by professionals in other fields, are not spent lounging by a pool. Instead they are given over to planning, as teachers sit (yes, sometimes by a pool) and pour over plans, preparing themselves for the fall. For in an ironic twist of fate, the dying season that arrives with the flare of crimson and golden-hued leaves is the teacher’s season of rebirth and renewal. Returning to classrooms that have been scrubbed, arranged and decorated, teachers stand awaiting their new arrivals, armed with plans that have been carefully made, anticipating the beginning of a new year.
I have always clung to that veteran teacher’s observation. Even on the worst day in my classroom, when nothing has gone according to plan, I have held onto the idea that my dissatisfaction was a sign of being a good teacher. The simple fact that I cared about the success of my students and was able to view mistakes and missteps as a challenge to improve my practice meant that I was doing something right. As a writer and student of literature who fell into teaching because it was simply something one could do with a degree in English Literature and French, it is my dissatisfaction that has driven me to become a stronger teacher.
With each passing year, my teaching has improved. My earliest years, classroom management was the central focus. This was followed by organization and clarity of content. As I began my program at Michigan State, my teaching had advanced to the point where my goals were to effectively implement the use of technology in my classroom and address varied student learning needs through differentiation. Now, in the final year of my graduate program, and with many years of teaching behind me, I find myself armed with the necessary skills that allow me to focus on adapting my plans to be more creative and more meaningful. Most importantly, my frame of
I am no longer concerned with merely teaching students to prepare them academically for post-secondary study. I am engaged in the development of individuals who are prepared to be citizens of a global community.
reference has shifted. I am no longer concerned with merely teaching students to prepare them academically for post-secondary study. I am engaged in the development of individuals who are prepared to be citizens of a global community. My satisfaction, something which I still seek, is dependant upon my students’ capacities for empathy and critical thought. My mark upon the world is made through the creation of students who are likewise prepared to make their own.
This awareness of global citizenship as a determined goal of effective teaching was something I gained during one of my first courses as Michigan State. I enrolled in Teaching and Learning K-12 Social Studies because I currently teach freshman
Humanities at St. Johnsbury Academy. This is one of the Academy’s signature programs and is an interdisciplinary course that combines English and Social Studies. The professor, Tamara Shattuck, designed the course to begin with a history of the ways in which educators and the public have viewed the purpose of Social Studies instruction. As our class delved into the potential to use Social Studies as a class that prepares students for global citizenship, allows for social justice education and builds key skills such as research, critical thinking and problem solving, I became consumed with the need to redesign my approach to freshman Humanities with an eye to achieving these same ends.
I began revamping my curriculum with an eye to creating students who were global citizens, not simply globally aware. While my school’s curriculum focuses on the study of ancient and classical history at the freshman year, we are also called upon to provide our freshmen with a strong understanding of government structures and world religions. This aspect of the course’s content has enabled me to design plans that strive to help my students develop critical thinking skills and a capacity for empathy. When we study world religions it is not simply to memorize a list of key figures, religious texts and tenets of various faiths. It is, instead, an opportunity to examine the ways in which religion can influence human action and society. Students are invited to take the perspective of someone who practices a faith
With each change, with each shift of focus, I strengthened my ability to use my classroom as a laboratory tasked with the creation of fledgling global citizens.
different from their own and imagine how this would shape their reaction to a variety of events. The study of government allows for the development of critical thinking skills as students weigh the merits of different forms of government, comparing and contrasting the efficacy of each in responding to the needs of a society. With each change, with each shift of focus, I strengthened my ability to use my classroom as a laboratory tasked with the creation of fledgling global citizens.
As Professor Shattuck did for Social Studies, so did Django Parris for Literature. The professor of my Awards and Classics of Children’s Literature course was a graduate of Stanford University, and a man who had devoted himself to promoting social justice
through teaching. In his class, I learned to choose texts for my students with an eye to raising awareness and enhancing the capacity for empathy and perspective taking. I found myself reading a variety of children’s literature that featured main characters from populations that are generally underrepresented in children’s literature. As we read, I began to form the opinion that the choice of literature, particularly in the earliest years of a student’s education can play a pivotal role in helping students to see beyond themselves. I saw the need to select books that presented members of these underrepresented populations in a rich, fully developed manner. Then too, I recognized the impact that could be made by the way in which a teacher positions a text in the curriculum. Including an LGBTQ text in a unit on discrimination or fear, for example, could serve to reinforce students’ concept of LGBTQ individuals as different from themselevs or victims of society. Instead, choosing to include an LGBTQ text in a unit on coming of age could reinforce the students’ abilities to connect with those who identify as LGBTQ, promoting empathy and acceptance. While the literature that I read with my freshmen is essentially dictated by the department, I am given a great deal of freedom at the sophomore level, being able to choose from over two dozen works that have been designated “sophomore reads.” By choosing carefully from this list, I have been able to focus the attention of the sophomores in my care on developing an understanding of what it is to be a minority in the United States. This encouragement of perspective taking leads to empathic thinking, and taken together, the two bolster the global citizenship skills of my sophomores, allowing my classroom to promote social justice.
Michigan State has clearly identified and articulated their vision and values. The courses in the graduate education department are united in their common preoccupation with social justice and global citizenship. Likewise, the university has clearly committed resources to developing theories of creativity in education. The work of Punya Mishra has done a great deal to further our understanding of the role of creativity in student learning, and has simultaneously helped educators identify the steps we can take to foster creative thinking in our
As it became increasingly clear that creating something new was one of the best ways to demonstrate understanding, I started to appreciate the role that creativity could and should play in my classroom.
students. Enrolling in the course Creativity in Teaching and Learning, taught by Carmen Richardson, was one of the best decisions I made in my time at Michigan State. By forcing me to examine the cognitive tools involved in creative thought, and by tasking me with a series of challenges that necessitated creative thought, I began to understand creativity as more than a device to make content more engaging. As it became increasingly clear that creating something new was one of the best ways to demonstrate understanding, I started to appreciate the role that creativity could and should play in my classroom. To that end, I incorporated creativity into my formative and summative assessments more and more. Watching my students make connections between the content in my course and the world around them while employing the skills that they had built over the course of a class, unit or year, was incredibly
rewarding. Students built models of ancient Rome in the deep Vermont snows, helping them understand Rome’s cultural landscape. They wrote tweets, recounting the events of the Odyssey from the perspective of individual characters. They created ballads, giving a unique twist to the heroic journey. They made podcasts exploring the world of a particular world religion. They designed boarding schools founded on a particular branch of Chinese philosophy. My students definitely had fun with these projects, but more importantly, in the process of creating something new, they demonstrated the strength of their understanding. I left this particular class a much stronger teacher, one with a commitment to developing my students capacity for creativity with each day that we spend together.
And now, at the end of my five semesters at Michigan State, am I satisfied? With the quality of my graduate experience? Absolutely. With the ways in which my sense of the purpose of my teaching has changed? Certainly. With my newfound understanding of the importance of teaching for social justice? Yes. With my commitment to developing the skills necessary to global citizenship within the students in my care? Definitely. With my ability to build more effective lesson plans that incorporate creativity in real and meaningful ways? Without a doubt. I am satisfied with my growth as a teacher and the return on my investment in my own education. However, I am a teacher and therefore never fully satisfied. I will continue to strive to hone my craft and improve my practice. Michigan State has renewed my passion for educating and redirected my energies towards goals far more worthy than simply helping my students achieve the standards of learning set forth by my school. This means a new commitment to engaging in the world around me in order to affect positive change and increase my own awareness of the challenges facing my students in the world outside my school’s walls. I am more fully awake than ever before. But I will never be satisfied, and that is what will continue to drive me.