Teaching Basics. Exploring an Optimistic View of Teaching Basics

One Person’s Opinion

“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

A common expression that I have been hearing my whole life. As, day after day, I struggled with preparation (including reviewing materials—I have a terrible memory and had to re-read each book I taught–material selection, ways to make material interesting and relevant, lesson plans, refining and sharpening my knowledge of the subject matter), a constant flow of papers to be read and graded (I taught English), student recommendations (I taught high school), administation, evaluations, boards of education, over-loaded classrooms, and recalcitrant students, I wanted to drag every nay-sayer into my classroom and say, OK, go ahead—here’s what you have to do. Your days will be spent teaching; your nights will be spent preparing and evaluating. As for your days, you have to be “on” for the entire class time; no coasting, no “busy work” (if you are a good teacher), no feeling sick, no mental lapses, no personal issues. It’s all go, all the time. It’s exhausting, but you can’t let that show, even in the last class of day. You must always be “fresh.” If you aren’t alert and anxious to “do,” your students witll be the same.

I wanted to be a teacher since I was in fifth grade. I really felt I was meant to do this. And that feeling never left me. It sustained me through all of the exhaustion I mentioned above .Unfortunately it is because of this exhaustion that some teachers get lazy, become uninspired, “coast,” and—the ultimate dread—burn out.(To be honest, after fourteen years I felt I just couldn’t do this anymore and left the profession.) If students get exposed to enough of these teachers, they become disinterested, lazy and—another ultimate dread—bored. If  I encountered these attitudes at the beginning of the school year in September, it would take me until the beginning of November to undo the “damage” (yes, I know, I use a lot of quotation marks) and, hopefully, though, of course, not always successfully, convince them that our classroom experience would be interesting and rewarding. How to do this? Some of the things my experience taught me:

• Comfort level. Yes, comfort level. If a student isn’t comfortable in your class’s environment, their (throughout this blog, I will use “their” instead of his/her, even for individuals) concentration will waver, or, worse, flag. And this means even physical comfort. Where I first started to teach (and this was a public school), the students weren’t allowed to wear coats in class. Huh?  I went even further and allowed them to sit on the floor or on their desk, or even on the radiator. They did not always have to raise their hands. A shout-out is an indication of enthusiasm—I’ll take that any day, with the assumption that we all understand that courtesy is shown to other students who may be talking and that chaos is kept under control, though even that could be okay sometimes. I, too, needed to be comfortable to be at my best. I sat on my desk (I’m short). I didn’t wear a tie, I wore sneakers and jeans (yes, the administration had fits, but it was a liberal school so I wasn’t countermanded). Students aren’t always used to freedom, and these “indulgences” went a long way to making them feel less constricted and rule-ridden.
• Rules. Of course there have to be rules so that the environment is conducive to concentration, to learning. My students knew that if they arrived to class late, it was a mark against their evaluation. I insisted on their complete attention at all times. I insisted on class courtesy, especially to each other. I insisted on their participation in class discussion (this was even part of their grade). I insisted that they read the material and did the homework. My rules for me? As the Little Prince said in the book of that name, “Never create a rule that cannot be followed.” This became my mantra. As was my over-riding rule to myself: Be Fair.  And make each class vital so that students felt they shouldn’t/couldn’t miss one. (One of my principal’s favorite anecdotes was on prom day seeing some of my female students—who, as usual took that day off–sneaking into school, hair in curlers, to come to my class (not for me, course; they didn’t want to be unprepared). On my side, I took one sick day a  year (unless I was really, really sick, which almost never happened), during exam week when I didn’t have any classes. And, above all, something that is rarely taught in education training classes, be dynamic! Nothing turns a class off faster than a teacher sitting at their desk and droning the lesson. Stand up. Move around, all around the class if you are comfortable with that. Project your voice. Be intense!
• In these ways, I hoped to instill in my students that learning was important.
• Did any of this methodology backfire and reduce my chances of success as a teacher? To make my point and at the risk of sounding self-aggrandizing, I can only say that I received evaluations containing phrases like, “Master Class,” and “Master Teacher.” And to this day I still hear from my ex-students (many, many years later). Did I succeed with every student? Of course not. Was I a “natural?” Was all of this easy for me? Hell, no. It was the result of unrelenting hard work, treating teaching not only as a profession, but as a life’s work. It required sacrifices, but I truly loved it. I was often asked how I could put up with the kids. I loved kids, literally. Sure, there were some who were truly horrible, as expected. But the soul-enriching bonds I created with so many of them have sustained me my whole life. And the greatest reward of teaching? Feeling that I have actually done something that mattered. What more can one ask for?

(Note: Of course this is just my personal experience. Everyone has to approach teaching in their own way, in a way that works for them to be at their best. But I hope I have shown that in some cases, “Those who can, do. Those who can teach, can make a difference in others’ lives.”)

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Before
I opened my mouth
I noticed them sitting there
as orderly as frozen fish
in a package.

Slowly water began to fill the room
though I did not notice it
till it reached
my ears

and then I heard the sounds
of fish in an aquarium
and I knew that though I had
tried to drown them
with my words
that they had only opened up
like gills for them
and let me in.

Together we swam around the room
like thirty tails whacking words
till the bell rang

puncturing
a hole in the door

where we all leaked out

They went to another class
I suppose and I home

where Queen Elizabeth
my cat met me
and licked my fins
till they were hands again.

D. C. Berry

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