Back To Teacher, Briefly

For the past three weeks I’ve been teaching Spanish to our high school juniors and seniors. This may not seem like much to write home about (or in this case to blog about) until I tell you that it’s been nine years since I taught Spanish. I’ve been an administrator since the 99-00 school year and honestly didn’t think I’d be teaching Spanish again, well, ever. As these things usually go, our Spanish teacher went out on a medical leave and the principal had one heck of a time finding a certified sub to replace her. Once a certified sub was secured, we learned she couldn’t start until 10:00 every day. This is where I came in since that left first and third periods without a proper teacher. In the best interest of the students, it just made sense for me to rearrange my schedule and step in.

Doesn’t seem like the best use of our administrative staff? The need to step in and do the right thing for our students, when there was no one else, seemed more important to me than worrying about the judgmental response some would have about an assistant superintendent in the classroom for two periods per day over the course of about three weeks. Our business is educating students and sometimes that takes every member of the team working out of the normal “bracket”.

I have to say that I loved the time I spent with our students.

As a teacher, I was also reminded of how annoying it can be to have to stop and deal with a late pass or a phone call from the office–right when I’ve got things rolling and everyone on track. I kept a student from reporting to the office until the end of my class period and asked two students to wait to attend their band lessons until after I’d introduced the new material. Taking attendance at the beginning of a class period is NOT a good warm up activity, so I forgot to commit it to eSchool a couple of times. Honestly, with the interruptions that we have to instruction, we’ve got to be guarded about our class time. And someone please tell me why commiting every student’s grade to a progress report can’t be a one button click away? Typing each student’s average over again in the progress report tab of eSchool certainly seemed to be an unnecessary chore and one that allows for error when the average is one tab over and should just flow to the progress report.

Am I sounding like a teacher again? This past three weeks,  I was very much the teacher I was in the nineties, only I had some additional strategies to use that I’ve learned along the way as an administrator. The same thing that helped me succeed with students before came into play again. I showed them that I cared so much about their success that I was going to use every minute to our fullest advantage, I was going to give them my best, and I expected their best every day.

That’s honestly the secret to success as a teacher.  Show enthusiasm for the subject but more important, for the students. SEE every student. If someone starts to drift away, reign him in by saying, “You’re in the Bahamas, come back to me because I need for you to learn this!” Give enough wait time so that the same five kids don’t answer every time. Monitor. Adjust. 

 I saw it as my responsibility to plan well, to engage, to excite the students–every one of them. And on test day? I got their best because they knew it’s what I expected, what I saw in them, and what I tried to give back to them every day.

All of our district wide curriculum planning and staff development in instructional strategies doesn’t account for much if we don’t start with the premise that it’s our job as teachers to expect the best of our students, and more important, of ourselves. I’ve been hearing teachers complain that students aren’t motivated any more. That was not my experience, granted, with some really great kids in Spanish 4 & 5. But they were excellent for me, did all that I asked, and achieved success. We didn’t argue about cell phones, or missing assignments, or hoodies. We couldn’t because we were too busy getting down to the business of learning.