Eighth-Grade English
30 years teaching at Country Day
How does making kids feel comfortable in the classroom benefit their learning?
The more comfortable they feel with me, the more likely they are to participate in class. In an English class there are many opportunities for discussion and sharing written work. The more students feel they have a relationship with their teacher, the more comfortable they feel, the more likely they are to participate. I also want my students to feel I’m on their side. So, when I create a difficult assignment or it’s on a tight deadline, it’s really important for me to have actually completed the assignment myself. I’ve found over the years that it helps me to do a better job of explaining to them what I am expecting. By providing examples from my own work, it shows them that, “Ok, this is feasible, and I can manage it.” I try to guide them along the way, because as a student I would need that guidance, too. I think I’m a better teacher when I walk in my students’ shoes a bit.
After 30 years, how do you keep your content fresh?
I think that just picking up last year’s lesson plan is cheating the kids in a way. There’s probably always a little more that I haven’t thought about or a better way we can deliver the material. For instance, just this past year, we completely updated the core of our instruction around punctuation. Pedagogy says you should teach it within the writing and not in isolation and that’s something we’ve struggled with over time. Last year on the very last day of school, I happened to pick up a book that another teacher had left after cleaning out her room. Well, this was the dream book for how to incorporate punctuation and grammar rules into your writing. After reading the book several times early in the summer break, I wrote to my colleagues and told them I’d really like to incorporate these methods into our curriculum this year. We have, and the experience for us and the kids has been radically different and so rewarding.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started teaching?
When you first start out, you don’t have to know everything to be an effective teacher. In fact, you are always going to need to adapt. You can’t just read a book once and expect to teach it well. Even if I’ve read the book four times a day for years, I still always feel I should read it again before the next day’s discussion because there is always something new the kids will bring up. There’s always more I can learn from them. Teaching English gives me a daily opportunity to share my love of words, literature, and writing with young people. Teaching at Country Day allows me the flexibility to collaborate with my colleagues to design the most effective and beneficial curriculum we can.