“Why don’t more questions get asked about the practice of teaching? Such as: is there a better way? Such as: does it work/is it effective/does it transfer to learning?”
-Brendan Gill, Teacher, California
Thank you for posing this important question, Brendan.
Yes, there should be more questions about our practice. And I think the first question should be, “What is Teaching?”
Is it talking?
Is it assigning?
Is it grading?
Is it managing?
Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.
But also, no.
No, that’s not enough…for learning.
For learning, there is more. There has to be more. We know this. But we, for various reasons (many of which are not ours alone), avoid this. ‘Cause there where we’d find it is messy: the inbetween, the messy middle where we meet kids–really where we meet ourselves, where we, I believe, define teaching.
Learning defines teaching. So, learners define teachers. And that happens in a place we don’t get to often enough in our practice: the feedback-response process (FRP).
Teaching is responding. Yes, we have to talk. Yes, we have to assign. Yes, we have to grade. Yes, we have to manage. But bigger YES, we have to respond. I tell my kids that I have not taught until I’ve responded to their work with feedback.
~sy
Sy,
I love this. The mission statement at my school says that we are a learning community dedicated to discovery, innovation, collaboration, and excellence. We do the DICE part pretty well, but I think there are times we forget about the “learning community” piece. We assume the students are there to learn. I think there are times we forget that the adult population is part of the learning community as well. Hope you are well!
Bill
Thank you for chiming in, Bill. I always appreciate your perspective. Hope you are well, too, my friend.