Teachers Helping Themselves

From the desk of Carol C…

There is so much negative press about the state of public education these days. Everywhere you turn there’s another article or speaker on the topic of the effectiveness of teachers.  Talk about a demoralizer!

There are lots of ways that we can combat the negative images that people have of public education, and it begins at home so to speak.  We, as teachers, cannot afford to be our own worst enemies and that is what we are so many times.

First, we say and let others say that the best thing about teaching is June, July, and August.  We all know that this is not true.  For one thing we don’t have off June, July, and August.  We have 8 weeks…approximately two months.  Furthermore and most importantly we do not get paid for those weeks.  Oh, we may take our paychecks in 12 month installments, but it’s still the same amount of money we would receive if we received our salary in 10 installments.  The summer is not a paid vacation.

The summer months do allow us to recuperate, gain back  some needed rest and energy, and de-stress.    This is so important when you work with 20-125+ humans everyday for 200 days.  It’s exhausting.  However, many teachers begin to think, plan, read, and attend workshops of their choice after the first few weeks of summer break.  Very few teachers step into their school on the first workday in August without having prepared in some way for the coming school year.

Most teachers relax and use the summer months to become better at what they do for 185 days a year.  We can’t let other educators and non-educators think otherwise.

Secondly, we need to make our schools professional communities.  This doesn’t mean that we have to sit in special meetings and follow a prescribed agenda.  It means that we need to make our workplace a setting for sharing teaching methods and seeking professional expertise.  Too often time is wasted on criticizing our peers behind their backs.  Worse than the time lost is the negative energy being expended.  Negative energy is like a bacteria that grows rapidly if not treated.  It can breed suspicion and distrust.  Soon morale drops, and more people become dissatisfied with their work.  Demeaning our peers lessens our professional identities.

The other part of degrading our fellow teachers is that word gets out into the community.  Need I say more?  Well, I will anyway.  When gossip goes out into the community (and it always does), it is certainly given more credence if credited to something a teacher said.  Gossip about teachers leads to some teachers being lauded while others are thought of as poor educators.  This can happen among teachers in the school and others outside of the school.  “All of the smart kids have teacher X.  Too bad your child got teacher Y.”  Enough talk like this and here comes another article about ineffective teachers.

If we see a teacher struggling, we need to help them not criticize them.  This is where the idea of the school being a professional  learning community comes in.  Meeting with each other and keeping our conversations centered around how best to teach our students is what benefits everyone.  It’s a win for everybody.  We gain more knowledge as do the others in the group.

Third, fair or not, we need to be careful how we present ourselves on social media sites.  What you write may seem innocuous to you but can speak volumes to others.  Here’s one example.   Say you read teacher A’s blog and he says nothing about anybody other than himself.  However, you notice that almost daily he is complaining about something…long day, headache, can’t wait until spring break, too much pressure and stress, can’t get everything done.  Now say you look at teacher B’s blog.  Teacher B never posts anything that isn’t positive about himself or others.  Most of us can identify with the feelings of Teacher A; however, when we post on a social media site and people that we don’t have a relationship with read it, we run the risk of creating a negative impression of ourselves.   Not what any of us want to do. This doesn’t mean that we must avoid these types of sites.   We just need to be aware that if we aren’t careful what we write about ourselves and share with the world, we may create a self portrait of ourselves as teachers that has little to do with reality.

Fourth, we need to present ourselves as the professionals we are.  In my opinion (of course), I think we have the most important job in the world.  Yes, we need doctors, scientists, and economists.  The list goes on.  But who provides the support so these people can become doctors, scientists, economists, and tomorrow’s leaders.  We do.  We are vital to a productive free society.

Being a professional means we are accountable, effective communicators, compassionate , and confidential.  We pursue excellence, demonstrate integrity, and show respect.  Whether it is meeting with the Secretary of Education or the CEO of a major corporation or the single parent who is struggling to make ends meet, we have to make evident our professionalism.  Our behavior influences the opinions of others.  Our standards shape our relationships with parents, the community, and our students.  Being professional and all that this encompasses, sets the stage for us to be seen as the experts, not infallible or all knowing, but knowledgeable and competent in our ability to do our job with the highest level of effectiveness.

So how do we combat the negative press and images that people have of us as teachers? We project professionalism, engage in productive conversations leaving the unproductive ones behind, and free ourselves from being our own worst enemies.