As a relatively new teacher educator, I do not possess a huge repertoire of teaching resources and strategies. Consequently, I am always seeking ideas to improve my undergraduate and graduate English methods courses. In my quest to facilitate the success of new and experienced teachers, I have come to a powerful realization—that learning begins with me.
Effective practitioners, including teacher educators, seek ways to become leaders in the improvement of their classrooms, schools, school systems, and the teaching profession. These tasks can be accomplished when teachers imaginatively pursue issues together, assume leadership, and are involved in authentic activities (Alabama State Department of Education 1995). Barth (1990) cites cornerstones that must be present for teachers to make lasting reform. Among those cornerstones are collegiality, trust, community, reflection, ownership, shared risk, commitment, collaboration, humor, and a common vision.
As I considered my practice, a significant question arose: "How can these cornerstones guide my work with preservice and inservice teachers?" The answer is in a commitment to continuously developing my classroom into the kind of community in which teachers feel safe sharing ideas, critiquing their own work, and learning from others. A teacher's greatest opportunity for growth is systematic inquiry into his or her own teaching and learning. This belief has transformed how I define my role as a facilitator of teacher learning.
Modeling the Teacher-as-Learner
I build learning activities into my professional life so I can have more experiences to share with my students. I am trying to model for my students that teaching is also a learning process. For instance, I have increased my professional reading. Through more frequent critical reading, I have a wider array of resources to offer my students as they construct their personal theories about teaching. Not only am I furthering my learning, I am modeling the endless process of seeking better ways to deliver instruction.
I also listen to students more purposefully. For example, beginning teachers are often frustrated about classroom management. We can discuss the classroom management principles of published experts, but such guidelines are sometimes unrealistic for my students' classrooms. I must understand my students' contexts and join them in active problem solving to develop plans for managing their specific settings. Frequent classroom visits help teacher educators understand the management situations preservice teachers confront. As I help students design their classroom management plans, I have found it much more meaningful to have recent experiences to share.
I have also begun asking students how I could better address their needs. I pose simple questions at the midterm and the end of the semester about what went well, what didn't, and how the students would improve my courses. Their reflections have helped me revise activities and assignments. When given the opportunity, students will offer constructive criticism and suggestions in a respectful manner. For example, my preservice students said they wanted to hear more from new and experienced teachers. Student teachers, new teachers, and experienced teachers now regularly visit my methods class to share their expertise.
- Fresh teaching ideas and management strategies;
- Samples of successful lesson plans, and time to practice them;
- Time to share resources and personal stories (for validation and rejuvenation);
- Time to read useful materials on issues that directly affect their teaching and learning, such as multiculturalism;
- Time to reflect; and
- Opportunities to reinvent.
A Professional Metamorphosis
Based on my experiences, I made some changes. First, I started substitute teaching. I have been out of the high school classroom for six years and realize that I need to know more about the nature of teaching in today's secondary schools. I need to know more about the contexts into which I am sending my preservice teachers.
Regularly talking to cooperating teachers is also crucial in creating more collaborative, supportive structures for preservice teachers. Our cooperating teachers have suggested constructive changes to course content and field work assignments. If colleges of education are serious about reforming teacher education programs, teachers' voices are crucial. Several cooperating teachers expressed concern about our preservice teachers' clinical experiences, which were originally arranged so that it was difficult for methods students to work with a specific class consistently. The suggestions of these cooperating teachers guided our secondary education faculty as we reformed the program to create a more coherent, realistic base for preservice teachers.
Second, I am collaborating more with area teachers. Many teachers have voiced displeasure with the routine staff development workshops their systems require. Few of the workshops address issues that are directly relevant to the teachers' needs. Teacher educators must work with inservice teachers to develop meaningful staff development programs for other teachers. Lynn, an area English teacher, and I recently co-presented a workshop on innovative methods of teaching English to a group of 25 other English teachers. The teachers were much more receptive to the ideas and hands-on activities we presented because an inservice teacher was one of the presenters. Involving classroom teachers in workshops and conference presentations is an excellent professional opportunity, and a natural way for teacher educators and inservice teachers to collaborate.
Third, I have modified assignments to create a more student-centered classroom. For example, I could not help my preservice teachers become comfortable conducting classes if I did not let them practice. Through videotaped microteachings, students practice 25-minute lessons that would be appropriate in a secondary language arts class. Most students use the microteaching to practice presenting part of a lesson for their clinical placements. Everyone provides written feedback to the person teaching, and each presenter completes a self-evaluation after analyzing his or her videotape. The peer and self critiques, combined with my written evaluations, are much more powerful than my evaluations alone. Because I also videotape my teaching, the students see this as a meaningful exercise.
Fourth, I have begun completing assignments with my students, to the extent possible. For example, one minor assignment in my undergraduate methods class is to read a new young adult novel. Reading and completing an annotation of a young adult novel affords me the opportunity to read a new book from a genre I enjoy, and model the importance of continuous learning.
Preservice and inservice teachers appreciate collaborative college classrooms like the ones teacher educators always talk about. Jenny, a middle school language arts teacher in my young adult literature course, sent me a note after the class expressing her appreciation for my willingness to work as well as direct. She said, "I highly respect the fact that everything you asked us to do, you did also. We were learning from you; you were also learning with us and from us."
Fifth, I have started offering choices in my graduate methods course because teachers' needs—and their learning and teaching styles—are different. Options accommodate those differences. Each term, several students complete unit plans because they want to design units they can actually use. Others compile resource packets of teaching ideas and strategies or complete action research projects to explore classroom problems. Still others complete literature reviews because they want to learn more about a specific topic. The most exciting part of the course always occurs when the teachers share the results of their inquiry at the end of the term. There is more enthusiasm than in semesters past, when I dictated one option. The variety better addresses individual needs.
A final illustration of my professional reinvention involves the use of technology and non-print resources. Audiotapes, videos, computer programs, and CD-ROMs have energized my classes, because they present more possibilities for challenging students. For instance, my preservice teachers and I brainstormed lesson plans using a rap music tape of Romeo and Juliet. Several of my students have actually used it in their clinical placements and during student teaching. One 9th grade English teacher for whom I substituted used it. Several other teachers have used it because it is different, and it is a supplement for presenting a frequently taught play. Finally, several of my preservice teachers are absolutely frightened with the prospect of teaching grammar. The CD-ROMs Mastering English Grammar and Grammar Games have been tremendous supplements to our discussions on teaching grammar at the secondary level. My students have class release time to work through various exercises on the CD-ROMs in our computer lab.
Model Teachers Are Model Learners
I have focused my reinvention on providing more coherent, meaningful, and pedagogically sound activities to enable my students to improve their practice. This improvement will ultimately improve their students' achievement. When we consider our own practice, experience alternative ways of delivering instruction, evaluate, and reflect, we can make informed decisions about how best to proceed. Systematic and ongoing inquiry must be a routine part of our roles as teachers and learners. My responsibility as a teacher educator is to provide a classroom community that facilitates and models that process.
I felt validated in my attempt to transform my classroom when I received a letter from Tina, a talented preservice English teacher. Part of Tina's letter read, ". . . I was fascinated by your determination, strong work ethic, passion, and desire to teach and learn. It is so exciting to see a professor wanting to learn, and because of your need for this, we could not help but want to learn more and more!"
We must participate in conversations about how best to prepare preservice teachers and retain and support inservice teachers. Numerous studies (for example, Rigden 1996, OERI 1993) have indicated that reform in teacher education must include closer collaboration between universities and schools, authentic teacher training and staff development, and stronger support mechanisms for new teachers. Teacher educators must continue to reflect on and revise approaches to meet the diverse needs of our classroom teachers. I believe that only through continuous reflection—and action—can I facilitate the growth of my students and make professional contributions in a meaningful way.
