After reading this blog post, you’ll learn how to master your craft as a teacher. Daily teaching can be stressful and unfulfilling; this is not usually talked about in an honest way.
Teachers stay in survival mode for a numbers of years and never reach to the next level. It doesn’t have to be that way. This post will give you some concrete steps on how to move from survival mode to actually making an impact in your teaching.
The first step in mastering your craft is to use your data to help your students grow academically.
Data can be classwork, tests, quizzes, student writing. There are two types of data:
- Qualitative such as student writing, teacher observations, stories, case studies, student conversations.
- Quantitative includes test scores, quizzes. I want you to think numbers for this one. Scores from benchmark assessments etc.
It is important that you use both because it will give you a holistic picture of how your students are doing. It will help to guide your instruction and tell you exactly what your students need to learn.
Second, you need to differentiate your instruction to master your craft.
My definition of differentiation is that you’re meeting the needs of all your students.
Differentiation is not students working in small groups doing the exact same thing. There are three ways you can differentiate: content, process, or the product.
One simple way is to differentiate based on students’ grade level performance which means whether or not they’re performing at, above or below grade level. However, always make sure that students performing below grade level have access to grade level materials.
Third, take advantage of leadership opportunities within your school, no matter how small you think the opportunity is.
It was my fourth year of teaching. My principal asked me to be a grade level facilitator for my grade level. I didn’t think that I was ready and I was wondering why she chose or asked me.
Despite my doubts, I said yes. I immediately started learning and researching how to be a grade level facilitator.
It was hard to juggle while teaching in the classroom but it helped me to develop my leadership and team building skills. These skills will be transferred to your classroom and students once they become internalized.
This one leadership opportunity led me to many more opportunities in the years to come. It was one of the opportunities that I am very happy and grateful that I said yes to. I felt empowered to do more innovative things in my classroom. For example, I incorporated more project based learning.
Fourth, find a mentor in the area of expertise that you need to work on.
My dear friend Cecelia said something to me that has stayed with me years after, she said “I have mentors and they don’t even know that they’re my mentor.” In other words, you can always learn from someone without them being an official mentor. Sometimes it can get awkward to ask someone to be your mentor and if you’re an introvert, like me, this is a great strategy. If you’re learning from someone who’s already where you want to be then you can consider them a mentor.
Fifth, use evidenced based practices to master your craft.
Evidenced based practices are teaching practices that have been validated by research. You can save yourself a lot of time by using practices that you know will work with your students.
You will have to put in the time to learn the strategies and or techniques but once you do, and implement them with fidelity you will get results with your students. If your school has a highly rated curriculum by EdReports then these practices are already built into your curriculum. You can find evidenced based strategies on sites such as readingrockets.org and achievethecore.org.
Remember, mastering your craft as a teacher is a process and will not happen overnight. If you put in the time and follow the strategies that I outlined above you will unleash that great teacher inside of you. If you want to learn more sign up for my Free Ultimate Guide on Mastering Your Craft as a Teacher.