Schmoker

After reading Schmoker, I am left feeling torn between two opposing ideas. On one side, I can see in my own practice and in my own school how the lack of collegiality and the “buffers” that have been erected have created atrophy in the professional development of our faculty. On the other, I am skeptical of how our school day could be restructured to allow for better cooperation and communication between teachers. Token attempts have been made in the past, but have only been successful in reinforcing the “island” mentality of our staff.

As a fourth year teacher who just earned his tenure, I can appreciate what Schmoker means when he says that teacher training, unfortunately, ends with the hiring of a candidate. My school culture does divert teachers from “continuously improving their mastery of effective instructional and assessment practices.” I had a mentor, but he was on the other side of the building. We never sat down. We never spoke candidly about my successes and failures. Our contact was confined to conversations on the run, impromptu meetings in the hallways, etc. I wonder what would happen to the survival rate of new teachers if more was done in the way of providing them with guidance and support? On one hand, we all try to ease new teachers anxieties by reminding them that they don’t know everything yet. I know that my words of wisdom to new teachers and to myself has always been, “this job is hard, but would you really want to work in a career that was could be mastered in a year?” On the flip side, what do we do to help these novice professionals? What training are they given? What practical help and advice? How do we ease their transition? There certainly is merit to the “baptism by fire” idea. Teachers need to make mistakes and learn from them. But what will they learn? Like a new golfer, who can pick up bad habits and techniques that will plague them forever, new teachers fall into similar predicaments. New teachers need guidance.

The phenomenon of isolation is also evident in my school. Many teachers have the “just leave me alone and let me teach” mentality. However, how are we to improve as educators if we do not take advantage of our collective knowledge and experiences? As Schmoker points out very astutely, other professionals turn to each other for help on a routine basis. The only explanation for our isolationist attitude is our insecurity and fear of a perceived judgment or criticism. Schmoker makes us uncomfortable because we need to face the fact that the perceived “good teacher” is not necessarily an effective teacher in reality. That is certainly the case in my school, where I some of the best teachers, from my perspective, are the most underappreciated.