Module Three

A sense of dedication probably led you to teaching.
It ought to be second nature to teach.
You love learning.
You treasure kids.
You want to make a difference!
. . . And then you find out how complex, how truly difficult it really is.

Success in student management is directly linked to why we become teachers and how we feel about children. Successful teaching and learning is linked to what we know about children, how they develop, how they learn and where each is on the progression toward physical, emotional, philosophical, social and intellectual health and well being. Of course, it also joins with what we know about our own development and our personal desire to grow, to mature, and to self actualize.

Adults look upon a child as something empty that is to be filled through their own efforts, as something inert and helpless for which they must do everything, as something lacking an inner guide and in constant need of inner direction. . . . An adult who acts in this way, even though he may be convinced that he is filled with zeal, love, and a spirit of sacrifice on behalf of his child, unconsciously supppresses the development of the child's own personality. Maria Montessori

Teaching is hard work! A great teacher is a combination of energy, enthusiasm, love of the subject, and love of children. It is time intensive and draining. It requires great problem solving skills, the ability to understand nonverbal cues, to be intuitive, and very focused. A great teacher is emotionally intelligent and acquires finesse in interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Part of this kind of savvy comes from understanding human nature; that is understanding self, understanding group behavior, and understanding the development of human beings. Once we have a basic understanding of child development, we are more able to recognize when a student is behaving in a growing, consolidating, or unhealthy way. That facilitates understanding and working successfully with students in our schools. This is important because children are really quite different from one another.

From understanding general development principles, we move to a more individualized look at the youngsters in our classes. Each student is an individual, and each is distinctive -- special! The idea of working with a child, one on one, can and does work, but with 30 students, that individualization is difficult! In the high school, with 150-200 students each day, it’s virtually impossible. Somehow, teaching becomes lecturing, or text reading. Contributing to children’s lives some days becomes keeping a “lid” on the dynamics and keeping everyone safe. Some days, its hard to spend a couple of significant minutes with each youth. Since our time is so limited, and the work so hard, we who love teaching look for ways to work smarter. A critical component of smart teaching comes from understanding developmental principles in such a way that we can apply it to individual students -- one more link in the chain.