What Teachers Don't Notice

Examiner column for January 21.

    As an educator, I pride myself on my powers of observation. If you can’t see what’s going on around you, how will you be able to meet the needs of your 150 students? And yet there is so much I don’t notice.

 

    The clock is behind the desks in my classroom, and I don’t notice their furtive glances, especially during the last ten minutes of class. Nor do I notice that they don’t check the clock when there is a heated and animated class discussion going on.

    I don’t notice that a good book, like Kite Runner, is being read during a lesson nor that a student might be taking peeks at it while papers are passed out or a PowerPoint is being set up. If the class is shifting gears, I don’t notice when the hand beneath the desk completes a swift now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t as a cell phone is checked for text messages. Some battles are just not worth fighting.

    Teachers don’t notice when a student is absent for test days. Some students have a panic disorder, some simply can’t face the deadline. If they are excused and make up the work in a timely fashion, we don’t call attention to it.

    We also don’t notice educational fads imposed from above. When I first entered the public school system, it was TESA. We were supposed to touch children on the shoulder to indicate a personal connection. You can imagine how long that lasted. Then there was Pay-for-Performance. For a time I received several thousand dollars more per year than the salary scale. That time was brief!

    Now it’s Professional Learning Communities, which are fine and good when the learning community is productive and collegial, and not so good if it isn’t. Those learning communities need time to meet and that cuts into instructional time. With budget cuts and larger class sizes, we’ll see how long this lasts.

    Teachers don’t notice when other teachers fail to attend meetings of committees they are on. Everyone hates meetings, and we often wonder why the conscientious ones are not rewarded and the dilatory punished. Just like us, I guess administrators have to pick their battles.

    We don’t notice when students don’t love what we’re doing. That’s a hard one to ignore, but often we must. Shakespeare is hard, James Joyce is hard, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth reading. I have lost count of the numbers of students who have returned from college to tell me how glad they are that they were held to a high standard in high school, even though they didn’t love it at the time.

    Teachers don’t notice a hundred different slights and insults to our egos throughout the day. If we required positive reactions to everything we do, we’d be showing films and playing games all day long, and our graduates would be asking, “Would you like fries with that?”

    We need to notice the achievements and ignore the distractions in order to keep the educational process upbeat. Rising above the petty, teachers don’t notice what we must not notice if we want to feel like returning the next day.

Comments

[Evelyn]

Haha, I like the fries comment. True. And I want to say thank you. I think I did get a feeling that both you and Mr.Waxman knew exactly what went on in class and out of class. I wasn't sure at first, but after I got to know each of you, I realized that both of you are truly great people (not sucking up one bit) so then I concluded that you guys choose to open one eye, close one eye. I guess that is the only way for things to work out smoothly. But I would like to say please don't stop doing what you are doing right now. I love how you guys don't make specific rules. I'm a tense person by nature and worry about every single detail. But knowing that you will understand and forgive me always makes me feel safer. Maybe because I'm responsible (not bragging) that is why I feel very grateful. But I also see the disadvantage of this. Of course there are those who would use this opportunity for their own use, and take advantage of this "loose" teaching style, but there will always be people like that. But for those of us who really try and do all the required work, I just want to say I'm really happy and I truly appreciate this. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!