On Tuesday night, I went to the monthly meeting for Teach Plus policy fellows. We meet monthly for policy sessions in which presentations are given by local, state, and federal education policy makers and influencers. We are encouraged to question and challenge what is in front of us and to share our own experiences as teachers with people who have major influence on our jobs as well as the students we teach. We are also learning about how we can influence these decisions. Beautiful.
This was our second meeting, and much like the first, the topics covered and speakers we heard from left me feeling full of energy, questions, and a need to say something. After a run with my dear teacher friend Kylene where I rambled on for a solid three of our miles about all of my thoughts, I sat down with all of the notes I had frantically scribbled down and focused in on one topic that really struck me Tuesday night-- teacher preparation.
One of the speakers we were privileged to hear from was Jo Anderson. Mr. Anderson has recently stepped down from his role as the senior adviser to Arne Duncan, the US Education Secretary. Mr. Anderson spoke to us about many topics related to education. He was honest about what he sees as shortcomings, his concerns for the future, and work that he feels needs to be done.
When Mr. Anderson talked about teacher preparation, he spoke about his concern for the current "sink or swim" model we send teachers into when they graduate from any teaching program. He talked about a lack of connection between how we are preparing teachers and what they actually need to be able to do. He spoke of a blueprint for improving the state of teacher preparation that Arne Duncan and his staff prepared that provided big changes, but due to timing and politics, has not made it out of their office.
As Mr. Anderson spoke about teacher preparation, I thought back through my own journey to becoming a teacher. I thought about graduate school classes that taught me a lot and challenged me to think, but then I thought about how I really, truly became a teacher. How did I learn the art and science of teaching? How did I learn to put all of my own learning into practice? The answer is a really phenomenal woman named Cathy.
Cathy taught for 25+ years in the Chicago Public Schools as a special education teacher. Following her career as a teacher, she took a job with the Inner City Teaching Corps (ICTC) as a coach for new teachers. The teacher preparation program that I went through (Chicago Teaching Fellows) had a partnership with ICTC. And so, Cathy and I were paired up as mentor and mentee.
The first time I met Cathy, it was the week before the first week of school. I was, in the words of my students, a hot mess. I was overwhelmed and fretting over where to put things in my classroom, what my students would be like, and absolutely sure that I was going to fail miserably at being a teacher. Cathy didn't miss a beat. She shook my hand, realized I needed a hug and delivered, told me that everything was going to be just fine, and promptly grabbed a stapler and started hanging things on my bulletin board.
Over the course of that first year of teaching, Cathy was in my room weekly to bi-weekly. I'm sure if she reads this she will say differently, but she truly taught me to be a teacher. Cathy provided a model of having a sense of humor and positive outlook about even the most difficult students and shared with me weekly her wealth of knowledge in special education. I would say, she taught me to teach in my tennies (I've decided this should be a term for really happy teacher runners :)
Beyond her magical abilities to teach me to teach, there is something very important about Cathy's role in my career that we should all be paying attention to. The key about a person like Cathy in a new teacher's life is that she was not there to decide if I would continue to be a teacher the following year. Yes, she reported back on my progress to the teacher preparation program, but there was almost no contact between Cathy and my principal.
The thing is, even in the best of circumstances with the very best principal (who I actually happen to have), a teacher is nervous about being cut. No matter how good you are, it's nerve wracking to have your boss in your room when you aren't so sure what you are doing. Cathy was not my boss and reminded me of this regularly. When she would ask what time I wanted her to visit, I would invite her at times I knew I was failing as a teacher. Cathy would watch with not an ounce of judgement and then help me find solutions.
As Jo Anderson spoke to us on Tuesday night, all I could think about was the need for every first year teacher to have a Cathy in their classroom. I think most, if not all, teachers would tell you it's terrifying to leave the comforts of an undergraduate or graduate program and head into your own big classroom. So why are we forcing new teachers to do it alone? And why are we shocked when they fall short? If we want to improve the quality of education in this country, I think coaches for new teachers would be an excellent first step.
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