On Writing & Teaching

I love teaching and I love writing about it, but it's a challenging duality. The biggest challenge is directing my creativity.  My mind is constantly chasing the next creative endeavor.  When I am really in the groove with teaching, my creativity is always in relation to my classroom, my students, and sometimes my teaching team or a school-wide project. 

Any of those ideas can become material for writing, but writing itself needs some space of its own. Like Virginia Woolf argued in A Room of One's Own--a woman cannot be expected to write while she's cooking and taking care of children in a confined space.  Her writing will suffer.  I always hated that point, thinking it was narrowminded, but there was some truth to it.  One needs mental space to bring the ideas out of the working memory and onto the paper. Space to focus on putting the words together. That process requires as much brain-power as creating materials for a lesson or a new seating plan.  It is difficult to occupy both of those thought spaces at once. 

The work of teaching never ends.  Does writing about teaching help me teach better?  And should that matter?  Teachers need to be able to articulate what they are doing in the classroom, why, and how it's working. The National Board Certification Process is based on this kind of reflection.  So yes, writing promotes reflection, which has value for my teaching.  

Also, as a professional, in the still semi-profession that is teaching, it's also important to me to be a part of a dialogue about the work we do and the policies that comment on and affect aspects of teaching. I wish this last part wasn't true. I'm stubborn and don't like to admit that we teachers are usually seen as second class professionals without valuable ideas and valid career goals. The act of participating in dialogue about teaching does make us more professional, but the fact that we must insert our voices into an environment that is so often hostile toward teachers gives the conversation a bitter tinge-- as well as the overwhelming feeling that this conversation too, never ends. 

Finally, as an English teacher, the opportunity to write professionally for a real audience allows me to speak from experience when I teach writing. There are so many benefits to this. One pretty tangible one is that I have lots of first hand experience with all steps of the writing  process, especially revision, which can be hard for kids to understand.  My writing experience has really helped me to be able to teach students to write nonfiction beyond the 5 paragraph essay and to articulate my reasons for this choice.

[image credit: emich.edu]

Comments

[Dave Orphal]

Thanks for this great perspective, Ariel.

I agree with your feelings that we are second-class professionals. On the one hand, we need professional degrees to get our jobs. We are expected to be professional on and off the job. I don't know of lawyers or doctors who have lost their job because they posted a picture on Facebook of themselves enjoying a glass of wine at dinner - this did and does happen to teachers.

At the same time - we are considered workers and minions in the realm of school leadership and public education reform. Others are in the roles of "thinkers" and "leaders." Too often, I am being told what to do my an economist or a politician who has never taught in a classroom. Too often, I am being told what to do my an administrator who spent the minimum two-years in a classroom as one rung on their career ladder.

This is why I write. As teachers, we know our children best. We know how they learn and what they need to learn next.

Researchers can help us out. They have the time and space to look into many classrooms and talk to many teachers and share what they are learning.

Politicians can help us out. They can get serious about funding schools equitably. They can ask teachers what kinds of laws would help us help our students, and then pass those laws.

They can help us out. But, as many educational reformers love to point out, it is the teachers who are the most influential force on student learning that we can control.

If teachers are the ones with the responsibility to carry out educational reforms - then it is to the TEACHERS that we must listen to for the IDEAS of educational reform.

Thank you, Ariel! For continuing to be such a strong voice for educational reform and for helping to lift up the voices of teachers into the circles of decision makers who too often would prefer us to shut up and obey.

[Ariel Sacks]

Dave, thank you for this great response. Made my day, really. I so agree with you about the need for outside stakeholders to listen to teachers.

I struggle with the idea that we speak out, but are not listened to--sometimes we are told that we are listened to and thanked for our input, but then policy decisions are made that directly contradict those ideas for which we have advocated. That reality won't shut me up, but I can't keep playing the same game. Currently observing the chess board, so to speak. Input appreciated.

Years ago I decided that my greatest impact would be in the classroom with students. I keep writing, but need to also feel that the time and mental energy spent writing can somehow feed my classroom practice or impact others positively in their classroom practices. I conclude that it does, which is great.