Small Changes
What interviews help me learn and remember about teaching
Since I spent my typical Saturday morning writing and editing time in an immobile state watching super-humans hurtle their bodies down snow covered mountains at over 80 miles an hour…. here is a re-post from last year. I am not at a hiring conference this year, but I am writing a lot of observations…and it is truly the little things that make a difference for student learning in the classroom.
I spent the past two days interviewing teachers at a large hiring conference, as part of a very busy hiring season at our school. I am talking about a large hotel ballroom filled with tables, with a school and school representatives assigned to each. Interviews are scheduled on the half hour. This, for both the job seeker and the interviewer, is exhausting. You likely ask or answer the same question 10, 12, 15, 20 times, depending on how many interviews you set up. For the job seeker, the stakes are higher, with a need to perform well and be on in order to move forward in the job market. For those of you who are in your first year of teaching, this may be how you got your job. For the interviewer, it can be just exhausting.
As I drove home yesterday though, glad to have my water bottle next to me with only the sound of the Audible book narrator in my ears, I was thinking about how much I still learn from interviewing. And what I learn is two fold. First, at its essence, an interview is simply a conversation. It is a conversation where I, the interviewer, am very interested in learning about you and about how you think. I do this to do what we try not to do in the rest of our lives, and that is to make a quick judgement of who you are and what your potential is as a fit for our school. In this conversation, you also need to learn about the school and I am the vehicle for that. But we learn so much else. I learn about the type of history you studied and why, a book that changed your life and why, ideas for classroom instruction, resources to use in Math classrooms, and all kinds of fun science phenomena. If I listen closely enough, I learn about human nature, about what makes people choose the paths they are walking, how they reflect and look back on those paths, and how mentoring can help to shape those paths. It is like a small snippet of a memoir from each candidate.
Interviews with teachers just starting their careers are really important, and one of the ways that we pay it forward. Yes, these candidates are nervous, and are often a blend of less polished with outwardly and self-consciously over polished. But this interview helps me to see how new teachers are thinking, what they are learning about and excited to bring to the classroom…this can only be good for our school. And I get to ask questions to help them think about something they might not be thinking about, to note something about their experience or answer that they might want to highlight more. To me, it is a small mentoring opportunity that I really enjoy.
The second thing I learn is really more of a reinforcement. And that is what it means to be a teacher, what good teaching looks like, and how we can become better. Good teaching is not about mandates or new programs. Yes, a new reading program that provides teachers with all they need in terms of resources, professional development, and structures can be impactful. Replace the word reading with math, science, writing, Robotics, and the same is true. A school that trains teachers in implementing Restorative Justice or RULER or any other SEL framework will likely see positive changes. But let me be clear here. Just “doing” program X is not the thing, that is not the change.
Each example above, and each non program example below, are based on a series of small moves. They teach us, or make us think about how we present material, what order we do something in, what resources we use, or how we structure a conversation or interaction. The doing of the program is up to us, the ones doing the work in the classroom, having the conversations, providing the resources.
To me, and I admit that I am skeptical about wholesale adoption of programs that we are supposed to implement with fidelity across the board, this is not how individual teachers get better. We get better one small change at a time. A candidate I spoke with yesterday, when I asked him how he likes to get involved in a school outside of the classroom, talked about his role as a coach. And in doing so, about how he has recently started to use film analysis with his team. He talked about the impact this has on the players, that they can see patterns or what little changes can be made. Like the basketball player who suddenly lost his free throw, and when looking at the film, had stopped setting his feet correctly. This is not rocket science, this does not require a week long training camp or drilling free throws for additional hours (in fact, that might make it worse). It required observation, attention, and a small change. He made setting his feet a more explicit part of his pre-shot routine, and there it was. His free throw.
This is what we do in the classroom to get better. Observing what is happening, paying attention, and making small changes. When I write feedback after observations, it is rare that there is monumental or astonishing feedback in there. Instead, you will see:
Consider the way in which you give directions as class begins. If students are hearing what materials they need only verbally, they may not get it without multiple repetitions. Posting this in the classroom as they enter will reduce the cognitive load and help them to build this routine.
Try to remember to greet students before beginning directions!
Have you considered having students write their thoughts to the question for one minute before sharing with a partner? This ensures that they all think about the answer to some extent, and then learn from each other's ideas.
I noticed that when you were providing instruction, you were handing the materials out at the same time. Many students were focused on the fun materials and not the instructions. Consider separating these two activities, clarifying instructions first and then developing a routine for material distribution.
Nothing here is rocket science, nothing requires a large investment in time, but each has the potential to firm up each student’s ability to attend to the work, and might even save the class some time.
It is easy to get bogged down and even frustrated by what is happening in our classroom. Often, another set of eyes or ears is just what is needed. Hopefully, you work somewhere where you could ask a colleague for an idea, “I am really struggling to have students understand the instructions in my classroom and I wind up repeating them over and over, can I talk this through with you?”, or “What works for you to make sure students understand instructions?”. Even more hopefully, you work somewhere where a mentor, colleague, or yes, even administrator would be willing to come into your classroom and be an extra set of eyes (whether through a formal observation process or not). Yes, I know this can get dicey, but really the goal of an observation is exactly this, to help you get better. Maybe, you even have a colleague or mentor who you could observe in their classroom! Last, be a sponge. Be sponge to the conversations about teaching around you. Subscribe to a couple (of many) teaching Substacks out there….I follow some that have great ideas on a weekly basis! And remember, improvement is not one huge step..it is usually a continued habit of smaller steps.
What is one small step you might try this week?