growNman
growNman
I am growNman 142 Mastering the Art of Teaching: Beyond the Job
Ever wonder what separates educators who merely survive the school year from those who achieve true mastery of their craft? This compelling exploration dives into the mindset shift required to transform teaching from "just a job" into an art form worthy of lifelong dedication.
Fresh from my own journey of leaving administration to return to the classroom before stepping back into a leadership role as an assistant principal, I share hard-earned insights about the power of intentional teaching practices. The difference lies in presence - being fully engaged rather than operating on autopilot. When we commit to mastering every aspect of education from classroom management to communication strategies to questioning techniques, we discover opportunities to create profound impact.
Many students come from challenging backgrounds where they've been forced to take on adult responsibilities prematurely. Though they may handle adult tasks, emotionally they remain children needing guidance. The magic happens when we find the perfect words, tone and delivery that reaches a student who previously seemed unreachable. That breakthrough can literally change the trajectory of a family for generations.
This episode provides practical strategies for improvement: establishing consistent boundaries, developing effective morning routines, practicing daily reflection, soliciting student feedback, and approaching teaching with empathy. By understanding that no student truly wants to fail and recognizing our unique position to inspire change, we elevate not just our profession but the lives we touch every day.
Ready to move beyond merely getting through the year to becoming the educator your students truly need? Listen now and discover how making improvement a lifestyle rather than an occasional strategy transforms both teaching effectiveness and professional fulfillment. Make today better than yesterday!
What up, though, and welcome back to. I'm Growing man. It's your man, john D, in the building. Shout out to all the educators still on summer break. The time is winding down and not to rush you guys, but it looks like I'll be going back a little earlier. I'm not for sure if I said in the last podcast, but I've been promoted to assistant principal and I will be getting back into the administrative game, and I want to say this the experience I had out I mean leaving administration and then going as far as back into the classroom it helped me become a better educator. So I'm really excited about having this opportunity and being an assistant principal, where I can help inspire educators, and that's what we're there for, right, but I really wanted to talk about different ways educators can start looking forward to this year.
Speaker 1:You know we have to think about how can we reflect on the difference between getting through the year and building mastery as a professional. We have to think about getting through the year. It's more so in your first three years. Now, some of you may not have found a routine yet, but this episode I'm going to do my best to help you to so so you can see the growth that you can recognize as early as like weekly, monthly or even quarterly you know, so check it out. So we have to to think about autopilot. And if you don't know what autopilot is, autopilot is when you're just going through the motions, you're not being observant of what's going on. You have to take control of your life by being more present in the moment. The more present you are, the fewer mistakes you make. The more present you are, the the fewer mistakes you make, the more present you are the mistakes you make. You learn from them so that you don't make them again. So we have to consider that when we're teaching because honestly we're looking to teach a content area until we find a level of mastery, meaning that whoever comes in this classroom I mean whoever that you can teach them the standards of whatever state you're in. If you cannot do that, that is the journey you're on as a teacher.
Speaker 1:I realized I never understood that until I went back into the classroom I never I wasn't in. I wasn't in teaching long enough to. I won't say that I wasn't in teaching mentally, in the mindset of mastery, because I was just thinking about trying to get into administration at one point. But going back in I realized if you prepare for mastery it can make things so much easier. But you have to do that on purpose and I think a lot of teachers those teachers that do lesson plans they can prepare somewhat, but those who can't, those who don't do lesson plans and they just teach on the fly, you're doing yourself a disservice, no matter where you are, because anything could happen, and I think that preparation is the best. It's the best plan for anything. Even if it doesn't go right, at least you have something, a set of something that does not work. But if you don't take that part seriously, it's going to be way more difficult for you.
Speaker 1:I do believe that if we get into the mindset of mastering the craft of teaching versus it's a job, I think that you would appreciate it a little more. So just listen to this part those of you that are teaching and it feels like a job, it's because you haven't found the entire view of teaching. You have to go around the entire art of it to master it and a lot of times we just look at it from face value. But there's so many things that come with teaching. So if you are not intentionally trying to find the gaps that you have in the art of teaching. It can beat you up, and that's when you're not working on your craft and you're just working it as a job. So we have to totally consider are we working to improve? We working to improve, and I mean every part of the craft and teaching, from classroom management to pedagogy, to communication, to routine, to time management, to effective questions, to helping students, helping students how to respond to specific questions so that they have an idea of how to think about that question.
Speaker 1:A lot of us don't don't realize that A lot of our our, a lot of our population come from. A lot of our population come from underprivileged backgrounds where a parent is probably working all the time and supervision is limited and they don't have the mindset of I have to study or focus for my adulthood, because they're probably babysitting, watching kids, their siblings, preparing dinner and you know what's so crazy. I can say this and everybody don't. Really I can't say everybody may not understand what I'm talking about, but I will tell you this. There's a large population of kids that have to mature faster in the adult aspect versus the kid aspect, like they think, because they they're doing things that you learn as an adult, that they're maturing, but they're immature and as teachers, we have to keep that in mind. Like, these are kids at the end of the day, no matter what they tell you, no matter how smart they are, no matter how much they lack, they're kids and it's our job to hopefully work on our craft, where we can ignite something with them to want to be more than Because. Can you imagine? This is for every teacher.
Speaker 1:Imagine this if you worked on your communication and you came up with a set of words, the correct tone, the perfect delivery, where a kid who you deep down feel like never had a chance, but you put these words together and they and they and they understand what you're saying. And then they ask you what can you tell me so that I can better my chances of getting out of this place that I'm in? And you give them that information and just imagine if they listened to it and they followed along. It would change the trajectory of their family. And it came from you, the teacher, the one who continued to find ways to improve their craft so that, whoever came into your classroom, you were able to give them something that not even their parents give them, like the strategy of completion, to find ways to succeed and enjoy the journey along the way. But you have to keep this in mind If you can't empathize with your audience, you will always think that they understand what you mean and if that's the case, that's a tough teaching year and I don't want anybody to go through that.
Speaker 1:So a part of my goal is to develop relationships with my staff where I can find out ways that I can help them in areas that they want to grow, because my wife told me you know it's a difference between support and help. A lot of times we try to help people but they don't want our help. So we have to support them the way they want to be supported and typically, if you support people the way they want to be supported, they're more likely to do Well, they're more likely to keep themselves accountable. Now, I'm not saying that percentage rate is high, but I'm willing to try any and everything to become an inspiration for my staff. I do believe. I do believe that we should do a daily reflection as a tool for growth and when I say that, like at the end of the day, at the end of the night, however you wind down, I think that every human should reflect, because if you don't reflect you, we may have better answers the next day to help those students find that light bulb. And I really believe that and I feel like at this point in my life I know that no kid wants to fail on purpose. But if we don't help them understand, you know, the the truth in the message, it'll go right over their head and I think, as teachers and educators, we should be willing to find a way to master the craft.
Speaker 1:You know, my wife used to say that before I got to this point of this journey, she used to always say you know, people generally become the adult that they felt like they needed as a child, and I feel like teachers forget that sometimes Like and even if you didn't need help, you have kids that need help. Now, if you can't empathize with the students that need help, you have to come to terms with yourself. Is this the right fit for you? Because you're doing a disservice to not only education but to yourself. To empathize with your own population is wasting your time and it's causing you grief, and I don't want educators to feel like they can't vent on things that's going on. The problem with venting is what are you doing to prevent that type of event from happening again? Are you working on your craft? You know, if we actually reflected, I'm telling you we would reduce so many mistakes. So becoming that teacher is going to require you to do more than the bare minimum and I'll say this through my life. And I'll say this through my life I've always did really well in the areas that I was good in, but in other areas it was the bare minimum. So it almost kind of balances out to being very average. But now I'm so interested in improving my areas of weakness that I want people to feel the energy of me improving Within my first year. I want 100% teacher return and be excited about next year because they already know the program that we've established. This is my intent to make educators want to be better than the educators that they had.
Speaker 1:I think also teachers need to consider sharing their their childhood journey, like who inspired them, what made them become responsible in taking their education seriously. You know, I tell my kids I kind of got lucky my foundation. I enjoy like the puzzle of learning, but I still did not understand how to learn and I told my kids that I was like my immaturity. I told my kids that I was like my immaturity allowed me to miss a lot of teaching moments and Lord knows I had ADD and ADHD. But this wasn't diagnosed. Then and I'm looking back. I mean I know that I was getting in trouble for things that I couldn't remember like actually thinking, it was just like an impulse. But after I matured I realized I was so happy because, I'm telling you, when I matured it was a different kid and being that adult that remembers that I have a lot more tolerance for students because you know, through all the years, no students want to disappoint their parents and they somehow find ways to do it and we have to consider you know the environment they come from. You know their parents are doing the best they can, but I think a lot of times we don't give their parents grace because those parents had parents with, even gave these kids even less supervision. So we have to remember that Teaching students you don't know where you are generationally, you know, and that one conversation could be a butterfly effect for the remaining of your teacher career. So please consider this If you really want to master the art of teaching, you should get therapy, you should find ways to unlayer your childhood and find out the kid that you protect it, so that you can be more empathetic for other kids that may not have any adult that can recognize that hurt, that place of pain. So let's consider that, okay.
Speaker 1:This next part look, this next part is all about making improvement as a lifestyle. Like I always say, make today better than yesterday. Like it's not a strategy. Right, I have a routine and if things go bad, I need to figure out what went bad that caused me to lose my focus so that I can make sure it doesn't happen again. Just like I said earlier, if you don't reflect, how can you prevent those things from happening? It takes a very aware person who believes that they're important enough to change a behavior. You have to believe you're that important. Like, making today better than yesterday is a mindset I've been practicing since like 2000, I would say 2002. Don't worry about anything you can't control. You know I was saying it but I didn't realize I wasn't practicing it. But when I realized how to practice it it changed my life. Like I started putting my effort into things that I could control and the result changed. So we have to get in the mindset Improvement is a lifestyle. We can't use this idea like it's a strategy to improve. No, you can work on anything you know.
Speaker 1:Self-improvement is how teachers show up, not just what they do in a classroom, but what time they arrive to work.
Speaker 1:What's their morning routine?
Speaker 1:Do they get fitness in? Like are you? Are you waking up just in time to get to work? Now I'm going to tell you the idea that you do that on a regular basis. You can't possibly think you're going to be your best self and I need you to consider you're working with other people's kids. You should use this is a badge of honor. People trust you to change the mindset of students.
Speaker 1:You could be that teacher that says you know what Mr Such and Such or Mrs Such and Such did this. And I remember like I was on the road to this, because I'm telling you role to this, because I'm telling you when you put in that effort that is a different vocabulary where I can't describe that 12 years from now, somebody tell, they tell you that you changed your life because whatever you said, whatever you did more than their previous teacher, you know you have to think like what can I do to convince this student that they're important? Convincing students who already know they're important to do work. That's not really teaching. Well, I guess it is teaching it. Just this isn't the field for that. That's more like instruction. You would have to like go to where people will pay. Where we are, we're in a place of, you know, like growing together as a legit community. Whatever I know, you know, whatever you know I know. So let's build together. But we have to do more.
Speaker 1:You know, your morning routine is really what's going to separate you from people who don't have a morning routine. And I'm telling you, people who have a morning routine, they start off their days going to work 90 percent better than everybody else. And the only reason I say 90 percent is because I just want to show you a morning routine reduces a lot of brain. Let me see what is it called Brain? I don't want to say brain dust or anything like that, but brain fog, like when you already know what you're doing, you can see things in your day. But if you don't have anything set up like I just saw a homegirl of mine just said she didn't realize how messed up her life was because she just now used a planner and she's like doing everything in her head.
Speaker 1:Like, if you don't have a routine, you could just be out here just moving and grooving, like you. You, you got to be working towards something. You got to know where you're going. If you don't have it written out, like, how do you know where you're going? You keeping everything in your head? How do you keep yourself accountable if you don't have a routine? Like you, it should be written down. So listen to this If you are serious about the art, how about this?
Speaker 1:If you're just a serious adult and you want to improve, you should write down a routine that you should learn how to follow. Like, no matter what time of day, you should be participating in something, that you can find yourself in a routine, unless you just have the freedom to do whatever you want. But I'm telling you, when you have a routine, you are constantly sharpening swords on your tool belt, and these are days when you're not doing anything. You're like man, I got to get this done. So when you put those hours on those days, they just get sharper and sharper. And when the time comes, you don't have to be prepared because you've been working all of this time for the moment to occur. But are you prepared for it if you're not working on a consistent basis and this goes to every educator out there what are you doing to improve your craft better than last year?
Speaker 1:I don't even care about test grades. I do know that they're important but if you are not specifically finding something that you can work on, is it classroom management? Is it time? I mean time management? Is it, like I said, pedagogy? Is it relationships with students? Is it the tone and inflection of your voice when you respond to students that say something crazy, like you have to specifically write something down and say I am going to work on this. This is going to change by this day. How about this?
Speaker 1:Last year I gave my students a survey the beginning of the year quarter, half, half, three quarters. It was just to get a reflection on me as a teacher. It was like uh, what do you like about the class? What could the class, what could I change in the class for you, for you to be more engaged in it? Um, it was about 10 questions. The last question was now the first nine was.
Speaker 1:All I did was this I went to the chat GPT and I said, hey, give me a set of questions that I can give my students so I can get feedback, so I can improve, improve as a teacher. And on the last one, I was just like say anything that I didn't ask so that I can make sure that you're being heard. I'm telling you, it changes your students perspective about you. If you do that, you are trying to get better. Like you know, sometimes people say I haven't got time for that. Well, if you don't have time for that, then you can't get better, because you work with kids and kids are looking for structure, they're looking for consistency. And if you don't prepare for it, if you don't prepare for any of this, like, how do you, how do you respond? Students know when, when adults are not prepared, students know when, when adults are not prepared. So I'm telling you, find ways to improve so that you can enjoy the art more. You know when you do this. Also, number one thing I need you guys.
Speaker 1:Communication is key. If you set your boundaries early and you stand by them but you can't get lazy on them. You have to stand by your boundaries the students will learn what is acceptable. But if you do not stand on them, they will keep pushing until you break. And once you break, you're compromising, you're not going to be as happy and then, if you want it to stop, you're going to have to start all over, recreate a whole different culture. And, being that we're at the beginning of the year, we need to go in with the mindset of I'm going to do this, this and this and write it down, have it in different parts of the room so it can remind you, because your classroom is only as effective as your boundaries.
Speaker 1:And I'm not saying you should yell at them when they cross it, because they are kids and even the kids that continue to do so, but at some point you're going to have to respond in a way where you're trying to get a different response. I'm like, hey, are you trying to hurt my feelings? Because I feel like we're establishing this relationship and I've asked you three times can you please not do that? Because it makes me feel a type of way and I'm trying to become this teacher you need, and I'm telling you when you can talk to your students like that. It makes them look at you crazy, but it de-escalates anything and if you do that consistently, they will apologize about anything, because they don't want to do that to you, because, at the end of the day don't nobody want to be spoken to like that, but we have to teach them how to respond and our expectations, and a lot of times we expect kids to respond in a way that we would respond now, knowing that we didn't have as much information when we were their age and neither we didn't have their parents. So we have to keep that in perspective when we are passing all of this judgment on to kids who had no control over who their parents were. I might have to end this, but on my next episode I am going to get some more information on how to prepare for your school year. I do want to help as much as I can because I do feel like I know some techniques that help me in the classroom and they may not help you, but if you haven't tried it, it may help you and I can tell you why I do it and give you an example, why I do it and give you an example.
Speaker 1:There's no cursing in my classroom. At the beginning of class, every year I have the speech. Hey, I don't like cursing. I know some of you got bad mouths. If you curse, I need you to just say I apologize and we'll move on, but you have to apologize because I'm an adult and I don't like hearing it. I say is that cool? And everybody's cool? So we go through it. People curse, say they look up and I'm like look and put my arms up in the air Like you're not going to say nothing. It was all my bad and it got to that.
Speaker 1:Right now I do want to say there is a point where there are some students that don't really practice that. They have other issues, but at the end of the day, if you create the boundary majority, if not, all of your students will follow the boundary because they don't want to disrespect you. Now, disrespect can look like play with them. So Kids play, play too much so. So we got to keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:So when kids know that, I guess the culture in the room will know to not speak like that in your classroom. So you have to be consistent and watch your tone, watch how you speak to them, speak to them as if speak to them in a tone. Somebody would need to speak to you to get the best out of you. We have to be more mature in how we respond to these kids, because they don't have any communication practice the way we do. So we have to be more empathetic of their background so that we can change the behavior when I like it. It's been a wonderful time talking to y'all. Y'all make today better than yesterday. Don't worry about anything you can't control. Gata Get after that action or the action will get after you. Be great on purpose, thank you.