If you have been reading through the week, we have been exploring a quote I read in a book for educators. It goes, “Whatever it takes–that’s the job of the teacher.” At the start of the week, we accepted that challenge. But now that we’re at the end of the week, I have to say that these kind of statements just make me mad.
I challenged the students with this on Thursday. Now I have a challenge for those educators who have moved on from the classroom because in my experience, they are the ones delivering these calls to action.
I know your intentions are good, and you are there for student success. I just want you to know that it has the potential to come across as critical and sometimes undeserved. All I really want to say is that it is very difficult to sit in a seminar, or a faculty meeting, and hear a former classroom teacher challenge all those who are still in the classroom with, “Are you doing whatever it takes?”
Yes, I think I am. Leaving out all of my other commitments outside of classroom teaching, I am trying to get used to a few things on the job. Things like . . .
- New curriculum
- New high stakes tests
- New interim assessments
- New instructional training
- New state-wide literacy initiatives
- New district initiatives
- New School-wide strategy implementation
So, yeah. I think I’m doing whatever it takes to within the bounds of my sanity.
Let’s be fair. We have worked with many educators that have transitioned out the classroom who are wonderful and really do support us. Those are the ones we let issue this challenge to us. They have earned that credibility. They have done “whatever it takes” to reach us classroom teachers.
I suppose as long as we are all doing whatever it takes to reach our intended audience, we can all give each other permission to issue that challenge. And are we classroom teachers, for the good of our students, doing “whatever it takes” to fall in with our district leadership? Put flatly, are we all doing “whatever it takes?”
MAKE THEM MASTER IT 