Recently I had the opportunity to be “professionally developed” by a regional reading coach. She spent the better part of our time together holding a Reading Program teachers’ manual toward me and my colleagues, speaking to us as if we were the second graders rather than the teachers, explaining to us how to use a program that we have already been using for several years. But that’s not the worst of it. To put in a nutshell her instruction to us that day… skip over the parts that require time, talking, and thinking from the students, and spend more time on the parts that are tested skills. These are the sections that require rote learning, or memorization such as spelling words. And if that weren’t bad enough…she instructed us to break up the main selection into parts to save time!
My first reaction was the desire to stab myself in the leg! My second was…maybe it’s time for me to quit!
But, when I returned to my class of 7-year olds that afternoon, I immediately knew why I can’t quit…why none of us who care about our students or the future of our society can quit. My students deserve a teacher who cares about encouraging their ability to think on their own, to be creative, and to become independent learners. All students deserve that.
It’s time to free the students!
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