“Don’t ever loose this drive to do things better every year.” I hear this from so many people in education every year. As a newer teacher, being in the profession for only 4 years I spend time every year figuring out how to do things better. That first year was spent reading and researching just to survive. Year two was spent learning how to better my practice while year three and four I was lucky enough to become a student again and gain knowledge to take back to the classroom. Others outside of the career think that it gets easier as you gain more experience in teaching because it can be the same year after year. Everyone in teaching knows this is not true but do not always stick to this goal. In my future I want to continue to work on researching best practices in literacy instruction. In return I want to pass the power of research to my students as well as my coworkers and other teachers in the profession. I never want it to easier for me; instead I want to become stronger.

 

  My first goal comes directly from what I have learned in the past through my masters. I learned from my masters that when wanting to better your practice it is best to learn from others work and grow from there. I chose to focus my attention on literacy instruction within my master’s program. Throughout this time I studied many great educators and the effective field work they have done in education. Education is continually changing and it is important to me to always be looking at new ways of doing things within the classroom. Every teacher can tell you that no classroom of students is the same year to year, so why should our practices be? I am currently spending the summer looking at ways to improve my literacy instruction by reading Best Practices in Literacy Instruction by Linda B. Gambrell and Lesley Mandel Marrow.

 

  You always hear people say “practice what you preach”. What about preaching what you practice? I had this moment at the end of the school year when meeting with another consultant from the Macomb Intermediate School District. We were discussing the teaching of social studies to students and how it isn’t about just the facts anymore. That is when I thought about myself as a student and how when I want to learn something I look into what the best source of research would be, like I am doing this summer by reading Best Practices in Literacy Instruction. I thought to myself  “If this is what I am doing shouldn’t I be teaching my students to do the same thing?” My school started to train its teachers in CITW, Classroom Instruction that Works. So far we have only learned about setting good learning targets. Why not continue my research by looking at the chapters that focus on helping students develop an understanding of what they are learning and then work to apply that to my upcoming school year.

 

  As a teacher and student I have been fortunate enough to further my learning through my job as an educator as well as being a student in the Master’s of Art Education at Michigan State University. I wonder then how I can share this with others? My goal is not only to continuously research and share this with my students but also share it with others within my career as well. I am lucky enough to grow up with two parents who are educators and leaders within their schools as principals.  My father taught me that no good teacher does it alone but as a team. He gave me a copy of a book that he also gave his staff titled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. As my father gave me an overview of this book, one thing stuck out to me the most that I want to learn more about. He talked about the phases that the book goes through, towards the end the author talks about how we need to understand that people need to acknowledge when things should not be done independently and when to work with others to collaborate. In my opinion education is not something that can be done alone which is why I think this book would be a good resource in understanding how I can bring what I know to others and how we can learn to work together.

 

  As I reflected on my future learning goals as an educator I noticed a common trend. Every goal I have ends with my students in mind but starts with me. Teaching is a challenging profession where no two days are alike yet at the same time the focus is the same, your students. For me it is important to always preach what I practice by continuing to research ways to better myself for students and to teach them to do the same, while at the same time encouraging collaboration in my classroom while prompting it myself within my profession.