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Finding Excellent Educators To Emulate

866529_feedback_form_excellentAs my fifth year of teaching came to a close, I began thinking back on my teaching career. When I student taught, I had wonderful teachers to work with. I got to conduct a piece on the Christmas concert (in the semester I was supposed to be observing), and even got to fully rehearse one piece for the spring trip. That’s not too common these days, from what I have gathered.

So in that sense, I have been surrounded by great educators from the beginning. As teachers, we really need to consciously endeavor to surround ourselves with great educators. These can come in various ways, some of which are not what you might expect.

The most obvious place
Whatever subject you teach, odds are you have a team of some sort. Maybe it’s the other Social Studies teachers, maybe it’s a middle school with teaming, so it’d be all of the other core subject teachers on your team. Perhaps you are the only teacher of your subject in your school. There are probably other teachers of the same subject in your school district. There are generally at least one or two in that subgroup who have more experience than you. Learn from them. Even if all you learn is what you never intend to do. Everyone has something to teach you; you must go out there and be willing to learn.

Where to look next
After you have identified one or two other good teachers in your small circle, expand the circle. The natural expansion of this would be other teachers in your school, other teachers in your school district, other teachers of your subject in other districts. Go out and network. Do some personal marketing, and meet other people who will teach you stuff, either directly or indirectly. Even some administrators used to be good teachers.

The not-so-obvious places
I have found that there are many people out there with the heart of a teacher. Personally, some of the best teaching I have ever had was in church. Not every pastor has the heart of a teacher, but many of them do. Podcasting is a great way to listen to a wide variety of teachers. I also listen to Dave Ramsey and read Seth Godin’s blog. These two gentlemen are incredible teachers. Teachers spread ideas. One of my college professors told me that telling is not teaching. How many of us miss that! Telling someone to do something is usually not enough. There must be inspiration along with it. There must be motivation.

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So now what?
Now that you have identified these great teachers, begin asking them questions. We’ll discuss some questions that aspiring great educators should be asking others soon.

Joel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.

Joel Wagner
Joel Wagner (<strong><a href="http://www.twitter.com/sywtt">@sywtt</a></strong>) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. <strong><a href="http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/">So You Want To Teach?</a></strong> is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.
http://www.SoYouWantToTeach.com

2 thoughts on “Finding Excellent Educators To Emulate

  1. I think another place to look is to the most senior teacher you have. There is a reason these people are still in it. They have found a way to survive the system. While their teaching style may seem dated or not similar to yours at first glance, once you get to know them I bet you will find that they have distilled the coming and going trends into what is simply good teaching. We have had several teachers with 30+ years at our elementary school. Our admin. tried hard to force them out and eventually did. I have stayed in touch with these retired teachers who still have a lot of wisdom to share about the long term picture of a school and the community.

  2. That’s a great idea. I know that sometimes the most senior teachers are quickly on their way out because they have become burned out by teaching…

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