Since I know better, I'll do better

We did the best we could with what we knew and when we knew better, we did better. ~~Maya Angelou

I know she wasn't describing my teaching career, when she made that quote famous, but it seems like she could have been. I first read this quote by Maya Angelou when I was an undergraduate student preparing for my certification in secondary education. At that time, I was discovering books like The Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen, You Can't Say You Can't Play by Vivian Gussen Paley, Savage Inequalities: Children In America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol, Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn, and Affirming Diversity by Sonia Nieto. I was examining the classrooms in which I had been a successful student, developing my own vision of education, and beginning to fill my teacher toolbox with strategies. The crux of my vision as a new teacher was to create a safe place where every one of my students felt respected, valued, supported, challenged, and safe to use his/her voice. I was emailing, I was creating my own handouts, projects and activities using my computer, and I had an internet connection. My first school had no open computer labs. If I wanted to use computers with my students, I could sign up to take them to library, where they could share a total of 14 computers. I was a brand new teacher, developing my curriculum, testing out classroom management strategies, and trying to successfully swim in the sea of school politics. Integrating technology into my classroom, if it even seemed possible, wasn't even on my radar. Those students I taught in my first years learned German. I hope they also learned how to learn and that I cared about them. I taught them the best I knew how at the time.

When I started working on my Master's Degree a few years later, my classroom management strategies had definitely improved. I was more comfortable with my curriculum and more confident in my ability to revise it. In addition to wanting to provide my students with a safe and comfortable learning environment, I wanted to teach my students how to truly communicate and be confident communicators in German. I chose a program in teaching second languages and explored theories of acquisition, examined and tested methods of teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and created my own assessments for my classes. During this time, I switched schools and took on a leadership position in my building. I was using the internet to find lessons and to virtually take my students to German speaking countries. I was grading online and part of a listserve. I was filming my students' work and researching digital language lab software. The students I taught during these years also learned German. I hope they also learned how to learn and that I cared about them as well. And I sensed they learned how to communicate better in German. This hypothesis was supported when a past student returned from college and told me he couldn't believe how much his sister was learning. "She speaks better than I do," he said. Both siblings had had the same amount of German instruction. When I knew a little better, I taught my students a little better.

Over the past few years as I have been finishing up my Masters +15 and now my Masters +30, I have taken a variety of courses to help me learn more about what is best for my students and to teach them even better. I've taken continuing education courses in Classroom Management, Merging Educational Goals with Technology, Teaching 21st Century Skills, Teaching through the Learning Channels, Differentiated Instruction, Teaching English Language Learners, and Developing 21st Century Skills. I've grown to realize how very important my students' interests, backgrounds, and ability levels are and how I can design my instruction to help each student be more successful. Fortunately, each course I have taken has balanced research and theory with practical applications. As I completed a project in a course, I could turn around and use it in my classroom the next day. When I think about what I knew when I started teaching, I'm sometimes amazed that my first students learned anything at all, until I think of Maya Angelou. Those students received a good education, but now that I know even more and better, I can provide my current and future students with a better one.

When I think of what I knew in June and what I know now, I'm amazed. Just this summer I have learned how to use many multimedia tools I didn't even know existed, much less for free! I've learned how to use many Google apps include Google Docs and Google Reader. I've learned how to mindmap for free using MindMeister. I've learned how to create with Audacity, Picasa, and Movie Maker. I've learned about editing and embedding in a Wiki. I've learned how to define and articulate the need to teach and assess 21st century skills. And I've integrated 21st century skills into units I currently teach. I've also learned a little bit more about living in my students' world--a world that has really never existed without technology. I can't imagine going back to teach how I taught on Day One of my teaching career. I can't even imagine going back to teaching the same way I did in June. Not that the students who graduated in June didn't get a good education. At the time I taught them how I knew best to teach them, now that I know better, I'll do better.

I'm not sure who said it, but another quote that has always stuck out in my mind is that a person can never step into the same river twice. The person and the river are always changing. I believe that quote describes teaching too. One of the most amazing parts of my job is that it's never boring. As I teacher, I can't teach the same lesson twice. The more I teach, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I change. If I ever stop learning, that will be the time to stop teaching. My vision of education is still the same. I still seek to create a safe place where every one of my students felt respected, valued, supported, challenged, and safe to use his/her voice. The steps I take to get there are just a little different!