You could be a master of teaching strategies. So organized you can find a pen, every time. Never miss a day of school. Have a beefy lesson plan book that’s filled up and fully differentiated. You could have all of that, and more. And still be missing something. Still miss knowing your kids. Beyond their names and score reports. After reading about a bill in Missouri that would tie teacher performance evaluation to test scores, I immediately thought about all of the people, outside of schools, who think they understand. But don’t.
Why is teaching more than a score? I know a teacher who left school during her planning time to get a student a special stuffed dog and sympathy card when his pet passed away. I know a teacher who paid $20 in her kids lunch fund so he could have a hot lunch. I know another teacher who visited a student in the hospital after she had surgery. I know a teacher who drove an hour to find enough tooth picks for her class to build bridges and test engineering plans. I could keep going. I know hundreds of stories about great teachers. People I’ve been lucky enough to call colleagues and friends. Stories that would make you smile and inspire you.
And stories that would make you forget about score reports.
I can tell you my students’ pets’ names, their siblings, their stories about home and family, their likes, dislikes, fears, hopes, and dreams. I know these things because I am their teacher. My number one goal is for my students to become everything they dream of, and if they have no dreams, my goal is to help them find one. Along the way, they learn. Facts and knowledge are woven together through character, connections, real life, and real learning. Problem solving, creativity, and thinking are the forefront. Life is real. Not a score.
But scores are what some will try to say makes a “Great Teacher.” Scores that people across the state, country, and in offices far away read and judge. Taking every personal connection from the profession. A profession that’s built on personal connections. Most of us can remember that “Great Teacher” we had as a child. A teacher we had a connection with us so strong that it has lasting effects ten, twenty, even forty years later. A teacher that changed our lives. A teacher who recognized his or her job was about far more than numbers.