One of the tech people came into my classroom to fix the projector…because naturally the day I planned to present most of my lessons via the projector was the day it decided not to work. My ancient tech background’s diagnosis was that it was unplugged, but there was such a morass of cables and wires underneath the desk, I didn’t dare touch anything.
Anyway…
After he plugged it back in (not so ancient…) he started chatting with me about teaching and one of the things he said really got me thinking. He said something like, “When you spend years earning a Ph.D. and then have to teach beginners, isn’t it kind of too easy to do that?” The way he posed the question led me to believe he was suggesting it was kind of demeaning to know so much and then have to go back and teach a developmental English class.
First of all, I don’t have a Ph.D. so there’s that. But the question intrigued me. I don’t know, I said, I think it’s a lot easier to teach typical students than emerging ones. When a class’s ability is somewhat level, I can deliver content at a pace at which most students not only get but can comprehend and run with. I get much more consistently crafted and confident papers with higher-level students.
It’s the emerging ones, the developing ones that test my skills and pedagogy. In a class of 20 students, there are 20 different learning styles. It’s the same with that English 101 class, too, but for those learners, there is a greater self-confidence in acquiring new knowledge. In a developmental class, a couple of students might “get it” and another few “kind of get it,” then others are still looking up the password on their phone so they can log into the class website. And one needs to borrow a pen. The trick is to keep the pace steady enough for the students who can keep up, but also allow for the ones who need more time, assistance or support to not feel like they’re falling behind. It’s not that easy at all and it truly keeps me on my toes. I have to be like Sauron, with my eye constantly casting about the classroom ready to pounce on any hint of comprehension. Because as I recently heard in a workshop, “proficiency isn’t always an indicator of ability.” I want to be ready when ability shows up for them.
I’m not always ready, in fact, I’m pretty sure I miss a lot. Years ago when I was a Professional Development Specialist (it sounds more glamourous than it was) I heard someone say this about teaching: There are some teachers who teach for thirty years and some who teach 1 year thirty times. I’ve never forgotten it and I believe it has helped me create a pedagogy that invites collaboration, with other teachers but more importantly, with my students. I’ve had such a varied experience in education—from paraeducator to adjunct faculty—the content I develop and the lessons I teach can almost never be repetitive. I am constantly reinventing my pedagogy so I can be a better teacher.
But it’s not just in teaching, is it? The more we know about anything—not just English—but children, people, life experiences, love, the more we can extend our own understanding to others. As Maya Angelou says, “"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." We all, most of us, know what to do, when to do it and how to do it. There are a million reasons to prevent us, but the knowing shows up, doesn’t it? And no matter how much we try to ignore it, once you know how to do something better, slowly but surely, it becomes our way of doing things.
Whether it’s hard or not.
It takes all that having a PhD accomplishment implies, to meaningfully teach developmental English. Lots of people do not want to teach it, because that student-teacher collaboration is a high-energy problem-solving endeavor. Some teachers do phone it in, teaching one class for thirty years, but you definitely go all out, Cindy. Bravo! XO, Tracy