The Experts

I was watching TV last night and a commercial came on that kind of inspired me to think a little bit about the profession of teaching or education, in general.  It was a Best Buy commercial.  There was a group of employees playing around with some of the tablets/laptops and a question was posed: "What makes us the experts?"  The answer to that question: "We take our work home with us."  This was obviously speaking about the fact that Best Buy is allowing their employees to take the devices home to "play" with so they have a better understanding of how to use each device.  I don't know if Best Buy actually does this with all of their employees in that specific department, but it is implied.  This question/answer got me thinking about "experts" as a whole.  Who are the experts in any career or job?

Personally, I think the experts are exactly as Best Buy states, the ones who take their work home.  Now let me explain myself before you close out of this page because I am not considerate.  It is my full belief that we have too many teachers who work 7:30-3:30 and that is all.  They are solely working based on a contract, attached to it without any flexibility.  These are the teachers who show up promptly at 7:30am and are packing up at 3:15 so they can be sure they are walking out the door at 3:30pm.  They are impossible to contact outside school hours, and any other work is solely reserved for prep time or the half hour before school actually begins.  These teachers are not all bad, that is not what I am getting at, but It is my belief that they have lost a lot of the passion for teaching because they are more attached to a contract than they are to their profession as a whole.

Experts don't have to be those intimidating people who present at staff development or big conferences.  Some of the experts can be found in the building in which you work.  These are the people who are teachers full time, who work outside of the building, who are invested in the school as a whole.  Time is an issue and many teachers have families and I understand that.  I coach, I have a wife, I have 13 month old son at home, I like reading and watching television, but I always find time for my career because I am passionate about it.  I'm not saying bring your grading home and call it good.  What I am saying is to turn your brain on at home, reflect and think about what to do differently in your classroom.  What can you change to better your classroom.  I replace some of my TV watching and reading time with research devoted to reading blogs, twitter chats, and articles about new practices and technologies in education.  I do this because I never want to be that person who thinks or says: "I can't do this because we haven't learned it in professional development."  I want to be the person who says/thinks: "I can do this, because i want my classroom to be better."  If the only things we are ever trying to implement come from professional development that's a lot of information that is not being presented.  Think about, professional development really does not take that much time...you probably have about 5 full days a year, with some 2 hour sessions sprinkled about?  I don't know about you, but that is really not that much time.  Some of the best professional development I have had has been self implemented.  Self implemented meaning I am discovering things on my own time.  This is how a few of us teachers decided to implement 20% time, how we implemented the 1:1 initiative, PBL, Freedom based learning, new forms of assessment, etc.  These self discovery sessions have led to me giving presentations to the staff in the form of professional development.

I would even go as far as saying that to work outside of school, you don't even need to bring anything home.  Like I said before, a lot of this work is simply thinking and reflecting, and then in turn applying those thoughts to your daily lessons.  I type out my lesson plans at the start of each week.  If I had a dollar for every time I stuck to those lesson plans every week, I wouldn't have any money.  I change things constantly  because I go home and think about things, I read about things and say to myself, "I think I'll try that tomorrow."  I do this because I want to get better.  I don't think anybody will ever achieve perfection, but if I can change and make the classroom experience better why wouldn't I.  I don't ever want to be that person that looks back and thinks, "I've been doing this for the past 5 years so might as well continue."  I want to be the person that says, "I haven't tried this, I wonder if it will work."  Trail and error is effective and it takes that thinking and reflecting to implement effectively.  Ask yourself, when was the last time I truly took a leap and did something spontaneous in my classroom, or something I was unsure of?  I try to do this at least once a week, and on some occasions I have done it daily.  The best part, I love it, I feel like I am getting more out of my career when I take these leaps, and the students attach to it as well, which the overall goal.

The experts in any school building are the ones invested, in the building and out of it.  I give credit to a lot of the staff I work with, because they are reflecting, and finding things constantly.  These are the experts.  These are the people who I enjoy working with and who I can have great conversations with.  How do you accomplish expertise?  Be an educator full time, extend that contract a little for yourself, change how you are doing things, implement things past designated professional development, be truly invested in what you are doing.