Digging into this issue quickly leads most teachers to the realization that there are “too many words” in their content area, and many teachers struggle to define which words students should be held accountable for learning…..and how teaching and learning words might vary, depending on how the word might be used by students long-term.

I’ve spent the last year learning as much as I can about vocabulary instruction, and like so many others, I still often feel like I am swimming in a vast ocean of information that we’ve only begun to dip a toe into. Much of what I share with teachers comes from Robert Marzano’s work, but I found Janet Allen’s book, Words, Words, Words  to be helpful as well, in that it provides solid information about tiering words, a process that enables teachers to begin “categorizing” the many words that their students confront in a given year. Once this task is accomplished, decisions can be made about how to best instruct and assess around the words. Allen provides important strategies for practicing and assessing vocabulary that move beyond defining words and using them in sentences (which, apparently, some studies have shown causes regression in vocabulary development over time).

Many of the teachers that I worked with last year revamped their instructional practices and have begun incorporating the use of word walls, performance-based assessments, and considerations for learning styles. Several districts have developed grade-level formative assessments that will be used to study vocabulary development over the course of the year, using writing samples and rubrics that are very similar to the 6+1 Traits rubrics that so many of us are familiar with.

I am eager to see how these assessments work for teachers…specifically, whether or not they provide them with the information that they are hoping to gather.

I am also eager to hear from others who might be focusing on vocabulary instruction and assessment………it seems to be a solid place to begin helping students maximize their learning potential.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to listen to him speak at the closing session of the Western New York BOCES High School’s New Face Conference in Ellicottville. Truth be told, I was not looking forward to this. Having spent three days having every last brain cell that I possessed pushed to its absolute limit, I was more than ready to hop in the car and head for home, where the most cerebral thing I planned to do was order a pizza and celebrate the fact that my children survived three days at home alone with their father (a situation that might have forced me to go completely postal).

I’m glad I stuck around.

Peters’s message was a simple one: in order to teach your students, you must first come to know them…deeply. Having accomplished that task, you can then go about the business of inspiring them to learn. Sounds simple, right?

Um…………maybe not so much. Of course, we all strive to do exactly what Peters spent an hour motivating our group to do yesterday. Contrary to what some people may believe, most of the teachers that I work with each year have the best of intentions. I know very few who seem to be in the field simply because they would like their summers off.

Schools can be toxic places. Not only for students, but for the teachers that work in them as well. Ask any teacher at the secondary level what a typical work day requires of them, and they will mention the realities of full class loads that amount to 140+ students per day. They will tell you about class periods that might last as little as 35 minutes—on a day free of assemblies. They will reflect upon the weeks of instruction lost to test prep that they feel pressured to fit in. They will tell you about the students they can’t reach, the parents who don’t care and the ones who care more about their child’s “self esteem” than they do about holding the little darling accountable for anything. There are teachers who will tell you that they have to fight to secure necessary resources for their classrooms. I have a friend who teaches at the elementary level who has spent the last fifteen years of her career purchasing toilet paper for the restroom in her wing.

The reality is this: teaching demands so much more of a person than the effective construction and execution of a lesson plan. Teaching requires confronting all of the issues above…and many more. And it requires doing so in isolation, much of the time. Teachers spend their days in classrooms, fighting the good fight, alone.

Yesterday, Stephen Peters asked a room full of educators to recall who their favorite teacher was and to remember exactly what it was about that teacher that made them so memorable. We all had the same story to tell, and I’m sure you can guess what was shared. Our favorite teachers were the ones that made us feel like we mattered. Our favorite teachers engaged us, and they were able to do so because they knew us. And they came to know us because they genuinely respected us. Even when we didn’t bring the very best of ourselves into the classroom each day. Even when we refused to pay attention, forgot our homework, or responded to a finely crafted lesson with supreme apathy. Our favorite teachers kept right on trying, in the face of that.  They knew it was part of the job. Some of them even knew that it was the best part of the job: turning kids on to learning, in the face of all of that negativity.

Our favorite teachers let us be human, with all of our flaws, and they inspired us to want to do better. It wasn’t about meeting their agenda, so that they could feel like teacher of the year. It was about inviting us to the table, and making us feel included, no matter who we were or where we came from. It was about making us feel like we COULD do it. It was about respecting us for trying our best, even when we didn’t perform as well as we wanted to. Because doing our absolute best was and still remains the highest standard in this standards-based world we teach and learn in today.

Above all, it was the absence of judgment, shame, and perfectionism. It was the absence of fear.

Peters’s message and his personal story resonated with all of us in the room. But one piece of that message meant a great deal to me as a former teacher and as someone who spends her time training teachers today. And I’ve been wondering this: How much more effective could teachers be if those in positions of leadership in their buildings and districts and regions and states left their assumptions about teachers aside and truly took the time to inspire them? To respect them? How much more effective could teachers be if they entered their classrooms each day knowing that they were not going to be judged, shamed, or subjected to perfectionistic standards? How does one do their best to inspire teachers? How do we go about inviting teachers back to the table that so many of them have walked away from?

I think that these are important questions that people in positions like mine need to grapple with. Because the fact of the matter is this: our favorite teachers treated us like worthwhile human beings. It was that simple, and it was that complex. For a brief but very important moment yesterday, Stephen Peters suggested that educational leaders at all levels might begin to treat teachers in the same way. My guess is that this has always been their intention all along. My guess is that they would appreciate being humanized themselves.

I began this blog as a participant in Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s cohort at the High School’s New Face conference. I honestly haven’t given a whole lot of thought as to how I might use it as a tool for teachers, for staff developers, or anyone else who might be reading. But my hope is that I can create a tiny space here in this ocean of information that might be of service to educators out there who are thoughtful and interested in improving their practice. A place for all of our favorite teachers and those who are striving each day to become that teacher for the students they work with every day.

So…welcome! I am excited about growing this blog into something useful.

Angela Stockman