Every few weeks, we have a teachers’ meeting or professional development before school starts. I do everything I can to make sure teachers are out of the meeting and back in their classrooms before buses pull up to drop our 700 students at the front door.
But several months ago, our staff got caught up in conversation and lost track of time. I was shocked to hear the bell ring, the one that announces that bus doors are flapping open and students are on their way in. Teachers scurried out the door of our library, where we hold our staff meetings, just as a large group of students began flowing by. I stood by the library doors.
The kids were spellbound, slowing to peek in the library door to see what was happening.
“What are the teachers doing?” they asked me. “Why were they all in there?”
“They’re learning,” I responded. “Just like you do when you go to school.”
“Like me?” Eyebrows crinkled on incredulous faces.
“Just like you.”
“Teachers learn?”
“Every day.”
The students grinned, or shrugged, or said something along the lines of “That’s cool.” Some looked a little dubious, like they needed a little more proof.
But they all walked toward class thinking about it—about their teachers spending time before school doing some learning together. They saw teachers doing the exact thing we ask them to come in and do every day.
Students like to know their teachers are learning. They like the idea that teachers don’t already know everything, and that there are things teachers find interesting, new, and thought-provoking. Something might be different for them in their classrooms that day, or in the coming weeks, because of an early-morning conversation or inspiration.
And they like thinking about learning as a community, too—seeing teachers hang out, talk, and think together. Kids enjoy the collegiality they see among teachers. Years ago, when I was a student, I remember feeling uniquely happy and somehow relieved when I saw evidence that my teachers liked one another and enjoyed working together.
Seeing all of this makes students view their teachers as more human. More childlike, perhaps. More like them.
It’s why I like it when teachers talk openly to their students about being learners. And why I like it when students are asked to give input on that learning. In the past months, I’ve heard teachers use conversations starters with their classes such as these:
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I read a new book this weekend. I’m so excited to tell you about it and hear what you think.
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This morning in our teacher meeting, we talked about some new things, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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This weekend, I am going to a conference on literacy. Who knows what that even means?
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I do a lot of reading about being a better teacher. What are some things you think I should try to learn about? I’m sure I can find a book to match.
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When the other teachers on our team meet, we share ideas on how to . . .
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What do you wish we did more of in this class?
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I hope I get more effective as a teacher every day. How do you work to be a better student? How are these the same?
Those are just a few ideas to launch deeper conversations with students about being lifelong learners, sharing learning, and how the learning we do as educators really does come around, circle-like, to reinforce the experience of every person involved. It lowers teachers from a “know-it-all” status to an “always learning” status. It makes us connected in the same mission, and solidifies us as a community of learners.
