Professional Reading - 1

Professional Reading Reflection EPPSP Phase II
Date: September 2, 2020

Student Name: Carolyn Gassmann
Title of Article or Book: Five Habits of Highly Effective Teachers
Author(s): Neil H. Bright
Publication Name and Date (articles only): AASA: The Superintendents Association, October
2011 https://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=20462
Summary:
In this segment from AASA, author Neil H. Bright walks through the five, in his opinion, most
important habits and mindsets of highly effective teachers. Throughout the article he makes
many connections between teaching and theatrical performances. To begin the article, he states,
“A role for administrators: Articulating the mind-set and practices of instructional performers.”
Starting with such a quote immediately notes his view of an administrator’s role in a teacher’s
performance, which aligns with what a quote from our most recent class meeting that,
“Observation and feedback are not to evaluate teachers, but to find the most effective way to
coach them to improve student learning.” Both of these ideas put student success in the hands of
teachers, while offering the importance of the role of an administrator to support and flourish the
best practices of teachers to ensure student success.
After establishing the importance of an effective teacher in the classroom and tying in the role of
the administrator, Bright goes on to discuss the five habits he believes the most effective teachers
practice in their classrooms.
The first of those habits is taking a wider view of student success. To him, this means that
teachers are not only focused on students’ success in the classroom, but also with their success
throughout life. He states that when teachers acknowledge their role in students’ whole lives, as
opposed to just their academic ones, they are able to create more meaningful work for students.
So often, teachers claim there is “no time” for projects or lessons that require student creative or
labor-intensive work. Bright believes that, in reality, many teachers choose to steer away from
these types of activities solely because they lack comfort in facilitating them. He states,
“mediocre educators deliver lessons less focused on student futures than on their own more
comfortable pasts.”
To combat this, Bright suggests that curriculum is viewed through a series of three filters—the
first is the state-mandated curricula, the standards. The second is, simply, reality, and the third is
whether the activity or assignment is beneficial to kids.
Bright then moves to the second effective teacher habit, recognizing instruction as performance.
He compares teaching to a sales job by saying that students buy in to a lesson’s importance based
on how a teacher “sells” it. He states what so many educators already know, that students will
not learn if they are not engaged. He continues his performance analogy by mentioning
performance tactics that ensure in-class success. In the same way an unrehearsed actor struggles
through a performance with little confidence, eye contact, and pace control, an unrehearsed
teacher struggles through a lesson. When a teacher is uncomfortable with the material they are
instructing, they can quickly lose classroom control and student attention. Additionally, teacher
and student movement are, as Bright believes, elements to a successful classroom. When a
teacher is moving about, the students must exert effort to engage their minds. When students are
moving about, they are engaging their whole selves in learning, thus causing putting more
personal effort into their academics.
The third habit noted is internalizing personal accountability. Academic downturn can easily be
excused by a multitude of factors—low family support, “bad apples”, poor previous teachers, or
an approaching break. The reality of the situation is that the teacher is always in control. If the
teacher uses that control for good, student success will commence. If that control is ignored,
student stagnancy with continue.
Habit four is to understand student motivation. Here Bright emphasizes the fact that most
students are motivated to learn—specifically in terms of memorizing song lyrics, studying
famous sports plays, or strategizing in video games. He points out that the best teachers
recognize this type of motivation and approach teaching and learning in a similar fashion. He
points out that many students struggle with expending energy on “trivial” pursuits. He
emphasizes the importance of gaining student buy-in by helping them to see the applicability of
an assignment to their life.
Finally, habit five notes that the best educators continue to focus on instructional improvement.
Bright states that, “the best teachers have an insatiable appetite bot for good student results and
for their own learning.” He adds the “why” of this by noting that the best educators realize the
more they learn, the more they recognize their own ignorance, which results in a “willingness to
challenge past practices, a fearlessness to try new approaches, and an unyielding drive to do what
is right for kids.”
Reflection:
At first read, it is easy to look at this article through the eyes of a teacher and think, “I do this”,
“I don’t do that”, and “I’m really trying to improve on this”. However, upon reading it through a
second time, I was able to take the mindset of a future school leader and read with the question
of, “how can an administrator encourage these characteristics in all teachers in the building?” in
mind. As I reflect, I will note my thoughts on an administrator’s role in developing each of these
habits in his or her staff.
Habit one, taking a wider view of student success, is something that can go hand in hand with
learning differentiation. If an administrator sees a teacher taking a very “one size fits all”
approach to instruction, he or she may encourage that teacher to work in collaboration with a
special education or resource teacher to differentiate lessons to more accurately meet all students
where they are and assist them in growing from that point. By working in tandem with a resource
teacher on differentiation, every student will be able to access the content in a more meaningful
way and meet individual short and long term learning goals.
Looking at habit two, recognizing instruction as performance, I can see that this could be an area
of discomfort for many teachers, specifically ones who are used to a more traditional classroom
setting. This habit discusses teacher and student movement throughout the classroom. An
administrator could encourage growth in this area by advising the teacher to focus on delivering
instruction from various locations in the classroom, having students share their knowledge more
freely, or incorporating intentional movement breaks to stimulate students’ brains. A teacher who
sees a classroom as rows of desks with a teacher at the front of the room delivering instruction
may have a difficult time working on these strategies, but it should be noted that they do not
need to occur all at once. Instead, the teacher may choose to spend a few days trying to deliver
instruction from the side of the classroom to spark student engagement, and work his or her way
up to moving about the classroom while teaching and eventually incorporating more of the
aforementioned strategies.
Habit three, internalizing personal accountability, can be exceptionally difficult for many
teachers. Walking through the halls of a school, it is not hard to hear comments like “She
wouldn’t be doing so poorly if she just sat down and paid attention” or “His mom never answers
my messages. No wonder he’s failing.” Placing blame on external factors is easy to do and
makes educators feel more comfortable with student underperformance. However, the truth is
that every educator has the ability to increase student motivation and mindset. I believe that an
administrator sets this precedent, and must do so to the whole school from the start of the school
year. If it is addressed that the school will have a no excuses policy on student growth, then
teachers should begin to adopt that philosophy as well. It is important to note that this idea of “no
excuses on student growth” connects directly with the ideas noted under habit one, that this
student growth and success will, and should, look different for each child. This more clearly
takes into consideration the outside factors such as low parent support or student behavior, while
still keeping teachers responsible for providing each student with a chance for growth and
success.
Habit four, understanding student motivation, can be tricky, because it requires out-of-the-box
thinking, planning, and teaching. I believe that an administrator can support the most in this area
by simply affirming and encouraging teachers to structure lessons that are out-of-the-box. Many
times, it seems as though teachers fear doing things that are a bit out of the ordinary for fear of
how they may be seen by administrators. However, if administrators are vocal about supporting
teachers to create lessons that are different, but increase student motivation, teachers have a
better chance of rising to the occasion and trying new strategies that get students excited about
learning.
Finally, as seen in habit five, continue to focus on instructional improvement, teachers should
always be learning and growing in their skills and strategies. Administrators again play a crucial
role in supporting this. When possible, administrators may want to offer staff some prep time or
give away some staff meeting time to collaborate professionally with colleagues, explore new
academic tools and resources, attend a professional development session, etc. It is no secret that
teachers are asked to do many things, and when professional growth is added on top of those
“other” items, it so often gets pushed to the wayside or ignored. On the contrary, if
administrators set the precedent that professional growth and instructional improvement is
crucial, and model that philosophy or provide time for it, teachers will feel more comfortable
spending some of their time on that improvement.
Overall, an administrator truly sets the tone for creating the habits of effective teaching
throughout a building. When the administrator encourages teachers to learn and grow, supports
them in doing so, and provides grace as they navigate new situations and test out new strategies,
the individual teachers can grow, which will in turn help the school as a whole grow and
improve.

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Professional Reading Reflection EPPSP Phase II

Date: September 2, 2020

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