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Falling in Love with the Intellectual Work of Teaching



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Because teaching is such a difficult profession, educators and administrators alike are often searching for tools and programs that make teaching easier.  On the surface, this seems like a really good idea.  Putting effort into easing the stress of teachers has to be good for kids, right?  In some cases this proves to be true, but what we choose to simplify makes all the difference.
   
A phrase that really makes me cringe is “why reinvent the wheel?”  It’s a phrase that’s usually followed by a hasty Google search, only to bring up something that’s beautifully packaged from Teachers Pay Teachers or Pinterest.  For a small fee, we can have an answer at our fingertips; but what are we sacrificing in the meantime?  

I will proudly state here and now that I am a teacher nerd.  The work that many teachers shy away from, I’m first in line to do.  You know the stuff - curriculum writing, unpacking standards, unit design, writing assessments, analyzing data.  That is the work that inspires me and gets my creative juices flowing.  It forces me to question myself, what I’ve done in the past, what’s worked and where I can improve.  It focused my work in the classroom, deepened my content and pedagogical knowledge, and built my capacity.  That's not to mention that the collaborative nature of that work strengthened my team and made us more efficient and effective so that we could better serve our students.

I think we can do better.  Instead of searching for prescribed solutions or scripted programs to take care of this work for us, let’s embrace autonomy and trust our professional judgement.  You don’t have to have a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction to build engaging units of instruction that serve a wide range of students.  All you need is determination, and a willingness to try.  I urge you to develop solutions based on the students in your classrooms rather than accepting someone else’s solution at face value.  Utilize the resources at your fingertips: draw from the writings of experts in the field, collaborate with master teachers in your building, pull in the instructional coaches or other specialists in your district, or reach out to your PLN (like me!) for support.  I guarantee that if you take a leap of faith and start to dig in, you too will become a teacher nerd, and your students will thank you.

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