I'm a Pollyanna and I'm Glad About It

I always thought the best teachers were the old ones who had seen everything and knew what to do in every situation. But, my first year of teaching was the best year in my classroom regarding learning. I had it all figured out, even though I didn't know it at the time. After an intense summer of Montessori training, I told myself that I wouldn't focus on getting the lessons right, but that I would focus on setting up the right environment for my students to learn. I did this without the right materials, without adequate classroom furniture, and without experience.

My goal that year was to love each of my students. In doing that, I made a point to know each one of them and ended up making them comfortable enough to be able to learn. I spent oodles of time watching them and learned much about what they needed. I also spent a lot of time listening to their ideas and stories, which taught me a lot.

One student spent several minutes at the start of each day recounting everything he did after school the day before and that morning, catching me up on everything I missed. I almost always listened, and when I didn't make the time, it usually took me a day or two to make it up to him. That student needed the daily morning debrief and he would be set for the whole day. That's what he needed.

Another student needed to do her work standing up. She needed to walk a lap around the classroom about every 10 minutes. If allowed to do this, she had all of her work done by lunch and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon reading, giving lessons to others students, and working on new lessons and projects.

I could recount for you the 22 other unique situations that I had in my classroom that year. No two students needed the same thing. Some of the things they needed I wouldn't have ever figured out if they hadn't trusted me enough to tell me or if I hadn't taken the time to observe. (For those who are wondering, I set aside 30 minutes a day for observation, which means that I really got to do 60-90 minutes of observation per week.

There was one student who was smarter than me. He was six years old. Well, okay, there were two students there that first year who were definitely smarter than me, but I'm going to talk about the one who has really stuck with me. The first weeks of school as we were doing creation stories, he and I had several conversations about the meaning of life. He decided that his purpose was to figure out his purpose (to learn) and that mine was to love others. He actually told me my life's purpose. This kid was six years old and I was 24 and I didn't realize my calling until he told it to me. (He was right, by the way, and I try to not assume that I know more just because I'm older because a lot of the time, I don't.)

Some of my students were more difficult to love than others, and I admit that there was one that I never figured out how to love. She was intelligent but unmotivated and I spent an entire year trying to figure out what she needed. I never did figure it out. I should also take a moment to say that I was by no means an excellent teacher. I just felt inspired that first year and I believe it showed in the level of learning and interest of my students.


My second year of teaching was the worst year ever in my classroom. Two-thirds of my classroom was the same students as the previous year, but everyone suffered that year. I blame myself. I thought my goal should be different that year: to get students to learn something. I forgot to love them! Sure, I loved most of them anyway, but the atmosphere was so different, it's amazing we survived. Actually, by my third year, four students I would have had ended up in a different class, school, or city. This was totally traumatic for me as a teacher because it was a glaring wake up call that I had failed. There were four definite casualties who physically left, but there were many others who would carry with me into the following years. I didn't want to fail them again.

I got my kids to succeed through observation and love. The other part of my point is that the goal of teaching shouldn't be anything related to test scores. In coming blog post, I will talk about why worrying about test scores will actually make students dumber.

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