You know that feeling when you experience a breakthrough with a student who finally gets it or pushes past obstacles and you can see the pride in their face when they have achieved their goal? It’s those powerful moments as an educator that make everything worth it, that sustain us through the challenges that we face as educators because you can see that you are making a difference. These are the moments that we teach for. This is why I am drawn to teach. I love teaching because I can help others see that their ideas matter and help them build the confidence and skills to learn and growth to reach their full potential.

I recently had the opportunity to experience the profound impact of an educator as a parent on the receiving end of this immense gift.

Know Your Learners

Zack is my youngest and has always been a very sweet and caring boy. He is known to be a great friend and one who always makes sure the new kids in class are included and loves when everyone can play and get along together. He loves playing sports and winning and most importantly his coaches have always commended him on his “coachability” and sportsmanship, which makes us so proud. He leaves me sweet notes or sends me his favorite GIFs when I travel. Zack recently made the leap from binge reading Captain Underpants to devouring the Harry Potter series. Through this, he also determined that according to the very “scientifically based” test that he is a Hufflepuff, and very proud of it. For those of you who are not well versed in Harry Potter, which I was not, Hufflepuff characteristics include a strong sense of justice, loyalty, patience, and a propensity for hard work. Here is the test to find out what you are if you are interested (bit.ly/hpbquiz). 

I am sharing this because like all parents, I think the world of my son, but also because I want you to have the context of who my son is and how I see him before I share how he was seen in school. 

This was his mid-year progress report card that we received in the mail. 

Although Zack is funny, curious, and caring, among so many other things, he wasn’t always recognized for those traits in school.  What was measured and valued often didn’t paint the picture holistically of who he is, including a holistic account of his strengths and challenges.  He had mostly 2s out of 4s on his report card in the first marking period and what is even worse is that we saw his scores declined into the second marking period.

When I looked at a sample of his work, I could certainly make the argument that his work clearly earned those 1s and 2s. He had one word answers and penmanship that was hard to read. The grading and lack of meaningful feedback in the form of a few question marks that he received from his teacher, confirm that this type of schooling is certainly not working, as Zack had so painfully shared. 

Zack was in a school that was rated very high on conventional metrics, based on their exceptional test scores. I also know that his teacher cared about him and all her students. She was working very hard in a system that was designed for an industrial era. The result was often standardization, compliance, isolated content and completion of tasks. Like all systems, it was designed to get the results that it got. 

A Learner-Centered Environment

Fast forward to the following school year, Zack came home in the first few weeks and said, Mom, did you know I’m smart? I said, “Of course I do Buddy, but what made you realize it?

He explained, “Ms.Hassey gave us a really hard math problem and we all used our own strategies to figure it out. She picked mine to share with the class!” 

It was a simple and powerful strategy that began to shift his mindset. This validation and encouragement that he had value and could solve problems in ways that made sense to him instead of just completing the worksheet, was one of many breakthroughs that he experienced as a result of a caring educator who intentionally created a learner-centered environment. His teacher was focused on developing knowledge, skills, and mindsets of learners and to do so created an equitable learning community that prioritized personalization, learner agency, authentic work, and competency-based assessment.

As we sat around the table in his student-led conference, I listened to Zack talk about what made him special and what he was proud of. He was very proud of his work and able to articulate what he was learning- i.e.,the academic skills like autobiographical and biographical writing, opinion writing, poetry, graphing, communication, tone, and reflection. He was also learning about being an upstander, a person who uses their power to stand up for others. His project was called “Get Up, Stand Up” and the focus was to create a caring community of students who understand themselves deeply and can empathize and advocate for themselves and others. He researched and described the attributes of an upstander, wrote and shared his gratitude in a poem about his grandparents’ dog, which he thinks is his, and described the adversity that J.K. Rowling faced, who he wrote a biography about. My favorite part was this autobiographical writing project. He wrote his personality facts and described himself as funny, clever, creative, imaginative, energetic, and handsome- clearly humility is not one of his traits. 

We all celebrated his unique gifts that we saw in him and then he proceeded to present his slide show he had prepared. He talked about how he has grown as a writer, reader, and mathematician. With each slide he shared the skills that they learned, his strengths, challenges, and goals. He was articulate, proud and honest about his next steps as a learner. It was a dramatic shift in his confidence and competence from the year prior. 

After Zack presented his work to us, Ms. Hassey shared her assessment of where he was in relationships to academic norms on reading, writing and math assessment, what standards he had mastered and which ones he still needed to work on. More importantly, she shared, “Zack is a wonderful friend. Zack jumped right into his new class and has flourished. Zack understands the importance of making others feel included. Zack has a healthy, diverse range of friends and is considered a good friend by many. Zack’s positive and welcoming spirit is impressive for his age.” In that moment, it was so clear why Zack was flourishing– he has a teacher and a community who saw him for his many gifts, just as we get to see outside of school. To be fair, she also acknowledges his areas of growth, “Zack Is working on compromising and problem solving by meeting in the middle of multiple people’s point of view.” Yup. She really gets him and we continue to work on this at home too. 

The Impact of a Teacher

I barely held back the tears and asked him what had changed to make such a dramatic improvement in his writing. He said, “I decided that I really wanted people to be able to read and understand my ideas so I slowed down and have been trying much harder to organize my ideas.” All attempts to keep it together were a lost cause and through tears, all I could say was, “I am so proud of you!” but I was feeling so much more. Relieved, hopeful, inspired and so grateful for his amazing teacher. 

I am incredibly grateful for the teachers who have helped both of our kids love school, feel more confident, and develop the skills and mindsets that we believe are critical. The impact of a teacher who sees their students as individuals, who get to know them and cultivates their creativity and curiosity while developing academic skills are invaluable.

The difference in the two classrooms was not the standards, accountability systems, and resources, it was an intentional choice to focus on learners and learning first and then design their systems, policies, and learning experiences to meet them where they are and grow them as the unique and special individuals that they are becoming.