How does a teacher become a more creative teacher?

In “THEY TOUCHED MY LIFE” I demonstrated through the events as teaching stories what I considered the characteristics and behaviors necessary for being an effective teacher.  I portrayed a situation, explained what I did, and then I offered brief comments about what I learned.  

Besides entertaining you, I hoped to show you what teachers and children face in their daily efforts to survive in an environment that is too often traumatic and frustrating.  In many of the stories I did things which were inept and visceral responses that I would not do now.  Partly because the laws and policies have changed to meet the changing times, but more because much more is known about the physiological and psychological causes of human behavior.  

We know from evolution that most species’ changes occur over long periods.  There are many notable exceptions, but none would give validity to statements about how different children are now as compared to forty years ago.  Especially when these changes are made to appear as if there have been modifications in the physiology of children.  I think a structural analysis and comparison of children from that era to now would prove there are no major physical differences There have been dramatic changes in technology and in the power relationships between individuals and groups and within countries as well as between countries.  The rights of racial, religious, and ethnic groups as well as for women and children has given many children the belief that what each child wants is more important than his role in the group.  

This has made the old coercive methods of control less effective.  Good teachers now must rely more on persuasive techniques and rewards instead of fear and punishment.  However, coercion and persuasion are two sides of the same coin, which is control.  You saw in “Touch” how I struggled to develop a method, which was based on mutual respect.  I failed time and again because of my lack of knowledge of how to make this alternative to punishment work and because of the very different expectations of my administrators.  Further, the administrators were raised to respond to fear and then they were trained to use fear and intimidation upon teachers as well as students and parents, so they were not receptive to any changes which gave autonomy to the teacher and encouraged real independence and choice for children.

(In November of 1980 a kindergarten teacher spent an hour in my first grade room with children she had known from the previous year. While we spoke children occasionally came over and asked me a question, but basically the class ran itself.  They knew what they had to do and they knew where to get help from others or resources in the room.  When they were done they could have “earned time” to draw, paint, read, or play games.  They were independent.  She was amazed because she had seen them behave “like babies” all year with their previous teacher.  The principal, a sensitive and bright woman had asked me, to “salvage” them, which I had done.)

People raised to believe that coercion is necessary to motivate children see mutual respect as weakness and ineffectiveness.  In one anecdote a different principal only noticed the noise in my room and completely missed the intellectual excitement as the children and I argued and shouted out ideas about what constituted a living thing as opposed to an inanimate object.  Later, I was given a lecture from her about not following my lesson plan as well as losing control.  She had no clue that the class and I were experiencing Socratic education at its highest level.  All she could see was that I had gone over the twenty minutes for science as stated on my lesson plan, which meant to her that I had “cheated” them of twenty-five minutes of their language time.

In many schools this would still be the scenario because teachers seldom get the autonomy to follow their training and intelligence, but must conform to rigid time, space, and policy structures. Where are the joy, the fun, and the excitement that should be part of learning?  Of course, learning is also effort, concentration and hard work, but where is the balance?  Everywhere you turn you read about how administrations and school boards keep trying to “teacher-proof” the curriculum to insure the children work hard.  In “Touch” you saw how a teacher who refuses to let himself be “teacher-proofed” makes mistakes, but he and his children grow in knowledge, power, independence, and often – joy.

What is an effective teacher?  

In  “Touch” I let you see my evolution as a teacher.  In “Becoming A More Creative Teacher” I give you what I believe are the most important characteristics of a creative and effective teacher.  Also, I share with you how to reexamine your ideas of time and space so that you can create a more efficient, yet more human classroom environment. With autonomy each teacher would define his effectiveness in terms that best fit his personality, teaching and learning style, knowledge, and would be flexible enough to modify them to fit the children he taught that year. He would create his classroom environments to best fit his needs and the needs of his children.  

When I accepted the challenge of working with middle school at-risk students, I took my materials and bags of tricks certain I would be as effective as I had been.  Wrong!  For several weeks everything I tried failed or was modestly successful.  Fortunately, I had carte blanche because the district was desperate to see the program work.  I finally took them out for almost two hours of violent physical education every day.  I mean violent.  Either we played volley tennis or touch football that was mayhem without pads.  The former turned out to be a mainstay of the program.  It was volleyball on a tennis court.  You haven’t lived until you face a two hundred pound angry boy punching a volleyball at you full force.  Man to man, face to face, until both of you are smelly with sweat and exhaustion.  I proved my courage, they theirs, and then they would come in and quietly do their academic tasks.

One year in the same program I couldn’t interest the students in this sport and physical education became a minor part of our program.  With that particular group it was my plays that was the biggest motivator.  The plays, talent shows, a fashion show sponsored by a national chain (Miller’s Outpost), and the use of TV for reading and writing comprehension were the motivators for that group.

So what made me an effective teacher; effective was the ability to get the most from the students I had at that moment in time?  It was the fact that I took the autonomy, took the risks and time, and I was flexible enough to find what worked.  Contrary to the opinion of my detractors, I wasn’t acting against the status quo, the accepted ways of doing things just because I wanted to be different.   I could admit what was not working and I was willing to attempt anything that might work.

This meant I believed an effective, creative teacher was a person who was flexible and intelligent enough to find alternatives to accomplish the agreed upon goals and I used methods that were neither coercive nor persuasive, but based on mutual respect.  The goal was that they and I could learn new concepts and skills that would help us become life-long, independent learners capable of fulfilling our abilities and talents.  Of course, they discovered that their independence was most effective when they worked cooperatively with others and me.  Their independence was a part of their overall interdependence!

Can a teacher be eff