It is not often I start a post by composing the title. Usually, I have an idea, spend a good amount of time thinking about it, sit down and let those rambling thoughts crystallize on the page, and then determine what the title of the post should be.

This time, the idea and thinking have led me to compose a title first. So here come the rambling thoughts.

The best teachers start by learning.

And not their subject!

When meeting someone for the first time who is a teacher, I have begun the habit of asking them this question. "Who do you teach?" It is very interesting to see the responses. Some teachers come back straight away with, "I teach Social Studies and English". I smile. I ask a clarifying question. "Who do you teach?". Often the response is a description including the name of the school or the grade level or a school division.

Some teachers, on facing my initial question, get this somewhat puzzled look on their faces. Usually, THEY ask the clarifying question.

"WHO do I teach?"

"Yes," I reply. "Who?"

They take a moment. Think. And then tell me school names, grade levels, and school division descriptions.

I can only think of one or two teachers to whom I have put that question who has paused for a moment, smiled, and launched into a description of individual students. Students who frustrate them. Students who are amazing. Students who are taking five advanced level courses, running the school whatever-club, volunteering for the whatever-group. Students who came into their classroom not knowing how to do whatever and who are now teaching other kids in the class the whatever. Students who have persisted with something they find really difficult. Students who stand at their desks every single morning and tell them about something they find totally amazing. Students who know when the teacher needs a handmade card to let them know they are appreciated.

When I listen to these teachers respond to my question, I wish I could contact their Principal and tell him/her how lucky they are to have this person working in their school (but then they probably already know that!). I also hand them my business card. These are the teachers I want working for me!

Because the most important job a teacher has is to LEARN. About the students they are going to attempt to teach.

Some famous gentlemen wrote about blank slates and empty jugs and urged teachers to fill them up, saying that is what teaching is. At the risk of being precocious, I'm going to suggest he missed a really important part of the whole process.

Close examination of the slate, the chalk, the jug, the liquid, etc, etc.

You are not going to get much into the jug if the neck is an inch wide and you pour from a bucket! If that slate is wet, then your chalk is going to disappear real quick. If your chalk is too hard, you are just going to leave scratch marks on the slate that are no good to nobody! (I'm dating myself with this intimate knowledge of chalk!)

Know your students first.

Learn everything you can about them. And then teach. And don't stop learning.

Did that work? Did he respond to that? Did she understand that approach? Did they collaborate well in that setting? Was that assessment task interesting to those over there? Do they understand me when I speak? Do they think deeply when I pose questions in this manner? How can I reach that one kid over there who is dealing with some really heavy stuff?

Only when you REALLY know your students can you really begin to teach them.

Don't be the teacher complaining that most of what you are pouring from the bucket isn't going in. Learn all you can about the jug!