Personalized Teaching

We hear a lot about personalized learning nowadays, but what about personalized teaching? Teachers have a lot at stake with mandates coming at them from all directions. The pressures of observations, standardized testing, grading requirements, SGOs, etc., could easily stifle teacher creativity. On top of that, technology changes at warp speed, leaving many teachers intimidated, vulnerable, and under-supported. How do teachers deal with these demands? Stick to the script. Do what works. Don't push the envelope. For heaven's sake, don't do anything different than anyone else.

Don Wettrick often talks about the day that he told his father that he was going to be a teacher. His father also having been a teacher said, "I don't care of you teach for 20 years, just don't teach one year 20 times." I often think about that quote. I don't think teachers necessarily want to teach the same year 20 times, but it's the safest way to walk across eggshells. We've gotten so good at it that if you walked into twenty different classrooms, it would be difficult to tell them apart. There's nothing personal about it.

Personalized learning is all about relinquishing control and allowing students to explore personal interests. It is the only way anyone truly, authentically learns. If teachers are expected to relinquish control, then control over teachers must also be relinquished. How can students feel comfortable enough to fail if their teachers don't feel comfortable enough to fail? We cannot truly have personalized learning without personalized teaching.

I'm just shooting spitballs, hoping something sticks.