My assignment with these fascinating 5th graders has been extended a week. I have the same kids every minute for about 7 hours a day teaching them English, grammar, vocabulary, math, history, writing – the whole shebang. It’s a bit jarring to realize I need to do some homework this weekend to be knowledgeable enough about this material to teach it. Do you remember there are 12 verb tenses? I don’t. Do you remember the difference between present perfect progressive versus future perfect progressive? I don’t.
But did we forget this? Not really. When I write, and most certainly you as well, I intuitively use the correct verb tense. Always, 100% of the time. We have learned it so well we use it correctly without even thinking about it. So it’s not quite correct to say that we have forgotten it. These young humans I am teaching, although they are high achieving students in an excellent school, do not use the correct verb tense intuitively every time. They are only 10 years old. To teach them, I need to go back to the basics so I can speak the language and help these kids. Which involves me doing some homework this weekend. Weird as that sounds.
This is one of the advantages teachers have over subs. Teachers are highly trained and highly experienced. They know the material cold. Reading their lesson plans is inspiring. Teachers plan what should be learned every year, and they have detailed weekly and daily plans to achieve this. They are experts in what the pace of teaching should be – how fast and how slow – and they have tools to help them with differences in learning in the class. I walk by one first grade class and see all the kids sitting in their chairs. I walk by a second and see the kids sitting on the floor in a semicircle. And a third with kids sitting paired up. I observe how teachers vary their teaching delivery and manage to keep the kids interested and engaged. I doubt the best sub is as good as the average teacher.
I’ve yet to see a teacher “checked out”. Going through the motions. Not caring much, getting through the day, and collecting the paycheck. In my 7 or 8 schools, I have not seen it. I would recognize it immediately. Body language, tone of voice, energy level – I would know. I think there is something about teachers – what got them into it in the first place. For almost all of them, there is no way they would not deliver for their students. It’s just not in them to do so.
And so, I’m studying verb tenses this weekend. Also reading about the Renaissance for history. Also reading Don Quixote for writing/reading. Come Monday morning, when these beautiful and eager faces look up at me – kids who I know like, trust, and respect me – I will be in a position to deliver for them. It’s not in me to do otherwise.