Do Teachers Prepare Students For Their Future?

It is important for teachers to understand the power & complexity of learner motivation. What motivates students, and people in general, is a very broad and complex question. As a "super-fan" of Sir Ken Robinson, and his work on creativity, I understand that indiviidual motives for "learning" are very different. As a teacher in Special Education I feel I have a strong understanding of the importance, and power of intrinsic motivation for student learning. My classroom experiences during the past 10 years of teaching have shown me that all students have gifts and talents. Teachers need to work at balancing this desire to learn with the value of having a well rounded education. Harnessing the desire to learn is more important than any test score, or report card mark.

Learnign how to balance student motivation and abilities is a key part of the professionalization of teaching. Learner readiness, and the external factors that affect a students life are part of the makeup of any person. Not unlike a master craftsman, an experienced teacher is able to understand the power that the desire to learn can bring anybody. Lastly, great teachers understand the fact that there may be no evidence of their impact until later in life. In fact, the positive impact a teacher may have on a student may go unseen.

This past week, my first full year as a high school teacher,I watched with interest the grade 12 students go through their graduation ceremony. It brought me back to 1993, my own high school graduation, and of course I was comparing the two events. In many ways I am living the dream that many of these graduates are supposed to envision. Many students have plans to continue their educations, work, travel, fun are all standard responses from their playbooks. What was interesting to consider, is where will the future take them? Has their K-12 education prepared them for their futures? This is a key question, and one that I believe all teachers need to reflect on. Is their work, in any grade, in any classroom preparing students for their future?

At the end of it all, the one constant that hasn't changed is the fact that it (their future) is up to them. These students from my high school, whether they are ready or not have to build their own future and their own livelihoods. As someone who was once a high school grad, I can see and feel their confidence. Being a 18 year old high school graduate in Alberta often makes one feel like the world is yours. Now that I am 36 I better understand that not many people get a free pass to an easy future. These students will have to take what they've started with and make a go of it themselves.

As a teacher, I look at my role very seriously. I am helping prepare students for their future. My dilligence may never "pay off" in front of my own eyes, but I have to trust that my work will help a student handle the twists and turns that life will bring them.

ATA Specialist Councils

Teachers of Alberta have a responsibility to support and attend specialist council conferences. This may seem a bold statement to some, given the broad range of PD choices available to teachers,but the fact is, if Alberta's teachers want to be considered the experts within their profession, then they need to be a part of something that is local in the provincial sense. Joining and supporting your own Specialist Council is one simple way to do this.

Teachers needn't feel that they need to be a part of the Council's executive, or even attend the conference annually, but they do need to join in order to support the profession of teaching. In a recent conversation with a colleague, I grabbed on to an insight. "By not supporting Specialist Councils, and by not attending local provincial conferences, teachers are shooting themselves in the foot." I've thought a lot about this comment because to me it meant that teachers are outsourcing their professional development. In the business world, outsourcing can be a positive thing, and it is true in teaching. That said, teachers need to understand that they should (could) build phenomonal learning networks and opportunities in their own province.

What message are teachers sending when we outsource our Professional Devlopment? Teachers in Alberta need to be a part of this conversation, and it is up to each and every Alberta teacher to join a Specialist Council. For the sake of our profession in Alberta, I encourage every teacher to use their free Specialist Council membership, and join one today!