What Great Teachers Do Differently

by Todd Whitaker

  This Means You!

  As a principal, I often felt very much like a business manager, responsible for making decisions, setting policies, getting things done. Inevitably, some employees gripe and complain, others drag their feet, and the top performers embrace change. The challenge for the manager is to focus on the ones who do their jobs well.

  As teachers, you have no doubt found yourself on the receiving end of a principal’s decisions and directives. In my book Dealing With Difficult Teachers (1999), I gave the example of the sign above the copy machine: “Limit: 20 Copies!” The purpose, of course, is to keep certain people from overusing the copier. But what happens? Well, those who usually follow the rules take the message to heart. Remembering one occasion seven years ago when they made twenty-three copies, they wonder if they should reimburse the school. On the other hand, the folks who abuse the copy machine already know they shouldn’t, but they do it anyway. They’ll just ignore our sign, or add a string of zeros behind the twenty, or take it down and make twenty-eight copies of it!

  Those who usually follow the rules take the message to heart.

  It’s a mistake to focus on the least effective people and issue broad directives because of one or two miscreants. At best, we make our top performers feel guilty. At worst, we insult them. They think, “Why are you talking to me about this? Why don’t you talk to them?” And they’re right.

  As teachers, you face the same challenge within your classrooms. Think of the situation when term paper deadlines approach. Blanket statements like “You all aren’t turning in your rough drafts on time!” not only allow laggards to hide in anonymity, but also make your best students worry—Did they forget to turn in their draft? Did you misplace their work?—or even slack off. What was the point of staying up late to finish that draft, if they’re only going to get “yelled at” along with the rest?

  What Will the Best Students Think?

  Before making any decision or attempting to bring about any change, effective educators ask themselves one central question, “What will the best people think?” This does not mean that effective educators do not consider views from anyone else, but they always consider what the best people will think first.

  In a study of more effective and less effective middle school principals (Whitaker, 1993), I found three critical hallmarks of the best principals. One was that they routinely consulted informal teacher leaders for input before they ever made a decision. Why? Well, ask yourself these two questions:

  ♦ If the best teachers don’t think something is a good idea, what are the chances that the rest of the faculty will accept it?

  ♦ If the best teachers don’t think something is a good idea, what are the chances that it is a good idea?

  As a principal, I regularly bounced ideas off of a handful of my key staff members before I made a decision. Their acceptance was an important step toward implementation of any change. You can take the same approach with your students by asking yourself what the best students think. It can help you manage your classroom like a well-run business.

  One easily remembered standard for classroom management is that we always treat our students as if their parents were in the room. Another is that we treat every student with the best students in mind. These students are not necessarily the ones with the best grades, but the nicest, most caring, most well-rounded—the students who are respected by everyone. Our best students do want misbehavior addressed, but never in a humiliating way. They do want us to deal with the students who disrupt learning, but they want us to do it respectfully.

  I recently visited a school where an unidentified student had been writing on the stalls in the boys’ restroom. After their efforts to apprehend the culprit failed, the principal removed the doors from the stalls. The purpose was to discourage graffiti, and the principal may have thought that removing the doors would accomplish this purpose. But their response focused on the perpetrator and ignored the feelings of all of the other students whose privacy they invaded. If they had asked the third question—“What will the best people think?”—they might have come up with a better approach.

  The Best Students Will Be “Fine” No Matter What

  One of the ideas that I hear regularly from school principals is that they focus on their average or poor teachers because their best teachers “will be fine anyhow.” Well, I agree that the best teachers will be fine if you ignore them, but if your best teachers are only fine, they are no longer great.

  Sure, these highly talented individuals will be fine on their own. The atmosphere in their classrooms will remain positive. They will always treat their students with dignity and their colleagues with respect. But when the principal’s focus shifts away from what the superstars need most, they begin to pull back. It’s as if they close their door to the school—not physically, but emotionally. Principals need the best teachers to influence their grade level, their team, their department, and the entire school. Schools can’t afford to drain away the dedication of the most valuable staff members by focusing on the others.

  The same principle applies to our best students. If we teach to the middle, we sell our best students short. The atmosphere in a well-run classroom is charged with positive energy; every student is engaged. If our top students can coast along in neutral, the entire class loses momentum. Great teachers find a way to keep every student in gear and moving forward. We cannot afford for our best students to be “fine anyhow.” They deserve much more than that.

  The Teacher’s Pet

  It’s important not to put any student in the position of being seen as the teacher’s pet. It’s fine to consider what the best people will think, but we must use discretion in asking for input and feedback. If other students perceive the relationship as favoritism, they may lose respect for, and even resent, those singled out for special treatment.

  This concept of centering on the best people may seem new and unfamiliar, yet it is one of the crucial differences between the best educators and the rest. Nurture the superstar students you have, and work to cultivate others. Keep your best, most well rounded students at the forefront when you make decisions. Your classes will be better off and your job will be more enjoyable!

  Before making any decision or attempting to bring about any change, great teachers ask themselves one central question: What will the best people think?

  15

  In Every Situation, Ask Who Is Most Comfortable and Who Is Least Comfortable

  All educators face the challenge of balancing rules and guidelines with those times when we need to make exceptions. This is especially true when it comes to behavior expectations for students. We can be concise, be clear, and communicate, but situations still arise when tough decisions are much more in shades of gray than we wish.

  Likewise, all teachers establish internal ground rules that reflect their core belief systems, even though it seems that at least some of the time other influences tread on them. This chapter presents one internal standard that supports effective practices: When making decisions, ask, “Who is most comfortable and who is least comfortable in this situation?” This is in keeping with the guideline established in Chapter 14: Make every decision based on the best people.

  Treat Everyone as If They Were Good

  A friend of mine has made a good living—in fact, a fortune—by buying apartment buildings, fixing them up, and renting them out. One night I asked what he does if he purchases a building with undesirable tenants living in one of the apartments. His response struck a chord: “If there are tenants I would rather not have, I just remodel their apartment. They’re not used to living in a nice place, so they either start behaving as if they deserve to stay there or they become so uncomfortable that they move out.”

  The same phenomenon occurs in our schools: When people become uncomfortable, they change. As a principal, I took care to make this work for me. I wanted the ones who were uncomfortable to change in a positive direction. I didn’t want to create an uncomfortable situa
tion for my best teachers. Let’s look at an example involving a faculty meeting.

  When people become uncomfortable, they change.

  If Mr. Negativity dominates the meeting with carping criticism, the best teachers will be uncomfortable. The less positive faculty members may actually enjoy it. If I lose my cool and react unprofessionally, my best teachers become even more uncomfortable and distance themselves. But what if I handle the situation with aplomb? I might say, “I think that is a point worth pursuing. Let’s talk about it later this week. I’m usually here by 6:30; pick a morning that works for you.” Mr. Negativity has lost his audience (and will have to get up early if he wants to keep griping). The most positive staff members will gratefully align themselves on my side.

  We can apply the same principle to working with parents. I recently saw a memo sent home with all 800 students in a school. The note said:

  Dear Parents,

  You MUST pick your child up promptly any time we have an away field trip and the field trip buses return after the regular buses have left! If you do not, your child could be placed in after-school daycare and you could be charged up to $2.00 an hour.

  Now ask yourself: Out of 800 families, how many were that note actually written for? Probably three or four, and they were probably the least likely to read the note. This school has insulted some 795 families because of a small minority of others. What’s more, these three or four already knew they were supposed to pick up their children, but they just didn’t do it. The note addressed to the entire population actually allows them to be more comfortable. They can think to themselves, “There must be lots of us who don’t pick up our children on time.”

  On the other hand, the rest of the folks are wondering, “What are you talking to me for?” The decision to send a note to everyone makes all the responsible parents uncomfortable in the hope of reaching a few. A more effective approach would be to call the small number of negligent parents making them more likely to change their behavior.

  As a rule, I’m not a big fan of sending out notes. But if you feel that some kind of general reminder is necessary, focus on the positive families and treat everyone as if they were good. A note could read:

  Dear Parents,

  Thank you for your support in picking up your child promptly any time we have an away field trip and the field trip buses return after the regular buses have left. This enables us to provide more educational opportunities for our students and provides a safer environment for all the young people in our schools. Thank you for your efforts.

  This message is just as effective a reminder to the small number of parents who were not there to pick up their children. The difference is that the note reinforces the good behavior. It makes the prompt parents more comfortable and the late ones uncomfortable.

  This approach can guide decisions in many areas. Think of the teacher who spends the first day with a finger-pointing lecture about the rules. Which students are most uncomfortable? The ones who don’t need a host of rules to keep them in line. What are the others doing? Plotting!

  Think of the teacher who punishes an entire class because of a few students’ behavior. Maybe the misbehaving students feel some level of discomfort, but certainly the most responsible students are upset and have much less respect for the teacher. Teachers who ask themselves, “How will my best students feel as a result of my decision?” will probably take a different approach to discipline.

  If a teacher uses a cutting remark to stop misbehavior, the student it was directed at may temporarily fall in line. But at what cost? The well-behaved students are uncomfortable because they are not used to hearing people talk like that. The students whom teachers are most tempted to yell at are probably quite used to it. However, the other students lose respect for a teacher who relies on putdowns or tirades.

  A teacher considering whether to have students grade each other’s papers and call out the grades for the teacher to record them might ask, “Who is most comfortable in this situation?” The students with low grades surely aren’t comfortable. Often, even those with high grades would rather not have attention called to their performance. This convenient shortcut benefits only the teacher.

  If all the classes in the school are in session and the two rowdiest troublemakers in the school are walking down the hall, what do teachers say to them? Most likely things like, “Where are you supposed to be?” “Whose class are you skipping?” “Didn’t that bell mean anything to you?” We treat them as if they’re bound to be up to no good.

  But what if it’s the future valedictorian and salutatorian in the hallway? They’re greeted with a friendly smile. “Hi, how’s your day going?” Our natural tendency is to treat them as if they were good. Now, is there a way we can accomplish what we want by treating both groups the same—as if they were good?

  Yes, there is. We could greet all students with, “Hi. Can I help you?” Doesn’t that get the same information from the troublemakers as the other approach? But if they are not doing anything wrong, we have not escalated the situation and the other two students would not see it as an insult.

  Remember the antique-store customers and the shoplifters. Couldn’t we handle both of them the same way? Do customers mind if a smiling clerk asks, “Can I help you?” And wouldn’t that prevent shoplifting just as much as snapping in an accusatory tone, “What are you doing over there?” The difference is that we have not set up a scenario where someone needs to get back at someone else. We have treated everyone as if they were good.

  Uncomfortable Feelings Make People Change—One Way or Another

  If a teacher argues with a belligerent parent, who feels uncomfortable? Not the parent. Hostile parents love to argue; it’s their niche. That’s one good reason never to argue with difficult people: They have a lot more practice at it! However, another reason is that part of our job as teachers is to teach people appropriate ways to behave, not just help them refine the inappropriate skills they already have in abundance.

  No, the uncomfortable person in this scenario is the teacher who argues with a parent and is then likely to avoid the parent. The parent actually feels empowered. He or she is now free to go tell everyone how the teacher acted, what was said, and how the argument ended. That parent will come back to the school ready for battle.

  Reflect on the example—“Limit: 20 Copies!”—discussed in the last chapter. This approach does make some people uncomfortable—the ones who hold themselves to high standards. The high achievers will feel affronted, and they will behave differently. They will be less enthusiastic about work and move away from the heart of the school.

  On the other hand, this generalized approach has little or no impact on the people for whom it was intended. They already have managed to rationalize why they deserve to ignore the rules. If anything, now they spend even more time thinking about how to get away with something.

  If applied consistently, the question “Who is most comfortable and who is least comfortable?” can bring clarity to our decision making. We are not painting on a blank canvas; we have outlines to follow. We may decide to do something that will make the least effective people uncomfortable, but at the very least our decisions will not make our best people uncomfortable.

  Effective educators find that this ground rule—make the people who do the right thing feel comfortable—works for them too. They feel more comfortable with their decision making!

  Pay for Performance

  Sometimes understanding situations that we are in ourselves can help us sort out what approaches may be appropriate with others. I now work as professor at a university. Universities sometimes follow an interesting dynamic. They often take a different approach to managerial and structural functions than most other organizations.

  One trend in higher education is called “Pay for Performance.” At our university, raises for faculty members are established by peer review. It’s as if all of the teachers in a school voted on individual salary increases for teachers.

&n
bsp; As you can imagine, this is a controversial process. Job performance at a university is nearly impossible to quantify. Feelings get hurt, emotions run high, and relations become strained. After the first year, a confidential survey was conducted to determine what the faculty thought about the program. I happened to run into the university president—a man I hold in high regard—just after he received the results. He was very interested in reviewing the feedback on this innovative program.

  I agreed with the president that the information could be valuable. However, I added that the perspectives of the entire faculty were not the decisive factor. He asked what I meant. I said that he should identify the thirty-three percent of the faculty whom he hoped would feel rewarded by pay for performance. If his very best employees felt reinforced, then the perspectives of the others might be helpful. But if they did not, then the program was not worthwhile—no matter what the others thought.

  As it happened, the survey showed that about one third liked the program, one third were neutral, and one third did not like it. Well, it sure depends which third thought what, doesn’t it? If the “worst” third of the faculty is uncomfortable with the program, there may be reason to consider making it permanent. But even if only five percent of the faculty disapprove, if that five percent represents the cream of the crop, then it is critical to revisit the entire concept. What really matters is what the best people think.