While I am no expert at karate, martial arts, or any type of fighting (since I am, by nature, a pacifist), I have a deep appreciation for the Japanese concept of Shu Ha Ri. This idea is easily applicable to my progression as a teacher, the maturation of my teaching, and the development of my own iTunes U courses.
SHU: When I first started teaching, I absorbed almost any “teacher expert” or “teach yourself to be a teacher” book available. Unlike some of my colleagues, I did not finish my undergraduate experience with an education degree (or any credits towards a hypothetical degree, for that matter). Therefore, I felt that I needed to obtain a firm grasp on the fundamentals of teaching and establish for myself a strong foundation of pedagogical principals and disciplinary procedures. Initially, my day-to-day duties as a teacher seemed very structured and quite predictable. I wrote a lesson plan. I executed the lesson plan. I guided students’ practice. I assessed students’ learning. The same could be said for my classroom management as I vowed to be firm and fair day in and day out. There’s zero chance, however, of you finding a sparkling evaluation for my teaching during that first year, but I was confident that my skills were being honed.
HA: During my second and third years, I began to branch out. I sought out other teachers in other grades teaching different subjects than me. I observed their varied disciplinary strategies and I adopted or adjusted what I witnessed in my own classroom. I started to understand the malleability of managing the behaviors and moods of my learners. My lesson planning also went beyond the basics as I began to discover resources through my PLN (Professional Learning Network). Soon enriching websites, better presentations, more engaging apps and activities all filled my lessons. No longer did I stick to the “tried and true methods” I once held so dear. Instead, I opened up to other theories and integrated diverse ways to appeal to my students with multiple intelligences and proximal zones of development. The more master classes (I was, after all, enrolled in an M.Ed program at the time) I took, the more I saw the innumerable possibilities with my daily instruction.
RI: String Theory Schools offered me opportunities and the perfect setting for this third stage. Stressing innovation, collaboration, and collective creativity, I pushed myself to improvise on the fly and originate altogether new content. I built my own courses rather than follow another teacher’s path. I tailored my instruction to match the individual student such that differentiation and modification were prioritized over any potential uniform or universal methods. My educational ecosystem expanded to include assorted pupils as I completely ditched the homogenous style of teaching. My confidence at times was so high that I reached glorious moments of transcendence. (Admittedly though, I did not achieve this magnificence for prolonged periods of time… but I’m certain I’ll teach like Larry Bird’s Celtics teams played some day.)
I feel very blessed that I’ve traveled this particular teacher trail so far. I cannot wait to see what the future holds as I continue to push beyond imitation and assimilation in pursuit of pure innovation.
Scrum for Schools: An Educator's Scrum Experience 