on being yourself-not the teacher next door.

Names and locations have been protected in the following teacher tale so that I may never receive an angry email or lawsuit for slander, but this is real talk, my friends.   

Blatant sarcasm, yelling at kids, laughing at kids, out-right embarrassing kids was common practice in Ms. X’s classroom.  Only two years my senior, she intimidated me more than I care to admit.   

Bible verse preaching and snarky threats echoed throughout her classroom in Some City, USA.  Middle schoolers cried outside her door.  Administration often turned their heads on some cringe-worthy threats she made during her militant silent transitions.

At least the halls are quiet, they thought.  

Despite my initial gasp at this sort of teaching and management style, whatever I was doing was not working, and whatever she was doing earned her straight up respect and compliance 98% of the time.

Oh, did I mentioned we shared the same students?  Same kids, different subject.  

Still in my early teaching years, I played it safe and rarely pushed boundaries, so this was new to me.  Several years later, this kind of teacher behavior doesn’t surprise me.  There’s at least one in each school, with their “whatever it takes” practices.  Maybe not this extreme, but close enough.  

As a newbie, I remember thinking, nothing about this teacher will ever be me.  

And as the story goes, though, she had control of her students and I did not.  Her students always listened and mine did not.  The parents loved her.  

Students feared Ms. X but they laughed in my face.  Needless to say, one of my administrators suggested I collaborate with her on classroom management practices and assigned me to a “Classroom Management 101” mandatory PD class with seven of my fellow teacher friends.  

Should we be more like Ms. X? We debated.  It was only October and we wanted our students to learn, already!

“Off the record, Kelli.  That kind of management doesn’t work, long-term,” my favorite teacher coach explained.

It was November by now, and things were improving slightly.

“Well, why do her kids listen and mine don’t?” I whined.  

“Do you want your classroom to feel like that?

“Um, no.”

“Well then have patience and you will get your groove and so will your kids.  Just be patient,” he whispered.

And so I did. I used my cheesy rap writing talents and focused on building student relationships until eventually I gained more respect.  

Flash forward to June of that year...all staff gathered to celebrate yearly student gains and our freshly released state test scores.  Sharing my “team table” with Ms. X, while making class lists for the following school year, she confidently reminded our table that she doesn’t have behavior issues with any of the students, so we could put them wherever.  

Smiling and nodding while simultaneously pinching my other colleague, it was time for the big reveal of the state test results.  

“Drumroll please..” Our principal hummed.  

In true charter school fashion, teacher names projected on the screen, ranked by overall raw test scores.  Although this practice makes me wanna vomit, I looked anyway.

Guess who was number one in grades 3-8 and guess who was at the bottom?  Yes, (shameless brag) my kids rocked the test.  

At that time I didn’t know any better, and held on to test scores to prove teacher effectiveness.  So I’ll reiterate that, at the time, I was proud.  Not because they bombed in her class, but because with the help of family, friends and teacher coaches, I stayed true to my educational beliefs and my students succeeded.  

I share this teacher tale not to persuade you to ignore the teaching practices of those different from you.  We should learn from each other, and even more so from teachers outside our comfort zone.  In the case of Ms. X, I learned not only who I was, but also who I wasn’t.   

Ultimately though, we know that what’s best for our kids is that we are comfortable in our own skin.  We have to believe that we are doing what’s right for our students, so that they can reach their true potential.

More than a decade later, I still compare myself. I still wonder why I can't be like the teacher next door. Even though I know, I still do it way too much.  

Thinking back to my favorite teacher coach, I know he had it right.  Be patient, you’ll eventually get your groove and so will your kiddos. It really is the truth. 

Power to the teacher!