on being the cool teacher.

Mr. Robinson was not cool.  Fly-away gray hair, speech after preach about oxymorons and onomatopoeia, with a dry sense of humor that my fourteen year old self-centered attitude could care less about...this man was not all that and a bag of chips in 1996.  

I do recall, though, Mr. Robinson respecting my input on the upcoming figurative language unit.  

“Next week we’ll dive into Toy Story’s generous offering of imagery, symbolism and irony.”

“Realllly Mr. Robinson?  Ugh. That’s a kids’ movie.” I faintly rolled my eyes as he leaned over to check my work.  

Five days later, he introduced our rarely-ever satisfied junior high school English class to the genius Bobby Fischer.  Mr. Robinson used his special teacher powers to reveal metaphors and personification as we uncovered the true depth of the world famous chess champ via biopic.  

Clearly I was too cool for school to appreciate Mr. Robinson at the time, but as the story goes, years later, cozied up at a Michigan State University Coffee Beanery over a twelve-page English paper, I remembered this great teacher.  All of the irony and oxymoron mumbo jumbo meant something.

This teacher knew exactly what he was doing and I was too young and dumb to realize it.  

Actually, my favorite teacher that year was our health teacher because we “birthed egg babies” and carried them from class to class for two weeks.  Naming my new “daughter,” Savannah, and journaling about the whole experience for a huge chunk of my grade beat boring English class.

Oh, to be fourteen again... 

I am not the cool teacher.  I used to be the cool teacher in my novice days, and some kids might think I’m cool on some days, but I doubt I'll be remembered as a favorite.  

Via today’s text conversation, my comrade out east shared this wise analogy: Good teaching is like good parenting.  Kids who grow up to have strong values and ethics hated their parents as tweens and teens.  These kids might not have had the cool parents, but in the long run it paid off.  

Student engagement is a non-negotiable for myself and most teachers.  Project-based learning, inquiry investigations, page turning novel studies and more fill our classrooms with joy and student success.  The crux of it all, though, has to be rooted in standards-based instruction.  

Research-based best practices and tasks that build stamina and self-discipline may not be the popular student vote, but hey, it works.  

Strong student-teacher relationships are definitely necessary for learning.  If positive mentor relationships were all that kids needed, though, then basketball coaches and pastors and parents could all take our jobs tomorrow.

We all know, however, that teachers are more than just mentors. We all know that school can’t be party time 100% of the day, 180 days per year.  And we all know that, despite possible insecurities or external pressures, the cool teacher doesn’t always mean, the effective teacher.  

Hey teachers, you know your stuff.  You listen to your kids and you plan with their interests in mind.  You are mindful of what it’s like to walk a lesson in their shoes.  You get it.  

So we shall let the students trust in us, and we shall trust in Vygotsky or Piaget or Marzano or our comrade teacher down the hall.  

We may not be cool, but hopefully, we help our students uncover the coolness of learning along the way.  

Power to the teacher!