Defining your first principles
When I began teaching, I reasoned by analogy. In other words, I considered the decisions made by the other teachers I knew (my own high school teachers, as well as my colleagues) and made my own choices accordingly. I made a few improvements here and there - a new assignment, a revised grading policy - but by and large I was following what I'd been shown.
Reasoning by analogy is natural and in many ways essential: it allows us to learn from experience, and to make reasonably good choices in an efficient way. It's how we decide on most things - what to eat, what to wear, how to get from place to place - and for the most part it works well.
But as a teacher, I found that it fell short. Because no matter how many changes I made to each day's lecture, I was still lecturing. And I was failing to reach the students who were ahead (and bored), the students who were behind (lost), and the students who weren't there at all.
What I needed was a new approach. To develop a model that could meet every student's needs, I had to abandon analogy and start reasoning by first principles. In other words, I needed to define the values that I wanted to govern my classroom, and build up - from scratch - from there. If something I did wasn't consistent with those principles, I needed to change it... even if the rest of the world saw it differently.
Here are three of my first principles:
1) Every student deserves a responsive education. A classroom that meets most students' needs, or even the needs of all the students who attend, isn't enough. This means that instruction must extend beyond the classroom walls, and across the vast spectrum of students' backgrounds, interests, and innate abilities. The way I taught had to address every single student's individual learning needs.
2) Teachers drive impact - in the classroom and beyond. Principals and superintendents are experts in their fields, but classroom teachers know their students' needs best. It is the responsibility of each teacher, in each classroom, to implement strategies that help each student truly learn. I continued to learn from colleagues and administrators, but trusted my own professional judgment in applying those lessons.
3) Change starts every day. The status quo is often comfortable, and innovation is hard. But when the status quo leaves students behind, we can't afford to wait for a perfect solution, or a new school year to start, or anything else. In making frequent adjustments to my classroom, I made frequent mistakes. But I took solace in small improvements, and knew that the sooner I learned from those mistakes, the sooner my students would reap the rewards.
In bringing these admittedly lofty ideals into action, I continued - and continue - to reason by analogy. I studied innovative educators who had come before, and copied techniques from colleagues (like Kareem) who were doing the things I aspired to, but better.
I didn't reinvent the wheel, or even the classroom: my approach, and the Modern Classroom model, is linked to many years of attempts at more student-centered education. But ultimately, having defined these first principles helped me teach in a way that resonated with my beliefs and values, rather than the practices of those around me. I left school each day feeling better as a result.
So as you reflect and recharge over the summer, I encourage you to ask yourself: "What are MY first principles? And how can I apply them to create a classroom that serves EVERY student, and leaves me feeling satisfied as well?" If you can answer those questions in the coming months - and whatever your own personal answers to those questions may be - I believe both you and your students will be prepared for a successful school year.