What Is the Most Significant Resource for Helping a Teacher Flourish?

Photo by aldi sigun on Unsplash

As a kid, I imagined the principal as an ogre who sat in a dark cave in the inner recesses of the school, waiting for disobedient children. I got sent there once in first grade: I was terrified. Looking back, it was probably just a protocol—late students were to report in at the office before going to class. But 6-year-old me didn’t know that, and when I showed up at my classroom, I was sent to the office, and by the time I was standing in front of a big desk, I could hardly choke out between sobs my confession of a failed alarm clock and my promise never to do it again. 

As an adult, I’ve sensed that some people think of school administration as the dull but necessary bits of, yes, discipline, as well policies, schedules, and budgets that somebody has to do so the teachers can get on with the real business of educating students. That is, of course, a bare minimum and essential for a school to function. However, in my 35 years of experience in international Christian education, I’ve been blessed to experience leaders who have not only seen how the discipline, policies, schedules, and budgets are a vital part of the larger school vision, but also taught staff by word and example the dispositions, knowledge, and skills that create a culture of purpose, belonging, and learning where staff flourish in Jesus.

So if you ask me what is the single most significant resource for helping me and my colleagues flourish, I'd say it's leaders, more specifically, skillful, encouraging, Christ-centered leaders with a trust-and-inspire mindset. Let me explain:

(1) Skillful leaders are ones who are knowledgeable about education, people, and leadership; they know there is always more to learn, and they delight in mastering, practicing, and sharing that learning. For example, I’ve grown from working with leaders who hosted breakfast discussions of teaching from a Biblical perspective or participated in after school book discussions. 

According to a 2021 ASCD article, what effective principals do, besides manage strategically, is interact with teachers around instruction, build a productive school climate, and facilitate collaboration (“What Great Principals Really Do”, see graphic below). Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine in their book In Search of Deeper Learning confirm that in all their observations “the most skilled school leaders used professional learning time to give teachers the kinds of learning experiences that they hoped teachers would recreate in their classrooms” (location 7545). Skillful school leaders are the chief learners and collaborators of their organizations, showing the way for their teachers. 

(2) Encouraging leaders are ones who provide an environment where teachers know they matter. For example, I’ve worked with leaders who schedule frequent, brief classroom walkthroughs, and follow up with short, specific appreciative comments. This encouraged me. 

I’ve also worked with leaders who start meetings with 5-minute check-ins. This could involve sharing with a partner, small group, or whole group. The question could be as simple as "What is something that made you smile today?" or as focused as "What is an example of student learning you saw in your class this week?" or as broad as "What was a high and a low from this week?" (See this link for a list of 30 reflection prompts for teacher well-being.) 

When teachers are pouring into students’ lives, who is pouring into teachers’ lives? For a deeper dive into helping teachers know they matter, check out the 2021 ASCD article "How Mattering Matters for Educators." 

(3) Christ-centered leaders are ones who can say to teachers, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (NIV I Cor. 11:1). As they do so, they model for teachers what teachers should be doing with their students.

I have been blessed to work with...

• Leaders who have regularly joined morning prayer meetings, praying with and for staff. 
• Leaders who have started meetings with short devotions, focusing on how their faith informs, motivates, and empowers the way we’re going to deal with the topic at hand. 
• Leaders who, as they’ve encountered personal and professional successes and setbacks, articulate and embody what it means to be part of a fallen, redeemed, Spirit-empowered community of grace. 

These leaders weren’t perfect, but they were models of vulnerability and of what it means to be a vital, growing disciple of Jesus in the world of education. 

(4) Leaders who have a trust-and-inspire mindset are neither micromanagers nor absentee landlords. I recently saw a post on social media in a teacher group, asking whether people preferred leadership that micromanaged teachers or that did not really know or care what teachers were doing. Teachers who were limited to a scripted curriculum or required to submit detailed daily lesson plans longed for freedom, and teachers who were languishing from lack of leadership longed for some attention and connection. 

A few voices said, “Wait, it doesn’t have to be an either-or choice!” Stephen M. R. Covey calls the third option trust-and-inspire (instead of command-and-control). It involves leadership modeling (who you are), inspiring (connect to why), and trusting (how you lead). These leaders unleash the best in the people who work for them. And when they are leaders in international Christian schools, they have the opportunity to unleash the best in God’s people, helping these school staff to flourish and to help students flourish. 

Think of it this way: just as a skillful teacher can help more students to learn more effectively more of the time, so a skillful leader can help more staff to flourish even more, even more of the time. I want staff at international Christian schools to flourish in terms of helpful resources, and my deep hope is that staff are experiencing the most significant resource—skillful, encouraging, Christ-centered leaders who have a trust-and-inspire mindset.

How about you? What is your experience with school administration? What are the characteristics of leaders that have helped you flourish? What are the characteristics of leaders you hope the staff at your international Christian school are experiencing?

Experimenting with Using a Novel to Teach EFL

Student: What is a dozen?

Me: Twelve.

Student: So a dozen means 12—not 11 and 13?

I answered affirmatively. However, curious as to where the question was coming from, I then looked at the sentence in When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park that had prompted the student’s question: “I can’t keep still. I stand up a dozen times, go to the door, look toward the gate” (82). 

I backpedaled: “Actually, it depends on the context. A dozen can mean exactly 12, or it can mean sort of more than 5, but not 20.” I’m constantly amazed at the nuances of English I had never considered in 3 decades of English teaching, even when teaching AP English Comp, before expanding into teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). This is my 3rd year in that role, and my big experiment this term is teaching using an English novel in its original form (not abridged or leveled) to teach an advanced middle school class. It’s been fascinating and fun both for me and for the students. 

I’m energized by it because teaching literature is my jam—it’s what I’m knowledgeable about and experienced in. And even at that (and having taught the novel last year to the combined 6th and 7th grade ELA class) I’m learning things about language, about style, and about this story reading it slowly (5 pages per day—fewer at the outset), out loud, with inquisitive companions.

For instance, I’d never realized that as the point of view alternates between two narrators, the sister (Sun-hee) tells the story in past tense, and the brother (Tae-yul) tells the story in present tense. We’ve had interesting discussions about why the author might have done that (my theory is that it communicates the methodical or impulsive nature of the characters) as well as when we use present tense in English, and the importance of being consistent with verb tense.  

The students are learning vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, reading strategies, and they are having meaningful discussions. Here's how we tie each of those in. 

(1) Vocabulary: As we read, we stop frequently for students to ask questions and clarify confusion. When the question is about the meaning of a word, I explain it. If it seems like a pretty significant word, or if this is the third time the same word has been asked about, I’ll write it on the board for a possible vocabulary word. Every Wednesday we finalize a list of 10, Thursday we play a review game, and Friday there’s a quiz.

(2) Pronunciation: Because we’re taking turns reading aloud, it’s great pronunciation practice. It’s a small class with a high level of trust, so no one is feeling embarrassed. The other day one student was determined to master deliberately (l, b, and r all being difficult English sounds for a Japanese speaker). I'm able to reinforce things like the significance of doubled consonants (staring/starring) and whether the context of the word read puts it in present or past tense. 

(3) Grammar: I've cross-checking the standards I’m supposed to teach, areas for growth I’ve noticed,  and questions students ask as we read to choose a list: adverbs of frequency, gerunds/infinitives, count/non-count nouns, passive verbs. We spend 10-15 minutes per day on worksheets from Teach-This.com or a chapter from a textbook resource. We notice when the pattern comes up in the novel. The novel has also offered great opportunities to review perfect tenses from last term (especially past perfect!). And cloze exercises from yesterday’s reading are a quick opportunity for review. (I copy a paragraph or two from the novel and whiteout articles, or prepositions, or verbs.) 

(4) Reading strategies: We reviewed these last term (the students remembered learning them the previous year), and now we are becoming quite proficient in using them. 

• Asking questions: These can range from clarifying vocabulary to uncovering motivation to probing plot holes. What does recite mean? How old is Sun-hee now? Why didn’t Tae-yup tell Abuji? And the one that stumped me (spoiler alert!): How did the Japanese soldiers not find the rose of Sharon tree hidden in the shed when they searched for Uncle while the rest of the family stood in the street for 2 hours? (See this blog post for a list of questions asked one class last month.) 
• Making predictions: What will happen next? I love hearing the rapid intake of breath or the giggle that means someone has already made a guess.
• Making inferences: (Spoiler alert!) Friday we just read the chapter where Sun-hee decipher's the true meanings in Tae-yul's first letter past the military censors. Talk about a master class in making inferences!  
• Summarizing: At the end of a day’s reading or the next day before picking up the reading again: What happened today? What happened yesterday? 
• Making connections: Many of these are to the historical background they already know about the war, or noting similarities and differences in Japanese and Korean culture. But there’s also just the way families and friends interact. 
• Envisioning images: Sometimes students ask, “What just happened?” and I end up acting it out, like “Abuji was pacing back and forth in great agitation” (113). Sometimes Google images works better, like for World War 2 army kit bag or the “topknot” describing the grandfather’s traditional hair style.

(5) Meaningful Discussions: Reading a significant work together gives rise to discussions on meaningful topics. Gratitude—What do you have in your daily life that these characters would be grateful for? Difficult choices—What would you risk your life for? Empathy—How does reading this help you understand your neighbors who you are to love? Character—Which characters do you admire? Why? Individuality—How do different characters show the same characteristic in different ways? Identity—What makes each character unique? What makes you unique?

My students and I may both be enjoying the novel study, but is it effective for their English learning? Great question. A week ago they took the TOEFL Jr. Test. My school administers it about a month before the end of each trimester. My students came to class afterward grinning. When I asked them how it had gone, they said, "Perfect!" When I asked for specifics, they said the reading comprehension part was so much easier than last term. So, I'm encouraged. And I'm really interested in seeing the actual scores when they come in. But if they think they're learning, that's pretty good in my book. My experiment is paying off!

How about you? What experiment are you trying to lean into your strengths to help your students grow?  

What Is the Most Significant Resource for Helping Students Flourish?

Photo by Hans Reniers on Unsplash

Some things I find scary: spiders, making phone calls in Japanese, and teaching a subject area or age group I am not an expert in. That doesn’t mean I haven’t done it, or can’t gain expertise. When my children were small, I played the part of the fearless superhero who rescued them from terrifying arachnids. Last year when I asked my EFL students to commit to an action that would increase language learning, I committed to answering the phone in the teachers’ office in Japanese. And over the last 35 years, I’ve taught many subjects and levels, including PE to 6-year-olds and chemistry to 18-year-olds. 

Teaching that chemistry class for one quarter on an emergency basis was easily the scariest. It wasn't all that great for the students, either. In fact, I’d be the first to say that those students did not get the science education that I hope for students. Secondary English language arts is my area of expertise and experience. When I am teaching it, my understanding of my students, the deep structures of my subject matter, and how to connect the two energizes me and fills me with joy. That’s when I am the most helpful resource for my students.

Does that sound odd, to speak of the teacher as a resource? When I think of educational resources, I tend to think of the accoutrements—the library, the science lab, the gym, band instruments, technology, even textbooks. But in reality, the teacher is the most influential resource in a student’s experience. That’s both encouraging and sobering. Those other accoutrements are largely outside of my control, and some of them may not even be within the realm of current possibility for a given school at a particular time. But teachers—well, without them, there is no school! 

When I say I want students to flourish in terms of helpful resources, my deep hope is not for a well-stocked library or 1-to-1 Chromebooks (though both of those things are significant tools). My deep hope is that they are experiencing qualified, joyful, Christ-centered staff who have a best-practice mindset. What does that look like? 

(1) Qualified staff means teachers who understand their subject area, possess a set of pedagogical tools, and have experience. There are, of course, exceptions. I’ve known a fantastic math teacher who didn’t major in math or graduate from a teacher training program. While I know that I’m a much better teacher now that I was 35 years ago, fresh out of college, I’d never have gotten here without starting somewhere. And while I didn’t give those chemistry students the quarter of learning I’d wish for them, it was better than no teacher! Emergencies and exigencies happen, adjustments are made, gifts are uncovered, and experience accrues. But consistently having teachers without field knowledge, pedagogical competence, and experience—that is not what I would wish for my own children, not what any parents wish for their children, not what any school would plan on promising to its students. To increase the likelihood of students experiencing excellent staff, ACSI puts it this way: “New teacher hires are credentialed (educationally and licensed/certified) and have classroom experience” (Flourishing Schools: Research on Christian School Culture and Community, p. 17). 

(2) Joyful staff enjoy the stuff of their field, the children in their charge, and the opportunity to induct those children into the work of that field. Joy has many different expressions. It doesn’t have to be fireworks and vuvuzelas (see video): 

But if I don’t enjoy my field, then why would a student be attracted to learning about it? Dave Stuart Jr. calls it being “an apologist winsome and sure.” The world is an amazing place, filled with amazing people, who have explored and thought deeply about it, and we can invite our students, the amazing, potential-filled beings in front of us, to join that exploration and thinking in ways that celebrate the beauty, expand the possibilities, love our neighbors, and heal the brokenness. 

(3) Christ-centered staff use renewed minds to cultivate a learning community and to think about their discipline. Cultivating a learning community with a renewed mind includes living the community that Jesus’ resurrection empowers, and extending the grace I receive daily to my students as we learn together about God, his world, and our place in it. Thinking about my discipline with a renewed mind includes humility, critical thinking, hope, and love that ask questions like…

• How does the stuff of my discipline fill me with awe for the Creator and joy in his good gifts? 
• How does the stuff of my discipline demonstrate sin’s vandalism of the good and the ways people turn away from God, create their own kingdoms, and misuse and abuse creation, including their fellow people? 
• How does Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection change the way I see and work in my discipline? 
• What will the stuff of my discipline look like in the new heaven and new earth, and how can I be part of bringing that now?   

(See this blog post for some answers to the questions from 12 fields.)

(4) Staff with best practice orientation know that their pedagogical practices can always be honed. They also know that they don’t have to do everything now. My mother-in-law gave me some invaluable advice early in my career: if you just add one new teaching practice per year, in 10 years, you’ll have mastered 10 new teaching practices! In the last few years I’ve added independent reading, teaching grammar in context, and transforming into an EFL teacher. How do I know what to choose? Join a professional organization (like ASCD). Pick one book (I find staff book discussions to be my best form of professional development!). Subscribe to a newsletter (like MiddleWeb SmartBrief). Read a blog (like Dave Stuart Jr.). Listen to a podcast (like Cult of Pedagogy). Follow an educator on Twitter (like Larry Ferlazzo @Larryferlazzo). 

I hope I never have to teach chemistry again. I hope no student ever has to experience my chemistry teaching again. I hope students at international Christian schools get to experience qualified, joyful, Christ-centered staff who have a best-practice mindset. 

How about you? What scares you? When are you the best resource for your students? In your experience, what kind of staff help students flourish? What are the characteristics of the staff you hope the students at your international Christian school are experiencing?  

Being "Deeply Intertwined" with My Area of Expertise

What did you do on fall break?

I get the thing about work-life balance—I really do. I didn’t do any lesson planning or grading. I did do a lot of fun things. And some of the fun things I did involved reading and writing. Like writing this blog. One of the great things about being a teacher is getting to share with students the things that I love about my area, getting to induct them into the coolness of reading and writing. So, here are some of the cool things I did, including (but not limited to) reading and writing! 

• I ate fun food--like afternoon tea and really good Mexican food in downtown Kyoto.
• I went for long walks with my husband to enjoy the perfect fall weather here and breathe in the fall sights—the last of the rice harvest being brought in, brilliant orange persimmons dangling on bare branches against a blue sky, and flaming golden gingko trees. (While we walked, we also may have talked about another blog I'm working on, as well as some blogs he is working on.)
• I talked with family--my dad on Skype, my daughter on Facebook, and my grandkids on Readeo. (I also saw lots of grandkid pictures on Instagram!)
• I read my new issue of the School Library Journal and found a couple of new books for my to-read list.
• I got my 4th COVID vaccination (2nd booster) and spent the next day lying in bed reading. (Who doesn’t love an excuse for doing that! Worth the body aches and fatigue.)
• I watched a Nerdy Book Club podcast by Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp about introducing books to kids and found a couple of new books for my to-read list. 
• I browsed an English bookstore (a holiday treat here in Japan!) and came across the book So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins. It’s the author’s story of fleeing her home in northern Korea at the end of World War 2 as a young child with her mother and older sister, and returning as a refugee to her unknown homeland of Japan. Great to pair with When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park, historical fiction about a Korean family during the Japanese occupation, which is in my middle school curriculum.
• Besides that I also read…
• Living in Full View of the God of Grace by my friend Bruce Young, long time Japan missionaries, which came out November 1.
• Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom by Zoltan Dornyei in preparation for a department discussion next week.
• Trash by Andy Mulligan—a story that will open kids’ eyes to poverty and political corruption in the Philippines, but also give them a happy ending.
• Resistance by Jennifer Nielsen. I’ve recently discovered this great writer of middle grades European historical fiction, and I have a student who is also a fan. This story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is the best of the three I’ve read!
• Omar Rising by Aisha Saeed. I loved Amal Unbound, and this companion book about Amal’s friend, Omar, confronting his own injustice in their corner of Pakistan is another great, hope filled story.
• The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin. I read this classic a long time ago, and wanted to revisit it before passing it on to a student who was interested.

In In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine quote the administrator of one of their model schools: "…[T]he school’s best teachers are those whose areas of teaching expertise are deeply intertwined with their out-of-school identities….I want know what [job candidates] are doing on weekends. If they have tools in their hands on a weekend, that’s the engineering teacher I want. If they’re a working artist, that’s the art teacher I want. I don’t want somebody who’s just teaching it. I want someone who’s got to do it" (Location 1689). 

This is what it looks like for me. What does it look like for you to maintain a work-life balance and yet have an area "of teaching expertise...deeply intertwined with [your] out-of-school identit[y]"?