What makes a good teacher great? | Azul Terronez | TEDxSantoDomingo — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Translator: Kesmat El Deeb Reviewer: Riaki Poništ
2. 0:17I'm obsessed with the question:
3. 0:21"What makes a good teacher great?"
4. 0:25I've collected 26,000 responses to this question,
5. 0:29in eight different schools,
6. 0:32from the poorest schools in Los Angeles,
7. 0:34to suburban schools in Texas, to elite private schools abroad.
8. 0:39And after 24 years of teaching students,
9. 0:43I'm still perplexed by this question.
10. 0:46Today, I'm going to teach you
11. 0:47the lessons I learned from those thousands of students,
12. 0:51and learn what I found out from them if we just listen to students.
13. 0:56The thing about it is
14. 0:58that during my time of asking kids this question,
15. 1:00I realized that we don't ask this question for a particular reason:
16. 1:05schools are afraid.
17. 1:09Based on fear, they don't really want to know what kids think.
18. 1:13Partially because they don't think kids will take it serious.
19. 1:16I'm going to share with you one of the most profound quotes,
20. 1:19answers to this question that I've ever received.
21. 1:22[A great teacher eats apples]
22. 1:24(Laughter)
23. 1:25Now, I know what you're thinking.
24. 1:28Doesn't this prove my point?
25. 1:32"Great teachers eat apples."
26. 1:35When I first saw this, I dismissed it as silliness,
27. 1:39but it appeared again and again.
28. 1:43So I thought,
29. 1:44"There's got to be something to this, but what are they trying to tell me?"
30. 1:48So one day, I decided I would start eating apples.
31. 1:53I ate them in the morning, at lunch, during class, in the hall.
32. 2:01Kids began to give me apples.
33. 2:05The'd see me eating them and say, "You're eating an apple!"
34. 2:09"I know!"
35. 2:11They would smile, and I would smile back.
36. 2:15It wasn't until I understood that kids wanted to see me
37. 2:18as somebody who is willing to receive a gift from them,
38. 2:22that the apple was a symbol for our relationship.
39. 2:25There was goodness in that, and trust.
40. 2:29But for a long time, I wasn't listening and I hadn't understood this.
41. 2:35[A great teacher is chill]
42. 2:37They have their own language.
43. 2:40When they say, "A great teacher is chill,"
44. 2:42what they really mean is: "Don't take it too serious.
45. 2:46Be calm in all situations. Don't get overwhelmed."
46. 2:51(Laughter)
47. 2:53They have a way of speaking to us about what they really want to tell us,
48. 2:57but we have to listen.
49. 3:00Right?
50. 3:01I'm the father of two grown kids.
51. 3:04They're out of school now and in college.
52. 3:07But when they were at home and they were teenagers,
53. 3:10I had to learn a whole new language.
54. 3:13When they would come home from school, I might ask them:
55. 3:16"How was your day?" and they would say, "Fine,"
56. 3:21which usually meant: "It was not bad. It was pretty good.
57. 3:25Nothing happened eventful.
58. 3:27I probably learned something. Maybe I didn't."
59. 3:30But if they came home and said, "Fine," what they meant was:
60. 3:35"It wasn't really great, but don't ask me, because you wouldn't understand anyways."
61. 3:41If I asked them how their day was and they said "OK,"
62. 3:45what they were trying to tell me was: "It wasn't good at at all,
63. 3:49and you should probably ask me more questions,
64. 3:52but don't expect me to answer."
65. 3:54(Laughter)
66. 3:55Kids have their own language; they have their own way of thinking.
67. 4:00They want us to think like them
68. 4:02and understand what's inside of their head.
69. 4:06They have so many ways of thinking that things are great.
70. 4:10They want us to see their world inside of them.
71. 4:14But they don't want us to act like them;
72. 4:16they want us to be calm and protect them and keep them safe.
73. 4:20Kids have a way of communicating,
74. 4:22and adults just haven't spent the time listening.
75. 4:26But what if we did?
76. 4:28What if we really listen deeply to students?
77. 4:32One of the things I noticed
78. 4:33after all the years of collecting these responses
79. 4:37is that there is patterns that emerge.
80. 4:40When I asked the question of what makes a good teacher great,
81. 4:44oftentimes I heard, "A great teacher loves to teach."
82. 4:4970 percent of the time, the quote or the answer that followed was:
83. 4:52"A great teacher loves to learn."
84. 4:55The reason this is significant is they don't see this happening.
85. 4:59They don't see teachers learning in front of them.
86. 5:03They see them teaching,
87. 5:05but they wish they would learn along with them.
88. 5:08Think about it.
89. 5:09Principals hire teachers to be content experts,
90. 5:13to have all of the knowledge, not to be learners.
91. 5:18But what if they did?
92. 5:20What if you showed up in the classroom, and the teacher had something prepared,
93. 5:24said, "I don't know exactly what we're going to do today,
94. 5:26but I can't wait to learn with you."
95. 5:28Or that they saw their teacher struggle
96. 5:30through something they didn't actually know
97. 5:32and then eventually discover the answer.
98. 5:36Kids want to be inspired by this idea that learning is important.
99. 5:40But they don't see it in schools.
100. 5:43[A great teacher isn't a teacher]
101. 5:45When I saw this quote: "A great teacher isn't a teacher,"
102. 5:48I actually was a little bit offended.
103. 5:50"What do you mean?! I'm a teacher!"
104. 5:53They're like, "We know."
105. 5:56What they were trying to tell me is:
106. 5:58a great teacher isn't in the classroom.
107. 6:02Think about it.
108. 6:04Think about a time that you have some enduring understanding,
109. 6:07a time when you learned something
110. 6:09that you still remember and you use to this day,
111. 6:11like throwing a baseball or riding a bike.
112. 6:16I remember learning to ride a bike from my mom
113. 6:18when I was five years old.
114. 6:20She took off the training wheels of my bike,
115. 6:23she got behind me, and began to push.
116. 6:25And we ran, and we ran,
117. 6:27until she finally let go, and I began to ride a bike.
118. 6:32That's what I did; that's how I learned to ride a bike.
119. 6:35I can still ride a bike to this day from that moment.
120. 6:40But can you imagine if I tried to learn to bike from my mom in a classroom,
121. 6:44what it would look like?
122. 6:45[Copy this Bike riding 101]
123. 6:47(Laughter)
124. 6:49"Son, first, you need to learn all the parts of a bike.
125. 6:54There's the pedals and the crank, and there's a chain that turns the wheel.
126. 6:58You have to have a significant force;
127. 7:00once the force has enough momentum, you can keep your balance.
128. 7:04That's how a bike works.
129. 7:07I want you to learn all the parts, be able to label them and draw them.
130. 7:10Then you're going to learn and write a research paper
131. 7:13about the history of bike riding.
132. 7:14(Laughter)
133. 7:16All the important elements, the adventure, the development of bikes.
134. 7:21And at the end of that, you're going to take a final examination.
135. 7:24If you pass and get an A, you can ride a bike.
136. 7:28(laughter)
137. 7:30At five years old, I think I would've said,
138. 7:33"Never mind, I'll just walk."
139. 7:34(Laughter)
140. 7:36This is exactly what we do to children.
141. 7:39We put them in a classroom and tell them,
142. 7:42"This is what I want you to learn. It's important. Do it."
143. 7:45And kids know that it's not true,
144. 7:48that we don't really value learning this way.
145. 7:52So no wonder they're disruptive, or bored, or disengaged.
146. 7:57Kids want us to be teachers that aren't teachers.
147. 8:02I want to tell you a story about Yvette.
148. 8:05"A great teacher understands that they have a life outside of school."
149. 8:09They really do.
150. 8:11They want us to know that their life in school
151. 8:14is way more different than the life outside of school.
152. 8:20I just thought, "Well, how hard is your life?
153. 8:23Your job is to do school; my job is to teach."
154. 8:28Yvette was a tough student,
155. 8:31She was feisty, and she had an infamous reputation.
156. 8:35She walked around with a jacket to prove it.
157. 8:39Whenever she walked around, the kids would follow.
158. 8:43She would come in and sit in the front row and lean
159. 8:45just so that she can have eye contact to intimidate me.
160. 8:49She would call me "mister" and not even use my full name.
161. 8:53When she'd get up to go to the bathroom, all the girls would follow.
162. 8:57Eventually, I learnt from Yvette what she needed to learn.
163. 9:01And I thought I became pretty good at what I was doing.
164. 9:05I noticed one day, she stopped turning in her homework.
165. 9:08She had become a great leader in the classroom:
166. 9:12she turned in her homework, she participated in class;
167. 9:16she actually was quite good.
168. 9:18So when this happened, I was surprised.
169. 9:20So I went up to her and said, "Yvette, I'm very disappointed in you."
170. 9:25She said, "I know mister; I'm sorry."
171. 9:30"I expect it turned in tomorrow."
172. 9:33Tomorrow came, and just a few sheets of unfinished work were turned in.
173. 9:39I also went up to her and said, "Yvette, this is disappointing."
174. 9:46She said, "I normally do my homework in the bathroom
175. 9:49because it's the quietest place in my house,
176. 9:53but this week the electricity was turned off, and it's dark in there.
177. 9:58I had a candle, but it burned out.
178. 10:01And I'm sorry."
179. 10:03She gazed down, not her prideful self.
180. 10:06I had missed the point.
181. 10:08I had not listened when she said, "I'm trying, mister."
182. 10:13I heard the words, but I didn't listen.
183. 10:16Great teachers notice when there's a struggle.
184. 10:19They don't make assumptions about what kids can and cannot do.
185. 10:24They wait and watch, and they rescue them when they're stuck.
186. 10:30Good teachers hear them, but they don't listen.
187. 10:35I'll never forget Yvette, and I'm grateful
188. 10:37because whenever I see an answer of a student like that,
189. 10:40I remember her, and I listen.
190. 10:43[A great teacher sings]
191. 10:45This was the most perplexing answer I think I ever received.
192. 10:51It happened every year for ten years; at least one student would put this.
193. 10:55"A great teacher sings."
194. 10:58What are they talking about?
195. 11:00I can't sing.
196. 11:02So I started thinking, "Wait a second. What do they mean?"
197. 11:06It wasn't until Danny turned it in as one of his responses.
198. 11:12He was the class clown.
199. 11:14You know he was the one that when we took the class picture,
200. 11:17he put ear fingers behind your head.
201. 11:20He would make faces at me during lectures
202. 11:22so I would laugh.
203. 11:23Everything was a joke to Danny.
204. 11:26So, when he turned in his responses,
205. 11:29and they were all serious and actually really good,
206. 11:33I was surprised when this showed up in the middle.
207. 11:36But I knew there was something to it; I just didn't know what.
208. 11:40So the next day, I put the agenda on the board,
209. 11:43listing all the activities of the day, the expectations, and the homework.
210. 11:48And instead of actually reading them, very seriously, I sang,
211. 11:53(Laughter)
212. 11:54in an operatic style, big as I could.
213. 11:58The eyes of the students were wide, their mouths dropped.
214. 12:02(Laughter)
215. 12:05But you know what happened at the end of that?
216. 12:08I expected pointing and laughing.
217. 12:11But the classroom erupted in cheers and applause.
218. 12:16There was a standing ovation.
219. 12:19I could not believe it.
220. 12:21At the end of class, they walked out, gave me high fives and handshakes,
221. 12:24and here came Danny.
222. 12:26He walked in, and he leaned in, and patted me on the shoulder, and said,
223. 12:30"I told you a great teacher sings."
224. 12:32(Laughter)
225. 12:35(Applause)
226. 12:42Great teachers make themselves humble before their students.
227. 12:48They take risks.
228. 12:51They put aside their fear to try.
229. 12:54They trust that they are going to be supported if they fail.
230. 12:58But they don't see this; they see experts, remember?
231. 13:01Content experts.
232. 13:03What if we hire teachers
233. 13:05not to be deep understanders of content, knowledge keepers,
234. 13:09but deep understanders of students?
235. 13:13How our schools would change and transform?
236. 13:17But it's no wonder students don't care or that teachers don't really listen.
237. 13:22Because they have never been taught.
238. 13:25But what if we did listen?
239. 13:29You see, we spend three years of a student's life,
240. 13:33teaching students to read.
241. 13:35About 12 years of those students' lives, teaching them to write.
242. 13:40Maybe if they're lucky, they get a semester or half a year
243. 13:44learning to public speak.
244. 13:47But they get virtual zero years of formal listening instruction.
245. 13:55Zero.
246. 13:56Think about it.
247. 13:57When was the last time you were at a dinner party,
248. 13:59and someone asked a question: "So what do you do for a living?"
249. 14:03and the response was, "Oh, I'm a listening teacher.
250. 14:06I teach advanced listening at the high school events,
251. 14:09listening communications, or beginning listener for elementary?"
252. 14:12We don't hear this.
253. 14:14Because we just don't believe that in schools it's important,
254. 14:18though in the world,
255. 14:19listening is one of the number one skills essential for business and life.
256. 14:24And we just don't teach it.
257. 14:26We need to listen to our students.
258. 14:30In our classrooms are the future.
259. 14:35The Maya Angelous, the Mother Theresas, the Elon Musks of the world.
260. 14:41And can you imagine
261. 14:42if we took the time to ask those students, "What would make a good teacher great?"
262. 14:50and then we actually listened,
263. 14:52we could transform schools and education.
264. 14:57Thank you.
265. 14:58(Applause)