Are you teaching-if they are not learning?

NOLEARN=NOTEACH
If they aren’t learning..Then you aren’t teaching

I didn’t always believe the concept that is inferred in the title of this article. I once thought that I was one super extraordinary teacher, the fact that 75% of my students had “F’s” was not important. My thought was that if they got bad grades it was because they wanted bad grades. (I sure made it easy enough by giving excellent explanations and commentary on the lessons.) I did all I was supposed to do and more, so if they didn’t do their part that is their fault. The process took two sides working together to make it work.

I now have a different mindset. How great is a teacher that has beautifully written lesson plans, her own PC in the classroom, and a long list of completed field trips if her students don’t know the minimum acceptable amount of information? How great is the geography teacher whose students can’t name the continents? How good is the science teacher whose students all hate science?

So, let it be noted. The rule of the new millennium is this: If your students can’t pass a minimum acceptable standards examination , then you didn’t teach them anything.

I know this concept is very upsetting to many of my colleagues. But consider this, If a real estate salesperson gives hundreds of showings and has 79 listings but never sells a house, then he will not make the million dollar sales club. In Physics there is a formula that is written thusly W=Fxd. (Work equals Force multiplied by distance. That is to say , if you push on the wall (until you sweat profusely) and the wall does not move..(d=0), then F times 0 (any number times zero) is equal to zero.., you have done no work!. Your students learning is the measure of the quantity and quality of your (and my) Teaching Ability. Their test scores , their enthusiam , their final grade, their success or failure as an adult in society are the indices you must consider. I changed as a teacher. I began to take a personal responsibility. If they made an F, it was my fault. I did something wrong or I missed doing something I should have done. When that personal responsibility kicked in, my students grades soared. I believe that the same will happen with you and your students. If they make “F’s” then you must do something different!. What you have done in the past does not work. If you keep doing what does not work , you are not a good teacher! !. If you keep trying something different or new, eventually you will discover what works. When you do, the students will learn more and their grades will go up, and you will be a better teacher.