We asked teachers to share their history, their own stories of how their instruction has changed over a few years or over many. Here are a number of Then and Now teacher essays written by veterans, by early career teachers, and by teachers at all levels of literacy instruction.
Enjoy—and think about sharing your story!
- Facilitator from Mary Pat McQueeney. "Facilitator - a buzzword popular with my professors but with little meaning for me - was how I characterized myself in my 1968 teaching statement."
- 50 Years Ago from Jesse Perry. "It has almost been 50 years since I started out on a career as a beginning teacher for students in grade 10 at Castlemont High School in Oakland, CA."
- Book Reports from Carol Martyniuk. "Book reports have come a long way since the mid-1970s when I began my career as a teacher."
- Student Mastery from Naomi McCall. "Now, I'm more focused on student mastery than coverage of material.
- Relationships First from Jo-Ann Hussion. "I have chosen to build relationships first, teach content later."
- Meaningful and Purposeful Lessons from Hilary Hughes. "I now explain the purpose of my teaching to my pre-service teachers."
- Not Knowing Students from Sarah Bridges-Rhodes. "I used to think that being a "good teacher" meant knowing students."
- Call to Teach from Kathleen Hudson. "I had the call to teach at about four years old in a nursery school."
- Flexibility from Jenni French. "I have learned much about flexibility since then."
- Middleteacher, Middlestudent from Ron Gladden. "I expect authenticity, evolution, and edification."
Meaning Making from Adria Merrit. "I have blossomed into a teacher who has a toolkit of activities to guide my students through the process of discovering meaning."
Independent Learning from Mathew Needleman. "As a teacher, I no longer feel like I need to control everything my second-grade students do."
Teaching Writing from Talitha May. "How many times do we have to write these irrelevant essays?"
Challenging Students from Tracy Fisher Bouslog. "As a student teacher, I was fortunate to work with a cooperating teacher who said, "I want someone to love the kids as much as I do'."
Lifelong Learning from Danling Fu. "Teaching to me at the beginning was to move information from books to students, but now it is a transformation process, through which my students and I both grow together into richer, more caring and more open minded learners."
Assessment from Belinda L. Eggen. "Today, because so much of formalized testing is not authentic and real-world focused, what I create must be."
Reading/Writing Workshop from Carey Fox. "Why was I teaching the way I had been taught? From time to time I’d wonder if there was a better way—then I started searching for a better way."
Change Begins in the Classroom from Katie Dredger. "Now, I verbalize and defend my choices. I use my reputation and experience as allies, working as an activist to affect policy, other practitioners, and ultimately, many more children than I ever could have imagined."