When Rosalyn Bratcher became a principal at a low-achieving middle school, she faced a challenge: How could she help a disillusioned staff "get in touch with their teaching" and remember why they became teachers in the first place? Many of the teachers had been at the school a long time, she recalled, and "they had lots of stories of sorrow. Some stories were joyful, to be sure, but they were rare."
So Bratcher asked teachers to create personal vision statements and consider what they wanted to accomplish in life. She then asked them to describe why they chose teaching as a career. When teachers began to share their statements, she said, "they began to build a team." They found that as a group they shared many of the same beliefs. They found that they were "universally focused on kids, and the unity it brought to the school was great." What's more, said Bratcher, once teachers became more motivated and self-aware, the "students became more motivated and self-aware." Not surprisingly, student achievement, as measured by state assessments, improved.
Bratcher, now the assistant superintendent of instruction in the New Braunfels (Tex.) Independent School District, uses what she learned from her middle school experience to help other teachers become more reflective and "grounded" in positive mental models. "Poor teachers are trapped by low self-worth," she explained. Some teachers need help in realizing that "their expertise is important" to student learning and that they can "interact in a very positive way with students."
Some teachers also need help in consciously forming "a mental model of what good teaching is," Bratcher continued. Research reveals that teachers' beliefs about how they can help students learn are ingrained—often as a result of their own experiences in school. These deep-seated convictions often go unexamined, so teachers must learn how to critically analyze the behaviors that stem from their principles.
"I ask teachers to list 10 traits of a teacher they admire," said Bratcher. Teachers then use those traits to evaluate their own classroom performance. Instruction changes, she observed, "when teachers recognize how the current reality of their classroom doesn't fit with their vision of what `good teaching' is."
Bratcher also encourages teachers to take care of their souls. Teaching "puts your soul on the line. You're vulnerable," she stated. She advised teachers to protect their spirits by "talking about the nature of teaching" in professional inquiry groups. Through such discussions, Bratcher asserted, teachers can help create the support systems they need to be self-renewing and ready for the challenges and joys of the classroom.