Lessons Learned From Marva Collins

Associating with and learning from great educators helps us become great educators. Marva Collins is an excellent mentor. What we can learn from her--someone who taught Chicago children who had been judged and discarded:

• She was fascinated with the process of learning and continues to learn along with the students.
• On the first day of school she promised all her students that they would learn and she forged a contract with them.
• She didn't blame the students for any lack of success they had experienced. She blamed the system for failing them.
• She set extremely high standards for all the students and taught them words and concepts way beyond their grasp at first. She taught them how to reach the high standards.
• She created an atmosphere of genuine acceptance and cared about every student.

These characteristics of Marva Collins come from the book: Mindset by Dr. Carol S. Dweck

Make the System Work for Them

Effective teachers learn how to make the bureaucracy serve them rather than vice versa. They become personally acquainted with people in the bureaucracy so those people are aware of their passion for children and their classroom success stories. They know that when people in power positions know you are successful they tend to leave you alone. Success in itself is powerful.

Having this personal connection also makes it easier to become savvy about which rules and policies must be obeyed and which can be ignored. This way teachers can do the very least that is required in order to devote their time and energy to their students.

Also, the teachers who are personally connected to the people in the bureaucracy they tend to get more "favors" from those people to help them better serve their students. In other words, they have learned how to make the system work for them instead of against them.

Student Learning--Highest Priority

The highest priority and ultimate value for teachers who make a difference is student learning. They always choose the children over the system. It means they use texts to help them teach rather than allowing texts to use them. They understand it's a great idea to use a variety of texts rather than be tied to a classroom set of one text. Plus, teaching methods which have proven to be effective such as the Project Method and Thematic Teaching require more indepth study than one text would provide. By focusing on student learning teachers teach and students learn rather than just "cover" the curriculum.

A Word About Discipline

Discipline problems are rare and infrequent in classrooms and schools that serve all children well. If there are a number of discipline problems it is time for adults to see it as a problem with the system, not a student problem. A discipline problem is evidence that something isn't working. In other words, the cause for the behavior--not the symptom-- must be what is addressed.

When a child does misbehave the focus should be on what is creating the problem rather trying to find the best punishment. After all, punishment doesn't work! And because the motivation for a misbehavior is different for each child, the response must be equitable and fair rather than equal.

When a student is being disciplined--separated from other students in the classroom, sent to the principal, or suspended--learning is not taking place for that student. This will obviously have an effect on the student's academic achievement.

Proactive disciplinarians establish strong and powerfully reinforced expectations of appropriate conduct. When teachers combine this with interesting learning activities and caring relationships with each students, they won't have to waste learning time disciplining. Therefore, teachers will ask "How can I involve them?" rather than "How can I control them?"