(Good) Teachers Worry Deep

In this particular blog post, Candace brings up a very interesting point. She firmly believes that exam scores are not enough when it comes to measuring how good a teacher is or can be. She goes on to mention a visit to her pediatrician, where the doctor calls her back later in the day because he had been stressing over an unknown diagnosis concerning her child. She equates this “stressing” with the overly-cautious and overbearing attitudes of mothers with their children. Mothers know when something is wrong with their child, with or without being informed explicitly. They know because they are deeply worried about everything their child does. They know because they are deeply involved in what the child is being exposed to. She says there are certain teachers who share that same attribute. She feels that teachers are affected just as much my poor test scores as the children are. They are affected because they “worry deep” about the academic success of those they teach. She suggests creating an alternate method of measuring how well teachers perform. She wants to create the “Teacher Involvement Quotient (TIQ)”. This is meant to quantify the effort good teachers put in to their students regardless of test scores.

Before I even read this article, I felt that measuring the success of the teacher cannot be done simply be looking at the exam scores of the students in that teacher’s classes. While I will admit, that it can give administrators some kind of a general idea of what the students are learning, there is too much involved outside of the exams (exams are taken on single days, homework assignments, lectures, and quizzes happen much more frequently). As such, something outside of exams needs to be added into the evaluation of a teacher’s overall ability. One element is what Candace talks about in this blog. One needs to see the effort put in with the students, by the teacher. In the limited time I have had in the classrooms, I have been affected by the good/bad scores of those I’ve helped. One of the reasons I wanted to become a teacher was because of the effect helping a fellow student attain mathematical understanding had in me. One of the first things anyone considering a career in teaching learns is that it is not done for extrinsic rewards, but for internal rewards, in the form of gratification of knowing the student has learned and understands the concepts being presented. It is that reward, the desire for such a reward, and the passion for the betterment of the student that makes a teacher great.