Who is the Variable?

Effective teachers understand the answer to this question.  Indeed, they know that the real answer is not what the variable is, but who!  Great teachers know who the variable is in the classroom: They are.

Let’s consider this statement more closely…   Who is the variable in the classroom?

For example, you could all predict which teacher will send the most students to the principals office this year, and next, and the next.  How do you know this without the class rosters?  The answer is simple.  The main variable is not the students, it is the teacher. 

What if the students do poorly?  If the best teacher gives an assignment and the student do poorly, whom does she blame?  (Herself)  If the worst teacher gives an assignment and the students do poorly, whom does she blame?  (kids,  parents, administration, MTV…)  Whose behavior can a teacher actually control in her classroom?   (Her own)  The answers speak for themselves…

The variable is how the teachers respond.  Good teachers strive to improve, focusing on something they can control: their own performances.  Other teachers wait for something else to change.  Great teachers look to themselves for answers, while poor teachers look elsewhere, and they can wait a very long time.

When we center on our own behavior, we feel empowered to make a difference!

Clearly, the best teachers accept responsibility for their own classrooms and the worst teachers do not. 

When focusing on classroom management matters, and we talk about behavior issues, whose behavior do you think we talk about? The teachers, of course.  Otherwise, it is too overwhelming and defeated.  When we center on our own behavior, we feel empowered to make a difference.

At all levels of our school systems, effective teachers take responsibility.  Some superintendents blame the school board, others work to educate the members.  Some teachers lament the worst group of students ever, while others rise to the challenge of making every class the best.  Most educators, from time to time, have felt they are at the bull’s eye of the community’s concerns.  Great teachers place themselves in the bull’s eye! 

How do we deal with the demands of others?  We must put the criticisms of schools in context to survive.  Everyone’s effectiveness depends at least in part on what they expect of themselves, not of others.

Accepting responsibility is an essential difference between effective and less effective employers, teachers, principals – even parents.

As teachers, we must examine our own acceptance of responsibility.  More than that, we must help all teachers take responsibility for their classroom performance.  If we all look in the mirror and ask, “who is the variable?” we will make tremendous strides toward school improvement.  This empowering approach raises the level of teacher efficacy and will eventually reach students.  Success in any profession starts with a focus on self.  After all, we are the one variable that we can most easily and productively influence.