One could say that a teacher’s job is never done, but I would like to politely disagree. I believe this depends on how we define “teaching” and “teacher’s work“. Full confession: I work in higher education, been doing that for more than a decade – and I love is SO much! In that sense I agree that we absolutely need teachers, and we as teachers (in any given level of education) have so much work to do. But…
My very strong educational belief is that our first duty is to help our students to learn how to learn. I know, this is kind of a “teaching philosophy statement”. And it is. But in our current reality it also is so much more! When students are able to support and self-regulate their own learning, the hardest part of out work has been done. Yes, there is still content to cover and assessments to use to measure learning, but equipping people to steer their own learning is the most important quest ever! Simply because the skills of life-long learning [1] carry on years and decades after we have met the student.
Helping every student to have a strong Learner Agency is my favorite tool. I love Bandura’s theory about agency [1] because with the four components it is so relatable: we all need intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness and self-reflectiveness to guide our learning process. Therefore, learning how to help and support our own learning is the crucial quest for all humans.
As teachers, how can we make this happen? We make sure that our students have choices! Apart from classroom teaching (or teaching online or in higher ed) I believe we have ample opportunities to support other people in our everyday encounters and encourage them to learn more. We can choose to support people agency – instead of pushing too rigid rules – and help people to enjoy learning new things! For years I have purposefully used Positive Regard so that I can choose to reframe my perception!
We can choose to volunteer in our communities to help others to learn. My current favorite is volunteering to support local resilience project to increase the awareness of ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) [2] and how to mitigate those with Trauma-Informed Practices [3], helping our local agencies to use the same language to discuss trauma, and foster resiliency of all our residents.
How do you want to use your expertise to support your students and your community?
[1] https://choosinghowtoteach.blogspot.com/2015/09/principles-of-life-long-life-deep-and.html
[2] Bandura, A. (2006). Toward a psychology of human agency. Perspectives on psychological science, 1(2), 164-180.
[3] ACEs – Adverse Childhood Experiences https://www.cdc.gov/aces/about/index.html
[4] TIP – Carello, J. (2019). Examples of Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning in College Classrooms;
NotesFromNina 
I agree about helping students how to learn – especially when adding helping them to ENJOY learning. That has always been my goal with every lesson. When I was full-time in the classroom I was generally quite good at making sure everyone enjoyed the process. I was never interested in whatever subject I was teaching (as in, it wasn’t my prime focus) but interested in growing kids who would look back and find their learning experiences positive and joyful and hopefully continue on with learning whatever interested them in adult life.
I also was very keen to make sure kids always felt validated, welcome and valued in my presence. I was aware that in this interconnected world in which we live, that it was likely I would know these children as adults for a lot longer than I knew them as kids, so it was important I treated them with dignity and respect. As a teacher who has lived in the same place for most of the last 26 years, this proved to be wise. Some of my kids are now in their 40s and I bump into them all the time.
Thanks Ken! I wholeheartedly agree – learning is so much better when we enjoy it! 🙂 N