Eight Things Successful Educators Never Say

Words matter. They carry incredible power and reveal our underlying attitudes and assumptions. The words you choose each day can serve to lift others up or tear them down. Your words will build stronger relationships or they will push people away. Your words will inspire more commitment and dedication or they will find excuses or shift blame.

The most successful educators are intentional with their words. They strive for the greatest impact for their students and for their entire school through what they say and do. They speak from the heart and express a desire to serve and help in every situation. They make people and learning top priorities, in that order. They care deeply about students and their success.

Being a teacher is a difficult job. It's a calling. Your work is valuable, far too valuable to jeopardize by using any of the phrases below. You can't afford to allow negativity to creep in. There are too many challenges and only with a positive mindset will you be able to find success.

1. "That's not my job."

In education, our bottom line does not involve profits or increased sales. Our bottom line is helping kids succeed. So when there is something that might technically be outside of your job description, remember that you entered the profession to make an impact and making an impact can involve serving in many ways. You are a powerful example when you step up and take on whatever challenge comes your way. So your job is anything that helps students and learning.

If you have legitimate concerns about your role, you should talk with your principal about those things. There should be strong support systems around teachers. And teachers need to advocate for what they need. But when you wield this phrase, it just makes you look like you're not a team player.

2. "Those aren't my kids."

If you could pick and choose the students in your classes, of course your job would be easier. But successful teachers are advocates for ALL kids, even the ones who are difficult, demanding, or disrespectful. Some teachers think special needs students are not their responsibility. They shrug their shoulders thinking how the special education teacher or the ELL instructor should be the ones to support any struggling learners. This phrase really doesn't show the kind of compassion or empathy all great teachers display.

3. "There's not enough time."

You may feel like you don't have enough time. Everyone feels that way sometimes. But the truth is we all have the same amount of time in each day. Your hours and minutes are the same as every other human on the planet. So when you say you don't have enough time, you are really just saying it's not a priority. The things you don't have time for are not high enough priority for you to give it your time.

4. "It's not fair."

Life is definitely not fair. But it doesn't do any good to use this phrase. Usually, it's just a way of blaming or complaining and that doesn't help anyone. When something doesn't seem fair, don't use this phrase. Tell yourself the truth. You can only control you. Do something to work around the issue. Be grateful for when things do work out your way. When we are grateful, even difficult things seem to work back in our favor eventually.

Sometimes this phrase is used by teachers as a reason not to differentiate or modify instruction for students. But we shouldn't confuse fairness and equality. We need to give students what they need, not treat a student exactly like another who may have completely different needs.

5. "I taught it, but they didn't learn it."

Just because you taught it doesn't mean they learned, and it's not okay to shift the blame to your students. Maybe you need to reflect on your methods and consider what you can do differently to create better learning. If you want to change student learning, you have to be willing to change yourself first. This phrase shows a desire to do things "my way" regardless of whether it's working for students or not.

6. "We've always done it this way."

This has been coined the most dangerous phrase in the language. When you use this phrase, it shows you to be closed minded, inflexible, and possibly even stuck in the past. We can't think creatively or make progress with new ideas if we are so stuck in our paradigms we can't see the possibilities in something new. It's rare to actually here a teacher say this, but I wonder how often this type of thinking is just under the surface. We can get really comfortable doing things the way we've always done them. The most successful educators are willing to step out and take risks.

7. "But that won't work with these students."

When presented with a new idea or possibility, some educators think right away, "But that won't work with our students." Our students are different. They are impoverished, apathetic, troubled, uncooperative, etc. But how do you know what will or won't work unless you try? And trying with a positive attitude is much more likely to result in success than assuming your students are going to fail. If teachers don't believe in their students, who will? The best educators make students feel like they are better than what they ever believed. They are inspirational.

8. "I don't need any help."

No one ever accomplished anything without help for others. We always need help and also benefit from giving help to those around us. This cavalier attitude works against positive relationships and sharing, and quite frankly it works against learning. Learning is a social enterprise. We learn better when we test ideas and gain feedback. To have the best school, we need to have the best teachers and leaders. If you think you can do it all on your own, you are not going to grow and be as successful as possible.

Make Room for Creativity and Change

I just read a great post from Jon Harper (Happiness, Silly) about finding our state of creative flow, those times where we feel we are in our zone and are able to develop our best ideas, create our best moments, and generate seemingly unending personal energy. Jon suggests that he finds his creative flow in those moments when the tyranny of what's next fades away. Too often we are so busy with what's next, our schedules and to do lists, that we don't find those creative flow moments.

Jon's post resonated with me, in part, because I've been thinking about ways our education system could encourage more creativity and change. I agree with him that we don't have enough white space for educators to pursue their own passions and ideas, to find that creative flow.

We need to increase creativity and personal meaning for everyone involved in education--teachers, students, administrators, etc. Creativity results in greater meaning and personal relevance. It results in more perseverance. It results in positive change. It turns schools into learning organizations instead of information organizations.

But too often, leaders want to get behind people and push them toward an outcome. We develop one-size-fits-all programs. We hold never ending trainings. We mandate this or demand that. We pile on more paperwork.

It's piled on from every level of our system. What's next is coming at us from federal, state, local, and building levels.

We even require a lot of the new stuff in the name of change. We need to change this or that. We need more technology integration. Everyone must use this new method or strategy.

And this crazy dance goes on with noble intentions.

But what if there is another way? What if we provided more white space to allow professionals to develop their own ideas, to start their own movements, to share more of who they are and what they believe in as educators?

Instead of pushing, maybe just a nudge is all that's needed.

A nudge that encourages, "You have great ideas. You should share that."

A nudge that challenges, "How could we give students more ownership in that?"

A nudge that hopes, "Wouldn't it be great if..?"

To unleash the creativity latent in our profession, we have to make room for change. We have to stop pushing and pressuring and start providing conditions that allow for new ideas and problem-solving.

It will require trust. It will require taking things off of people's plates. It will require leaders who support risks and celebrate ideas. But it will be worth it. Make room for change.

Making Learning More Meaningful

Why have we placed such a high value on sense-making over meaning-making? Sense-making involves understanding and demonstrating a content or skill. Much of the work we do in school is related to sense-making and there is nothing inherently wrong with this. We need to know facts and learn skills. But why don't we make greater efforts to connect sense-making with things that bring meaning? Meaning is what helps us to really make sense of the world. It's coming to a place where we understand why our sense-making matters. Meaning gives relevance to our learning.

Daniel Pink explains in his book Drive that people are more effective, more motivated, and more connected to the work, and all areas of life, when conditions exist that allow for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. When we have autonomy we feel we have a voice and a choice. When we are able to do things well (mastery), it makes us want to try even harder and do even more. And when we have a sense of purpose, we feel our contributions matter and that what we contribute is bigger than ourselves.

These conditions are far more powerful than extrinsic rewards, because deep down we know that things that are most meaningful are ones that stand the test of time. Extrinsic rewards satisfy for a moment, but they don't deeply satisfy. They only feed appetites for more recognition, more rewards, or more pleasures. We need meaning, not more stuff, not better grades, not more rules or policies.

In our hurried, success-driven, hyper-connected culture, there is a hunger for meaning in ways like never before. We need something greater than ourselves and our shallow appetites (more stuff, more fame, more instant gratification).

So how does this all translate to the classroom? Let's ask students to do stuff that really matters, to themselves and to others. Learning shouldn't happen in isolation from real impact. Open the world and find ways for students to make a difference now. Give students the freedom and flexibility to do something amazing. As I think about the learning experiences from my school days that I remember the most, they are ones that were personally meaningful to me. We can't expect sense-making to last beyond the test if we don't help students have personal meaning connected to the learning.

Make learning personally meaningful and students will find their passions and become self-determined, lifelong learners.