Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is, without a doubt, one of the most important writers or our lifetime. Her words and poetry are unbelievably powerful and have impacted so many people in all walks of life. This is my favorite quote from her.
It is what life should be about. Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know something is better, do that instead of what you were doing. This can apply to almost every aspect of life: relationships, nutrition and fitness, parenting, or work.
When I started teaching, literacy was an area where I needed to grow. So, I got a master’s degree in language and literacy. Throughout the coursework, I learned of research and pedagogy that, at times, ran counter to what I was doing in my classroom.
At this point, one of two things could have happened. One, I could have ignored what I learned and kept doing what I was doing, or I could do better now that I knew better. I chose the latter.
This also happened with a behavior system I used in my classroom. Early in my career I had a color coded behavior chart. Every student started the day on green. If there was a behavior issue throughout the day, they’d move to yellow. A second disruptive or off-task behavior and they would have to move to red. There were different consequences for yellow and red. At the time I was thought this was a good practice.
Then I started to reflect on the behavior system, and two things struck me. First, this system didn’t really seem to have any impact on behaviors. The students who were usually on yellow or red, were always the same students. So, moving to yellow or red was not creating the desired behavioral outcomes.
The second thing that changed my mind about my behavior chart was a thought I had during a faculty meeting. What if faculty meetings were structured like our classrooms? What if there was a behavior chart in the faculty meeting? A teacher talks to another teacher… Go clip down to yellow. Not taking notes on what was just said… Clip down to red. I imagined myself getting up, in front of the entire “class” and moving my clothes pin to yellow or red. My stomach churned just thinking about it.
How was a student going to trust me and feel emotionally safe in my classroom if I was making them move to yellow or red in front of their peers? At that point I knew better, so I did better. I never used a color coded behavior chart again.
Teaching is a hard profession. Whether you are a first year teacher or a 25-year veteran, there is always more to learn and ways to improve. I try to learn one new thing each day. This is sometimes a tip I pick up from a colleague, something I read in a book or online, and sometimes the most important lesson I learn are from my students. I’m always trying to learn, so that when I know better, I can do better.