During my sophomore year in high school I had a biology teacher named, Ms. Wirth. She was outgoing, smart, and known for shooting from the hip. I had always considered myself more of a right-brain thinker so learning about cell structure always seemed less appealing than working on a paper for English, or studying the American Revolution. Still, Ms. Wirth was able to take dense material and make it lucid, which for my money is the mark of a great teacher.
One afternoon we met to discuss why I was still getting mediocre test results after studying for hours on end. After a few short minutes of asking about study habits she was able to quickly gather I was focusing on the wrong information.
This week I was reminded of that time when I met with a teaching supervisor as I prep to teach a class of my own this weekend. She asked how my lesson plans were coming along. "I'm trying to get to the know the book I'm teaching so well I can recite it from memory," I told her. She looked at me quizzically before suggesting I focus more on the lesson plan than the text itself. "It's not about mastery," she said. "You'll always be learning as you go too," she told me.
For some reason, I'd decided that as an educator I had to know every detail about what I was teaching. The reality is no teacher ever does. In fact, being a teacher or mentor in any capacity essentially means you have a front row seat to the class itself. It's your job to learn as much as it is to lead.
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