.2 Improving Yourself as a Teacher

Systematic risk is an issue that must be addressed as well. The teacher is always at some degree of risk. Your choice is whether you recognize the risk or not. Anytime a teacher introduces something new or changes something, they are taking a risk. Not every change is an improvement. Managed failure is a very important thing. There are groups that just don't work. Instruction is a big job. Experimentation often results in failure; this is inevitable in any learning process (even yours). There is no way to eliminate risk. But make the failure less important.

Team up with colleagues for mutual observation and trial. This doesn't happen much in schools. Very rarely do teachers work together. This is unfortunate because change doesn't emerge without feedback. Feedback is the starting point for all constructive change. Just like your students, if you don't know how well you're doing, you have no way of changing it.

What do you do with that feedback? Feedback allows you to have systematic mutual staff development. It allows you to work together to develop strategies and to work with each other in terms of those strategies. We need to see that trial and error are a productive part of the process. Too often, we think all mistakes are bad. Mistakes can be good and in our best interest.

	What is the benefit of getting other teachers to observe you (and your mistakes)?	Answer Here
	Mrs. Cherry is a new teacher at Central High School who just graduated from college. She has had her student teaching experiences and got good reviews and grades from it, but she is still uneasy about her new job because there is no longer anyone inside the classroom that has established authority and principles before her arrival. How can Mrs. Cherry use her new colleagues to assist her during this first year inside her own classroom?	Answer Here