The Buffer

I've been reading Mike Schmoker's Results Now. Its very in-your-face about pedagogy. He argues that if student achievement is to improve then instruction will have to improve. He writes about the "buffer"--a protective barrier that discourages and even punishes close scrutiny of instruction in public schools. We like to think that we are closely scrutinized--what with all the standarized testing and such, how are we supposed to teach? But are we really? As a classroom teacher, I can think of merely a handful of times that someone has visited my classroom to remark on my pedagogy. As a literacy coach? Please. Sometimes I fear that they don't understand what I do at all.


What I have noticed, as a coach, is that once deemed competent, you can trust that you will be left alone. We all get wrapped into our own worlds and let the business of the school year consume us. The best intentions of classroom visits quickly go awry.

So what can we do to keep this buffer from growing and enclosing us in our rooms? My high school has tried for two years now to get teachers to visit other classrooms. Last year we were supposed to visit 16 rooms over the course of the year. At the end of the year, teachers were scurrying around--not to get their visits in, but to just get signatures saying that they did. There was no accountability for the visits. Just get the signature and turn it in. This year, we were expected to do 8, but I can probably bet that nothing has changed.

Its not that school-wide observations are such a bad idea. I think teachers visiting other teachers is an optimal way to bring our pedagogy out into the light. However, starting at 16 isn't the way to go. Why not getting teachers to visit 2 or 3 in a semester? Why not encourage teachers to visit others in their department first?

Another way to bring pedagogy to the forefront is to have teachers video themselves and then write up a reflection on their teaching styles. Now this requires a lot more work on behalf of the teacher, but the results are limitless. Teachers can see their strengths and weaknesses right there on TV. They can replicate the strengths and hopefully eliminate the weak behaviors.

The buffer needs to be eliminated, but it has to happen in small steps. In a perfect world, administrators have more time to visit classrooms. Teachers are in and out of each other's classrooms in order to learn from one another. We are constantly reflecting on what we are doing. But for now, maybe a few peer observations and some brave souls videoing themselves will start the crumbling of the buffer.