What Great Teachers Do Differently: An Analysis

Whittaker in his novel, What Great Teachers Do Differently pose teachers with different concepts within the education field, touching on some “not-talked” about concepts, and sheds light on ones own performance, and effectiveness as a classroom teacher. On page 95, Whitaker states, “If we seek input from our most capable students and colleagues, we are much more likely to make the right choices”. Now looking at that from just a first line perspective one may question how this would effect the individual student voices and faculty. If one is to look deeper and really think about what he is saying, then one can realize how this is justified by the mere fact that it is the nature of both students and teachers to make decisions on what is best

Now as a school it is important to establish expectations but also be consistent. Some of the teachers were enforcing the student expectation and others were not. As an administration it was something presented and discussed at the staff meeting. The mediocre teachers seemed to be more passionate about allowing the kids to eat in class where I observed the “best teachers” wanted to enforce and following with the consistency of the previously established student expectation.and not allow students to eat during class time. I could tell the decisions were made based on both what was best for everyone verses what made the mediocre teachers more comfortable. The majority or the mediocre teachers felt uncomfortable confronting students and did not want to be seen as mean by both students and parents. Applying the theory created by Whitaker, the majority would rather be comfortable than do whats right. Ultimately the decision was made that it was now going to be under teacher discretion which intern, turned into multiple further