A master is someone who has or shows great skill or proficiency. A master teacher would thus acquire complete knowledge or skill in teaching, classroom management, behavior and discipline, and so much more. And today, on The Teaching Toolbox Podcast we are joining with a special guest, Jill Ciolli to talk about being a master teacher.

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Ellie 0:00

A master is someone who has or shows great skill or proficiency. A master teacher would thus acquire complete knowledge or skill in teaching classroom management, behavior and discipline and so much more. And today on the teaching Toolbox Podcast, Brittany,

Brittany 0:18

hi

Ellie 0:20

and myself are joining with a special guest, Jill Ciolli,

Jill 0:24

hello

Ellie 0:25

to talk about being a master teacher.

Brittany 0:28

First off, let's meet Jill. Jill is a teacher with 30 years of a variety of teaching experiences in grades three through eight. Jill, can you tell us a little bit about your experiences, like where you've taught, what subject areas, maybe even what you love most about being in the classroom?

Jill 0:47

Absolutely, I started my teaching career as a seventh grade social studies and math teacher on a two person team who I would consider being a master teacher. She was fabulous. I took the time to observe, listen and learn all that I could from her. She was such a great influence for me. From there, we moved to Las Vegas, where I taught science to eighth graders, and then moved to seventh or sixth grade math, excuse me, where I actually fell in love with teaching math. All of the schools that I taught with to begin with were title one schools with low socioeconomic areas. So my students came from a wide variety of households at that time. Once we moved to Colorado, I have moved into a different type of teaching environment, where I've taught for the last 21 years, I've been teaching math to students in probably a middle range socioeconomic status. So I've had a wide variety of students coming from different demographics and backgrounds. I currently teach math and computers to fourth through sixth graders, except for one year when I was teaching third graders. But I've actually fell in love with teaching the middle grades. At this level, I just feel like I can make a larger impact on their love of learning, and especially in math, it's so fun to see the students finally making the connections to what they learned in the younger grades, and they can see the why and the where it's going to be taking them in the future. The aha moments we get at this age are daily, and it's just so much fun with the classes and their their whole attitude and excitement that they bring, we can have great time in class, but they also do know when it's time to settle down and get back to work. I love that at this age, I still get the sweet notes and pictures, yet I get to see them evolve into young men and women. I just really find this age to be truly special.

Ellie 2:43

I totally agree with you. It's it's amazing to see the middle school students, watching them make those connections is so exciting, and it's such a great range of experiences you've had.

Brittany 2:56

Before we talk about what makes a master teacher. Can we first examine the definition of master teacher. What do you think Ellie?

Ellie 3:05

I've always thought of a master teacher as one who has a depth of knowledge about their subject area, but just the depth of knowledge isn't enough. I think master teachers have taught the content enough times to enough different students that they have discovered the best techniques to help a wide range of students learn that content. I also think a master teacher is always on the lookout for ways to improve their craft. What do you think, Jill?

Jill 3:33

It's ironic, because I've had this conversation actually recently with many people. The question has been, can you be a master teacher without a high level of collegiate education? I don't believe that all master teachers have to have an amazing background, meaning a master's degree or a PhD or that type of higher education to necessarily be a master teacher. However, that being said, I also don't believe that teachers need to just sit back. I do think that they need to continue to focus on their education in some form, which could be attending workshops or conferences, observing peers. So I don't mean just educating oneself with their subject area. I also mean that you need to educate yourself in ways that a classroom runs, how you question your students, how relationships are built. The education and collaboration that takes place with colleagues and parents as well is another great way to educate yourself. I think that the time a teacher takes to educate themselves on how to handle and teach a variety of ability levels is super important. It's all these types of educational experience that I believe a master teacher also needs to pursue in order to become one.

Ellie 4:50

Definitely agree with you, and thanks for sharing those thoughts. Those are awesome things to think about. Would you agree that to become a better teacher teachers should regularly evaluate their teaching methods, their classroom management strategies, and their student outcomes?

Jill 5:08

Absolutely, one of the things I said above was peer observations, because I just feel it's an excellent way to get feedback on teaching methods as well as classroom management. As teachers, we need to constantly open to feedback in order to become better.

Brittany 5:22

I totally agree. I loved giving surveys to both kids and parents and just, you know, giving that feedback and finding out where I could learn and grow. Do you have any tips for how to evaluate your teaching methods, or how you might change a lesson from one year to the next, or from one group of students to the next?

Jill 5:43

I find that I do do that throughout the day as I teach one class something, and then if I have to teach them the next day or the next class period, I find that I have to sometimes modify the way I've taught something. If you look at my lesson plans, you can see I'm always keeping notes in them on what I've taught, what I need to improve, what are better questions to use than what I have used? I also have no shame in asking my students how they think I've taught something, what I could do better. If there's something I could have done differently or said differently, I also will default back to that peer observation, because if someone is teaching something in a better way, I will be in the room to observe and will absolutely change what I'm doing to benefit my students. Master teachers have to be open to continually learning and honing their skills to get the best outcomes for their students.

Ellie 6:33

I love that idea. It was always great to be able to go into somebody else's classroom and see what they were doing that could be similar or could be completely different from what I was doing. Do you have any quick tips for how to get or find the time to do some peer observations? I'm thinking of the teacher who might be saying, well, I don't have time to do that, or there's no way for me to do it. I was lucky, because at one point we had peer observations as a form of our yearly evaluations, and that was great. But what if that's not an option for someone?

Jill 7:05

I sneak in observations whenever I can. Sometimes it's during my plan period. Or if I don't have a class for some reason, you know, they're like on a field trip, or they're having a special event, I will sneak around and just peek in different classrooms. And I don't find that I need to stay for an entire lesson to glean great ideas. You can go in for different parts of the lessons. You can see an opening, you can see a closing, you can just see how the teacher is doing their questioning of their students. So just little snippets of time are actually very beneficial. I don't think that people should feel they need to go in and sit for, you know, a bell to bell type timeframe in order to get information and feedback from somebody else. I also am really lucky that we have administration that if I go to them and say, Hey, I really would like to watch this teacher, you know, look at this class. Would you come in and cover my class for a period for me, and I have found that most of the times you're really receptive to doing that for you. So just looking for all those different ways that you can get into the classroom to see others, not necessarily having to be in there for a long period of time.

Ellie 8:17

That's fantastic. Great ideas. Thank you. I think somewhere you said that after 30 years in the classroom, you don't feel like you're working.

Brittany 8:26

So why do you think you felt that way when so many teachers feel frustrated and overwhelmed?

Jill 8:31

I absolutely love the work I get to do to help my students see that math is awesome. I believe this is such a pivotal age to make such an enormous impact on the lives of my students. Do I always know if I have made one? No, but when I have them in front of me, I sure feel like I do. I believe I can have an impact educationally as well as emotionally, because I put the work in classroom management wise, with expectations that are set, as well as building the relationships in my classrooms, not only with each of my students, but within creating a whole class culture of caring, where students feel safe to discuss and answer questions, it's so important that my students feel that they can speak in class without shame or the you know, like they feel free and comfortable to speak out loud and give their ideas and answers to the entire class. And I think building that classroom rapport really helps allow all students, no matter their ability level, to speak in class, and that's in creating a classroom culture so they're able to do that.

Brittany 9:37

Yeah, that there's just no judgment in your class, that you're free to make mistakes, you're free to share your experiences, and there's no judgment passed.

Jill 9:48

Absolutely

Brittany 9:50

Jill, I had the pleasure and honor of working with you for maybe half a dozen years, and the relationships you build with your students while teaching challenging, fun, innovative lessons is absolutely remarkable. You have always been on the forefront of classroom management ideas, and I think that is seen through what you're able to accomplish each year.

I wish I had gotten to teach with her.

Do you think that being a master teacher just comes with time and knowledge? Or do you think there are other components we haven't touched on?

Absolutely time and experience and more importantly, the willingness to be a lifelong learner, open to suggestions and ideas from others. What do you think?

I totally agree. It's the experience, the abilities that you can showcase day after day, the way you handle situations and students, the way you're proactive instead of reactive to situations you see, could be a problem down the road, just you know, growing. What about classroom management? We know that's a tough area for many teachers. What tips or suggestions or methods can we give to teachers who are just starting their career, or who have been teaching for a while but are still frustrated with their classroom management skills?

I know we've heard that we need to be consistent with our classroom expectations, but this is in fact, true. However, I do think that students need to know that we genuinely care and want what is best for them. This is where I believe that taking the time to build relationships with your students really pays off. Take the time to find out your students hobbies, their strengths, their likes, bring that up to them when you're talking interacting with them, when your students know you care, they too will care, which makes a big, big difference in classroom management. It just makes it so much easier. I think the teachers also need to be able to handle all the situations we are faced with each day in a manner that does not escalate the situation. I believe students tend to remain calmer if a teacher does as well.

Yeah, I heard somewhere that speakers influence their audiences emotional states, and I think that's absolutely true in the classroom as well. Teachers influence their students emotional states. When a teacher is like crazy and bouncing off the wall, the students are crazy and bouncing off the wall.

Yes, absolutely.

I don't think we've talked about this yet, but how long do you think it takes to become a master teacher.

That's a hard one to answer. I don't know that I can give an exact number of years, but I do think that a teacher needs to have gone through a lot of different situations and classes in order to learn from them all. I think that if you've just been in the same stagnant classroom, the same building, the same type of students, the same curriculum, it's going to be hard to develop and grow into a master teacher. So I really think that it's over time that we continually learn and grow into that role through all the different experiences we've accumulated.

Yeah, very true. Whether you get an advanced degree or not, you do need time to take courses to help you grow and evolve. You need time to experience it lots of different classrooms and parental situations, and you at least need several years under your belt of mastering curriculum, classroom management and all the other things that come with teaching. All right, whether you're already a master teacher or you're on your way, take time to enjoy each and every child. Peer job and lesson you teach, your opportunity to educate, communicate and share your experiences is always meaningful to others.

Well, we hope you heard some valuable tips that you can add to your teaching toolbox. It was great to have Jill here with us today. Please consider leaving a review on Apple podcast so more teachers like you can find us. We'll talk soon.

Goodbye. Thanks for having me on the show.

Bye.