Teaching isn’t meant to be a secret

I sometimes wonder if people (especially students and parents) think that teachers receive a sly sense of accomplishment when we grade an assessment which fails.

Do some people think that we are trying to deceive students?

Is our aim meant to be to prove that we can trick our students effectively?

If this was the case, then we should get a strange sense of warmth when we dish out a grade of a 9/20.

Except I can’t think of a single teacher who thinks like this.

I certainly don’t.

If anything, I’m the exact opposite.

My aim will be to NOT deceive my students.

I will explicitly tell them everything they need to know.

I will show them.

I will tell them.

I will tell them again.

I will tell… them… slowly… and… loudly.

I will remind them.

Why?

Because I don’t need everyone to know that I’m the smartest one in the room, hoarding a secret knowledge all to myself.

In essence, my job is to arm my students with the knowledge and tools to perform well.

My job is to prepare them to be able to express what they know in the most effective manner possible.

Hiding the tricks-of-the-trade serves me, and my students, no favours.

If anything, I should be peeling back the curtain as far as possible.

I should be taking my class through the precise way I will mark.

I should be taking my class through the exact way I determine a grade.

I should be showing my class what annoys a teacher in a written response (like rhetorical questions!).

I should be telling my class to treat me (and anyone else marking their essay) like an idiot (thus they should be clear in explaining what they are writing about).

I should be explaining to my class the methodology behind their lesson structures.

I should be telling my class how I will prepare them for their assessment tasks.

I should explain to them how to dissect an essay question.

I should pick apart marking criterias in front of my class.

Why the hell wouldn’t I?

Teaching isn’t meant to be a secret.