Past a 30x30 Mentality

The typical classroom in the United States is 900 square feet. A 30’ x 30’ space. Your classroom may be larger than this, such as in the case of a Physical Education teacher. Your room may be smaller such as the case of a special education teacher working in small groups in a side room. I spent my teaching career in the area of special education. At my last school, where I spent 15 years, I never had a classroom of my own. I traversed the hallways among a student body of over 3000 students with my little supply of paper, pens, pencils. protractors, aides, books, and data in tow. I recall teaching several self-contained classes for students identified as having learning disabilities, mild mental handicaps, autism, and emotional handicaps (yes, all in the same class) in the back room of the school wood shop. Some rooms are carpeted, some are tile. Some are well-ventilated, some have stagnant air where the rafts of perfume overdosed adolescents hang. You take ownership of your classroom. It is your space to provide guidance and direction to those under your tutelage for 180 days a year. 

That 30 x 30 space is not where your success will be measured. Sure, that is where you worked hard to meet levels of student achievement and student growth. This is the place where you have taught the curriculum. This is where you have life lessons that are not in the curriculum.  You receive a teacher effectiveness rating where student achievement and student growth must significantly inform that evaluation. That’s the temporary part.  Your true effectiveness will not come as a formal measurement. It will come years down the road. You see, education is really what you have left when you have lost all of your notes.  That kid that you read about in the newspaper that has done something positive had something to do with you. That kid who gained admission into the college of their choice had something to do with you. That young man or young woman who did outstanding things for their community had something to do with you. Those that you taught who later are passing along those lessons learned from you had everything to do with you.  So, look around your classroom as you read this and look at that 30 x 30 space. Then realize that your influence goes far beyond those walls.