Wornick Teachers Inspire
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 9:40AM 
Teachers make the difference between schools that are just ordinary and those that are extraordinary. Wornick is extraordinary and the teachers make it so. In our popular culture, people often think teaching is a "cushy" job where the work day ends at dismissal and the job appears to be a ten month job. Everyday, as I walk through our school, I marvel at the skill and the enthusiasm of our staff. They absolutely smash the popular culture image of a teacher.
After school hours, weekends and vacations are not "off" times for our teachers. They choose to dream up new lessons, perfect their techniques in workshops and spend endless hours correcting student work in these non-classroom hours. When I first came to Wornick in the summer of 2009, I was most surprised to see so many teachers working in their classrooms. Similarly, on any given Sunday, one can find several of our staff busy working to set up new projects for their students. There are active conversations among teachers on-line during the evening as they toss teaching questions as well as philosophical questions to each other.
Another feature of our teaching culture (for which I can take no credit as it preceded me) is the idea of teacher service. Our teachers have designated time in their weekly schedule when they are charged with working in another classroom to support the lead teacher. It is not uncommon to see a second grade teacher helping out in an upper elementary classroom or a middle school math teacher working with a younger class. Beyond the direct benefit to the students, there is the professional benefit of transparency and reflection. Historically, teachers are autonomous islands in their own classrooms. Our teacher service practice reverses this trend.
Outstanding teachers have to be outstanding people. Ours are. They are multi-dimensional people who engage in a variety of activities that benefit the community at large. We have a teacher who rides miles on her bike each spring to raise funds for a Jewish environmental group. There is a teacher who very actively participates in her synagogue Purim play. Another teacher is an accomplished playwright, and another one spends time teaching underprivileged children during vacation time. Yet another takes care of several "shut-in" elderly people. The list of "world repair" by our teachers goes on.
Wornick teachers know that teaching is not merely about conveying content knowledge. The world is full of well-educated people who use their knowledge for destructive purposes rather than for positive possibilities. They know that their task is a sacred mission. Our teachers are listeners and learners, poets and storytellers, people who can draw out, lift up, lead and follow. Our teachers create an environment that inspires and celebrates, that frees what waits within every child.
Shabbat Shalom,
Dr. G.
