Classroom Confidential: The 12 Secrets of Great Teachers

Chapter 2 - Great Teachers are Power Brokers: Building a Culture of Eptness

What exactly is eptness?

Unfortunately, we are most used to using this term in the negative. Ineptness: without having the skill necessary to complete a given task; awkward or clumsy; absurd or foolish; unskillful.

Teachers aim to create a culture that trumps each of these given notions. Instead, they work toward EPTness. In the text, Schmidt discusses what this particular classroom might look like. On pages 24-25, she explains that in a culture of eptness, students:

• Expect to play the roles of learner and teacher. I already see this happening in my own classroom because of the way that Mrs. D. and I set up the classroom's culture. After we created a list of rules and consequences with the students, we explained the importance of respect. In our classroom, we are expected to respect the students just as they are expected to respect us. We also explained that even though we have been trained as teachers, we are not the only teachers in the classroom. From day one, we have invited each and every student to stand as teachers beside us. Mrs. D. and I are eager to learn and be taught just as much as the students are. 
• Share in making decisions about their learning and learning environment. Again, we have incorporated this aspect into our teaching by welcoming the students into sharing the classroom responsibilities and decisions so that each and every person has a place (and a comfortable one) within our classroom. 
• Draw on a wide variety of resources for knowledge.
• See problems as opportunities to feel smart. (I really, really like this and aim to stay consciously aware of including my students in events that call for problem solving.)
• Are willing to struggle to clarify their thinking and speaking.
• Understand the connections between their classroom and the real world. A day has not passed in my young teaching career when I have not asked students to make connections between what we discuss in the classroom and what is taking place outside of it. 
• Use real-world knowledge and skills in the classroom activities and vice versa. 
• Feel they are important to the welfare of their classmates and the community.

I believe that Mrs. D. and I are on the right path to building a culture of eptness. While this is my first time reading and studying about the benefits of eptness, it encourages me that I have already been taking the right steps toward working in a classroom like this. 

Schmidt also lists ten teacher behaviors that are thought to promote eptness in the classroom. The one behavior that really hit home with me has to do with encouragement. 

When I was five years old, my parents filed for divorced. It crushed my little heart and left me feeling unsure of myself. For years, I had done everything in my power to please those around me, to make them proud, but I felt like no one paid attention. I felt alone. 

No student should feel like nobody cares, ever. Encouragement is what drives us. It fuels the flames of our dreams, and oftentimes, it comes from others rather from within. One of the driving reasons I chose to become a teacher has to do with my desire to work with others to help them achieve their goals. Out of necessity, I feel that it is my job to spark the fires within my students, especially those who are having a hard time feeling that support so crucially related to encouragement. Every student deserves to be encouraged no matter what. 

In the words of Thomas Edison: "Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration." This past week as we discussed our journal responses relating to this quote, I explained to students that if they wanted to achieve their goals, it would undoubtedly take a lot of work, but all of that work had to stem from somewhere (even just a little bit of inspiration). I told them that all it takes is a spark. 

I like to think that I am that spark.