Educators benefit from Elizabeth Green’s knowledge

Why do many students think that 49 x 5 = 405 rather than 245? That was the opening question for teachers who attended the Sanford z”l and Elaine Kroll Educators Conference on Oct. 26 at the Dwares JCC. You may wonder what it has to do with teaching Judaism, but it is an easy example of the type of specialized subject knowledge that a teacher must acquire.

Everyone agrees that a great teacher can have an enormous impact, yet what, precisely, makes a teacher great? Is it a matter of natural-born charisma? Or does great teaching require something more?  Elizabeth Green, co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of ChalkBeat.com, presented her observations on what makes great teachers. Some of these observations appeared in Parade Magazine last August, and in other publications, but her original reporting on teacher quality was for the New York Times Magazine, an assignment that changed her views.

Pulling together observations and interviews with teachers from across America and Japan, as well as much research, Green concluded that teachers are not born. Even a natural teacher must learn a body of knowledge, but this body of knowledge can be mastered by anyone. Studies show that great teachers are not defined by particular characteristics. They can be extroverts or introverts, serious or humorous, topic specialists or generalists, but they must master particular teaching techniques and subject-specific knowledge, samples of which she discussed at the conference.

Green is a former Spencer Fellow at the Columbia School of Journalism, and wrote “Building a Better Teacher,” which details her several years of exploring this area. Great teachers clued her into mistakes such as that posed in the opening sentence. Have you figured out the answer? Many students correctly multiply 9 by 5 and write down the 5. When they carry the 4, they mistakenly add it to the 4 in 49 and then multiply the total (8) by 5. They do this on other, similar problems, as well. A great teacher should be able to recognize such subject-content mistakes in his/her own field.

The Kroll Conference was attended by educators from local public schools, Jewish schools and a university education school. A program of the Educational Services Department of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, the conference is held every other year and alternates with the Joseph & Leba Zelniker Educators Conference.  Each is funded by an endowment set up by the respective families.

LARRY KATZ is director of Jewish Learning at the Jewish Alliance.