Teacher as Both Designer and Tailor

In looking ahead in the syllabus I saw fashion as one of our discussion topics. I have been looking forward to this topic ever since. I am one of the millions of people who have already subconsciously decided that fashion is compelling. I love to watch all the fashion shows on television and spend considerable amounts of time and money on different aspects of fashion. It was not until this week that I began to see that fashion is a real vehicle for learning. Not only is fashion a deeply engaging experience like Wong and Henriksen suggest in If Ideas were Fashion, it is also an extremely thought provoking subject. Wong and Henriksen mention various connections to teaching and learning through fashion. They mention how fashion is compelling because of it is “characterized by intense imagination, motivation, emotion, and thought”. Just as I am compelled to think about my personal fashion choices and styles, I was compelled to think more about fashion roles inside the classroom. I began to think more in terms of my role in the classroom and began to see teaching like designing or tailoring. Teaching is also all about designing. Just as a designer thinks of a new way to express an idea through fashion, teachers have to create lessons that show students information in new ways. Teacher design lessons in a variety of ways. They have to decide what material to cover. Even when standards are in place they may be vague and it is up to the teacher to choose how to interpret the standards. For example students in Michigan that are in third grade all have to be able to explain what a decade is as a part of the history curriculum. I decided to have students match items and pictures of clothing to their decade then discussed the meaning. Other teachers in my building used various buttons through the years to show the difference between past and present. The teacher also has to design their classroom as discussed in my blog on second chances and classroom environment. Teachers also design the layout of each day and when each subject or lesson should be taught. Designers choose fabrics, colors, shapes, and styles and they take careful consideration of each when designing an outfit. Teachers also think carefully about the design of their day as to best suit the needs of their students. A takes just as much time to plan out each day of their students as a designer would with each one of a kind piece. Ultimately teachers also design each lesson so that students achieve and grow. Each lesson is therefore tailored to suit the needs of the teacher, the students, the school, and the state.
I began to see the teacher also like a tailor. A teacher’s main job is to see that all students are growing; academically, mentally, physically, and socially. To do this teachers have to get a feeling for their students as individuals and how they function as a community of learners. Then they design custom fit lessons to suit the needs of all learners, much like a tailor fits the garment to suit each individual body type. We are all different and although clothes are made in generic sizes we often have to have them tailored to fit our own bodies or at least we could to make our clothes fit as good as they can. Teachers take the same concept of one size fits all with most lessons catering them to the needs of most students or what the majority of learners need; then they adjust the lessons to fit individuals. They may also need to do some adjusting more than once. Often time’s tailors have to see a suit on a man many times before creating a custom fit. Well teachers do the same thing…they may teach a lesson once and have to re-teach that same lesson again with slight variations to insure that all students have understood the main focus. Teachers must really design, tailor, and adjust lessons so that all students are successful.