Become an Expert Teacher

You already are an expert teacher in many areas. Some teachers generalize such as elementary grade level teachers, and others teach in a particular content area. What I mean by "become an expert" is to choose a niche within the education field and learn everything you can about it.

Why? The knowledge you have as an expert becomes leverage in your teaching career. You may become the "go to" person for the area you have chosen. You will be viewed as an important employee of your school or district. You can then leverage your knowledge into additional income if you choose. Your school and colleagues benefit from your knowledge. You benefit from the extra professional development, and possibly from the extra income.

Most of us have a part of our job that we really love, and/or are really good at. In choosing your "expert niche" you would want to find something that really interests you or it becomes another task or chore, not something you enjoy.

Here is an example: As a third grade teacher you teach all the subject areas to your students. Within the elementary field you are a generalist. In the course of your day you have found that you really love to teach writing to your students. You are able to come up with creative lessons that engage your students. You enjoy reading books on the subject and are energized by trying new techniques. You've noticed that your students are improving their writing skills. This is an area that you can continue to develop and become an expert teacher in. You could specialize even more and become an expert teacher in poetry writing, or report writing.

A fifth grade language arts teacher may realize that she/he (oddly enough) loves to teach grammar. Of course most students hate grammar lessons. You have found some fun, clever, creative, "makes them jump out their seat learning activities" that help students really learn grammar. You can continue to become an expert in teaching grammar by researching, designing lessons, and assessing your students' progress.

Becoming an expert is also a way to keep the energy in your teaching.

There are many areas that you could specialize in either related to classroom instruction or education in general. How about motivating students, cooperative learning, behavior support, organization strategies, self-esteem? Other related areas might be scheduling, curriculum mapping, running effective meetings, parent communication.

You may have an idea already. Think about your work day and what you enjoy most. If you don't have an idea, brainstorm a list of all the tasks you do in your day (this may scare you) and see what interests you and what you would like to learn more about.

How do you become an expert? First of all give yourself a break and realize that not everyone knows everything about a topic. Your expertise will develop over time.

If you can demonstrate that your skills are effective you will gradually start to become known as an "expert teacher" in your niche area.

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