What are you teaching for? It’s a question worth asking.
Maybe you’re teaching for curriculum. If you’re employed by an organization that requires certain measurable curriculum-related outcomes, that can be an appropriate thing to teach for.
Maybe you’re teaching for curiosity. Your goal is to create scenarios where the typical student gets hungry for the subject area – hungry enough that they pursue the knowledge or skills themselves.
Maybe you’re teaching for the future. This is you if you say, “We need to make sure you’re ready for [college/high school/middle school/the world/a job].” Teaching for real-world applicability is valuable, though I question any need for demanding future-level expectations for current-level students.
Maybe you’re teaching for joy. The joy of learning, the joy of knowing, the joy of creating, the joy of collaborating. Not every subject lends itself to teaching for joy, but certainly elective and arts teachers have a leg up there.
Maybe you’re teaching for compliance. We’ve all had a couple of the punitive-type teachers, who have a “Rules are rules” philosophy, aren’t willing to provide flexibility for kids in need of support, and generally come from a “Life’s tough so I’m tough, too.” You would think that this type of teacher would be extinct – lost to retirement or new teaching philosophies – but no, they’re still out there, teaching compliance.
What you’re teaching for should inform every single facet of how you teach from grading policy to lesson plans to topics covered to the tone of voice you use in class.