Veteran NYC teacher gives advice with a song

By Editor Ken Harvey

"Powerful learners evolve by having powerful teachers," says Kay Toliver, who for 35 years taught in a public school in East Harlem, New York City, and now has become perhaps the most recognized educator in America.

Toliver has been the subject of numerous videos and TV shows about her success in the classroom, including the PBS documentary, " Good Morning, Miss Toliver."

Teachers should be risk-takers, she says. With such activities as singing well-known songs with customized lyrics, Toliver took "risks" in the classroom.

"I always feel a song coming on," she told her audience at the recent Promising Practices Conference, and then she broke out in version of " Hello, Dolly" with words changed to communicate her own message to the 300 or so Washington state educators attending her session.

Toliver encourages her students to seek their dreams. "A teacher can be a dream-maker or a destroyer of dreams," she says.

"And there was always one thing students knew when they came into my classroom," she says, "that they would be greeted with a smile, and they would end the day with a smile, no matter what happened in between."

She says she used the following principles to teach with power:

1) Caring. Toliver empathized with her students - especially with those who did not yet understand English. "I always listened -- even when I didn't understand what they were saying. I always listened, and smiled and gave them a hug," she says. "My students knew they could trust me. Don't ever break that trust. Some kids want to please their teacher more than their parents."

In her own life, a teacher expressed her belief in Toliver's ability to succeed, providing the impetus for her to stay in school and ultimately earn a graduate degree.

In the classroom, Toliver was not a soft touch - she was demanding, but eager to support her students.

"I never had any kind of discipline problems. I was always very respectful of my students, and in turn they showed me respect," she says. "They knew they had a teacher who was demanding. They didn't mess around with me. But you can't be demanding of students unless you are prepared to give them support."

"I would come every morning at 7 so I could help the children who needed extra help. I wanted my children to succeed," Toliver says. "So I came early, and I would stay after school to work with them. Some of my greatest teaching moments were in those morning sessions or those afternoon sessions. It was in those times when the children were really willing to open up to me."

2) Connect. "Share your life with students; let them learn about you, too," Toliver says. "Establish relationships. I knew I had to have a good relationship with my students if they were going to succeed.

"So when they invited me to their Sweet 16 or their baby showers, I would come. And I would be out there doing the salsa dancing. I became part of their family. Whenever they needed me, I was there," she says.

3) Communicate. "I made sure I communicated high expectations. I had high standards before they became popular. I always told my children they were gifted and talented. Expect a lot and you'll get a lot,” Toliver says.

“I truly believed they could achieve at a high level. We shouldn't accept mediocrity. When I say to children they can achieve at high levels, I mean it in my heart," she says.

4) Compassion. "Just because some kids don't come with much doesn't mean they can't do much," Toliver says. "In our tenement building when I was a child, when it rained on the outside, it rained on the inside. My dad was a sanitation worker, but it wasn't till I went to school that I learned I was a slum child. You have to care for your children, or you shouldn't be in the classroom."

5) Courage. Among Toliver's musical repertoire includes her math-oriented words to the song, “O McDonald.” She repeats her advice to be a risk-taker.  “Sure they laughed at me when I started signing, but I got their attention. You have to do just about anything you have to get their attention,” Tolliver says.

6) Commitment. "When you are committed, you never give up on your children, and you can't let them give up on themselves, because they have to believe, too," says Toliver. "I knew that in learning, the teacher was the key. When the door closes, it's just you and the kids against they world. I realized my role was to be a facilitator and a guide.

"My role was to have the knowledge base to impart all this wonderful knowledge to my children. We have too many people who don't really understand their subject, so they can't teach it. But even if you know the content, if you don't know how to teach it, what difference does it make? So I stole creative ideas from all the best teachers I could find," she says.

Memorization is a part of learning, but that is not all there is, she says. Practice is also important, but there are all kinds of ways to practice.

"We played Jeopardy, and we had card games, and we had board games. And the students had to produce the props we used in practice time," she says.

Another of her methods was to divide the class into groups so her students could learn from each other.

"My classes were always noisy. We had all kinds of buddy systems in my classroom, and the buddies were responsible for making sure they both knew the material," Toliver says. "I put a lot of responsibility on my children. We were a team, and on my team no one was going to fail. We were all going to succeed together.

"The key to teaching is getting their attention. In my class, if you didn't understand you lifted your left hand. If you did understand, you lifted your right hand. And if you didn't care, you raised both hands," she says.

Another method of Toliver's was to have each student keep a journal. Students were expected to write what they were learning in their journals. Toliver periodically reviewed the journals to ensure that each student understood what she was teaching.

But overall, learning in her classroom was fun.

"Boredom is our greatest enemy," Toliver says. "In my classroom there was always a lot of laughter. I figured if I was going to be a teacher for 35 years, I wanted to enjoy it. So there was a lot of laughter."

"I teach for one simple reason. I love children, and I want them to see the fulfillment of their dreams -- just as this shy child from Harlem did. We have to inspire children. We succeed as we motivate," Toliver says.

The Presidential, Disney and Kilby Award-winning teacher retired from classroom teaching in 2001. She is still the host of the popular classroom television series, " The Eddie Files," and a professional development series, " The Kay Toliver Files."

"If anyone tells you they have a way to make teaching easy, they don't know what they're talking about," Toliver says. "You don't have to sing or wear a costume. You have to figure out what works for you."