Check out the Marshall Memo Every Tuesday

Did you see this article in the May 27, Marshall Memo?
As an additional benefit to your membership, MASSP has made the Marshall Memo available to you every Tuesday morning to keep you informed about current research and best practices in education.

How Are Millennial Teachers Different from Gen-X and Boomers?

In this Tools for Schools article, National Staff Development Council communications director Joan Richardson lists the ways that the Millennial generation of teachers (those born after 1977) are distinct from Generation X (1965-1977), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), and Traditionalists (before 1945):

• Millennials think they’re pretty special. “These are children who received trophies for finishing in eighth place,” says Suzette Lovely, a California deputy superintendent who co-authored the book, Generations at School (Corwin, 2007). “They were very loved at home and we differentiated for them at school,” says Jennifer Abrams, a consultant who specializes in generational issues. “We told them how special they were – and they believed it.” This poses challenges for school leaders, since constant praise is not the M.O. of most schools. “Many support systems for newer professionals working in schools are not set up to provide the responsiveness and positiveness they expect,” says Abrams. School leaders should look for ways to provide a boost to new teachers: brief bios and photos in the school’s newsletter and on its website, a welcoming breakfast or lunch, informal classroom visits with follow-up, by-name greeting and eye contact, learning more about their outside lives – and certificates, which may mean more to Millennials than to older teachers.

• Millennials tend to be comfortable with their parents’ values and not as rebellious as earlier generations. “Millennials are anxious to be mentored by older, experienced teachers,” says Richardson, which is different from way earlier generations of teachers saw mentoring. One-on-one coaching is also appreciated – with lots of immediate praise and feedback. Electronic mentoring is a good second-best.

• Millennials have a high tolerance for change, innovation, and learning. They don’t expect to stay in the same career for 30 years, which means tenure has much less meaning for them, but they place a high value on continuing to learn and moving ahead quickly. “Packaged with this,” says Richardson, “is a higher level of assertiveness and confidence in their own abilities.” They may think that three or four years of teaching is plenty of time and then they’re ready to become a principal or take on another role in the field. “Millennials are poised to become the first true generation of lifetime learners,” say Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman in When Generations Collide (HarperBusiness, 2002). School leaders should hook Millennials up with professional development and a variety of career options and encourage their growth and development.

• Millennials love being on teams. “They were nurtured in environments that emphasized cooperative learning and team sports,” says Richardson. And at home, Millennials were more part of day-to-day negotiations and were asked to contribute and collaborate from an early age. So grade-level and subject-area teams are a natural for young teachers. “If the dynamics are right, if they are brought in as equal partners, they will flourish,” says Jennifer Abrams.

• Millennials also have a strong desire to develop friendships with colleagues at work, says Suzette Lovely. “Schools that provide for the social aspects of work as well as develop a team approach to learning, will find Millennials reluctant to leave them.” This suggests that school leaders should involve Millennials in all sorts of teams – grade-level, decision-making, hiring, etc. – and use photos of teacher teams in publications and websites. Leaders should also use structured protocols to ensure equal participation in teams.

• Millennials are expert multitaskers who don’t want to miss out on opportunities and also expect a lot of themselves. “This generation grew up as the overscheduled children of the Baby Boomers,” says Richardson. “They learned how to juggle AP classes with before-school choir practice and after-school sports. They listened to music and watched television while they did homework.” Abrams adds, “They want their experiences to be recognized. They don’t want to be patronized.” School leaders and mentors should help Millennials slow down a little, prioritize, and learn to balance the demands of professional life.

• Millennials are not afraid of accountability. “This is a group that had to pass a high school exit exam to graduate from high school and a state test to get certified to be able teach,” says Lovely. “Accountability is what they expect.” So Millennials will probably feel quite comfortable developing common assessments and looking at student results with their colleagues. “If older teachers are resistant to this practice,” advises Richardson, “consider finding ways to tap into the interest of newer teachers to introduce this practice.”

• Millennials love technology! “This is the Facebook generation,” says Richardson, “and technology is in their DNA. They are never unplugged.” They can find anything on the Internet and communicate well by e-mail. As a corollary, Millennials respond well to staff development that is experiential, especially if they can come up with their own solutions. School leaders can take full advantage of these strengths by offering just-in-time staff development, using short, YouTube-style videos, and allowing beginning teachers to access information on their own time. Make good use of websites and blogs, and combine teamwork with technology. But school leaders also have to set limits. “It is, for example, appropriate for a teacher to communicate with students via Facebook?” asks Richardson. “Is it appropriate to text message during a staff meeting? Acceptable-use policies may have to be updated to include language about acceptable professional practices.”

“Tune In to What the New Generation of Teachers Can Do” by Joan Richardson in Tools for Schools, May/June 2008 (Vol. 11, #4, p. 1-6), no e-link available