Every year at my school, and many others, teachers participate in a book club where we read, discuss, and implement the concepts of an education-focused book. The selection that most directly impacted my classroom was a book by Zaretta Hammond that contained the Warm Demander Chart. I later became part of a book club through Voxer that included several teachers from the east coast to the west coast who also found incredible professional knowledge and empowerment through the Warm Demander Chart.
With an eye on classroom instruction and teacher personality, the chart’s quadrants describe four types of teachers with Warm Demander as the ideal. In brief, the three types of teachers in the chart who will likely struggle with classroom management and culture are the Elitist, the Technocrat, and the Sentimentalist. The Elitist is “viewed by students as cold and uncaring” and “organizes instruction around independent learners.” This teacher is mostly hands off. The Technocrat “doesn’t focus on developing relationships with students but does show enthusiasm for the subject matter.” As a result, students will view the Technocrat “as likable even if distant because of teacher competence and enthusiasm” for the class’s topics. The Sentimentalist puts greater focus on student relationships than content learning. While the Sentimentalist is viewed as warm, the teacher is also thought of as a pushover who is quick to rescue students from productive struggle.
My personality can easily put me into the Sentimentalist quadrant, so I have to be intentional about meeting the characteristics of a Warm Demander each day. Warm Demanders know that getting to know their students creates trust so that as the teacher creates opportunities for productive struggle, the students trust the teacher to have their best interests at heart. Students feel safe and comfortable with the teacher because expectations are clear, reasonable, and firm. Warm Demanders want all of their students to learn so that they have more options and opportunities in life and believe that every student can learn and grow with the right challenges and support.
The Warm Demander Chart clearly shows that I can be a loving teacher and have clear expectations for learning. In simple terms, the other three types don’t believe in all students’ ability to meet challenges. That’s a problem because research shows that one of the most important factors in student achievement is our teachers’ belief that with their guidance and support all of their students can grow, learn, and meet the established goals. Believing in every student and putting in the required labor to match that belief is hard work, but the work is worth it and eventually pays huge dividends in classroom management and culture.
