What
is my relationship with my students?
That has been my essential question all throughout this
semester. I’ll be their teacher but what else am I to them? Am I their friend?
Am I their motivator? Their advisor? I’m not sure any one role makes up a
teacher. I think different days call for different things and this semester
really helped me understand what my role as teacher is.
For instance I learned that a teacher is someone who
understands what students are going through. I rode that bus every Thursday and
every Thursday I was nauseous. What does that mean for my students who come in
every morning and can’t handle the ride either? It doesn’t mean I expect less
from them or don’t expect them to use the start of their school day for
learning. It just means I go about learning differently. I learned through this
semester that any limit you create on a person acts like a self-fulfilling
prophecy. If I tell a student they’re not ready to learn then there is a good
chance they’ll believe me.
Another example of this is when I witnessed students
returning from lunch or from the hallways. They were overly hyper and difficult
to calm down and focus. Like the bus ride example I think it is important not
to limit their educational time. One could easily think “give them five minutes
to cool down.” While I don’t necessarily disagree with this I find myself
wondering if there isn’t something more I could do.
I guess what I’ve been thinking about with my question is
what does a teacher do? I think with those two examples it is important to
establish a community through routine. I think a solution to both those
problems might be something like a “check in”, an exercise in which kids take
five or so minutes to calm down and get their minds ready for the content at
hand. One could have them use their urge to talk as a way to create social
structure. One could also give that student who needs a moment to calm down
from a bumpy car ride to school an in class writing prompt. Starting the day
with something quick, low stakes, and relaxed will give the students a moment
to switch into learning mode while also giving them the opportunity to show
their learning. If one carefully constructs these start of the day exercises into
the fabric of their class then students will already come to expect it.
I think what I’m getting at is that it’s important not to
see teaching just as content. It’s not just about knowing literature it’s about
making it accessible to your students. I can know everything there is to know
about the English language but if my students don’t understand it then it
doesn’t matter. Teaching is about the student, not the teacher. So I think my
role as a teacher is to understand them and their needs. I need to understand
that they are not just blank canvases ready to learn, they have plenty of
things going on in their lives that will detract them from learning. It may be
the usual like car (or regular) sickness, or too much energy from lunch or
break, but it might also be any number of other things. In a weird and strange
world of constant variables I think it is the teacher’s job to figure out how
to cut through all of that and create a space where learning can happen. I
think routine is important because as I said the world is strange and always
changing. If the classroom is the only place that is constant and accessible
for them than it is our job to make it so.
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