This is the week we all wish was really two weeks long without taking away from our summer vacation. When I was a new teacher, in Baltimore then Alexandria and then Fairfax, I wished I could just be left alone to get things done like putting bulletin boards up, labeling desks or rearranging furniture. I made to-do lists on legal pads but felt exasperated by reading it let alone doing it all. Well in my life as a teacher as well as a wife, mother and daughter, I have decided to rip up the to-do lists-take a deep breathe-slow down the pace and just BE. Like looking for sea glass on the beach.
I don’t’ have to “just do it” all to be effective. Teaching is not a race to build a student. We don’t “do teaching” we are teachers. Students will tell me what they need in ways that are not always obvious but if I pause, slow down to be a listener, watcher, reader, and writer; I will be a learner too. Establishing trust…this takes time but it starts with patient listening and a smile.
It is in the slower more deliberate moments that I really understand my students and what they need from me. They will wait until there is space to say what they need. I had a student last year who got a job at night driving a van for one of hotels near Dulles airport. I watched how he was in the mornings when he came in wearing a shirt and tie. Some teachers commented on how nice he looked but I noticed he was tired on these mornings in class. One of the mornings he came in early and I made him some coffee and let him get a laptop out early. I asked if he had slept. He said no, I was driving all night but I want to write my research wiki. I told him it was okay to take some more time and go get some sleep. He said he wanted to write. He was a writer in that moment. It wasn’t about doing the work; he liked being a writer. He perceived himself as a writer.
This summer, I saw my daughter’s perception of herself as a writer emerge; thanks to a teacher who gave her space and tools. My rising 3rd grade daughter attended a young writer’s camp sponsored by the Maine Writing Project at the College of the Atlantic this summer. I wish they had a middle-aged writer’s camp-if you find one let me know. It was held at a beautiful white cottage overlooking Frenchman’s Bay in Bar Harbor. She had a teacher; we called her Michele with one L. Until that week, Camille thought of writing as something to do, it was assigned, could be fun but it was just a task. She didn’t care what I tried to lure her in with-I was just Mom. She really didn’t write a lot in 2nd grade that she was bubbling over with enthusiasm about like she did in writer’s camp. Well that teacher, Michele one L, affected not only Camille’s ability to write but the emergence of her self-identity as a writer. Camille told me about her writer’s autobiography this way, “Well you know mom it’s not about whom I live with or if I have a dog and 2 cats but who I am as a writer. Well you know I like to write fiction, you know that don’t you? And of course book reports. I love writing about real stories I read like Amelia Earhart.” My daughter now perceives herself as a writer and I just don’t see how that light can be burned out. We have that power as teachers to help students become who they want to be.
If I want listeners in my room, I need to be a listener. If I want readers, I need to be a reader myself. If I want writers, I need to be a writer. If I want curious, excited learners, then I need to be a curious, excited learner. Many students come to alternative education because they didn’t’ encounter listeners, readers and writers in the larger educational settings-okay you know...base schools. When I taught in Baltimore, I caught on quickly that students chose who they will learn from. They will say in a variety of ways, I won’t learn from you. We have to be mindful of how easy it is to turn them off from learning. Being mindful and present with students is not just student centered; it’s human being centered.
We want better for the next generation; we as teachers embrace a basic love of humanity. But a love of humanity is not making excuses for behavior and misjudgments. Its not just saying I love my students. When they come to me with concerns about work, family, peers, drugs, immigration, housing, just being fed. I still have to respect their lives as well as their aspirations to learn. I can’t make their life an excuse for not being a learner. I could tell one destitute story after another about students and their circumstances but that all washes away into the distant past when they become self confident reader and writers. They are not their circumstance.
I hope you remember to pause, breathe and be with your students. Stop making to-lists and listen. Believe in yourself as a teacher and learner and so will your students.
I don’t’ have to “just do it” all to be effective. Teaching is not a race to build a student. We don’t “do teaching” we are teachers. Students will tell me what they need in ways that are not always obvious but if I pause, slow down to be a listener, watcher, reader, and writer; I will be a learner too. Establishing trust…this takes time but it starts with patient listening and a smile.
It is in the slower more deliberate moments that I really understand my students and what they need from me. They will wait until there is space to say what they need. I had a student last year who got a job at night driving a van for one of hotels near Dulles airport. I watched how he was in the mornings when he came in wearing a shirt and tie. Some teachers commented on how nice he looked but I noticed he was tired on these mornings in class. One of the mornings he came in early and I made him some coffee and let him get a laptop out early. I asked if he had slept. He said no, I was driving all night but I want to write my research wiki. I told him it was okay to take some more time and go get some sleep. He said he wanted to write. He was a writer in that moment. It wasn’t about doing the work; he liked being a writer. He perceived himself as a writer.
This summer, I saw my daughter’s perception of herself as a writer emerge; thanks to a teacher who gave her space and tools. My rising 3rd grade daughter attended a young writer’s camp sponsored by the Maine Writing Project at the College of the Atlantic this summer. I wish they had a middle-aged writer’s camp-if you find one let me know. It was held at a beautiful white cottage overlooking Frenchman’s Bay in Bar Harbor. She had a teacher; we called her Michele with one L. Until that week, Camille thought of writing as something to do, it was assigned, could be fun but it was just a task. She didn’t care what I tried to lure her in with-I was just Mom. She really didn’t write a lot in 2nd grade that she was bubbling over with enthusiasm about like she did in writer’s camp. Well that teacher, Michele one L, affected not only Camille’s ability to write but the emergence of her self-identity as a writer. Camille told me about her writer’s autobiography this way, “Well you know mom it’s not about whom I live with or if I have a dog and 2 cats but who I am as a writer. Well you know I like to write fiction, you know that don’t you? And of course book reports. I love writing about real stories I read like Amelia Earhart.” My daughter now perceives herself as a writer and I just don’t see how that light can be burned out. We have that power as teachers to help students become who they want to be.
If I want listeners in my room, I need to be a listener. If I want readers, I need to be a reader myself. If I want writers, I need to be a writer. If I want curious, excited learners, then I need to be a curious, excited learner. Many students come to alternative education because they didn’t’ encounter listeners, readers and writers in the larger educational settings-okay you know...base schools. When I taught in Baltimore, I caught on quickly that students chose who they will learn from. They will say in a variety of ways, I won’t learn from you. We have to be mindful of how easy it is to turn them off from learning. Being mindful and present with students is not just student centered; it’s human being centered.
We want better for the next generation; we as teachers embrace a basic love of humanity. But a love of humanity is not making excuses for behavior and misjudgments. Its not just saying I love my students. When they come to me with concerns about work, family, peers, drugs, immigration, housing, just being fed. I still have to respect their lives as well as their aspirations to learn. I can’t make their life an excuse for not being a learner. I could tell one destitute story after another about students and their circumstances but that all washes away into the distant past when they become self confident reader and writers. They are not their circumstance.
I hope you remember to pause, breathe and be with your students. Stop making to-lists and listen. Believe in yourself as a teacher and learner and so will your students.
