This chapter brought up a funny memory that I believe
surrounds the teacher-student relationship and its role in a community
classroom. Think back to when you were in high school and you saw one of your
teachers shopping in the same market where you happen to be shopping at the
same time. We all remember our reaction, OH MY GOD THAT’S MR. (insert teacher
name here). I know for my friends and I, seeing a teacher outside school was an
unfathomable sight. Students just do not see a teacher as a human being, and
instead see them as this institution built robot that turns itself off and
charges from after school until the next day. It is this concept that is one of
the main themes on chapter 7: getting students to see that you are human like
them and they can communicate honestly and openly in your classroom without
fear of judgments or making mistakes.
This
idea really struck me with D&Z’s first strategy for Building community in
the classroom, the strategy involving teachers to endeavor to make the
classroom a safer place for students to express themselves, their ideas, and
most importantly, their questions. There are a lot of reasons why a student
might hold back a comment or question during a class discussion, and one might
be because they are afraid of being embarrassed. They see in front of them a
teacher who appears all knowing and perfect, incapable of making a mistake.
What we need to do is show our students who we really are, and that is far from
that portrayal. We all make mistakes,
especially me, and I think it is ok for my students to see that. I spell wrong occasionally,
can be a little disorganized, and I do not know the answer to every question. I
do not expect to, and I do not expect that out of them either.
The
first time I took FNED, I read about the “wall” that stands between students
and teachers, and it has stuck with me ever since. It is that wall that
students and teachers stand behind, on opposite ends, and is what stipulates establishing
a community of learners. All of the strategies represented in the chapter work
a little more and in different ways to break that wall, giving students the
impression that we are human like them, and simply have a talent and a knowledge
for helping them achieve goals they never thought they could attain. By achieving
this communal vibe, they will be less scared to approach next time they see you
at a market, or possibly racking up a high score playing guitar hero at the
local Dave and Busters.
After I graduated Middle School, I went shopping with my mom at Khol's and I saw my former Social Studies teacher and former Math teacher. Not only did these teachers exist outside of school buying clothes at such a normal store, but they were FRIENDS. Crazy! But you are right, why is there this divide between teachers and students? I was always told that I could talk to any of my teachers, but I was always afraid to confide in them. They seemed "all-knowing" and my problems couldn't be so important that they would interfere with what could be a conversation about Math. As I teacher, I want my students to see me as a human that they can interact with. At the same time, I can see how this might be viewed as a weakness. How much should students know about us and our lives? The choice is ours but it needs a lot of thought. You risk the chances of having students understand and relate to your problems, or they could be unsympathetic and judge your choices and actions. But this is also what we are asking our students to do in our class. If we put ourselves on the line we can gain our students' trust and respect and they may create an amazing community of learners.
ReplyDeleteRyan,
ReplyDeleteI definitely see your point about the importance of being approachable and being able to show vulnerability to students. I also think it's important to acknowledge that there has to be some boundary between students and teachers. I definitely had teachers that took a little too much interest in their students' lives, and shared their own personal lives with students in a way that (in hindsight) was completely inappropriate. At the time I didn't know any better and just wrote them off as eccentrics, which makes me think of another important point; we're the ones in a position of power. As important as it is to be accessible and an active member of the learning community, it's also up to us to define and protect the student-teacher relationship. Of course, I don't think that anything you said negates those ideas -- we should all be able to show off our guitar hero skills!
Guitar hero wouldn't be my game, but I agree with what you are saying. The teachers i associated more with were the ones that I knew a little more about. I think it is important to show that we have lives outside of school too. Students get stuck in the idea that teachers are robots and have nothing else going on except school. A community needs to be established in the class. This needs to be for learning, but a little personal stuff isn't bad. You can't go over the top like in Jean's case.
ReplyDelete