Growing up, I had some very good teachers who made me want to go to school. They created environments that encouraged students to not only grow academically, but also personally. They also made me realize that school is more than just sitting in a sterile environment listening to a teacher drone on. I want to give back these experiences and encourage students likewise.
It is our job as teachers to give the students in our care the absolute best possible opportunity to get an education that we can. Unfortunately, the educational playing field is not level and there are some students who may have a harder time trying to get an education than others. It is in these instances that we must step back and take a look at the bigger picture of where these students come from outside of school and how their home life affects them. Kelly says in her article Teaching for social justice: Translating an anti-oppression approach into practice that “…if educators assume that difference resides in the individual, it can be easy to see difference as deficit and lose sight of institutional inequities and historical power imbalances” (Kelly, 2012, p.136). In reflecting on these inequities and imbalances, we need to understand the students’ perspectives and find out if they come from backgrounds that may put them at a possible disadvantage. Being part of a racial minority, having English as a second language or a whole host of other things can place a student in a disadvantage. Taking a good look at so-called troublesome student, we need to take the initiative and social justice considerations into account. In doing this, we then may discover how we might better connect with the individual. We may better discern why he or she may be having trouble so that we can optimize their opportunities for a quality education.
In order to most effectively try to enact change in a student’s academic career, a teacher must try to develop a professional relationship with the students. Hamre and Pianta believe that you must “learn more about students’ lives outside of the classroom so that [teachers] can connect with students on a more personal level” (Hamre & Pianta, 2006, p.65). A cantankerous, stifling teacher makes little effort to develop a meaningful relationship with their students. As a result, even the best students do not have any connection with their teacher and have little motivation to do well academically, outside of doing school for the sake or school. If presented with a student who does not have any desire to learn, a teacher with no relationship with the students has no foundation on which to scaffold strategies that encourage learning.
If you get to know students and build relationships with them they will begin to trust and respect you as a teacher and a caring role model. They will be more willing to learn. This process might take quite awhile to happen, especially with apprehensive students or those who exhibit inappropriate behaviour. Over time, however, this can be an effective strategy to encourage learning. By getting to know students you can also more accurately assess their situation at any given time and know what can calm them down or work them up. From what I have observed in the classroom, this important strategy is perhaps one of the more effective strategies for teaching, learning and behaviour management. Similarly, I can say that as a student I am more inclined to listen attentively to a teacher that I respect than one that I do not particularly like. A caring, interested teacher forms the foundation of a positive classroom climate.
Another effective strategy that interweaves with that of classroom climate is the use of effective classroom management. How do you coordinate a classroom full of students who all want to be heard and who all may want to express their opinion all at once? What happens if your meticulously planned lesson begins to derail? In Martin’s Finding Balance: Impact of Classroom Management Conceptions on Developing Teacher Practice, she suggests that “management is not a variety of techniques or external structures that you do to students. But rather, management is something accomplished with students in particular learning contexts” (Martin, 2004, p.420). This is where having a strong foundational relationship with your students comes into play. Your level of classroom management skill may be honed over years of experience but there will always be students who will want to push your buttons or see what they can get away with. If you have a respectable rapport with the students, however, they will usually be less likely to act out. From what I have discerned, the process of earning the respect of students is a combination of being well planned and prepared to teach, exercising fairness and consistency, the collaborative building of ground rules, and a caring, supportive, inclusive classroom environment. You can also help direct the focus of the class by having an productive working environment. Setting clear and specific expectations for both the students and yourself helps to keep everyone on track or it at least sets a precedent that can be referred back to if people are getting out of line. It also helps to know which students work well together and which ones have a tendency to clash. A student with behavioural issues may choose to act out because they cannot direct their focus well enough. Good classroom management skills are reflected in a teacher who does not get angry when an individual or class get out of hand but instead can keep calm and adapt thoroughly to student needs.
Teaching is so much more than just Math, English, Socials and Physical Education. While these skills are important, we must support students in a myriad of ways in order to best facilitate their learning. Taking a genuine and respectful interest in our students will help them become interested themselves, both in academics and in the cultivation of social and emotional skills. We must create a safe environment for them to learn and grow as individuals. If teachers can accomplish this, not only will our students be better equipped to learn, we will have already laid the foundation to work and learn together as a team.
This picture is an original that I took at Science World. My Student Advisor, along with a number of students and I built this tower over the course of about a half hour or so. This represents the points discussed in my teaching philosophy. Without the foundational academic relationships I had developed with my students, they would not have wanted to remain in the building room for that long. However, because I valued them and the task, they also became increasingly interested in it. After we had finished the structure, I could see that they took pride in it as they took pictures of it as well.
References
Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2006). Student-teacher relationships. In G. G. Bear & K. Minke
(Eds.), Children’s Needs III: Development, prevention, and intervention (pp. 59-71). Bethesda, MD: NASP.
Kelly, D. (2012). Teaching for social justice: Translating an anti-oppression approach into
practice. Our Schools/Our Selves, 21(2), 135-154. Available: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2012/02/osos106_Teaching_Social_Justice.pdf.
Martin, S. D. (2004). Finding balance: impact of classroom management conceptions on
developing teacher practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 405-422. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2004.04.002.