Monthly Archives: May 2016

Parallel lines have so much in common..

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“If this day has taught me anything, it’s that I’m cut out for this teaching thing” – Me

I never thought that I could compare my Grade 7 students and a Grade 2 class and see so many similar behaviours from one to the next, but then I remember a lesson I’ve learned and keep relearning time and time again – age does not always equal behavioural change. This can be applied across a lifespan. For example, when you have a child, it doesn’t mean you suddenly become this picturesque model of adulthood. No, you will still throw your temper tantrums, and have your giddy moments of childishness. But that’s talking about decades from one age to another. In an instance that is literally only a 5 year difference, I don’t know why I thought it would be so different.

Sure, my Grade 7s are able (for the most part) to partake in independent studies, where I don’t have to circulate as much and can trust that they will get their work done… eventually if not in that exact moment. And there’s a level of camaraderie that you can have with intermediate students that can’t always be there for the primary grades (at least, that’s how it seems), where you can use sarcasm and they will recognize it as sarcasm and not a gospel truth. Of course, if you take into consideration the social aspects of their lives, there will be vast differences, but in the classroom behaviour and management? Well, as the quote above alludes, it’s not a huge difference.

Things I learned on my TOC day:

  • Be prepared to have a group of 7 and 8 year olds call you out on things – Memorize their division number, or risk offending them all.
  • Don’t call them ladies and gentlemen because they, and I quote, are ‘just boys and girls, not old’.
  • Focus on timing. They take longer to do tasks than older students because this is likely something new(ish) to them.
  • They are all very willing to help, but only some of them will actually do the work that they’ve volunteered to help with – not that this changes with age.
  • I honestly feel like teaching is what I am meant to do.

No matter the advancements in the world, humans will always have their nature.

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This was a bit of a tough weekend. I had a lot of time to self-reflect on my experience in my own elementary life and how what happened then can affect me now.

Like most people, I had a rough time in elementary school. In most of my education career, actually. I was one of the kids that got picked on by a lot of my peers, didn’t feel very supported by the admin or staff, and felt helpless a lot of the time because I didn’t really feel like I had someone I could turn to. This experience, at least in part, helped me decide to become a teacher. I thought that when I was a teacher, I would have all the answers. I’d be that advocate for the underdogs, that encouraging adult that really got to those students who needed to hear “it gets better. Trust me. I have been there”.

And then I realized that there is only so much a teacher can do. And even if you’re doing everything you can, the student isn’t always going to see how much you actually care that they make it through this. No matter what side of the conflict that they are on.

That was a bit of a shock for me. It made me reflect back on my time as the student in Grade 7, when I thought I was alone in the world with no one but my mother in my corner, and what good could she do for me at work when all the hardship happened in school? Did I have a teacher on my side, rooting for me to get through this? Was I blind and deaf to the encouragements, the little gestures of a smile or the softly spoken “how’re you doing”?

I can’t honestly give an answer to that. I only remember sitting in the principal’s office with my mother, the girl who was bullying me and her mother, being told that I was a liar, that I was making it all up and that “my daughter would never do such a thing.” I didn’t have proof. Her words didn’t bruise me. There was no digital footprint to recall as evidence in the infractions. But now there is.

Now, what you put on the internet is, more or less, there forever. Whether your intentions are innocent or not, the interpretation is up to the receiver. This also means that there is no getting way from it. At least when I was in Grade 7, I could go home and the taunting and name calling would only be in the memories that replayed in my head. Social media, texting and private messaging took the solace of home away. While there are some students who are not as submerged into the technological world, a majority have a cellphone in their pocket despite the no cellphone rule. It’s too easy to reach someone now. And it’s too easy to spread information and let it grow into something larger than yourself and that one person that you sent it to. You see, they sent that something to a couple friends, and those friends sent it to a couple of their friends who then sent it to a couple of their friends and so on. Suddenly, everyone knows your business and it’s not just the two in the original conflict. It’s you, the other person and their group of friends who are all armed to the teeth with incriminating information. I’ll state it again, whether your intentions are innocent or not, the interpretation is up to the receiver.

So what do you do as the teacher? You’re not on Facebook or Snapchat with your students. You don’t get the live feed and can’t squash this situation before it blows up. Unfortunately, it seems that the adults only get involved after everything has come to a boiling point. And that’s not what we want. We want to stop these things before they start. But we can’t. Not unless they come and talk to us and allow us to try and fix it before it gets too bad.

My reflections this weekend, all internal and deeply emotional, made me realize that a lot of your heart goes into being an educator. Like, most of it. You want what is best for your students, and when they are not getting that, you can feel like you failed them. I do everything I can, everything that is in my power, to help. But it’s up to them to ask for that help before I can give it.