I found the article, “Who Are Adolescents Today” to be very interesting. It concentrates on teacher and student relationships. It points out the problem of engagement that adolescents are experiencing nowadays with school, and how that can be due to teacher and student relationships. The authors suggest that students want, “affirmation, acceptance, and support from the adults who work with the in the classroom setting”. It also mentions the importance of maintaining classroom dialogue when teaching literacy; “youth report that they are most motivated when a passionate teacher asks questions about issues and listens deeply to students understandings on paper and through conversation...other youth explain that not only do they want more dialogue, but they yearn for classroom conversation that explores questions of central purpose and meaning”.
I remember one classroom experience in particular where classroom dialogue was a key to staying motivated and on task. My past ninth grade English teacher was one who gave school mandatory readings, but always ensured to have classroom discussions about the readings, and relate them to history or current events. I remember she used to bring up her background and incorporate that with literary novels or ideas. Since, the classroom discussions related to many of us in the classroom, it was easy for us to share out our opinions or even just stay focused on the discussion. Further, the teacher was very supportive to student needs, and made sure to let her students know that they are free to approach her with any questions and concerns. The positive classroom experience I have had in the past ensures me that a supportive and inclusive teacher is necessary for good instruction, especially for literacy (when certain subjects my bore students and push them away from participation).
I have provided a short video link on building positive teacher-student relationships that I found to be useful, but I also want to hear from you.
Feel free to use these questions as a guide, or write about any experiences or thoughts of your own.
- What relationships with teachers made it possible for you to enjoy learning and stay engaged in classroom discussions/activities?
- Can you think of anything can contribute to positive student and teacher relationships in the classroom?
- How would you as a teacher ensure that your students stay engaged?
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkjQsu2hISM
Eman,
ReplyDeleteLove the video! I believe all the attic from the video are great prompts for teachers to create dialog with kids outside of the classroom. More importantly, it is treating your students with respect, love and humanity. I believe that as teachers it is hard to find that line of authority in the classroom, but when you treat the kids like kids and truly care for them I believe that it can have a way of working itself out. I agree that all student-teacher relationship is rooted in learning who your students are by listening. I really like how the text tied in technology because it can be a student's own skill that can greatly supplement a lesson in the classroom.
To answer your last question the text did a great job explaining that kids become bored when teaching is disconnected- disconnected from their lives and who they are. Then how do you maintain coherence throughout your daily lessons as a teacher? Can we use different literacies to connect our math and history practices throughout the day?
Becca,
DeleteYour questions are very important to teaching. I think with all teachers, it might be a struggle to maintain coherence, especially when we start as new teachers. Maybe one way to do so would be to constantly check to see if students are understanding subject material, maybe by posing questions or conducting informal assessments. Also, a teacher can stay coherent by staying organized or having a specific goal or agenda in mind for the day. This way the teacher can refer back to the purpose of each lesson to ensure you are staying on task. Of course I think this becomes better we learn to navigate our way as teachers and deal with sudden changes.
As for the second question, I'm not sure what exactly you mean, but what I am understanding is if we as teacher can use literacies for other subjects? My answer would be yes of course. You can incorporate reading and writing activities into math and history lessons, so while the subject is related to a math or history idea it also incorporates reading and writing which is a literacy practice. For instance, students can read a history lesson, then write about a posed question from the reading, or even answer questions from the reading to see if they understood the reading. While this is a history lesson students were also able to practice literacy techniques. I hope this helps.
Hi Eman,
ReplyDeleteI loved the video as well. I loved how the first thing it said was greet students in the doorway by their name. I had a teacher in highschool who would stand by the door telling us to either choose from a hug, a fist bump or a high five. Just walking into her class after gave you such a positive feeling and you felt that it was a safe environment.
It was always easier to participate in classroom when there's wasn't a power imbalance. When you felt that you were two people working to learn and grow together.
One way for the students to become engaged and what I would do is make sure that the learning is connected to their lives and environment. In order for this to happen, a teacher must involve herself in their communities activities. My question is, how do we involve ourself in their community? What if no matter how hard you try, they still feel as if you're just there to teach?
Hi Besan,
DeleteYour past teacher sounds awesome, I would of loved to walk into a classroom like that. I love how you would connect teaching to students' environments, I think that's a great way to connect with your student. To answer your question, I would say there are many ways to involve yourself in student communities. For instance, you may form a good relationship with the child's parents, and through this method you can ask the child's parents to share information about how the child's background and how they learn best and so on. Furthermore, you can have classroom discussions and projects about the different communities the children are from, and what values can be learned from each community. I also think as the video mentioned, it's important to get to know your students very well and really understand them, by just talking to the students separately and understanding how they feel about learning or being in your class, you will begin to understand more about their communities. Also, by doing this I think the students will know that you do care about their learning.
There are students though who no matter how hard you tried will still only think of you as there to do a job. In this case, I think it's important to always show them you are there for them and their learning. You will have tried your best and knew that you did all you can. Hope this helps :)
Hi Eman,
ReplyDeleteCute video! A teacher is definitely someone more than just an individual that passes on facts that will be on a test. A teacher is someone who truly cares about her/his students and their well being. I had many teachers like that growing up, for example, one teacher would come on a Saturday morning to cheer me on as I ran my cross country races. Those teacher that took the time to really talk to their students and find out how they were doing were the teachers that really made a difference for the better. Students were more open and comfortable and had respect for those teacher and did not want to let them down.
Hi Joanna,
DeleteI seriously love your response and completely agree. Your teacher that used to cheer you on is one who cares for her students' interests and I appreciate that. These are the types of teachers that we need to aim for being.
It is important for students and their teacher to have a relationship. A bad teacher can impact how a student feels about an entire subject. It is important that teachers build connections by first getting to know where children come from. I am a firm believer in teachers knowing the community that kids live in. After getting to know a student's community, you get to see the people they know,the positive and negative impacts the kid might have in their lives. Aside from knowing the community it is important that you build relationship with guardians of the students. Next, you should understand what the student likes and where the student is at. Meet your student there.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree Whitney! Knowing your student community is a great step towards having a positive relationship with your students.
DeleteHey Eman!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I too highlight the statement, "youth report that they are most motivated when a passionate teacher asks questions about issues and listens deeply to students understandings on paper and through conversation" in my notes because as teachers we not only need to challenge our students' ideas and perspectives, but we also need to create bridges between their personal and school lives so they make meaningful connections to the different disciplines they are engaging in.
In regards to your last question, one of the way that I would make sure my students stay engaged is by incorporating the arts into their learning. Students can shine their own talents or interests by drawing, writing, singing, acting, etc, while utilizing text information. It promotes creativity and motivates them to take ownership of their own work!
Definitely true Hallie! Challenging our students is very important for their learning. I love how you would incorporate arts into learning, that's a great step to motivate children.
DeleteDefinitely true Hallie! Challenging our students is very important for their learning. I love how you would incorporate arts into learning, that's a great step to motivate children.
DeleteHi Eman,
ReplyDeleteThat was a great video! I really like how you highlight the key factor of emphasizing how important dialogue is in a classroom between the teacher and students. I think that creating an environment where the students feel comfortable conversing with their teacher will encourage more participation and motivation. I had a teacher in high school who always took the first five to ten minutes of each class period to ask us how we were doing and if there was anything that we wanted to talk about or share. Anything that we found interesting over the weekend or something that might have happened. It showed that he cared about our lives and what was going on with us. Creating that bridge between school and the students personally will create an awesome community within the classroom.
Hi Resilda,
DeleteI definitely agree with you. I also think it's very important for students to be comfortable in their classroom. This is a great step for being a supportive teacher.
Hi Eman,
ReplyDeleteGreat questions at the end and the video was really cute. This reading stuck out to me because I'm always thinking about what that teacher student relationship will look like in my classroom. If you as a teacher are disconnected from students I think it is so easy for them to disengage from the classroom. I've never really liked talking in class but when I had a teacher that I felt like connected with me outside the academic stuff I always felt more comfortable participating.
In my experience every kid needs something different from you and I try to be whatever it is they need. I've found that showing an appreciation for whatever the students' interests are is a great first step. I had a student a Wells that loved to write and she would always be writing raps and poems. I encouraged her to keep doing it because when I was her age I started writing a lot of poetry. From that point on she would show me what she was writing and as long as she had finished her other work I would talk to her about it.
The problem I run into though is where do you draw the line when it comes to those relationships. I like to sit back and let students tell me about themselves and I always wonder how much I should talk about myself if at all. I think that the teacher student relationship is one that is centered on the student anyway so I've decided that I will tell them things if they ask and if it's appropriate but I'm always trying to find that balance of having a good rapport with students as their teacher and not trying to be their friend.
Hi Eman,
ReplyDeleteGreat questions at the end and the video was really cute. This reading stuck out to me because I'm always thinking about what that teacher student relationship will look like in my classroom. If you as a teacher are disconnected from students I think it is so easy for them to disengage from the classroom. I've never really liked talking in class but when I had a teacher that I felt like connected with me outside the academic stuff I always felt more comfortable participating.
In my experience every kid needs something different from you and I try to be whatever it is they need. I've found that showing an appreciation for whatever the students' interests are is a great first step. I had a student a Wells that loved to write and she would always be writing raps and poems. I encouraged her to keep doing it because when I was her age I started writing a lot of poetry. From that point on she would show me what she was writing and as long as she had finished her other work I would talk to her about it.
The problem I run into though is where do you draw the line when it comes to those relationships. I like to sit back and let students tell me about themselves and I always wonder how much I should talk about myself if at all. I think that the teacher student relationship is one that is centered on the student anyway so I've decided that I will tell them things if they ask and if it's appropriate but I'm always trying to find that balance of having a good rapport with students as their teacher and not trying to be their friend.
Hey Eman, great post! I think it is critical as a teacher to make sure your students feel comfortable and have a connection with you. It honestly starts of by not only you asking about them but telling them about yourself. Students need to know you're willing to put in effort and not just ask them to open up about themselves. I know some students feel very vulnerable when opening up and need to show you care enough to share about yourself also. I feel like you get what you put out.
ReplyDeleteI am so use to our teachers in our candidacy program asking us about ourselves and in exchange telling us about who they are. This summer I took a course outside of our college and the teacher did not tell us anything other than her name nor did she ask anything about us, including our names. I'm in college and I could tell you it took the extra effort to be engaged in her class. It's not that I didn't take it seriously, it was a class I needed but I felt a disconnect. Now I can just imagine what adolescents feel, especially when they are in such a vulnerable place.
Eman,
ReplyDeleteYou talk about a very important issue here.
While I was reading your post, I kept imagining a picture in my head of my sophomore year english class. The teacher would assign different books and reading to be read at home and brought to class for discussion. All the students participated and had their reading the first week. The second week of class, only about 10 people had their readings and actually participated. And the whole class saw this coming. In the first week of class when students were raising their hands and participating, the teachers reply to every single student's feedback was "mhmm" "nice" "alright" "oh that's interesting" and so on. She never gave valid feedback the proves to the student that she cares or if she even listened to us talk. So none of us were motivated to read for the next week.
This relates to your post because the engagement of the teacher not only in the classroom but also individually with each student is very critical to keep the students involved and motivated to participate and care about the class.