Monthly Archives: December 2015

Playing Favorites vs Playing to Win

Creating Classroom Community, Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

“It’s not as important for a teacher to like the students as it is for the students to think the teacher likes them. Students feel more comfortable and motivated in classes where they think the teacher likes them.” – Daryl

“I would rather not know if I’m a teacher’s favorite. It puts me in a weird position. When we’re having a test or something, other students will come up to me and say, ‘Why don’t you ask if we can not have it – she likes you.'” – Tiffany  (Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness, Cushman)

It’s important to praise students for their accomplishments and push them to their highest potential. But what’s equally as important is that teachers do this for all of their students, not just the ones who are easy to praise and immediately responsive to encouragement and challenges.

Continue reading Playing Favorites vs Playing to Win →

Create an environment that helps

Creating Classroom Community

“Their (Young adolescents) social and emotional actions can range from childlike behaviors to adult perceptions… Young adolescents are making transition from the dependence to the childhood to the dependence to the adulthood. They are moving from the safety and security of their families to the insecurity of finding a place in the adult world.” — Brown & Knowles (2007).

Response: Sometimes we adults may think adolescents are consistently changing, nothing could satisfy them. I think it may because they are going through the transition from the childhood to adulthood and trying hard to look for a place for themselves and fit in our world. School is a place to help them to successfully go though this transition. Our personal characteristics as a teacher and professional knowledge are important components to help adolescent learners to achieve success.

Don’t Take it Personally

Creating Classroom Community

“Assuming the best is an underlying orientation that enables us to treat both our students and ourselves with respect and dignity. It helps us understand that when students act out, they are sending us a message that they want a positive connection. Then we can start to see “discipline moments” as opportunities for teaching an essential piece that students want to learn.” (Smith & Lambert, page 6)

Student misbehavior is something teachers will deal with in their career. However, some teacher in some schools deal with more and worse misbehavior than others. The tendency for teachers overwhelmed by students’ misbehavior is to perceive the misbehavior as an affront to him or herself, rather than as a result of something within the student. This is a toxic orientation for teachers to hold toward misbehavior, as it leads to a mindset where students and teachers are confrontational forces in the classroom. Such an orientation only worsens existing problems. Adopting Smith and Lambert’s orientation to misbehavior allows teachers to view disciplinary problems and disciplinary intervention in such a way where students and teachers are collaboratively working for growth while maintaining mutual respect and dignity. Continue reading Don’t Take it Personally →

Much more than content knowledge

Creating Classroom Community

“Understanding one’s content is one criterion for successful teaching-but only one. Effective educators at all grade levels possess something more significant than content knowledge: a deep understanding of their students. Commer (2005) noted the following in studying over a thousand schools across the United States:
It became clear that both academic and behavioral success were more likely in places where teachers and administrators bought into the value of basing their work on the principles of child and adolescent development. The focus on child development that is largely missing from the preparation of educators probably contributes more to creating dysfunction and underperforming schools than anything else. (757-58)” Continue reading Much more than content knowledge →

“We are all your students.”

Creating Classroom Community, Urban Adolescents

“It matters to students that teachers like being in their company. But when teachers appear to like some students more than others, they feel uncomfortable, whether or not they count among the favored.” – “Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness”

I think favoritism is something for a teacher to avoid. Like the above quote says, sometimes even though you want the teacher to like you, it can be uncomfortable if they like you more than other students or if they like other students more than you. I have had experience being called the teacher’s pet. And while academically it was good for me, socially it was not. I felt isolated from my peers. What good did it do then that my teacher liked me if my friends hated me for it.

I also noticed this in my focal learner study. A literature teacher had called out names of people who were working on their in-class assignments as he saw fit. He said “Maria’s doing an excellent job. So is Jade…” While for some students this may encourage them to stop talking and do their work so that they get complimented as well, sometimes if the same people are complimented in front of the class like that, it can be damaging to the students. Personally, I knew that that teacher favored my focal student from the get-go. He was always talking to her and he called on her to read once, and it was predictable to me and this was my first day here. If I was a student who always experienced this, I would not appreciate it.

So, it’s important to give our students positive feedback and tell them they are succeeding, perhaps there are better times and places to do so. Like in person, just the two of you not in front of the class. That way they know that you care about their education but they are not singled out or feel neglected.