Kendall Ahlmann: A Blueprint for Effective Teaching
Kendall Ahlmann: A Blueprint for Effective Teaching
by: Mia Ramirez
Forming positive student-teacher bonds ensures motivated, happier, and, overall, more successful students. The amount of positive hallway chatter and commentary Ms. Ahlmann's teaching style and personality receives everyday from a heap of students is absolutely incredible. Sara Rimm-Kaufman and Lia Sandilos, PhD, University of Virginia, state that “students who have close, positive, and supportive relationships with their teachers will attain higher levels of achievement than those students with more conflict in their relationships.”
Ms. Ahlmann is greatly respected by her students, and has been able to form connections while also guiding students to success. Being respected in the workplace is troubling for any job but especially when working with teenagers. Suzanne Capek Tingley, Veteran Educator, writes that "the teacher is no longer an automatic authority figure” and the key to “commanding respect” is simply “give it to get it.” Remarkably, Ms. Alhmann earned her respect from students without even commanding it simply because she gave it to begin with. She didn't place herself on a higher pedestal than her students.
Ms. Ahlmann: EPHS English Teacher, Head Girls Cross Country Coach, and Head Girls Track & Field Coach
Ms. Ahlmann's takes her teaching one a step further by extending the neutral student-teacher relationship to truly being a role model for young adults. This skill is sometimes overseen by many. Teaching in itself is a skill; engaging, motivating, and leading students to success on an emotional and academic level is a super power! “A lot of teachers... have really strong abilities to engage socially with the students, but then it’s not enough[...] [y]ou have to go much deeper than that and actually start to engage with students[...] to really be an effective teacher,” voices Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Southern California who studies the effects of emotions and mindsets on learning. Students could not agree with her more! Having a trusting adult in such a stressful environment, like school, is a great asset. If every teacher followed Ms. Ahlmann's example, we would have happier, motivated, and more successful students.
Ms. Ahlmann is a well-worded, thoughtful teacher who is able to give commentary on almost anything (academic or not) you ask or say without being controversial or under/over spoken. Having known Ms. Ahlmann since freshman year and seeing students of all kinds come to her for academic, social, and emotional reasons just comes to show how much of an overall well-rounded teacher and person she is. 2015 North Carolina State Teacher of the Year and the program director for the Public School Forum of North Carolina, told Education Week, “Our first job as teachers is to make sure that we learn our students, that we connect with them on a real level, showing respect[...] affirming their worthiness to receive the best education possible,” and students are able to check all of the boxes when speaking about Ms. Ahlmann. This further acknowledges Ms. Ahlmann’s excellence with intentions to inspire our future and current teachers of the world to rise above and aspire to be as phenomenal as she is!
Current students who are lucky enough to be taught by Ms. Ahlmann gave a few adjectives to describe her: “caring, intelligent, supportive, encouraging, selfless, and compassionate”.
Thank you Ms. Ahlmann!
Junior: Alina Paul, Sophmore: Johnny Baratta, Junior: Jaylene Lopez, Ms. Ahlmann, and Senior: Jessie Czerwiec.