I believe that teaching students is primarily about building relationships, and establishing the foundation for students to feel comfortable seeking out information they need to fulfill their goals. To support the students, trust through relationship building, transparency, and equity in all areas needs to be established.
Relationships in the classroom are ultimately the key to success in my mind. If a student feels disconnected from their peers, or the teacher, it is very difficult for them to make the kind of leaps that round out an education. They need to feel safe to experiment, and at times fail, without suffering adverse consequences for making these kinds of educational leaps.
Our system suffers from a problem with grades in my opinion. By assigning grades to work we are ultimately saying that something is done, locked in, and can’t be revisited in a way where achievement through growth can be recognized. In Growing Success, we see that we are allowed flexibility in how we assess and evaluate students, but I think too often educators are locked into ‘the way it has always been.’ I feel that as an educator it’s my job to extract the most from students, and oftentimes that means allowing students to reflect, reattempt, and reevaluate. By allowing students to make attempts at something, without being stuck with a firm grade that can’t be improved on, we see students ‘playing safe’ and not pushing themselves to explore their own creativity in education. I hope to get my students excited to try, and at times fail, and to push themselves to grow as learners.
A key to getting this buy-in is transparency. By outlining expectations clearly, and having students understand expectations, and having them know that they will have opportunities to improve on their own attempts, it sets the stage to allow students to make the kinds of educational leaps I hope to see.
Finally to ensure the engagement of all students I need to make sure that my classroom, my coursework, and my assessment and evaluation is equitable and accessible to every student. To ensure this, I need to think about this in the very starting stages of unit design. How can I ensure the instruction meets different learning styles? How can I make sure that there isn’t any hidden bias in the materials I’m not considering? Which of my students have special needs that I need to be able to accomodate for? Is there a better way to design a unit to ensure that accommodation is built in directly in all these areas? By addressing these types of questions early on, I can set myself up for success in developing content that will be able to be understood, digested, and retained by all students. Additionally My classroom should always feel like a safe space for students, no matter their background, identity, or socioeconomic status. Access to learning needs to be equal for every student, and it’s up to me to ensure that in my room.
I hope that my students see me as an advocate for them. I hope that my students see me as not only a teacher, but as a person who is a member of their community, who understands that they are the future of our country, and our planet (whether they like it or not!) I hope they see me as one of their biggest fans as they go out into the world and try (and sometimes fail) to make big changes.