Last week, I was moving from drill to drill on the final day of our football camp for future Crusaders when one of the Dads asked me what I teach. The obvious answer might have been "I teach English." That would not have been incorrect, but, to be totally honest, it is not entirely correct either. I might have said, "I teach literature and composition." More specific, in a way, but not really a better answer. I might tell the parent, "I teach English and coach football." Still, not an answer that truly reveals what I teach.
The most accurate, and to me the most important answer I can give is this: I teach kids.
Do not misunderstand me: I am not saying that our content is not important. It is. I have a a strong and valid reason for reason for teaching every piece of literary and writing content in my classes. These are important bits of information and vital skills that students will need to succeed. However, none of that means anything if I do not put the most important factor in its rightful place at the top of the list, at the front of my mind, in the most prominent position to guide my words and actions. I must remember, above all else, I teach kids.
Every day, 100 plus people will walk through my door, and each one of them carries his or her own skills and talents, dreams and fears, hopes and baggage. Those young people are who, and why, I teach. The instant I forget that, or I shift my focus to make the content material the most important consideration in my classroom, I need to find one of two things: someone to realign my priorities as a teacher or a different place to call my professional home.
Justin Coffey, the 2016 Kansas Teacher of the Year, expressed this thought well during a Voxer group discussion this week regarding how we will build deep and meaningful relationships with our students this year. I paraphrase the great teacher from Dodge City High School here, but his response was that he did not have some silver bullet or specific activity that he plans to build relationships. Instead, he spoke to the fact that building those relationships is about who we are and how we treat our students each day. It is not a line on a lesson plan: it is a part of who we are.
Mr. Coffey is right. I spent Friday in my room, making final preparations for the first week of school. The best part of my day was not writing lesson plans or selecting the first short story to teach. It was when a young lady came to my room after band practice and spent about an hour. We talked about band, her summer vacation, her class schedule, and countless other topics. we did not once talk about lines to memorize from Hamlet or how to better structure a sentence. That is not what it was about. It was about the fact that she is excited about the band's marching show and wanted to tell me about how far they have already come in learning the second movement. It was about the fun she had on family trip and the concern she has for her friends as they enter their senior year. It is about the fact that no matter what else happens in her day, she can come to my room and laugh, talk, vent, or just sit. She is my student, and she always will be. She is one of our kids. My place is to help her grow in whatever way I can, and that has little to do with Shakespeare or research papers. That day, that young person strengthen my alignment of what is important. A few years ago, I received a message on Facebook from a former student. She told me that she had run across a copy of "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" and reminded of a day in class during Honors English her sophomore year when we discussed the poem. I love teaching that poem. It has so many layers to sift through, so many ideas to dissect that apply to our lives. However, the poem itself was not what stood out in her mind. What stood out in her mind was that I pulled her aside after class and told her that she should never be ashamed of being intelligent, that her ideas and thoughts were important. She said that she sees that conversation as a first step for her toward gaining self-confidence. With her intelligence and ability, this young lady should have been the confident person in any room; however, she had never seen herself that way, and she needed someone to give her permission to feel her own strength. I did not know that conversation was a big deal to her at the time, but it turned out it was. My daughter once wrote about "small, significant moments" in life. We never really know when they will occur, or what form they will take for the people around us. So, we need to make each moment potentially powerful in a positive way.
This week, we kick off the 2016-2017 school year. This is an exciting time across the country, for kids and for teachers. It is exciting for countless reasons, and each of us has our own fuel that will drive us this year. Hopefully, the fuel will drive us all is that each day, no matter what our grade levels, content areas, or units or subject of study, what we not only have to teach, but we GET TO TEACH, above all else, is kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R34Iqsfy9kk
Do not misunderstand me: I am not saying that our content is not important. It is. I have a a strong and valid reason for reason for teaching every piece of literary and writing content in my classes. These are important bits of information and vital skills that students will need to succeed. However, none of that means anything if I do not put the most important factor in its rightful place at the top of the list, at the front of my mind, in the most prominent position to guide my words and actions. I must remember, above all else, I teach kids.
Every day, 100 plus people will walk through my door, and each one of them carries his or her own skills and talents, dreams and fears, hopes and baggage. Those young people are who, and why, I teach. The instant I forget that, or I shift my focus to make the content material the most important consideration in my classroom, I need to find one of two things: someone to realign my priorities as a teacher or a different place to call my professional home.
Justin Coffey, the 2016 Kansas Teacher of the Year, expressed this thought well during a Voxer group discussion this week regarding how we will build deep and meaningful relationships with our students this year. I paraphrase the great teacher from Dodge City High School here, but his response was that he did not have some silver bullet or specific activity that he plans to build relationships. Instead, he spoke to the fact that building those relationships is about who we are and how we treat our students each day. It is not a line on a lesson plan: it is a part of who we are.
Mr. Coffey is right. I spent Friday in my room, making final preparations for the first week of school. The best part of my day was not writing lesson plans or selecting the first short story to teach. It was when a young lady came to my room after band practice and spent about an hour. We talked about band, her summer vacation, her class schedule, and countless other topics. we did not once talk about lines to memorize from Hamlet or how to better structure a sentence. That is not what it was about. It was about the fact that she is excited about the band's marching show and wanted to tell me about how far they have already come in learning the second movement. It was about the fun she had on family trip and the concern she has for her friends as they enter their senior year. It is about the fact that no matter what else happens in her day, she can come to my room and laugh, talk, vent, or just sit. She is my student, and she always will be. She is one of our kids. My place is to help her grow in whatever way I can, and that has little to do with Shakespeare or research papers. That day, that young person strengthen my alignment of what is important. A few years ago, I received a message on Facebook from a former student. She told me that she had run across a copy of "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" and reminded of a day in class during Honors English her sophomore year when we discussed the poem. I love teaching that poem. It has so many layers to sift through, so many ideas to dissect that apply to our lives. However, the poem itself was not what stood out in her mind. What stood out in her mind was that I pulled her aside after class and told her that she should never be ashamed of being intelligent, that her ideas and thoughts were important. She said that she sees that conversation as a first step for her toward gaining self-confidence. With her intelligence and ability, this young lady should have been the confident person in any room; however, she had never seen herself that way, and she needed someone to give her permission to feel her own strength. I did not know that conversation was a big deal to her at the time, but it turned out it was. My daughter once wrote about "small, significant moments" in life. We never really know when they will occur, or what form they will take for the people around us. So, we need to make each moment potentially powerful in a positive way.
This week, we kick off the 2016-2017 school year. This is an exciting time across the country, for kids and for teachers. It is exciting for countless reasons, and each of us has our own fuel that will drive us this year. Hopefully, the fuel will drive us all is that each day, no matter what our grade levels, content areas, or units or subject of study, what we not only have to teach, but we GET TO TEACH, above all else, is kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R34Iqsfy9kk
