Building Relationships

 The most influential adult figure in my life growing up, other than my parents, was my high school Biology teacher. He believed in me, but more importantly he made ME believe in me. He's the reason I want to be a teacher and I know that someday I want to have the kind of effect on my students that he had on me.

My service learning this week was short since I'm going to be spending a far more significant amount of time helping in a couple weeks. But even with this short time, I can see the effect the teacher I have been sitting in with has on her students. One thing that I noticed she does to establish a personal connection with every student, is that she takes time to go around to every single desk to check in with them individually. She doesn't treat the class as one entity, she seems to make sure that every student gets one-on-one time every class, even if it's brief.

I've also noticed that she recognizes student's skills by offering to let them come up and do example problems. She doesn't force the student, but I've noticed that many are sort of...eager to show off what they've learned. The other students also seem to pay attention more when a fellow student is doing a problem on the board, I think this helps foster a positive community.

Both of these things contribute to how I think she helps her students feel loved and safe. She knows every student by name and knows about their dreams and asks them about their pets. There are a couple students that I don't think math comes very easy to them and since I've helped grade their homework, I know they get a lot of stuff wrong. Their teacher makes them feel safe though because she doesn't scold them or lecture them on studying more, she makes sure they know it's ok and that she is there to help. While I haven't seen it, other teachers have told me that she frequently gives up her lunch hour to tutor one-on-one with students that need extra help. I think showing her students that she does care about them enough to do that for them goes a long way.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

1 - Service Learning

Standards and Accountability

2 - Learning Theories