Here’s the thing about working with kids. It’s not like managing employees where we can talk about separating one’s personal life from one’s professional life. It’s all mixed in together and sometimes it’s messy.
Take today for example. It’s only Monday and I spent a good portion of the day talking to students and parents about everything but academics. We have relationship issues, kids who were living at home when they left for the weekend and now are not, ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend disasters, Prom ticket sales, and kids expressing their individuality a bit too much. I swear I don’t solicit it and sometimes I wish I weren’t so approachable.
It seems there’s so much “stuff” coming through the door that I wonder how we teach kids anything. Better said, I wonder how they retain anything we teach. How do they even notice us?
I honestly would like to just stop everything and say “I don’t want to hear one more word about what he said/she said or what color your hair is today—let’s talk about your social studies class or what you’re learning in Science!”
But then I know it’s about connecting with every kid. Helping them as a whole child to deal with growing up. I know that kids are sometimes self-centered and that how they express themselves is the most important thing to them, now.
I just want to maintain focus. I want to remind every kid who’s hung up on whatever of our purpose, our mission, our academic goals. It’s my job to maintain this focus for everyone, to keep our eyes on the prize. I just don’t have it figured out yet, how to be supportive and at the same time, say “okay, enough support, let’s get focused on learning now!” Maybe I say just that more often?
G-Town students, someone, anyone, please have a meaningful conversation with me tomorrow about something that you’re learning. . . any subject will do.
Hmmm… Where is the post that I sent to this yesterday? Am I having trouble again?
This week, while running groups, I asked students how their relationships with their teachers affect their academics. Just about every student said that if they are connected personally (or emotionally), then they will connect academically. The opposite is NOT true. I know that the focus of any school is academics; however a student will not perform for a teacher if they do not feel valued. The students said that over and over again. They just want to be heard. Academic performance will go up when a student is connected to their school. Although you may have felt that the focus was elsewhere, you actually benefited Gowanda’s academic “bottom line”. You gave our students a rare gift: you listened to what they had to say.
A special thank you to Courtney M. for coming to talk to me today about her Senior English Project! Thanks for listening and then focusing on what’s important.