Letter From A High School Teacher
A former high school teacher sent me an email in response to my posts Am I Making It Worse For My Students? and Why I’m Failing At Participative Rule Setting. I asked her if I could repost the relevant sections here. For the other teachers reading, hopefully you find this useful:
“First of all, I don’t believe you are causing any harm to your students. If you are caring and truly concerned in their learning, it can never hurt them. Be sure it is the students you are really focused on and not your own needs and desires. This is hard to differentiate sometimes. Kids pick up on sincerity and embrace you. Otherwise, you are just tolerated or discounted. You must think solely for the kids and what it is they need. These are extremely young; my experiences have only been as low as a second grade level, but I have worked with some of these wee ones too along the way. Give them what they need to blossom and grow. Each student is different, so their needs differ. You can’t teach them as a whole.
I understand you are having difficulty in the participation concept as far as building a classroom code. I have attended workshops on that and utilized it in my classrooms the past 3-4 years. It works on some levels, but not others. On the level it did work, it would apply too to the younger grades.
With obstacles of culture and language it would be difficult but not impossible. The best means to get this across to such a young age group would be to ask questions that lead them to creating the concept. Go towards your goal by breaking it down into steps forward. Just jumping into a discussion about rules or determining class conduct is too broad and abstract for that age group. For instance, simply ask: “How do you think I should be treated as a teacher?” You could simplify it even further if needed. Break it down to “How do you talk to a teacher? How do you act in class? What do you do when you have never played that game?” They of course will answer the standards–with respect, with attention, behaving well…
You can then ask other leading questions to get to the areas you want…Ask- -How about joining in my activities? How about asking questions when you don’t understand me? How about trying something new even if you are worried about it…and so on. Starting with the teacher focus would probably be easiest. Then you do the same to draw them into how they want to be treated by you. Ask: “How do you want me to act towards you?” If they don’t respond, ask other leading questions: Do you want me to talk to you away from your classmates? Do you want me to listen to your ideas? Do you want me to let you come up with some topics to study?” You get the idea. Bring in too how they want their classmates to treat them in the same way. You have to be really fundamental with them. Just start simply with one basic question. Grow from there.
Maybe you could just do one each day for a bit. What I did, you could do too. I would place a large piece of paper on the front board and responses were written on it. You can simplify it with just 1-2 words. If you did one a day, you could put your heading on it and put it aside, then at the end you could put them all together and post them. You can also use symbols (stick figures, images) to promote your ideas. For example teacher stick figure with a really big ear for listening to you or bunches of little stick figures holding hands and playing with the big teacher face smiling. Something like that might break through the language problems. Think Charades in images.
That level is quite young to get this philosophy across. It may be too young. I think you could start a framework for it, though. You know the students better than I, so you will know if it is possible or not. Maybe you could just choose one concept to address for a while and focus all your attention to that. Try talking to some Chinese non-teaching acquaintances for their input on the matter too. They may have some good ideas for you. I found many teachers in opposition to this concept. I had to present it at a faculty meeting. Talk about not speaking the same language…oh boy! Change is a dirty word to most, no matter what arena. My students also were weirded out by it too, at first. Be patient. It all takes time. You build up to what you want. Just do it from the heart, not the head. You’ll get across to them. Let me know how this progresses for you. It will be interesting.”
