every student has a story

I think that it is a waste of time when students are herded in and out of school day after day if they are just one of many... if they are only, not to be too cliche but I am going to be cliche, just a number... I remember when I was growing up hearing my parents comments about how the middle 1/3 of students just get lost under the radar... I myself remember that I only liked the teachers that asked us about ourselves, or told us a few inspiring stories about themselves, or made the course material relatable to everyday life... it broke up the monotony.

I know that many of the old Catholic school stories are about nuns who were cold and harsh and smacked your hand with a ruler... but I went to Catholic schools growing up and I had a religion teacher who was a Brother or Monk or something and in his class the lesson that I remember was when each student chose a pop culture song to bring in, to play, and to analyze... why did the singer write this song? what is their message? what is their struggle? what are the moral implications? I had another class where we kept journals where we wrote about ourselves all the time... those are the type of lessons I remember. Plus, what do teenagers want to do more than write/talk/think about themselves (not to say that all teenagers are selfish, but developmentally that is where most of them are) You are probably wondering at this point where I am going with this.

I find that I have no trouble connecting to students, but I do have trouble figuring out how to parlay that ease of connecting into something that inspires introspection, goal-setting, looking into the future, getting themselves "on their feet." The reason I like my school so much is that we are a school of second chances and my colleagues are absolutely amazing at inspiring a turn-around in people. I see it everyday around me and I am constantly taking in what they are doing and trying to apply it myself. I am working on my own style.

In the beginning of the year I decided to use an Ice Breaker, which worked really well but I was so rushed at the beginning and so concerned about what I was doing day-to-day with my classes that I didn't take the time to read the Ice Breakers carefully. Today, I passed out the Ice Breaker again and a Student Self-Evaluation. Now that I have 3 semesters under my belt and I have a few seconds to spare, I spent a few minutes carefully examining what my new and continuing students wrote.

I see now that I may have some valuable information. I can recognize that each one of them has a story, they are diverse in their thinking, their backgrounds, their learning, their writing/communication skills, their goals, aspirations, motivations, pre-conceived notions (towards me, teachers in general, school, and science), etc. I think I have come up with something that I may tweak here and there, but more-or-less I will use it on the first day for all my classes indefinitely.

I gave them a handout with a list of "Finish This Sentence" phrases and told them to complete all, some, or none of it. I have only had one student so far choose not to fill it out (he is also a student whose life is chaos and only showed up for the last 10 minutes of class to put his head down on the desk and I unfortunately and now having to drop him from my class)

I want to share some of my students' sentences anonymously as a reminder of the things going on in their minds as we are trying to cram difficult math problems, abstract concepts, or troubling vocabulary into their brains. Not that we as teachers should excuse behavior or laziness because we feel sorry for students, but because we need to recognize where they may be coming from. If they are at a breaking point, there is no use in pushing them over the edge. I am constantly searching for ways of doing this, but part of our job is also to inspire... otherwise why not have classes on the internet?? It is example that we lead and the opportunity to inspire that makes teaching a worthwhile profession.

When I look up.. "I wish God could could take me"
When it rains I... "get sad"
If I had a million dollars... "I'll buy my mom a house"
If I could live forever... "I would try to make peace in the world"
If you visit my hometown... "it would suck for you"
If you visit my hometown... "you wouldn't like it"
The last time I cried... "?I try not to"
When I was five... "I had many doubts about life"

After reading these, it really helped me see my students as people who want to be inspired... who are needing...