What Babies Would Say to Teachers

Ashlee wrote our first entry on chapter 13, and this is what she said about this photo: "That background looks so real, doesn’t it? Especially with the brown shag carpet! This is a picture of my brother, Ryan, and me.  Although he looks happy in the picture, he was a very untrusting boy of teachers and adults.  I, on the other hand, excelled in school and had a completely different experience with teachers. As a child, I found more trust in teachers and school faculty than I did in my own family. Except for Ms. K!"

This chapter particularly speaks to me because I had an extremely wonderful teacher as well as another teacher who was really awful to me; I will never forget either of them. The information I received from this chapter was teachers should encourage students to be open about previous experiences and share knowledge they have already acquired. Teachers should allow freedom of expression.  If these allowances are not made, children will not trust teachers and may close down. Closing down emotionally also means closing down the willingness to learn. Gordon wrote, “Learning must engage the whole child including their emotions and social context” (p. 202 ).

Scenario: Ashlee is a 3rd grader in Ms. K’s 3rd/5th split classroom. She is challenged but continues to excel in math, reading, and loves to socialize with the 5th graders. One day, she is told by Ms. K she is no longer allowed to spend time with the 5th graders at recess and lunch.  Ms. K continues to tell Ashlee she must socialize only with the other 3rd graders in her class. Every day for the next month, Ms. K asks Ashlee if she hung around the 5th graders. If she said she has, she has to skip recess; if she said she hasn’t, she can go outside to play.

Unfortunately, this scenario was, in fact, a real experience.  I experienced the social shunning from my teacher which in turn shut down my desire to learn. After this happened, my grades dropped significantly and I didn’t want to go to school anymore.  I was then moved from the accelerated classes to the mainstream classes where I was not challenged enough and became bored. I began to act out and got into trouble at school. I believe this teacher paved the way for my feeling as if I wasn’t good enough.  Even though I understood her lessons and had this innate drive to succeed in her class, I held back because she “didn’t like me.”

Luckily, in 4th grade, I had an amazing teacher whose belief in concrete learning experiences caused me to fall back in love with learning. Her teaching strategies required the class to meet on the floor in a circle every morning to talk about what we thought of topics like Lewis and Clark, OJ Simpson (no joke), family, friends, etc. She created a safe place for the students in her classroom. After each unit was completed, we had an “end of unit party.” For example, after reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, we had a feast with sardines, hard-boiled eggs, and homemade jelly candies. These were things that maybe we would have never tried. She opened our eyes to new experiences.   I trusted her, enjoyed her company and went above and beyond on all of her assignments.  I found myself wanting to be around her during recess and lunch, telling her of all my family hardships, and she actually listened to me. She was the teacher I will never forget and the teacher who made me want to become a teacher.  

This is the kind of teacher we should all strive to be. We should make every effort to think outside the box, and our goals should be to touch the lives of each and every one of our students. It is our responsibility to realize not all students learn verbally or logically.  Gardner’s multiple intelligences absolutely must be a factor in our lesson plans. Gordon states, “Ignoring them by teaching in only one style is like putting blindfolds on more than half the students” (p. 204 ). Ignoring the fact that each child learns and communicates differently is doing the entire class a disservice; it is our responsibility to understand multiple teaching angles and teaching styles. It is our responsibility to know when a child is struggling developmentally, socially, emotionally, or cognitively. It is our responsibility to adjust our classroom to make an impact. Lastly, it is our responsibility to be the teacher they’ll never forget.