I’m sure you’ve heard this saying before:
“They don’t care what you know until they know you care.”
You can replace they with people or children . . . or students, but the meaning remains: Show that you care, and your words will have greater impact because more ears will be open to them.
It’s easy to sit back and say that the onus is on the students. In fact, I have professed on this site that, even though I want to do whatever I can to help them succeed, in the end, my students’ success is not my responsibility. I stand by that.
But at the same time, I am the determining factor in my classroom environment, which naturally stems from my attitudes, my expectations, my philosophies. I can be strict and hard and inflexible (as I have felt I had to be in the past), or I can be firm, yet kind and compassionate and flowing. I can give worksheet after worksheet, or I can try to find ways to make the material interesting. I can make it easy for them so they won’t fail, or I can make them work for it because I believe they can succeed.
Students are more apt to learn when they’re in a positive environment, I think we can all agree. Threats, raised voices, lack of emotion, work with no clear purpose: These are not part of a positive environment. Yes, there are referrals, detentions, suspensions. And sometimes, those might be our only options. But I believe that such negative reinforcement should always be a last resort.
Now, I’m not talking about letting my students scream and run wild and talk back. I don’t think that would be productive at all. I’m talking about redirecting the main focus of my teaching, from control to compassion.
Ironically, I’ve found, not fighting for control does more to ensure it than any other tactic. When you know you’re in control, you don’t have anything to prove. As my husband likes to say:
“The big dog doesn’t have to bark and bark. He just lies there on the porch.”
In other words, while all of the little dogs are yipping and yapping at each passing car and pedestrian, that big dog is comfortable in his ability to protect his domain, to do his job. He might raise an eyebrow and half-open an eye, but he’s not going to expend a lot of energy in what he knows is a needless pursuit. When it’s time to step up and do something, he’ll sense it and do it. But he knows that to do so constantly is to defeat his very purpose.
Well, in my classroom, I need to be the big dog. :P
As of today, I am making positive affirmations:
- In my classroom, I will raise my voice only when positively affected.
- In my classroom, I will use positive reinforcement whenever possible.
- In my classroom, I will believe that every single student can succeed.
- In my classroom, I will create a colorful, visually-inviting environment.
- In my classroom, I will find ways to make literature, language, communication, and research fun and interesting.
- In my classroom, I will respect my students’ opinions, even if I disagree with them.
- In my classroom, I will model respect for authority by being respectful of my own authority figures.
Many of these are already a part of my teaching philosophy, even if I don’t always quite meet my goals; others, I’m going to need to give some extra attention to. And I’m sure I’ll find others to add to this list. If you can think of other positive affirmations, please let me know!
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Most of my teaching resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License, which means you can feel free to use them with attribution as long as you don’t use them commercially. If you’re not sure, don’t hesitate to ask me. Unfortunately, I am currently unable to send out my tests and quizzes, but I am hoping to establish a less time-consuming alternative for this in the near future. Sorry!!
