Don't Dislike Your Children

I've been spending a lot of time in a car recently. My role as the state principal of the year requires me to travel quite a bit. Just this week I crisscrossed the state and between Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening, I had been in a car for about 10 hours. You can only listen to so much music when you drive that much and I can't check my email and drive, so I turned to audiobooks to at least stimulate my brain a little with all that highway time. This week I started 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. He's a somewhat controversial person and this isn't at all an endorsement of him. To be honest, I don't agree with 100% of what he says or writes, but it does make me think and that's the point. One of his 12 rules really got me thinking about the students in our classrooms and how we interact with them. It reads: "Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them." The chapter has absolutely nothing to do with teaching. It's about parenting your own children and addressing misbehavior in small children so that society doesn't have to correct them later in a much more difficult way. It's the same reason we must focus on classroom management as educators. 

On the surface, classroom management is about running things well enough so that the lesson can be taught. You need students attentive, engaged, and not disrupting others so that learning can take place. But like most things in a classroom, the content isn't what we are really teaching. Teaching students how to participate in society and in a group is the real lesson. They graduate from school and classrooms but they will work and live with others and knowing how to be a productive member versus one that is counter-productive is essential. That's why we have to take the time to teach and address things when students do something that we (and others) dislike. Ignoring it is the equivalent of allowing your child to throw a tantrum in a store when they want the toy. If you don't address it, they will keep doing it and believe that it is ok. Meanwhile, the rest of the store (and the classroom) creates a dislike of them as an individual. As educators we prepare young people to be productive adults. They learn some content along the way and we hope that some piece of that content sparks an interest that leads to a career or passion later in life. Along with their families and peers, we guide these young people to be the best versions of themselves that they can be in so many ways. Therefore, it is just as much our responsibility to correct students when they do things that we and others will dislike. Teaching that is just as important as the content of our lessons because as an adult, they will be assessed on it every day.

Empathy Leads to Equity

I have talked a lot about empathy in blog posts over the years. I strongly feel that teaching students how to understand and care for a person whose experiences are different than their own is one of the most important things that we can ever teach a student, yet isn't found in a curriculum. Without a doubt, the best way to teach this is to model it and as we have changed classes and students for the new semester, I have had the opportunity to see this in action. 

Since the start of the semester, many of you have gained students with different needs. Students that do not speak English. Students in a wheelchair. Students with extreme situations outside of school that impact their ability to be successful in school. It doesn't take long to notice these students. Physical differences are quickly seen and a teacher with little experience can spot a struggling student. Understanding their condition is great, but taking action based on that understanding is impressive. This week I have had requests for desks, manipulatives, and grace in grading from teachers that recognized that a new student in their n classroom would need something different to be successful this semester. I absolutely love that. Pushing beyond the recognition and toward a solution that provides a student with something that will level their playing field is exactly what equity is all about. Hats off to those of you that recognized a difficulty and sprung to action for the benefit of a student. It's what teaching is really all about. 

New Year New Me?

The opportunities of a new year, a new semester, and new classes of students have always excited me. It's a chance to put into practice some of what you know went right and fix some of what you didn't like. It moves reflection to action, but only if you take the opportunity. Maybe New Year's resolutions get played up too much or perhaps they are over marketed by companies looking to exploit your desire for self-improvement, but it seems that there are just two camps of people on the issue. There are those that overly embrace the "New Year, New Me" attitude and those that outright reject and mock others for it. I think both groups missed the point. A new year and really any opportunity to have a fresh start doesn't have to be some grand change in personality or life habits. You don't have to be a "new you." That level of change is extremely difficult for any person. Like most things, success can be seen in smaller adjustments rather than extreme changes. As we tackle a new semester, with new classes and a new year, I challenge you to forget trying to be a new you. Instead, the challenge is just to be a slightly better, happier, and more fulfilled you. Small changes are manageable if you define them and more times than not, they make bigger impacts than we expect. If you haven't done so, look back on the previous semester, and maybe at the goals that you set at the beginning of the year within your department or on your PDP. What small changes can make those goals happen and what did you learn? You might not be able to create a new you, but I promise you can adjust the one that you already are, and that's always going to be enough.