ANN
BIANCHETTI
Diary #28
Students
Thrive Where Teachers Care
The word care, like love, is often used...well...carelessly. It is also a subjective word; everyone has a different description of caring.
Angela Valenzuela in her book Subtractive Schooling describes a caring school as one that embodies the Latino concept of educación. Educación, to the Latino and other minority communities, does not mean the basics of education: books, tests, math and English. Rather, it means a climate in the school of la familia. People care about each other the way families do—loving the good and the bad, loving unconditionally, being there and interacting on a real level.
Teachers and students use the word "care" differently as well. Many teachers bemoan that students don't care about school while students lament that teachers don't care about them. Teachers mean that students don't do homework, don't come prepared for class and aren't enthusiastic about learning. Students mean that teachers don't interact with them, aren't interested in their lives outside of school and teach boring things.
In Valenzuela's book, and in schools across the country, students thrive in schools where teachers care and die in those that don't. So, what are some things teachers can do that send the message, "I care"? Sometimes it's the simplest things that matter.
Saying you care
Every week I give cards to two different students. They are cute, inexpensive cards I've picked up on sale at stationary stores. When I see cheap boxes of note cards I always pick up a few. I give these cards out to cheer a student up or to express support and encouragement. After a student who usually finished last in my sixth grade finished a brainteaser about Canada first, I gave her a card the next day. It said, "I'm so proud of how fast you worked yesterday. You really figured out how to solve the problem and your brain worked like a computer!" She shyly smiled and taped the card to her notebook.
Sometimes I give cards to those who are struggling and have not achieved success yet, "Dear Talia, I know how hard it can be to keep quiet when you get upset. I've noticed that you have been trying hard to control your temper, even though it's not easy. Remember, courage is doing something even when you are afraid to do it. You have courage; you will learn to control your temper. I believe in you." After that note Talia had a little more self control that week and was also more willing to talk to me when she did lose her temper rather than shut down and shut me out.
Those who haven't received cards yet often ask me, "Ms. B., where's my card?" What seems small to me, a twenty-five cent card and a quickly written note, means the world to my students.
Words matter
I think it escapes us teachers how much words matter. I have heard students rehashing statements they found hurtful months after a teacher uttered them. Students hold on to these words and wear them like life preservers, or ankle weights, in the sea of adolescent tumultuousness.
Despite their required middle school indifference, underneath, students care greatly what we think and say about them. What we say about them and to them helps students construct their images of us as caring or not caring. I have one student in sixth grade who is not doing well in a certain teacher's class because once, in fifth grade, that teacher said to her, "Why don't you ever understand when I say it the first time?"
This student has expressed to me her sadness at "being thought stupid" by that teacher and her fear of appearing wrong in that class, which keeps her from fully participating. I asked her if she'd ever talked to that teacher one on one to clear this up and she said, "No, why should I? She'll just get mad cause she already thinks I'm dumb."
On the reverse side I've noticed one student beaming with pride when another teacher complimented her publicly on her writing assignment. This student smiled, looked around the room and proudly proclaimed, "I'm an author." When I asked the writing teacher if she remembered that compliment she said no. Just like the little card, our little words that we don't give a second thought to—positive and negative—mean the world to our students.
Strictly speaking
It may seem hard to believe but being strict sends a message of caring to our students as well. I know the rolled eyes, the sighs, the complaints of "more work?" and the pouting lips. When I'm strict, they hate it, right? But it seems the the opposite is true.
I've found that despite the physical and verbal protests a strict, tough, firm and fair teacher is what most students desire. In the mornings I allow students who arrive early (before breakfast is served) to hang out in my room. I sit at my desk getting ready for the day, sometimes talking to the students, sometimes just listening to their conversations. I overheard the following:
Sapphire: "Ms. K. she's strict, she don't let nobody fool around in her class." Lily: "Right! But Ms. W, uh uh, she don't have no control, people just walk out of her class and don't pay attention, they don't learn anything!" Sapphire: "Yeah, I couldn't wait to get out of Ms. W's class. Ms. K, she's strict, but you learn, you know? You know no one is going to yell at you or tell you to shut up or make fun of you cause she won't allow it. She'll kick you out." Lily: "Ms. W better learn to be tough or her kids won't know anything."What was even more amazing was that as the conversation continued they were able to tell the difference between a punitively strict teacher and a teacher who was strict because she cared about their learning. While they disliked the teachers who disciplined randomly or with an authoritarian hand, they respected and liked the teachers who disciplined with an assertive hand because they wanted all their students to learn. This was seen as caring just as much as the note cards were. Caring must be an integral part of the middle school teacher's repertoire in order for middle school students to succeed. Caring can take many forms, but when students begin to believe teachers care about them, they begin to care about school.
