A Place of Joy or A Place of Dread?: Is Your Classroom A Haven For Risk Taking And Growth Or A Place Where Kids Can't Wait To Leave?

Here are some thoughts I had after reading Patty McGee's @pmgmcgee guest author post 

HomeBlog Humane Teaching: Reclaiming the Dignity of Our Profession on Evan Robb's @ERobbPrincipal blog, The Robb Review.

I had a math teacher in 9th grade who would put the tests in order highest to lowest and pass them out while announcing, “That was the last A... Here is the first D...” I remember feeling so anxious waiting for my test. Even when mine ended up falling in the A or B range I felt embarrassed and sad for my friends and classmates as they sat with their eyes staring at the floor waiting for the humiliation of their test to finally be placed in front of them publicly.

It has haunted me ever since that I wasn’t brave enough to speak up about this injustice on behalf of myself and my classmates. I often wonder what my teacher’s motivation was. Was she trying to motive us? Teach us a lesson for not studying hard enough? Didn’t she know there were some kids who no matter how hard they tried would never have the opportunity for their test to fall in the "A/B" range of the stack?  Why didn’t she understand that a private conversation with intention to help, reteach, or teach in a different way would have motivated much more than announcing, “This is the last test,” as she slapped it down on the desk in front of a mortified red-faced student?

This classroom was definitely not a place of joy or a haven where students felt comfortable to take risks. It was a place of dread where kids hated going and couldn’t wait to leave.

No kid wakes up in the morning and decides they want to struggle in school. They don’t come in thinking, “How can I disappoint everyone and make my teacher’s day miserable?” There is always a reason behind the actions (or lack there of). It’s our responsibility to search for that reason, explicitly teach what we want students to do, try strategies and keep trying until it works or we find the right strategy or motivation.

Our students hang on our every word and watch our every move. We have the perfect opportunity with such a captive audience to model compassion, kindness, respect, taking initiative, working hard, and always giving it our best. We should never squander this opportunity - sarcasm, insults, and shaming have no place in our classrooms.

There truly is no better profession. Each day we are afforded the privilege to help guide and mold the type of people who live in and will eventually lead our communities.  Being an educator is pretty darn awesome. 💙💛