According to the Film Chalk
"Fifty percent of all teachers quite within the first three years." A
rowdy and unruly student body could be to blame for a large chunk of that fifty
percent. Teachers can encounter such hardships as students who are always confrontational,
arguing, disobeying, and disrupting you every step of the way. You may also
encounter the other end of the spectrum with students that don't care about
you, the school, their education, or anything anyone has to say about how they
should care about all these things. Then all
those kids in the middle who do some of the infuriating things that are
found on both sides of the fence and further encourage the ones who take things
too far. As a teacher you will be emotional poked and prodded by unruly kids
every day you get up, don your clothes, and head into work. When you think
about-facing such a trying obstacles everyday of your work life it becomes very
clear why so many teachers can't hack it and quit. There is a solution to
handling just such a class that doesn't involve abandoning the career you
invested at least four years of your life into learning how to do. Furthermore
this solution could very well set these current problem students back onto a
path that leads to graduation and college. A teacher who reforms his or her
class as opposed to abandoning it when it gets to be too hard would, to me,
fall into the category of a great teacher. It would seem reasonable to assume
that most if not all of the bright eyed youth plugging away at their education
degrees right now have dreams of being just such a teacher. As I said a problem
class isn’t just a trying obstacle it’s an opportunity to prove your greatness.
Thus I have taken on teaching a tenth grade creative writing class in a known
to be problematic Chicago school that I will leave nameless. I am excited for
this opportunity, rather than daunted by it because, assuming the
administration stays out of my way, I have the solution. The best way to take
on and reform a problem class is by simply taking on the role of a
problem-posing educator.
With problem posing educating as
Paolo Freire describes it in his book Prodagogy of the Oppressed “The teacher
is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in
dialogue with the students, who in turn teach while being taught”(3). Being
prepared to learn while you teach sets you up with a proven winning strategy. I
will Talk to the kids on their level not as an all-knowing superior. If you
communicate with them like their equals they will respond to you as their equal
and come to trust you more quickly. When you have a student’s trust you just
opened a door into how they really think and feel a door into active dialog
between you and the student. You will now be able to discern how the students
will best learn the material your trying to teach them and how best to present
it. As Freire states in the same book “the problem-posing educator constantly
re-forms his reflections in the reflections of his students. The students- no
longer docile listeners- are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the
teacher”(3). This is a method very unfamiliar to most students and humans
natural curiosity in the strange will make them want to participate and listen
rather than disrupt. This will also get the “I don’t give a shit about
anything” students actively engaged in what they are learning and the way they
learn it. This makes the material more relatable for them, more something they
do care about.
I will incorporate different
materials into my teaching to make the learning experience more hands on and
less forgettable. For example for my creative writing course I will bring a
peach into class the first day and make a display out of cutting the peach up
and distributing slices to the class. Then I will ask what did you just eat?
“It’s a peach.” But what was the peach? Was it dry or was it succulent and
juicy? Was it soft and fuzzy or hard crispy? I didn’t try the peach tell me
exactly what I missed. I will slowly urge the class into a discussion on descriptors
and how best to get your five senses across in your writing. How to make the
reader feel the sticky juices from the peach and hear the quite sucking sound
it makes as you sink your teeth into the soft flesh easily tearing off a large
sweet chunk that kicks with just the most subtle hint of tart. I know this
method of introducing a familiar topic in an unfamiliar way will work to gain
the attention of even the most hostile of students based on a very similar and
very successful method Mr. Escalante used with an apple in the film Stand and
Deliver. In the film he used the demonstration of cutting the apple to explain
fractions to the class in a new and interesting way. During the apple
presentation students started to visually grasp the idea of just what a
fraction is. Half an apple is what one half of anything would be. Quickly the
students picked up on the fractions and were engaged in their learning. The
speed in which they were able to pick it up proves that this new angle to teach
fractions had an effect on reaching the class just as the peach will in my
creative writing coarse.
I will take a few more notes from
Mr. Escalante by adopting similar behavior traits in the classroom. For example
when one of his “tough” students was slacking and scoffing at him he retorted
with “Tough guys don't do math. Tough guys fry chicken for a living.” He showed
that giving the student a little gruff back, telling them how it is, and
showing you won’t back down to class bullies can make a serious difference in the
way the students see you. They will stop seeing you as a threat and an
authority and see you more as a mentor and leader. Not someone to be conquered
but someone who is on their level. When they no longer view you as a threat
they will stop challenging what you say and start listening to it. Once the
real problem students are listening the rest of the class will listen to and
once they are listening they are learning. The success Mr. Escalate achieved
was outstanding; this was possible because through his choice in behaviors,
behaviors I will adopt for my own teaching, he was able to establish a
connection with his students as a mentor, as someone actually there to help. He
proved the best way to treat a class is to talk on their level, to give respect
only if it is given and to never give up on them even when the other teachers
and often parents have.
At the end of the year after I have
filled their young minds with the wonders of creative writing I will have each
student select their three personal favorite stories that they have written
throughout and I will help each student submit their work for magazine or
newspaper printing. Those who do get published will be overcome with a sense of
pride. Seeing how all the work they put into it mattered, how they went from
not caring a lick for the English word to being able to write the word in such
a way people they have never even met before care to read it. Boosting pride,
self-confidence, and proving the value of their ability to learn will be
carried with them out of this experience and into the other classes and then
college. Those who do not get published will still be developing a very
important trait know by Jerry Large as grit. In his Seattle times article he
states. “A big part of building character is overcoming failure. Too much
adversity is bad, but so is too little, which doesn’t allow a child to build
grit. Grit is one of the characteristics of successful people.” So published or
unpublished, by the end of the year my class will have earned and developed
several skills and character traits that will survive with in them the rest of
their lives and set them up for future academic and job successes.
