"We're Only Students" was as comment I heard from one of my students about a week ago. I was asking my class to do something that was a little challenging and out of frustration and a little in jest this was her comment. I almost went into the traditional 'It's not that hard once you get down to it' speech, but I paused for a second and thought to myself that the comment needed a little more attention. I'm not sure if I paused because I was offended by the comment or I thought my students should be offended or because I thought they needed to think better of themselves. Certainly, had I made a comment along the lines of "You won't get this. You're only students", I can almost guarantee I would have faced a backlash.
My response to the class was essentially the 'don't sell yourself short approach'. You're not ONLY students. You ARE students. You have endless opportunities ahead of you. We talked about how they were the future leaders of governments, corporations, industries, etc. We talked about competition and how in the not too distant future they would be competing for spots at universities and/or jobs and how they can't just settle for good enough. I mentioned that if they wanted to be as successful as they could they needed to work as hard as they could starting now. They needed to seek out challenges rather than trying to avoid them. We also talked about pursuing their passions. My message was if they didn't start now someone else was already getting a leg up.
In any case it turned out to be a ten minute discussion, which was much longer than I had anticipated. One of the comments I overheard was "Wow, a motivational talk in math. Who would have thought". I guess some of them took the message to heart though I'm sure some of them saw this as just a ten minute break.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
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You can bet that for at least some of those kids as they look back on their school days at some point in the distant future, those 10 minutes will be among the most memorable of their time at school.
ReplyDeleteThe Starfish Theory... "It made a difference to that one". (Just Google if you don't know what I'm referring to.
Good work.
Thanks for the reminder about the Starfish Theory.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave. It's taken me a few readings to figure out what I wanted to comment here. We had a presentation today on note taking, and the professor started by advising us to be careful in our first practicum blocks that we recognize but move on from our initial fears. All of our initial fears are self-centred (how will I cover the curriculum, how will I plan lessons, how will I ...) and forget about the students.
ReplyDeleteYour post helped remind me that even when we try to be as student-centred as possible, sometimes it's necessary to remind the students that it really is all about them.
Thank you so much for posting this. Between the presentation and re-reading your post, my way of thinking and level of excitement regarding my first teaching block have changed so much for the better. I just wish that I could've been there for your speech.