Laughing with Students and Other Reflections
Ah, for those moments in teaching when my students and I share a good laugh. This is happening more frequently my second year around, and with good result I think.
Before I explain, I should preface this by saying that my approach with the students has been much more relaxed and friendly this year, and it has paid dividends. My student teaching took place under a rather strict, no nonsense, disciplinarian type of teacher, who emphasized the importance of starting things out hard and then loosening up later. I agree in principle with this approach. You can't be easy on students for half a year or so, suddenly or even gradually get strict, and expect them to tolerate the change. But I think I may have taken things to an extreme last year. (Then again, maybe it was the best way to operate as a first year teacher dealing with classes of twenty-five some students just waiting to take advantage of any detectable weakness.) I was passionate about my subject, I communicated my dedication to the students and interest in seeing them succeed, but for some reason rarely felt comfortable about getting out of my comfort zone. I wasn't crazy enough. To put it another way, I didn't allow my actor instinct to kick in. Or maybe you could say I didn't allow my true personality to show? I'm not sure.
Whether or not I made a mistake in my approach last year, I have changed it this year. I make an effort to repress my introvertedness and engage my students in conversation about topics besides school. I try to smile a lot, tease students, chastise them lovingly for not doing their homework, get on their case, attend their sporting events AND talk to them about them, jokingly warn a girl her boyfriend is a real loser, (I have him in another class, so can speak with authority on the topic), etc.. Consequently, not only do my students know (I think) that I genuinely like them, but some of them show signs of liking me.
Speaking of joking, a student approached me today with an Egyptian bank note worth 50 something and wanted to know how much it was worth. I casually told him each unit was worth 100 U.S. dollars, which meant the note was worth 5000 dollars. I think he actually believed me for a minute. Another student seemed quite amazed. And yesterday I nonchalantly told a roomful of mostly freshman that the fire alarm going off in another school building most likely meant there was a fire going on there. I have such fun teasing young people!
But moving on to laughter. Two examples worth mentioning. During an introduction type activity last week, I learned that one of my female students was a cheerleader. Including my other classes, this was about the fifth or sixth cheerleader I had learned of, so I was like "Wow, this place is crawling with cheerleaders. They're all over the place! How many here are cheerleaders?" The one girl was the only one who raised her hand in the whole room. My students and I both thought this was funny, and had a good laugh. Ok, so they are crawling all over the place in my other classes, if not this one!
The second example came this week. We were learning about Marbury v. Madison and the principle of judicial review. As we were going over it, I got the inspiration on the spot (I love it when I'm struck with what I think is a good idea and can go with it right then) to use a blank piece of paper to illustrate a law, ask what happens to it when the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional, then suddenly crumple it up and toss it in the trash for dramatic effect. In one class I tossed the crumpled paper over my shoulder, behind my back, in the direction of the recycling bin, but missed it. During the last class of the day, I made a perfect shot, and it went right in. Of course I acted like this was meant to happen all along, and there was nothing to it. In reality I was quite taken aback/pleased with myself, so much so that I lost my train of thought and paused for what must have seemed like an uncomfortably long time for my students. I then exclaimed, somewhat in disbelief, "That was pretty cool." For some reason this struck all of my students as hilarious, and we all had a good laugh.
It is moments like these that add so much to my teaching experience, and make it so much more enjoyable. I guess I'm in the right job!
Before I explain, I should preface this by saying that my approach with the students has been much more relaxed and friendly this year, and it has paid dividends. My student teaching took place under a rather strict, no nonsense, disciplinarian type of teacher, who emphasized the importance of starting things out hard and then loosening up later. I agree in principle with this approach. You can't be easy on students for half a year or so, suddenly or even gradually get strict, and expect them to tolerate the change. But I think I may have taken things to an extreme last year. (Then again, maybe it was the best way to operate as a first year teacher dealing with classes of twenty-five some students just waiting to take advantage of any detectable weakness.) I was passionate about my subject, I communicated my dedication to the students and interest in seeing them succeed, but for some reason rarely felt comfortable about getting out of my comfort zone. I wasn't crazy enough. To put it another way, I didn't allow my actor instinct to kick in. Or maybe you could say I didn't allow my true personality to show? I'm not sure.
Whether or not I made a mistake in my approach last year, I have changed it this year. I make an effort to repress my introvertedness and engage my students in conversation about topics besides school. I try to smile a lot, tease students, chastise them lovingly for not doing their homework, get on their case, attend their sporting events AND talk to them about them, jokingly warn a girl her boyfriend is a real loser, (I have him in another class, so can speak with authority on the topic), etc.. Consequently, not only do my students know (I think) that I genuinely like them, but some of them show signs of liking me.
Speaking of joking, a student approached me today with an Egyptian bank note worth 50 something and wanted to know how much it was worth. I casually told him each unit was worth 100 U.S. dollars, which meant the note was worth 5000 dollars. I think he actually believed me for a minute. Another student seemed quite amazed. And yesterday I nonchalantly told a roomful of mostly freshman that the fire alarm going off in another school building most likely meant there was a fire going on there. I have such fun teasing young people!
But moving on to laughter. Two examples worth mentioning. During an introduction type activity last week, I learned that one of my female students was a cheerleader. Including my other classes, this was about the fifth or sixth cheerleader I had learned of, so I was like "Wow, this place is crawling with cheerleaders. They're all over the place! How many here are cheerleaders?" The one girl was the only one who raised her hand in the whole room. My students and I both thought this was funny, and had a good laugh. Ok, so they are crawling all over the place in my other classes, if not this one!
The second example came this week. We were learning about Marbury v. Madison and the principle of judicial review. As we were going over it, I got the inspiration on the spot (I love it when I'm struck with what I think is a good idea and can go with it right then) to use a blank piece of paper to illustrate a law, ask what happens to it when the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional, then suddenly crumple it up and toss it in the trash for dramatic effect. In one class I tossed the crumpled paper over my shoulder, behind my back, in the direction of the recycling bin, but missed it. During the last class of the day, I made a perfect shot, and it went right in. Of course I acted like this was meant to happen all along, and there was nothing to it. In reality I was quite taken aback/pleased with myself, so much so that I lost my train of thought and paused for what must have seemed like an uncomfortably long time for my students. I then exclaimed, somewhat in disbelief, "That was pretty cool." For some reason this struck all of my students as hilarious, and we all had a good laugh.
It is moments like these that add so much to my teaching experience, and make it so much more enjoyable. I guess I'm in the right job!
posted by redsoxwinthisyear at 12:24 AM
6 Comments:
Hey it looks like your theory about writing nice things about yourself on the student's desks to get them to think positive is really paying off
I agree :) pretty soon you'll be nominated teacher of the year, write a book, go on tour and inspire bajillions more :)
i'm glad you are connecting so well with your students. It must make everything so much better...
Hurrah for laughing with students! It is indeed incredibly gratifying - especially since they know none of my standby jokes and stories. Ahhhh, a fresh audience:)
That is great. Instead of writing a book, let them make a movie about you, that way you can collect even more royalties without having to write anything.
Also, Andrea, don't forget that because your audience keeps changing you can keep using the same jokes and stories again and again!
Movies, books, it all sounds good. Guess I'll be rich and famous after all. And yes, shay dawg, it would seem that the positive karma generated by my trickery has seen some good results!
Yeah, you could be the sequel to "The Marva Collins Story." That flick was practically an Oscar-winning thriller!
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