As I was taking down my bulletin board, I came across a small laminated card that I was given at the beginning of the year. It was my reminder to Love my students first, and then teach them after that. Simple. Love first, teach second. Unfortunately that small reminder was buried under the important information, schedules, etc. that I had pinned to my bulletin board.
This is a wonderful concept, and one that I was casually reminded of when I stopped this afternoon to check the mail at the post office, and entered into the vehicle to screams of “Hey! Ms. Thurston! Hey!” My son looked over at me and said, “Your students?” I looked around and saw the student in question, “No. I don’t teach him, but I know him.”
My son pondered this for a moment before asking, “Then how do you know him if you don’t teach him?”
I smiled and said, “You wouldn’t understand.”
Only a teacher would understand, I suppose. Many of my students that I teach in 7th grade, I don’t teach when they are in the 6th grade. Instead, I see them in the morning during my duty time of watching over students prior to dismissing them to the middle school hall. I see them in the hallways and at lunch. Do they know me? Do I know them? I begin to build many of these relationships prior to ever teaching them. I have even had an opportunity to have exchanges with my students when they are in elementary because our school is K-8.
I have learned over the years that students will forget what you taught them, but they will never forget how you made them feel. At 53 years of age, I still recall my 5th grade teacher who was harsh and how she made me feel like a failure at everything I tried to do. Or my 2nd grade teacher who forced me to use my name, Martha, and not my nickname, Marcie. She did that because her name was Martha, also. She taught me to embrace my name.
To this day, students that I taught, who are now adults, seek me out and tell me how they felt accepted, encouraged, and loved in my classroom. If they feel this way, then surely I did something right in my years of teaching. We have to show students that we care. We have to build those relationships with them. Sometimes, students make it difficult, but we have to push through. We have to pull them aside and ask, “Hey, this isn’t like you. What’s going on?” Open up the communication.
