Responsibility as a Teacher: Caring for Our Students

The position of teachers in the lives of students is a powerful one with many duties, one of them is to care about those you impact. Teachers are the role models in the classroom and are not only responsible for the academics of their students, but the environment they raise them in while they are at school. Many times, teachers neglect the needs of individuals in their classes; this can stem from a lack of knowledge about who educators are teaching.

To truly care, a teacher must take the initiative in their time and discover the identities scattered in their classroom.

As students learn to act like their loved ones, it is imperative not to diminish the values and actions they follow. Damaging what students associate with can destroy the motivation to further their academic progress. Instead, teachers need to analyze how the home-life of their students to see what can best inspire learning. This stems back to the funds of knowledge of the teacher and the student.

These pieces of life should be connected so a teacher may “know the child as a “whole” person, not merely as a “student”” (Moll, 1992, p. 133).

Teachers who realize those they care for in the classroom are more than what they observe there; household dynamics build the character of people. If a teacher wanted to have students fully engaged, they would truly care about the class and learn what is relatable to them. Then the teacher would alter, adapt, and promote activities that are relatable to the student body.

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This was seen in a study conducted in Arizona following families. “All of the households we visited possess similar values and funds of knowledge that can be tapped for use in the classrooms.” (Moll, 1992, 137) The common theme uncovered was candy; candy was utilized in the classroom to engage scientific activities about the content of candy around Mexico versus the United States. It eventually progressed into economics and marketing to uncover the business side of the topic. This a pure example of the endless possibilities teachers can use.

Allowing these individuals to feel confident about their learning helps bud new interests and ideas among them. As Jones explains in her study when she did not incorporate discourse relative to the students, “we were no longer involved in joint activity, but activity driven by me.” (Jones, 2006, 118) The delicate spin on activity in the class unites everyone and cares about the lives of everybody present. To care as a teacher means including your students and showing you value the knowledge they share, but still integrate opportunities to grow.

My understanding of teaching and learning has extended into the realm of relationships and community. The role of a teacher has become even more important in my eyes. They are the figure who bridges the gaps between students and standards with the information they learn about their lifestyles and backgrounds. It is detrimental to impose assumptions onto the students without any research conducted. Bringing the identities of the children to the forefront is necessary to promote learning and commence teaching.

I learned the teacher must prepare themselves to dive into cultures that reach far beyond their own. “We can’t teach what we don’t know.” (Gay, 2002, 106) Actions speak louder than words and it is obvious educators need to discover the details of students’ lives. Many of the cultural values shared in their lives is dismissed. Visibility is influential in encouraging participation. It is unfortunate however when media poorly portrays the image of these individuals and produces harmful reactions. This makes deciphering accurate information on students even more critical. The greater our comprehension of a family’s funds of knowledge the easier it is to “transform this information into a useful instructional activity.” (Moll, 1992, 137)

The component that is the integral piece to evolving the classroom climate is certainly communication. Every person has their own nuances when they speak. The vernacular of people can be misconstrued to be aggressive or disrespectful, when in reality they are communicating the only way they know how. Protecting the students from assaults on their language will develop a safe zone, worthy of promoting a safe zone. Jones states, “attacks on one’s primary discourse are essentially attacks on one’s self and the selves with whom [they] learned to speak.” (Jones, 2006, 116) It devalues their identities and shuts students down. Strong community can produce security. The goal is to not limit the vocabulary of people, but to expand on it and learn new techniques. Ultimately, I realized a teacher is not always teaching, but also becomes a learner through relationships with students and their families. Through union, I found the lesson a teacher gains the ability to intrigue minds and push new content to learn with familiarity and trust.

After my personal experience at Dos Rios with Zirkel, I can imagine bonding with students through writer’s workshop sessions or during after school activities. During those times I would expect to see what my student’s thought process is, where they draw ideas from, what inspires them, and why are they doing what they are doing. This is all important because as an educator, I want to be able to gauge the capabilities of my student and identify their starting line of learning with me. However, I want to know personal information as well that may be more intimate to understand the environment and culture they originate from.

People are much more than their academic skills; the root of their abilities sprouts the fruits of learning. Personal information can lead us to manipulating lessons and materials to best fit students. Examples of this could be a group discussion with students who come from households where active participation to freely speak without permission to generate writing ideas. (Gay, 2002) Another possibility would be asking students to paint or draw their thoughts to give a more artistic community the opportunity to have freedom to best express feelings and emotions. Group activities like those discussed take advantage of the desired information to cater to the needs of each student you work with. This is important and relevant as I become a teacher, I will be required to read my students and be the best leader and example for them to let them improve and meet the standards of education.

4. When analyzing the direction and content of this course I can see the Colorado Teacher Quality Standards in the background. Specifically, I believe standards two, three, and six were addressed. The class aimed to narrow focus on the culture of students and challenges they face in and out of school.

As Standard two, Element D states, “Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of all students, including those with special needs across a range of ability levels.” (CDE, 2018) In class, discussion constantly reminded us the importance of recognizing who your students are and reminding them they are all valuable. I saw this when we discussed how to adapt lessons repeatedly.

The class discussed how a change in materials can allow for students with motor skill disabilities to make holding a writing utensil much more feasible. Another example is found within Element F, “Teachers provide proactive, clear and constructive feedback to families about student progress and work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students.” (CDE, 2018) This includes catering to cultural differences in the community, like allowing for students from a Native American tribe to speak in choral response to questions as a class. It was also discussed in-class how to conduct conferencing with parents when they are invited to the school. When talking to parents, it was reiterated that even though a parent might seem they are upset at you it is just their primary discourse differing from yours. It is the teacher’s job to properly explain the progress of their student in a positive light. We were taught not to be discouraged by new vernacular and demonstrations, but to roll with the punches.

Standard three, Element B states, “Teachers plan and consistently deliver instruction that draws on results of student assessments, is aligned to academic standards and advances students’ level of content knowledge and skills.” (CDE, 2018) The course placed responsibility on students to develop their own lesson plans and ideas for building classroom instruction for diverse groups of students.

I personally developed a lesson to work with a focus towards gender and promoted a lesson that gender roles do not have to limit what any gender wants to achieve. Additionally, I observed how after class discussions, my peers and I developed an understanding of preserving the discourse our students use. A strong memory of this was seen when our instructor talked about a somewhat more vulgar greeting than expected was given to her when entering a classroom. She described how she addressed the situation without destroying or damaging the value of his identity by reinforcing the concept of hybrid vernacular; the goal is to keep an interest in learning by not destroying confidence. The concept is found even directly to class readings like Gay and Jones who were channeled in lecture.

Standard six states, “Teachers demonstrate high levels of student academic growth in the skills necessary for postsecondary and workforce readiness, including democratic and civic participation. Teachers demonstrate their ability to utilize multiple data sources and evidence to evaluate their practice, and make adjustments where needed to continually improve attainment of student academic growth.” (CDE, 2018) In class, the concern of a negative review about our teaching being insufficient was teased.

The class was asked what our course of action would be. Majority of the student body promoted the use of a portfolio kept on each student to have visual mapping of their progress. It was reinforced by the instructor how many students will have different starting levels, but it is our job to raise the level of their capabilities as much as we can. This standard was also present when we began learning about funds of knowledge. It is a responsibility of the teacher to research the background of your students. By focusing on the culture and origins of your students, you find what methods are more compatible for the classroom community, ingraining looking into your students’ lives will allow the best possibility for academic growth.

The ability to track how teachers interact with students is crucial to labeling who is fit to teach. Relationships must be born between teacher and student to develop the best track; proper care must be administered to best mold education to each and every single individual. We recognize how priceless household dynamics are to reveal how instruction should be executed. The question is now, how will the future of education be shaped by the responsibility to not only understand cultural diversity, but to embrace it as well?

References

1. Colorado Department of Education. (2018). A common vision of great teaching. Retrieved from www.cde.state.co.us Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-116.
2. Luis C. Moll, Cathy Amanti, Deborah Neff, & Norma Gonzalez. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132-141.
3. Stephanie Jones. (2006). Language with an attitude: White girls performing class. Language Arts, 84(2), 114-124.