I won’t minimize teacher-student relationships, but I also won’t shut up about the importance of instruction, curriculum, assessments, and pedagogical content knowledge.
Stop trying to play soccer with those kids at recess! Stop trying to chit-chat with them at lunch! Go prep more for today’s topic!
You’ve got all year to build that relationship, but you’ve got one day for this lesson.
Amen. "Students don't learn from someone they don't like" is one of the worst things teaching schools drill into the heads of young rookie teachers these days. Imagine taking an impressionable 21 year old who is extremely nervous about teaching 5-6 classes of 24 teenagers per day and telling her "the most important thing is that they like you." It's some of the worst advice you could give, but I've found that among new teachers, it's what they've internalized more than anything else from teaching school. I assume this is because they learn so little else that they fall back on the simplest, clearest lessons.
Kids want and need clearly defined roles for the adults in their lives, but this mentality just encourages teachers to be more like their friends. It's insane and childish.
"When students feel cared for and supported by their teachers, they are more likely to be engaged in learning, perform better academically, and experience better emotional well-being."
I’ve been writing about the knowledge-building/comprehension strategy instruction controversy in Pathways to Information: Accessing Knowledge by Leveraging Language. In Part 3: The Effort of Elaboration (https://harriettjanetos.substack.com/p/pathways-to-information-accessing-361) I discuss the heavy lifting involved in analyzing complex text. If we are asking our students to fetch and carry curriculum, it really helps if they like us well-enough to want to do our bidding. That's why the progress my first and second grade intervention students make is due, in part, to the industrial-sized prize chest lurking in the corner.
Ahhhh I have so many thoughts about this!!
I won’t minimize teacher-student relationships, but I also won’t shut up about the importance of instruction, curriculum, assessments, and pedagogical content knowledge.
Stop trying to play soccer with those kids at recess! Stop trying to chit-chat with them at lunch! Go prep more for today’s topic!
You’ve got all year to build that relationship, but you’ve got one day for this lesson.
So well said. Thank you!
Success breeds success - kids enjoy learning more than they enjoy failing!
Amen. "Students don't learn from someone they don't like" is one of the worst things teaching schools drill into the heads of young rookie teachers these days. Imagine taking an impressionable 21 year old who is extremely nervous about teaching 5-6 classes of 24 teenagers per day and telling her "the most important thing is that they like you." It's some of the worst advice you could give, but I've found that among new teachers, it's what they've internalized more than anything else from teaching school. I assume this is because they learn so little else that they fall back on the simplest, clearest lessons.
Kids want and need clearly defined roles for the adults in their lives, but this mentality just encourages teachers to be more like their friends. It's insane and childish.
Nicely nuanced!
"When students feel cared for and supported by their teachers, they are more likely to be engaged in learning, perform better academically, and experience better emotional well-being."
I’ve been writing about the knowledge-building/comprehension strategy instruction controversy in Pathways to Information: Accessing Knowledge by Leveraging Language. In Part 3: The Effort of Elaboration (https://harriettjanetos.substack.com/p/pathways-to-information-accessing-361) I discuss the heavy lifting involved in analyzing complex text. If we are asking our students to fetch and carry curriculum, it really helps if they like us well-enough to want to do our bidding. That's why the progress my first and second grade intervention students make is due, in part, to the industrial-sized prize chest lurking in the corner.