In the book "Walking Trees" Ralph talks about learning about students personal lives through his writing workshop. I think that as teacher we could learn a lot from our students and their writings. In one scene in the book Ralph talks about being in the office of the school and a little boy comes in and the secretary asks him what is wrong and he says his mother died over the weekend. There is something about this scene that is so powerful where you find out that this young child just suffered a tragedy and over the weekend and there is no certainty of what is going to happen to him and there is nothing you can do. I think that it is important to understand what is going on with your students so that you can be there for them to help them out in any way you can. It is important to be there for you students or at least let them know that you are there for them. So if they have no one else to turn to they at least have you.
I am not a teacher yet, but I am sure there are so many lessons that I will learn from my students. I know this because I have a five year old nephew that is teaching my things every time I see him. One thing that I learned recently from my nephew is not to underestimate their memories. I promised my nephew back in September that my sister and I were going to throw him a mini Halloween party on Thursday and out of nowhere yesterday he says to us don't forget next Thursday we are having a party. I thought it was so funny because I honestly did not realize that Halloween is next week and forgot that we told we were going to do something. I guess you can get anything by a five year old.
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It is amazing what incredible memories young children have. Thus, it is vital to instill a love of learning in children from birth. Teach children that knowledge truly is power. Answer their questions (even if they ask the same ones over and over again) and teach them everything you know. Children are eager to learn, and eager to take an active role in their learning. It is our job as educators to make sure that we provide our students with every opportunity to harness their love of learning and a wealth of positive memories about education.
The part of the Walking trees book where the boy comes into the office and explains to the secretary his mother died over the weekend was really sad. I can't imagine that happening especially at such a young age. Teachers have to do their best to try and be there for their students but we can only do so much. As much as I would really want to take this little boy home with me and try to help him, I know that you have to set some boundaries with you students as well. It is important to be there for students but it is also important to not get too involved where you are letting it affect your own life. It is a lot easier said than done obviously, but you have to realize that your a teacher and you goal is to educated your students as best you can by giving them the knowledge they need to move along in their education. As hard as it may be to not get involved in their family/personal lives, you should really try to avoid that . With that said, I hope that I can do this myself as a teacher because it is not an easy task.
I agree with you, we need to be there for the students. You never know who is going to be there for them, but at least you know that you can be there for them. I agree that part of the book was really sad. I remember Sept. 11th I was in school that day and so many students were affected by that tragedy. I thought it was really great of certain teachers and counselors to be there for the students. It meant a lot to them and I am sure it also helped them in many ways.
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