Knowing Students

This quarter has taught me that truly getting to know your students is at the heart of excellent teaching as well. As educators, it is essential for us to strive to see each individual student for exactly who they are. We must strive to learn as much about each child as we can, exploring and discovering everything we can about his/her culture, beliefs, individuality and family life. We should be asking questions concerning their background and history such as: Who is this child? Where is he/she coming from? What is their family life like? What are their beliefs? Values? How do they learn best? What are their passions and interests? Our efforts in understanding each student in our classroom will greatly pay off as we strive to meet each individual student exactly where they are. In turn, we will take into consideration the fact that students come into our classrooms from a variety of different backgrounds and have varying foundations of knowledge, and we will be able to recognize personal growth when we see it, hone in on students’ particular learning styles, individualize our teaching, and help each student in the most appropriate way possible. As we start to build our bridge together, we won’t know where to lay that first plank for them unless we have a true understanding and knowledge of our students.

Another important aspect of getting to know your students lies in our goal as a teacher to find “something of value” in each student and the ability to look at each student and see and appreciate their strengths. Whether it’s a particular interest they hold, a special personality trait they posses, or a gift they have, being able to find a positive characteristic in a student to build a positive classroom life around holds great potential for growth. Undoubtedly, we will have a number of students who seem unreachable, or who are overcome with feelings of failure or low self-esteem, and to be able to look into the life of a child and realize their potential, their strengths and abilities, and over the course of a year together, help replace those with feelings of joy, self-worth and confidence, is such an amazing opportunity and one that can not be undermined.