 Middle School Student
Chinese Female Q: What do you have in common with your teachers? A: I had a few connections with my first grade teacher. When I was six, in first grade, I had just moved from China. My parents already knew a lot about English. On my first day of school, my head was still full of Mandarin dialects. I knew little English during that period of my life. I had to take a class with others my age and that class would help me learn English more fluently. I would always ask my first grade teacher what others had asked her. For example, a student near me asked her how to spell a word. Then I would ask the teacher how to spell a word as well, but a word I already knew how to spell so I could make sure that the answer was what I thought it was. My teacher knew that I was learning a lot and starting to understand English more. It did not impact me a lot with my teachers being from a different area than me. I loved their personalities. In addition, my fifth grade teacher and I had a very strong bond when we would do writing with our class. When we had conferences, each time I would get to know her a bit more personally. I honestly feel like having a race connection with your teacher does not matter at all, personality matters more. If you know each other personally, it helps you have a stronger bond. That is much more important than where you are from and what language you speak. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: It might have been easier for me if some of my teachers were Chinese too. Mostly, I think being from different areas is what makes us unique. I think that one of the most important things in school is to have a bond with a certain teacher you know personally. It feels like you and the teacher have a special link. Just like a friend. The first step to becoming a friend with another person is knowing more about them. If you never knew that person, you will not be friends. It is the same with knowing teachers. That is why a bond with a teacher is important. Another thing is that when you are connected to a teacher, you are more likely to give attention to their lessons, and that way you have a larger learning opportunity. A bond like that is important becuase not all students are very engaged in what teachers have to say. Sometimes when you know more about your teacher than your classmates, you feel special since it is like a secret no one else knows about. That is another reason why having a bond with your teacher is significant. You might be more willing to talk to that teacher if you have a stronger connection with them. Photo (c) 2017 Kristin Leong
0 Comments
 Middle School Student
White Half-Canadian Male Q: What do you have in common with your teachers? A: Teachers have always been socially and emotionally distant from us, the students. Especially in my earlier days in school. Now I can find more things in common with my teachers. One main example of this was when I was in fifth grade. Throughout all my years in elementary school, everybody looked forward to fifth grade. The teachers were nice and relatable to the kids. They wanted to make school fun instead of just get their job done. The first thing is that there were only two fifth grade teachers at my elementary school, making it more personal. Also, not only were those two teachers very close friends, but they also ran a blog about their classes, both as an educational tool and for fun. One of the teachers published vlogs each day. Looking back, the main reason I liked them so much is because we shared common interests. They shared memes in class and whenever there was a new tend one of the teachers would bring it to our class and make a vlog about it, like lip sinking lyrics to popular songs, or having a March Madness basketball game. Because they were so relatable, they were fun. But that was just one year. Every other year in my school career all of my teachers have been female. I feel that these teachers weren’t relatable, not because of their gender, but because of their personalities. They wanted to get stuff done the right way, and that is not a bad thing, but they just didn't make it fun along the way. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Well at first, I would say no. We should not go out of our way to find a teacher that is the same gender or race as the students. Yes, it may be helpful, but unless there is a language gap, it seems inconvenient to choose teachers based on gender or race. You should not discriminate, but you should not chose a teacher only for those aspects. However, a good teacher should be emotionally relatable. Not just a figure of power forcing their students to do boring things, they should be like a close friend. Keeping them on track academically but not being afraid to have fun. Photo (c) 2017 Kristin Leong  Middle School Student
Indian Female Q: What do you have in common with your teachers? A: I moved to America when I was three so I was brought up here, even though I was born in India. Most of my teachers have been American. I only had one Indian teacher and that was in preschool. I did not have a larger understanding of race culture and religion back then so it did not make a great impact in my life. If I had an Indian teacher now or in elementary school, it would have been different because my parents and the teacher could talk it over and have more in common. So there is not much I had in common with my teachers other than being female. For some people, teachers of the same gender can understand them better. However, that was not the case for me. I never really connected with my teachers most of the time. I was an average student who didn't have any problems. I never had too many personal or exiting things to share with my teachers. The only difficult thing was probably was being of a different race and religion. My family has a special way to do things. There are also some things in my religion that we do. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Yes, I does matter because teachers need to connect with students to help with any problem they are facing. When students connect with teachers, teachers can understand the student and figure out a way to help them. That is why teachers are here, they guide students to become great successful people. Sometimes kids are afraid to talk to teachers because they worry they might be judged because they do not have that necessary bond. The student can end up in lots of pain. Photo (c) 2017 Kristin Leong |
ROLL CALLHumanizing the gaps separating teachers and students. Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed