Middle School Student Male First Generation American Q: What do you have in common with your teachers? A: When we first immigrated to the United States, I was only three-years-old and I had just learned how to speak my primary language--Turkish. At the playground, while the other kids played Bakugan, Pokémon, and Beyblade, I just sat in the corner and watched. When the time came to go to pre-K, I did not know what to do. This was because I had just mastered Turkish, which made it harder to learn a second language without mixing the words up. In addition, it looked like every kid around me was a master at English. Apparently, my teacher was just as I was. She had also just moved to the United States a couple years before. My pre-K teacher knew what I was going through, so she gave me extra support. She taught me almost everything I needed to know. Eventually, by the time I went to Kindergarten, I was the first kid there who learned how to read. On one of my first experiences with the American school system, I learned that having things in common with your teachers is very important. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Of course! It does not matter how many similarities you may have with your teachers. Any similarities can help start a bond between the two. As a student, I think it is very important to have similarities between each other. By having similarities with your teachers, this creates a friendship that is very important to have. Additionally, I think it is much easier to learn from a person who has similarities with you, know or trust versus a person who you have never seen in your life.
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Middle School Student Indian + Chinese Female Q: What do you have in common with your teachers? A: I hate the weekends. I have five extracurricular activities, which is not a lot compared to some people. Three of the activities are on Saturday, and two activities are on Sunday. My older sister has seven extracurricular activities and six of them on the weekend so it is even busier to take us both to some different classes. I like my extracurricular activities, but it is extremely chaotic. In fifth grade we did a vote to see what our favorite weekday is. I was the only one who picked Monday. My teacher never understood why I picked Monday because he did not try to find the reason. I was very surprised that he did not try to find out why because he was the person that always asks “why?” to everything. Actually, I did not even have this in common with my classmates either. What I learned from this experience is that people, especially teachers, will not always try to get to know you and you will not always get the opportunity to get to share things about yourself. If you do not get the opportunity to share a little bit about yourself then the teacher will not know the similarities and they will not think that he or she can relate to you. From this experience, I also noticed how important it is to have even the smallest connection to a teacher, it can help you agree on things to make your classroom community better. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Yes, I think it is important to have things in common with your teachers because it helps you and your teacher have a better connection in school. By having similarities the teacher can get to know you better and put that into your learning to help you learn in a better fitting way. It can also help with communication. It will help you communicate and talk to your teacher without feeling like talking to a total stranger. A teacher looking at their students will probably think of them as stereotypical kids in their grade if they do not want to put in the effort to notice them as individuals. Without having a connection with your teacher or student, it is going to be hard to understand who they are as a person. At school, they might act a lot different than they actually are to show the perfect impression towards their teachers or other students. It is also important to have things in common with your teacher because that way they can have empathy instead of sympathy. Instead of just feeling bad for your teacher or student you can relate and imagine what it was like in their shoes. This allows the teacher and student to have a more personal bond so they feel more comfortable talking to each other with more personal things. Middle School Student Chinese Male Q: What do you have in common with your teachers? A: In California, teachers were treated with the utmost respect. Everyone wanted to be a teacher. One day, I was thinking about all the things that were the same and different about California teachers and Washington teachers. I was also thinking about one specific teacher, my favorite teacher, Mrs. Hogan. Mrs. Hogan was my 2nd and 3rd grade teacher. For many years, I had thought Mrs. Hogan and I were really different. But when I really came to think about it, we weren’t that different from each other. When she was small, her last name was also made fun of just like mine. Hogan is a word for an Indian hut. My last name was also made fun of, everyone thought that it was a stupid name and very funny. There are also other things that made us the same too. For example, our families both immigrated to America and we all had relatives that had fought in a war. We both also loved pizza and lasagna because she is Italian. Even her friends were similar to mine. Her friends loved to watch football (even though they support the Packers and I just liked the Patriots). Her friends loved to run and be active rather than play video games and it was the same with my friends. I think that having things alike impacts you no matter what those things are. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Even though I said that being alike impacts you, I don’t think that you need to be alike. Being alike with a teacher can be good in many ways. You can still be very good without being alike with a teacher. Having things in common with a teacher makes you want to come to school to be with your teacher. If you are too alike, than you will start going to school just to see your friends and the teacher and you won't actually try to study or anything. Still, wanting to come to school is better than not coming to school. My mother didn’t really have that much in common with her teachers. Still, she still has a good job. |
ROLL CALLHumanizing the gaps separating teachers and students. Archives
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