Years in education: 16-20 Australian/Canadian Caucasian Heterosexual Female Elementary School Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: I was born and raised in Australia. As a child, my family moved quite a few times and I ended up going to eight different schools between Kindergarten and Year 12. As a painfully shy child, this was challenging but gave me a great many gifts too. As an adult I continued to travel a lot and have lived and taught on three different continents. I married a wonderful Canadian man and have since settled in Canada. Even though I come from an English speaking country, I sometimes feel like an outsider. After ten years, not a week goes by where I don’t think, Do they completely understand me? Or, Wait, is that an Australian or English expression, is it global or Canadian.. I can only imagine how much more intense those questions and feelings would be, if my first language was completely different. When I meet another Aussie, I often feel like I just ‘get’ them and they often ‘get’ me. There are fewer misunderstandings and moments where I feel I have to further explain myself. They often have a sense of where I come from and what a special place in my heart my homeland has for me. I feel like I can’t really talk too much about Australia to other because it's not a shared experience, it’s in the past and it's almost too painful at times. I don’t want to be sad I want to try and live in the moment and make the most of where I am, but Australia has a chunk of my heart! I have just finished teaching for almost ten years in schools where there is a high migrant population. I feel deeply for these families and can relate, at some level, to being different and the struggle to get settled in a country. It is so difficult to establish yourself, set down roots, find your people and communicate well. I think having this shared experience does connect us at a deeper level and gives me a greater sense of empathy, understanding and connection with my students. I feel I must clarify that even though I miss my home and feel different at times, I don’t regret traveling at all! I actually think it has greatly enriched my life and my perspective. I find the world such an amazing and inspiring place. And the more that I experience the more that I realize we really aren’t that different from each other. We really are all just human beings, learning together. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: I think it is important that students and teachers have things in common. It helps to build relationships when you find common interests. And, when you really get to know your students, there is always common ground. My most common connectors are sports, books and shared experiences like being a migrant. Canada is a ‘mosiac’ of cultures and has a very diverse population. Fortunately, I've connected with a variety of different people in my community who have supported who I am and understood where I was coming from. They acknowledged and valued me and my experiences. All schools that I’ve worked at in Canada have actively worked to include all in their community and celebrate the diversity of cultures and experiences. I hope I’ve provided some support to my students in this way too. Even simple things, like when I see a student experience snow for the first time, I get it and I remember the awe I felt in my first snow moment! My TED-Ed Innovation project ‘Sprout’ has really has built on my experiences of living and working around the globe. Sprout is an online space where students pitch any and all of their possible TED-Ed talk ideas and give each other feedback. My goal is to connect students around the world and have them communicate and build stronger ideas, in collaboration with each other. There’s a lot we can learn from each other and I hope I can facilitate this happening, a little more often. When we celebrate differences and encourage connections and dialogue, I think it has the potential to make our world a more accepting and peaceful place. Megan is a 2017 TED-Ed Innovative Educator and is the Founder of Sprout. To learn more about how Sprout is growing ideas and connecting students around the world, follow Megan on Twitter @lowesclass and visit sproutideas.net.
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Years in Education: 4-6 Caucasian Heterosexual Female Senior High School English Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: My parents divorced when I was 12 and my sister and I were pretty much raised by our Mum. She did a smashing job and while I can honestly say that it never felt like we missed out on anything, I know it wasn't easy for her. We didn't see our dad a lot and he didn't contribute much either financially or emotionally after the divorce. In Australia, nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce, which means many of my students have been through, are going through, or will go through a similar experience. When I was 17, mum began seeing a new man who she later married. I struggled to share mum with him, so it’s fair to say that we didn’t hit it off right away. In fact, I was pretty awful to him for quite a while. But he was (and remains) a kind and patient man. He is indigenous and taught me a lot about prejudice. One summer, during a family beach holiday, I saw first-hand the ugliness of the kind of racism he experiences on a daily basis. We were at the local pub and he was targeted by a couple of young surfers who called him horrible names, which he later told me were derogatory terms used to refer to mixed-race indigenous people. What stood out to me most during the exchange was the strength and dignity he maintained. He stayed calm. He stood tall. He did not yell. He did not fight. I was in awe. In that moment, my eyes were opened. I started to pay more attention to what was going on around me. I began to realise how frequent and insidious these kinds of moments were. I talked to my stepdad about them often and he guided me and helped me to understand the complexities involved. I subsequently spent a lot of time at university learning about Australia’s history of institutionalised and generational racism. I learned about white privilege and started to pay attention to instance of it in my day to day life. Now, as an English teacher, my students and I explore texts that examine themes linked to marginalisation and the “other”. I also refuse to accept even a hint of prejudice in the classroom. Students learn pretty quickly with me that there is no such thing as an innocuous joke. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: I don't think it's necessary for students and teachers to have things in commom. I think it's more important that differences are understood and respected. For me, it's critically important to have a bond and a genuine relationship with all the students I teach. If I relied on commonality to develop those, I feel I (and the students) would be worse off. This is particularly relevant in light of my TED Ed Innovation project this year. The project is based around using various media forms to document the story of our school when it opens in February 2017. It relies on the students involved bringing their unique knowledge, experiences and ideas to the table. The diversity they bring will be reflected in the stories we tell, which is key to capturing and maintaining interest. Christie is a 2017 TED-Ed Innovative Educator. She is leading students in creating a multimedia living documentary of the opening of a new school in Australia. Find out more about Christie's work here and follow her on Twitter @CASimpson. Years in education: 11-15 Caucasian Heterosexual Female Language Arts, History, Drama Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: My students are diverse, however poverty and broken families are the norm in our community. When I was the age that my students are now, I experienced abuse, neglect, a broken family and extreme poverty. This helps me understand their motivations and behaviors. Additionally, for a time as an adult, I was a homeless, unemployed, single parent on assistance. Generational poverty is something my students and I have in common. My path to becoming an academic was unusual and later in life. I know what it is like to be an unmotivated student without future plan. I know that it is never too late to change your path. On a lighter note, I am a big fan of science fiction, fantasy and superheroes, just like many of my students. Also, I promote the arts in our district and community - theatre, visual arts and music. This is a great way to find common ground with students of diverse backgrounds. Finally, I am a horse person, and ours is a rural community. Lots of kids, of all economic backgrounds have large animals to tend. We have pastures, barns, mud and manure in common! Culturally speaking, through marriage I have ties to a family of Mexican heritage. In our small community, it is easy for my Hispanic students to know my husband's father is Mexican, which often makes me an immediate ally. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: It matters- so, so much. Relationships are at the heart of all learning. When students trust and respect you, when they know that you trust and respect them, they are far more likely to buy into the lessons you teach. When you know them, really know them, you can integrate their culture and their interests into the content, personalizing their experience. For me, understanding the lasting effects of poverty and upheaval in a young person's life helps me accept students with all of their rough edges. I can recognize when a big attitude is worn like armor to protect a vulnerable soul from more hurt. I know to give students the time, space and respect they need to keep their pride as they gain the skills to organize the chaos of their lives. They get as much or as little support from me as they want. They know I am tough and expect their best, but they also know that they can rely on me to support and comfort them as needed. Most importantly, they trust that I won't give up on them, no matter what. Lynne is a 2017 Washington State Teacher leader and was a 2012 Regional Teacher of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @LynneOlmos. |
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