Years in Education: 11-15 African-American Male Heterosexual First in Family to Graduate From College 5th Grade Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: It’s rare to see a male teacher in an elementary classroom, and African-American men are even rarer. In my school of more than 60 employees, only five are male. I believe this has an impact on our male students – especially those without positive male role models in their homes. But it also provides men like me with a unique opportunity to reach out to these students and inspire them to do great things both in the classroom and in the community. We have the power and responsibility to prevent an achievement gap before it begins. While some kids dream of becoming a teacher as they grow up, I didn’t figure out my calling until I was in my 20s. As a student, I was every teacher’s worst nightmare. I was constantly in trouble and failed 4th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades before being forced out of school at the age of 16. It was December of my 2nd year in the 9th grade when the school counselor called me to the office to tell me it was best that I pursue a GED and learn a trade. I plead my case and asked for a second chance, but the decision was made, and my time as a student was over. Within a year, I received my G.E.D., and I spent the next decade bouncing from job to job and living paycheck to paycheck. In 1998, my mom passed away after a long bout with breast cancer, and I struggled with her loss for months. Just when things started to get better, my dad passed away as well. Losing both parents within six months of each other was the toughest stretch in my life. I did a lot of self-reflecting and soul-searching during that period, and in the fall of 1999, I enrolled in Livingstone College to major in music with the mindset that I was going to make a difference. To fulfill my college community service requirements, I began volunteering at a local elementary school. Not much had changed since I was in school – students were given worksheets, the teacher sat at their desk, and students with behavior issues were allowed to sleep in class or were removed from the environment completely. I was disturbed by what I observed, and began volunteering and mentoring in that classroom. The next semester, I changed my major to elementary education. I received a full academic scholarship, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree. in Elementary Education in 2003. As a teacher, my main goal is to give my students a learning experience radically different from my own – which is exactly what I’m doing today. My classroom, better known as Johnsonville, really isn’t a classroom at all. It’s a collaborative community – a real-world simulation of adulthood where kids come to work and play as they learn about personal finance, government, and global affairs. In Johnsonville, there are no lectures. I integrate technology and problem-based learning to capture the attention of even the most disengaged students. Just like in the real world, my students show what they can do through projects, teamwork, and research. Is it working? North Carolina state testing shows that my problem-based learning model improves student scores. My students consistently score higher than other science classes in my district. At the end of the 2016 school year, my fifth-grade students scored an average of 85 percent on the state science exam, while my school as a whole scored 58 percent. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Yes. Anthony is the 2016-2017 Rowan-Salisbury Teacher of the Year and is a TED-Ed Innovative Educator. To follow the adventures in learning happening in his real-world simulation classroom, visit johnsonvillelearningnetwork.com and follow Anthony on Twitter @a_p_johnson.
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Years in Education: 7-10 Caucasian Heterosexual Female Middle and High School English Language Arts Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: I have a lot in common with my students. This is a wealthy school district in a suburb; it is majority white, with a sizable Asian-American community, and other minority and immigrant groups spread around, too. I grew up in a middle-class suburb of San Francisco, but went to high school in a more affluent, Bellevue-like city. Conspicuous consumption was all around me; most students got a car when they could drive. The majority of my peers expected to graduate from high school and continue to a four-year university. My high school was competitive and students took themselves seriously. Because I lived in a different, less-affluent city, however, I was slightly out of place at my high school. I think I identify with a lot of my current students in that I always feared - and still do, to a certain extent - being exposed as an imposter. I think a lot of students - not necessarily because of wealth, but rather because of self-image - feel like imposters some of the time. You make sure to talk a good game and put up the right front so that you belong, but you don't always believe that you do. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: I am supposed to say that it does matter. I know that students need to see themselves reflected in the people who have power over them. I know that students need to feel a connection and that a connection is certainly easier, quicker, and more apparent if there is ready empathy. But I am going to boldly say that having things in common with my students doesn't matter. What does matter is that I am open. A teacher should listen, observe, and have compassion. A teacher should know where she comes from and understand her perspective as she seeks to comprehend her students. Empathy is great. Understanding because I have been there is valuable. Does it matter? Yes. But, implicit in that word is that is is necessary, and to that I say No. What really matters is that I am open to - that I strive for and work toward - a real connection with my students. I want to know them. I grow to love them. That matters. That is necessary. Jen is a middle and high school English Language Arts teacher. Follow her on Twitter @JenASPiper. Years in Education: 11-15 Caucasian Male Heterosexual First in Family to Graduate From College Library Media, Technology, and Language Arts Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: As a student growing up on the North Shore of Boston, MA, I managed to progress through school with a minimum of interest and engagement. Neither sufficiently advanced to be flagged as “gifted”, nor challenged enough to require individualized support, I floated straight through that bucolic center passage of mediocrity, serenely disengaged from what was transpiring around me. When the time came to acknowledge the oncoming reality of high school graduation, I had no ambitions to attend college. I had no understanding of what college was, or how it worked. While my mother had returned to school as an adult to earn her Associate’s Degree, no one in my immediate or extended family had ever graduated with a four-year degree. I simply couldn’t imagine a scenario in which I was a college student because I had no conceptual framework, no schema, for what that even looked like. Faced with this uncertainty, I fell into assuming that I, too, would graduate high school and find employment somewhere, doing something. And this would no doubt have been the case were it not for a series of serendipitous events that directed me, last minute, to attend college. In the years since, I’ve become the first member of my family to graduate college with a four-year degree. I later spent time traveling and teaching in Beijing and India and discovered that I have a heart for education. Returning to school in 2004, I earned my Master’s degree in education and have spent the past decade focused on creating an environment that encourages students to assume greater agency in their own education. I mention this because I honestly believe that my experiences as a middling and disinterested student has provided me with a keen sense of empathy for similar students in my classes and in our community. How can I help to build learning opportunities that encourage engagement and place students in the driver’s seat of their own education? How can I help spark the interest of a student who is struggling to find their place and create a stronger sense of purpose and agency in their school experience? Q: Does it matter that sudents and teachers have things in common? A: I think it's essential for students and teachers to find common ground. Teaching is about relationships, and finding shared interests, experiences, and realities help to forge and develop relationships and strengthen empathy between everyone involved. Teachers need to understand and relate to the experiences of their students. Place themselves in the shoes - and the seats! - of their students in order to build relevant lessons that spark engagement. Conversely, I believe it’s equally important for students to see that the circle of their experiences overlaps with that of their teachers. That there is a commonality, a shared commitment to growth and learning on both sides of the relationship. I read somewhere that ‘Teaching is relational, not transactional’, and that, I believe, sums it up quite nicely! David is a 2017 TED-Ed Innovative Educator. He is currently connecting students across communiites to work together to document our collective history. Follow David on Twitter @designsaunders. Years in Education: 4-6 Caucasian Female Heterosexual First in Family to Graduate From College High School English Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: When I was a student, I was always too much. I asked too many questions, I was too loud, I was too anxious to sit still. I was also always too bored to care about what we were learning. It seemed to me that school took something I had always loved (reading and writing) and turned it into something I loathed. I wasn't stupid, but I failed quite a few classes in 9th and 10th grades. I even failed my 9th grade English class, which is pretty ironic considering I taught freshman English for the first four years of my career. If someone had told me that I would become a high school English teacher I would have laughed and laughed and laughed, but that's what makes it so incredible. Anything can happen. I want to be the kind of teacher that takes something students love and makes it even better, or something students can't stand and show them how amazingly-ridiculously-mind-blowingly-life-changingly beautiful language is. Okay so I made up the word changingly. But that's because language is awesome. My students know that I am there for them, no matter what. Without judgment. I tell them I am a real model more than a role model, and that we're all imperfect and in it together. Every single one of us, teachers and students included, learns best when we are challenged, and we grow the most when we are outside of our comfort zones. We all learn from each other and need each other. We cannot do any of this alone. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: It matters so much that teachers and students have things in common. As a student who never fit the mold, I was bored and rebellious in school. I ended up attending an alternative high school and it changed my life. I am now teaching in the same district where I once sat at the end of my first semester of 10th grade and told my mom I was over it. I was dropping out. I hated it. I recently had a conversation with one of my sophomores who was refusing to work and told me he was just "done with school." I was able to say to him, "I have been where you are and felt what you are feeling right now. I want you to know I understand. How can I help? What do you need?" Is that going to change his entire life? Probably not, but it's a good start. I also believe that we have more commonalities than differences, and that when we focus on the love that we all need and share, the lessons flow freely. Building relationships based on understanding and love is the single most important factor for effective teaching and learning. Rachel is a 2017 Washington State Teacher Leader. Follow her on Twitter @wildnfreewiley. Years in Education: 16-20 Latino Heterosexual Male Former High School History Teacher District Technology Facilitator Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: I grew up in Union City, New Jersey where I have worked in schools for the last 16 years. I started as a classroom history teacher and eventually became a tech facilitator for the District. Union City is a predominantly Latino community. There are many things I share with my students like food, language, folk lore, idioms and so on, due to the fact that I'm Latino myself and also grew up in this same community. Being that Union City is an urban community, we also share some common evils. When I was a student, I also experienced poverty, drugs, gangs and other negative things. I still clearly remember walking to and from school and seeing these evils in the streets and corners. I can relate to students' peer pressures, family pressures, dealing with poverty, and dreaming of one day getting out. I can sit with troubled kids and talk about some of the things they see on their end. This really opens up my relationships with my students because I'm not seen as an outsider or another un-relateable adult. I can also relate to their hopes, dreams, motivation and needs. I can plant seeds of bigger dreams, bigger aspirations, and life outside of Union City. I always talk about the benefits of living in our community as well. I try to show them that they have the opportunity of an academic education, but they also a street smarts that they learned from hard knock lessons. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Having common ground allows for teacher and students to jump into getting down to work quicker. No need for a long transition phase or a “getting to know” sessions. Being from the same community allows me to come to class with an understanding of what our students experience and see every day. This allows for a more pleasant work flow and space. Walls are instantly tore down when teacher and students share common things. Marcos is a 2017 TED-Ed Innovative Educator. He is a leader in the makerspace movement. To learn more about what Marcos is doing to facilitate hands-on student creativity and leadership, follow him on Twitter @mrnavas. Years in Education: 11-15 Caucasian Female High School English Language Arts Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: In a meeting once, a fellow educator lumped kids from single parent homes into one stereotype of dysfunction. I surprised that individual when I said I was from a single parent home. We can not lower our expectations of students because of their circumstances. If anything we have to be the voice that says, "Yes, if you want to, you can." I was that student living with grandparents for awhile. My parents divorced during the summer between 7th and 8th grade. This meant moving in with my grandparents for a year while my mom began substitute teaching and looking for a permanent teaching position--she had just finished her elementary education degree as an adult student. It also meant going from a precarious financial situation to situational poverty. I knew we did not have a lot of money before, but after my parents divorced we were signed up for free lunch, and I'm sure receiving other forms of government assistance. Although a working single-parent, I cannot remember my mom missing a volleyball or softball game. This move also meant going from the suburbs of the west side of Washington to the forests of northeast Washington and experiencing a type of culture shock. It was not the first time I had moved, but it was the first move to a rural setting. Living in both suburban and rural settings has given me a unique perspective on the challenges facing both types of students. It seems small, but my interest in sports has also been important in the classroom, especially for my male students. Talking about the latest scores, mostly the NFL (Go Seahawks!) and college basketball (Go Zags!), has been an ice breaker with more than one student. I try to share this interest and others in order to build a shared sense of community and belonging. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Understanding the reality of our students' lives is the foundation for building relationships and positive interactions. We construct the ideas of the world around us based on our experiences and make assumptions accordingly. If we have no exposure to those circumstances, it is difficult to help students succeed. All too often I have heard teachers assume a student just needs to make up their mind to work harder. While students in certain situations do have to work harder to over come their circumstances, it cannot be done by will power alone. This guidance must be founded in understanding and empathy. We cannot possibly understand all circumstances, but if a staff as a whole is diverse, there is a voice for every student. Jennifer is a 2017 Washington State Teacher Leader. She has six preps this year. To find out how she's keeping it all organized, follow her CorelaborateWA.org blog and find her on Twitter @gozags2001. Years in Education: 20+ Caucasian Female First Generation American Middle and High School Humanities Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: I grew up in the school district where I spent most of my teaching career. It is a suburban, upper-middle class area, and I'm sure my experience growing up in that environment is similar to that of many of my students. However, I also realize that just because two people grew up in the same place, it doesn't mean that they have everything in common. My parents didn't divorce, but many of my students' parents have; I am not a person of color, but many of my students are; I did not suffer abuse, but some of my students have. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: I've always been a firm believer that a strong relationship with a student is absolutely, hands-down the most important element of being an effective teacher. On a macro level, sure it helps to have things in common with students because it makes those relationships easier to form. I do believe it would be harder for me, a suburban white woman, to walk into a classroom in an area where kids have experienced things that I just haven't. I haven't experienced poverty or violence or the racism faced by so many. I could not look at kids who have experienced those things and tell them that I know how it feels and how it impacts them...because I don't. However, there are still ways to connect with kids to let them know that I really do care. I'm a natural sharer and like to let kids know what I'm reading, what I did over the weekend, that I was overjoyed when my soccer team pulled off the late win or angry when the guy cut me off on the way to work. Creating a comfortable environment where kids feel like they can be open helps with that important relationship and connection. Kids need that connection; they need to feel like they are important and loved. After over twenty years of teaching, Michelle is happily retired. Follow her adventures in golfing, parenting, and pet care on Instagram @michhood4. Years in Education: 7-10 Pakistani Heterosexual Male Urdu Language, Culture of Pakistan, Sociology Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: When I start teaching a new group of students I dedicate the first session for ice breaking activities. In the introductions, when I get an answer I respond to that and have some little chat about it. For example, when talking about last book we have read, I will engage in discussion about the storyline or characters of the book and compare it with a character I like, or story I have read. So I intentionally try to create commonalities with my students. Once I was in the girls school in my maternal village and I wanted to discuss with them few important things but students were not opening up. So I started sharing with them that my mother was born in this village and she could only go up to grade 5 because the school in the village did not offer higher classes and her parent could not afford to send my mother to the nearby city. This created a commonality which was needed. Another important thing for finding the common things is that I always consider that the students sitting in front of me are human beings like myself and if for some reason they are not performing well in class I always keep that in mind that they might be facing a challenge in life outside class. Students are not learning machines. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: Finding common grounds is perhaps the start of journey which teachers and students embark on. I have seen it in many cases that if students and teachers do not have things in common then the students will not open up. If the wall of unfamiliarity is taken down between the two parties then learning expedites. In Pakistan, I was dealing with a group of young learners who were particularly fond of the sport of cricket. I was trying very hard but they were not responding. When I found out that they all love cricket and I myself was a cricket player, then I started bringing examples from cricketing world. I started using names of cricket players in the lessons and brought in cricketing scenarios and it worked so well. From that point onward the students always waited for my class. Once in America I was teaching Urdu as a foreign language and the class was not very lively. I learned a game 'Simon says...' which my students knew and made a translated version of it in the Urdu language and the barrier broke. Everybody loved it. So yes, it matters. Umar is a 2017 TED-Ed Innovative Educator. He is currently working with the University of California, Berkeley's study abroad program in Pakistan. 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. Years in education: 20+ Cuban-American Heterosexual Male First in family to graduate from college Middle School Science & Technology Teacher Q: What do you have in common with your students? A: When I started teaching in South Central Los Angeles back in 1991, I was a young Hispanic heterosexual male in a female dominated profession. Frankly, that never was an issue to me because I was raised by my mother. My father wasn't present so I was used to being around women. Teaching in L.A. was within my comfort zone because my school was 85% Hispanic and almost 15% African American. The staff I worked with in L.A. was quite diverse too. We had a Cuban-American teacher (me), a couple of Mexican-American teachers, a Panamanian-American teacher, several African American teachers, and a few Caucasian teachers! And three teachers on staff were homosexual. A great team to work with. I started teaching mixed classes of beginning English speakers to English-Only speakers. Because I could speak Spanish I moved to teaching full classes of beginning English speakers so my classes were made up of 100% Hispanic kids. I had Mexican, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, and Guatemalen students! Back then California had a full bilingual program so that kids could learn in their native language while increasing their English learning as they progressed instead of hearing English all the time and learning what they could. When my wife and I moved to Washington, I left my Hispanic kids and moved to a rural town teaching kids that were predominantly Caucasian. It was a culture shock! While I do miss teaching Hispanic kids, I do enjoy working with the kids in my community. I live right across the street from my rural school now so I’m not just their teacher, I’m neighbor to many of my students. And I’ve been here for 20 years! I never speak Spanish anymore though. I barely remember my native tongue. I’m so Americanized that I don’t even remember what it was like being Cuban. Part of me has always thought that I am so American because I grew up in Miami. But I really didn’t. In Miami, I grew up Cuban in America. My elementary school and junior high school were both predominantly Hispanic (mostly Cuban) and African American. Now, I am all American. I’ll have to remedy that someday. I just don’t know how. Q: Does it matter that students and teachers have things in common? A: I think teachers and students having things in common matters. My own daughter admitted that her favorite teacher in 7th grade was the youngest teacher on the staff. It was my daughter who told me that she really liked that teacher because she was, "relevant." That's where I got that from because until my daughter said that to me, I didn't know the generation gap was a thing. Until my daughter mentioned relevancy, I didn't realize how much kids appreciate having teachers that they can relate to. I try to relate to my students by learning about the things they like. I have always enjoyed talking to my students about things they like. It makes school more of a family setting and less of a job. Plus, it keeps me current. I am 49 years old, almost 50. When I started teaching in grades 4 and 5 I was 24 years old. At that time I felt that I was still relevant to my students because I was young enough to understand their pop culture such as music and TV shows. Fast forward to 2017 and I'm seeing the generation gap between me and my students more and more. I refer to things such as 9/11 and have to back up and explain because of all the blank stares I get. Luckily, I'm young enough at heart to listen to some music that middle school students listen to, I watch TV shows and movies that middle school students watch, and I try to keep up with sports so when they talk about it I can converse. I am a geek at heart, a big fan of Star Trek and Star Wars, so I have quite a bit in common with my fellow geeky students. I'm also a user of social media and technology so I can connect with students who also use those. So while the generation gap is WIDE and very REAL I find ways to stay current while not being creepy, like saying, "tots cray cray." Yes, I've tried saying it and let's just say it didn't work! So now I work extra hard to connect with my students. My daughter and my students are my connection to the current generation. Reading about Gen Z is just not enough, you have to connect with Gen Z kids. Al is a 2017 Washington State Teacher Leader. Follow him on Twitter @educatoral. |
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