Over the last several months, I have been reflecting on educational psychology, how we learn and culturally responsive teaching. I have been observing instructional strategies and student interactions in some diverse classrooms and have had a few opportunities to use what I have learned as a substitute teacher. I have reflected on my future role as a teacher, while experiencing these things first hand as a student at St. Mary’s University. I have thought about obstacles I will likely face and how my inner strength will help me persevere. From these experiences, I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing I can do as a teacher is to help my students develop a love of learning; something they will never outgrow. I know it starts with me and I am excited to take on that role. I need to take the steps necessary to be prepared, to continue to work to be the best that I can be and refuel often enough to persevere when things get tough. There are academic standards to meet, but through it all I will be helping my students become independent learners. When I approach teaching with the right attitude, I can help the students develop the mindset and cognitive skills needed for higher order thinking (Hammond, 2015). I view this as a gift they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.
When building a classroom community, I think caring and trust is the cornerstone. It begins with getting to know your students and showing them that they are all valued. When a teacher shows a sincere interest in students, they will know that it is authentic. A teacher should be caring, show empathy and treat the students with respect. When the teacher demonstrates this and expects the students to do the same, it will become the culture of the classroom. A learning environment that is inviting and comfortable will allow the students to be free to express themselves. Caring for each other builds trust and that is exactly what is needed to build positive relationships in the classroom. These positive relationships are particularly important when bridging gaps between students with different cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds (Hammond, 2015). Trust is the cornerstone and everything else is built upon that trust.
I have had the pleasure and the honor, of learning from a sixth-grade teacher that understood the importance of respect and trust. I spent almost three months working as an education assistant in sixth grade classrooms and quickly noticed the difference between the culture in her classroom and that of other classrooms. I took note of the little things she did and have since found connections between what I observed; and what we have discussed and read about in this class. Through my experience with training adults, I have seen the benefits of connecting with the participants before the class starts. As a substitute, I have connected with random students and students that I recognized were struggling with something. Through much of the reading I have done for this class, I have come to understand why these things are so important. I understand why the best teachers are standing at the door of their classroom, smiling and greeting students each and every time they come into the room. I understand that for learning to take place, the students have to feel safe.
As a teacher I will show my vulnerability. I will go first and share my mistakes, so that my students will have the courage to talk about their own challenges and benefit from learning vicariously from each other. I want to be their ally, get to know them personally, find out what interests them and what makes them tick. Regularly checking in with them, asking questions and listening can accomplish this. When I am fortunate enough to teach students I’ve worked with before (substitute teaching), I love to follow up with them and ask about something personal they shared with me, or ask about a hobby I remember they enjoy. It might simply be something I learned from the students during the morning share, but it shows that I listened and I care enough to ask them about it. Students will remember how the teacher made them feel.
In my EDUC 517 class we read about the brain and building learning partnerships. According to Hammond, building a caring culture creates a strong partnership. First, an emotional connection and trust is established; then the student and teacher form a team. Oxytocin, a bonding hormone, is secreted when we feel connected with others and trust them. On the contrary, fear releases cortisol, which actually stops learning for about 20 minutes and continues to stay in the body for about three hours! That is a lot of learning time to lose if the environment isn’t conducive to learning. Trust is strong and can prevent the amygdala from releasing cortisol (avoiding an “amygdala hijack”). Trust frees up the brain for other activities, so in order for the students to learn, they need to feel safe and trust the teacher and each other. With the oxytocin at work, teachers can help the students acquire learning skills.
Creating a community of caring and trust is important for building positive relationships and it is also essential for classroom management. In fact, it is one of three major goals of classroom management (Eggen/Kauchak, 2016). To care about someone, is to want what is best for them. Being a team player means being responsible and doing your part to the best of your ability, not because someone tells you to, but because you choose to. If teachers can create a caring environment in the classroom where the students know they are valued and respected, classroom management will be much easier to achieve. If students know they are part of a team and can see what kind of an impact their behavior has on others, they will be more likely to do what is right. So part of classroom management is helping the students understand what the expectations are and getting their commitment to do their part. This is self-regulation, another essential goal of classroom management (Eggen/Kauchak, 2016). The third goal is maximizing time for teaching and learning (Eggen/Kauchak, 2016). I believe that it begins with a cornerstone of trust, then self-regulation is added to the foundation and it makes a solid place for all of the components of teaching and learning.
In Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (2015) Zaretta Hammond mentioned being an ally and a warm demander to the students. I loved what I read and know that when I am at my best, that is how I work with kids. I know I can do this in the classroom because I’ve already started doing it. I’m communicating to kids that I care about them, I’m showing them I care and I’m compassionate. But then in a flash I am telling them what they need to hear to get back on track and put in more effort. As a substitute, I am often returning to classrooms I have taught in before so I have been able to get to know some of these students. I know which ones need extra support and motivation. When I recognize that those students need a little nudge, I am able to confidently tell them what I expect of them. I know that they might not want to hear it, but I also know that because of our relationship and the trust we have, I am not going to burn any bridges by expecting that much. The best part is that they know I have faith in them or I wouldn’t be asking them to do it. They trust that I am not setting them up to fail.
I have always believed that if children know why it is important to do something, it is possible to get buy-in from them. I certainly wouldn’t want to do something if I didn’t feel it was important. So in the classroom, as a teacher I will explain to the students at the very beginning of the school year that they need to work together so they can learn as much as possible. I will tell the kids how I plan to meet the their needs. I have used this approach with students, even as a substitute. Sometimes the students try to push a little to see if I will bend the rules, let them get away with something, or they try to convince me that the teacher’s intention is not what is written on the sub plan. When I explain to the kids what my responsibility is, they really can’t argue with that.
I like an example I read about in Educational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms (2016) where authors Paul Eggen and Donald Kauchak described how a teacher guided the students as they created the classroom expectations, rewards and consequences. I plan to use the same approach, modifying as needed for the grade level. The teacher gave them fictitious examples and non-examples of responsible students and the class discussed them. The teacher also used “I-messages” so the students understood how their actions affect others, either in a positive or negative way and how their actions can support learning or deter from learning. This activity helps students with self-regulation (Eggen/Kauchuk, 2016).
It is imperative that the rules make sense, that there are only a few and that they are practiced to the point that the students can do them without putting much thought into it (reducing cognitive load). Because I will be able to select the examples and non-examples, the goals the students create will no doubt include coming to class on time and being prepared. If the students are motivated and work to meet their goals, they will maximize their learning time.
Is motivation the difference between success and failure? Can it really be that simple? Four years ago a good friend of mine went back to school in her mid-forties to become a teacher. I had spent many, many years wishing I had gone into teaching, I truly admired her ambition, but thought to myself, “There is no way I could go back to school with a job and kids at home.” Here I am today, with a job and kids at home and I’m at the end of a rigorous 6-credit summer in graduate school. What changed? My motivation.
Motivation is “arguably the greatest influence on learning that exists for all of us” (Eggen/Kauchak, 2016, p. 391). Everyone is different. What motivates one person, might not motivate the next. I understand that I have to use what I know about students’ interests to motivate them. They also need to see that I’m enthusiastic and passionate about what I’m teaching. They need to actually feel the passion. Maybe they aren’t interested in what I am teaching, but I believe I can find a way to make it relatable and meaningful to their lives. They must understand why it is important or they will never allow it to get through the reticular activating system (RAS) in their brain (Hammond, 2015). I use this approach when I train adults, with my own children and now as a substitute and it really does make a difference. I have a quote on my desk and at the moment I don’t remember where I found it. “Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way.” I have noticed that passion can be contagious. If I combine what I know about the student (their purpose) with my passion, I believe I can create a spark in them. Then if we tend to that fire, I can help them discover their passion and have the joy of witnessing the neurons fire.
Something I read in this EDUC 517 class about personal teaching efficacy really resonated with me. As a teacher, if you believe you can make a difference you will (Eggen/Kauchak, 2016). It reminds me of a quote by Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or you can’t – you are right.” The students need to have an “I know I can” attitude.
I realize I must get creative, use a variety of teaching methods to capture their attention and get them actively involved. Sometimes that will mean disguising learning as play. I plan to take advantage of knowing what I know about how the brain works in order to design learning activities that will engage the students and maximize the learning (Hammond, 2015; Eggen/Kauchak, 2016). If we set high enough expectations to get kids out of their comfort zone, even more learning will occur (Hammond, 2015; Eggen/Kauchak, 2016).
Guided discovery is a great approach because the teacher spends less time teaching and more time asking the students questions. This results in increased student involvement, increased intrinsic interest, and a deeper understanding (Eggen/Kauchak, 2016). Open-ended questions work great because they get the students involved, give them a chance to speak up and build their confidence. It also gives the teacher an opportunity to gauge their understanding and provide positive feedback to the students, which adds to their confidence. There is always a chance that the student will not give the expected answer, but if the teacher consistently responds in the right way and celebrates the mistakes, the students will begin to understand that we learn more from mistakes than from sharing the right answer that we already know. I think sharing this with students teaches them to continue to try again and persevere. They have to believe they are competent and then when they do see improvement, they are intrinsically motivated.
I think one of the most important things to understand when it comes culturally responsive teaching and diverse students, is that flexibility is crucial. We need to learn about the students in our classrooms and recognize when we need to pause and ask some questions before jumping to conclusions.
We must hold all students to high expectations and help all students realize that they can succeed. It doesn’t mean that we should be ignoring differences and treating all students the same. Being fair is not giving every student the same thing, but rather giving every student what he or she needs at the time. Parents know this about their children. Effective teachers know this too. I realize there is a great deal I have yet to learn about all of the cultures in my community. I also understand that what I see is viewed through my eyes, not the eyes of my students and certainly not through the eyes of their parents. We have all had different experiences; and our experiences and the cultures we identify with are what shape us and make us who we are. So when students walk into our classrooms they bring with them different ideas, values, fears, life lessons, hopes and dreams. I know I won’t be able to look at my lesson plan through their eyes, but what I can do is help them gain the experiences they need to even the playing field. I need to give them whatever they need to be able to fully participate in the lesson, acquire knowledge and end up reaching the top of the staircase with everyone else.
One of my goals is to create a classroom environment where culturally and linguistically diverse students feel at home. The team-player attitude that I want my students to have should appeal to collectivist cultures because they focus on relationships, but it will likely appeal to many other students as well. Working together will allow students the opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes, understand each other and develop friendships. The primitive part of our brain is wired to be on the look out for social and physical threats but if we work to create positive relationships, the primitive brain doesn’t worry about threats and the pre-frontal cortex is able focus on learning (Hammond, 2015). Working together also encourages students to build on each other’s ideas. As Lev Vygotsky said, “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first on the social level, and later on the individual level…” (Vygotsky, 1978, p.57). We can’t do that on our own; and the collaborative work that we produce wouldn’t be nearly as rich if we were all alike. We are designed to connect with each other so we should be taking advantage of that every chance we can.
There are differences between genders, but it is important not to stereotype, because we are all unique and what is important is that we are free to be ourselves. Some of my students will come to school hungry every day and might wonder if there will be something to eat when they get home from school. It is important to me to get to know my students well enough that I am aware of their struggles outside of school so that I can help them. Many of my students will be extroverts; many will be introverts. Some of the things I will ask the students to do may make half the class uncomfortable, but that’s fine because I know that getting out of our comfort zone is how we learn. That is something I experienced over and over again in this 517 class. We also learned about Piaget’s equilibrium theory. I can say first hand that disrupting the equilibrium can be extremely painful, but so rewarding when everything balances out and you are feeling stronger and more capable than you could have ever imagined.
When I reflect on Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, I am reminded to think outside the box and be creative (Gardner, 1983). Some students, like those with dyslexia, will benefit from multisensory lessons. Instead of trying to change the student that can’t sit still, I will look for ways to change the lesson. Students with ADHD would benefit from a lesson involving movement, but so would the rest of the class. Music would appeal to some students more than others, but music helps us learn so why not incorporate that into some of the lessons? Aren’t we all different? Aren’t we all diverse? I think I am starting to think about learner differences in most things I do. I suppose that is what Zaretta Hammond meant in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain when she said to “think of culturally responsive teaching as a mindset” (Hammond, 2015, p.5). There might not be any physical “tools,” but there is a wide array of voices in our classrooms and in our community to learn from.
The thought-provoking reading I have done in this 517 class, the stimulating discussions and time spent reflecting, have helped me become more aware of what kind of an impact my instruction will have on my students’ learning. Classroom observations were part of the coursework for this class and they provided a great way to see concepts and strategies play out in real classrooms. However, nothing I saw in the observations quite compared to what I experienced as a student in this 517 class.
What we read about learning partnerships, I felt with my instructor. We read about the need for students to feel valued and our instructor showed us week after week how to make every student feel valued. I am more sensitive to student differences, not only because of the course content but also because of the culture within our classroom and how I have come to know my classmates. We learned that creating a safe environment in the classroom is crucial in order for the students to be willing to be vulnerable, express themselves and be receptive to learn. Our instructor orchestrated this with such ease, beginning on the first night. It was clear that night, that this experience would be something very special. I left with excitement about returning and wished we could return the next day. I was engaged to the point that I looked forward to what I would be reading and writing about in the week that followed. As I reflected in my thought journal, I understood the purpose was to create a place where I could look for important concepts and connections someday, when I didn’t have time to sift through the entire textbook to find the example I was looking for. However, my thought journal was at times like writing to a pen pal because I developed a learning partnership with my instructor and wanted to share with her what I was learning.
It felt like a spark was created that first night and the more I read about the brain and how we learn, the more I pictured the neurons firing in my brain and connections being made. Every week we talked about things in class that increased my interest and motivated me to read more and do more. I made sacrifices I never dreamed I would make, because I was absorbed in this class. I know what my instructor did for me and I know what I can do for my students someday. I want to get to know them, walk with them and be their ally. I intend to create a spark in my students and let the neurons fire!