Affective Reflective

Africa…africa…it kept popping out on their papers.  Africa..africa…it dotted the landscape of the writing assignment. Why you ask? Why do they write about Africa? Why do they dream to see it, to feel it, to explore it?

Sometimes as teachers we fail to realize what our children are listening to, what they are grasping on to, what information is affecting them.  Sometimes we think they are a nonporous material unable to absorb anything in the classroom, only to realize they are actually a sponge soaking up the stories, the relationship, the love and yes the education too.

My students have been writing about visiting Africa.  Yes, I talk about it occasionally–and by occasionally I do mean once a week As I was reading, I started to reflect on how much we really affect our students. I spend more time in a day with my students than their parents do and for some of them, more time than they spend with their parents in a week or a month! That statistic seem outrageous to you? It shouldn’t.  Not when children go home from school at 4 only to chill with friends on the way, watch tv and talk on the phone until 10 and sleep at 12. Hopefully, they sat down with them over dinner for 30min, but I am not sure that even happens anymore for some of these kids.

When you take time to realize the power, the effects, and the love you can have for your students, it changes how you want to treat them.  It changes how you want to respond to them.  It changes the relationship you develop with them. Being a teacher may be one of the most stressful jobs as many say, but it is also the most rewarding.

This time of year is when we all start to long for summer, kids included, but if you take time to reflect, they are learning something from you, even if you feel like they didn’t learn anything academic all year. What about the love, the nonverbal cues, and the stories you intertwine into your day to make school applicable to them?

~ by airynn on April 16, 2009.