I don't want to generalize, but for the sake of simplicity in this article, I'll say it, " A good majority of the students at Soar have Attention deficits." Perhaps its just a new year but I proclaim this semester we have a rather lively bunch. As I was saying above, I was beating myself up today because I didn't feel like I was "in control" of the class today. There was a rip current and I was being pulled out to sea.
Let me further clarify. Earlier in my career, not having total control over the behaviors in the learning environment would have really stressed me out. Now, I just stand back, I breathe, I occasionally count down, look at the sun set over the ocean, and I wait... I enjoy what I do, and I like enjoying what I do, and I'm not about to let behaviors spoil a perfect beach day, or the day of those around me.
Control, I have learned over the years is a funny thing. Some traditional teachers feel they must have it because controlling the class signifies respect, and looks good when traditional administrators check in and see that kids are quiet and in their seats. If a teacher is " in control" of their class, they MUST be a good teacher, right? So I could dig my feet into the sand by the water's edge, and try to fight the current. If I think I could win that one, I might as well put my head in the sand.
Control over students is a perception, for some it is merely an illusion. For I believe that any teacher worth their "salt" knows that the only control a teacher has over their students is the control that the students allow the teacher to have over them, and this control is a mutually agreed upon arrangement based upon mutual respect. Students nowadays allow you to teach them, particularly if they know that you care about them.
So today we had a group history lesson. Yesterday, I reminded the students, it took about 30 minutes for them to settle down, but once they did we had some great discussions on the topic of the day, and we all learned a great deal. Today, I realized that perhaps it didn't take them 30 minutes to settle down, but perhaps it took me 30 minutes to get into their groove, and "ride the wave" of teaching and learning where it took me.
I digress: Lets face it, the majority, if not all the kids at Soar are here because they didn't fit into traditional educational molds. I realized today that I could spend our entire school days trying to pound pegs of various shapes and sizes into single-sized round holes, or I could simply bust the round holes wider with my hammer so all my very different and unique shapes would fit in. Perhaps if I did a little remodeling of my round holes to accommodate various shapes and sizes, it would involve some growing pains on my part on the front end of this semester. Hopefully all my different students of various shapes and sizes, if I stretched and accommodated a bit, would all find their own way into the target holes I had carved out for them.
So without realizing I was doing it on the front end, I was busting educational molds all over the place this afternoon. I was showing a couple short video clips for an interactive multi-media experience. I had my essential question objectives for the focus, I had my study guides for review and discussion. I had the perfect plan. It was the perfect day. Then my students began to tear it all apart. The tide was coming in fast, and the tsunami was about to hit.
I had "E" whose verbal overflow valve was stuck open. Everything he had on his mind came out his mouth. He wasn't following the my rules, but he was on task, on target and participating. So I busted apart the rules, and let the water flow.
I had "M" who enjoyed responding aloud to "E's" antics no matter what else was going on in class at the time, but he was participating in the discussion as well, so I embraced the positive in " M", and overlooked my perception that " M" was being disruptive, because it was really only as much of a problem as I made it out to be. I let " M" know how valuable his contributions to class were.
I had "T" who just loves to have a good time with " E" and the others and sometimes has trouble controlling his verbal switch, having trouble controlling his verbal off switch, but he was participating, so I caught his wave and rode it to "N1" who often give the impression he isn't paying attention with his doodling, and I overlooked it, because " N1" was able to participate in the class discussion and had a great deal to share.
I tread water for a while until I caught the next wave to "A" who knocked me under for a minute giving me the impression he could read a book off the shelf and pay attention in class at the same time. Traditional teacher asked " A" if he needed to take his surf board a little closer to the shore to help him get on the same wave as everybody else. He said he didn't, and he offered some golden treasures of information to the class to prove it.
At this point, I feel like I'm being bounced around the class like a kite being knocked around by the wind at the beach on a windy day.
"A's" performance which defied my perception had knocked me under but I got back on the board and caught the "M2" wave who wasn't able to answer my questions the way I posed them, so I reformulated my questions in a way that "M2" was able to catch a wave and do a couple of tricks on his board that amazed us both.
All the while "N2" seems unfocused on the video or the discussion, but is rather creating his own political cartoon to represent his opinion about the topic we are covering in history. He must be doing what is the equivalent of artistic surfing. "Do I tell him to put the artwork away?" No, I ask him to share it with the class, and explain what it represents. I get the impression he thinks that's pretty "narly" dude.
After surfing the class for roughly an hour, I tell everybody to head in for the beach. We wrap it up by reviewing what we've learned.
I head off the beach for the afternoon, a little wind burned and sore from all the academic acrobatics I had engaged in with my students. And I wondered, for a minute, "Did I fail them?"
For I did not truly have control of my class, and I overlooked many of the behaviors that wouldn't be acceptable at other schools (calling out, not raising hands, not completely focusing on the teacher). Sure we had a great lesson, and we learned a lot, and the students were engaged in the overall objectives. However, If I was allowing or choosing to overlook behaviors that wouldn't be acceptable at more traditional schools, for as much success as we had felt today, was I truly setting these students up for success in the future?
It was our own Julie Dixon that reminded me that what I was doing is what really good teachers do, and what is rarely done. I was developing a relationship with these kids, that many of them probably hadn't had with a teacher before. I was providing positive experiences where these students were able to focus on the important stuff, because I chose not to dwell on the negative, which is probably all most of these kids know from school.
Sure it makes for a much more exhausting day, to surf the classroom, and to meet students where they're at and guide them in the direction you want them to go. So I embraced their differences... Is that so wrong?
