Today was supposed to be our first day of Inquiry Based Learning. It was going to be new for both me (I’ve never gone all-in on this) and the students in my Grade 9 sheltered English course. The idea came up last week: I suggested that since there were five students, maybe we should do things differently. After all, waiting for five people with five very different learning profiles to do the same thing at the same time sounded silly.
Everyone agreed. And then…
Two of the five students weren’t in class today, *and* a new student joined our class. I’ve only been teaching this particular group for two weeks, but I can already tell that many of the students come to the class with a giant “NO”. No, they are not planning to read. No, they are not going to move closer to the front. No, they are not interested in putting their phone away. No, they will not write anything. NO. Just NO.
Today was no different. The three students who have been in the class for a while warily watched the newbie, letting his presence shape their participation. I knew better than to plow ahead, but I nevertheless gamely tried to lead a discussion about what we might be interested in learning. One student didn’t speak; another stuck to one-word high-school-approved topics: cars, games, computers. The new student refused. We weren’t making much progress.
Somehow (don’t ask me – I just teach here) our conversation morphed into what these young people like and don’t like about school. Sensing potential, I grabbed a whiteboard marker and starting recording their ideas. Soon, even Mr. No was contributing. I think I won him over when another student started to say something, then backed away from it, saying, “Nah, I’ll just get in trouble.”
“I doubt it,” I replied. “Unless you were planning to curse directly at me, in which case, yeah, I’d be mad.”
Once he had shared his (honestly, not very controversial) opinion that teachers were a lot of the bad about school – and didn’t get in trouble – we were on our way. Soon, the board was full of their observations, and they were sharing stories that went with them. Almost every student had, at some point in their schooling, been *very* disruptive – overturned tables, broken windows, one caused their whole school to be “secured”- and it was almost always because they felt unheard, unseen, or not respected. They were pushed beyond their own limits and they didn’t have another way to respond. Some are still unhappy about things that happened years ago. All of them wish things had been different.
As the end of class approached, I shared that I found their ideas powerful. I said that I thought that other teachers, too, might benefit from knowing about these things. After all, I said, not every teacher knows that sometimes they need to help *less*. We all looked at the board for a quiet moment. Then, carefully, I wondered if perhaps our first project – maybe just for a few days – could be to create a sheet of things teachers could do to be less annoying (not likely to be our final title) and share it with the teachers in our school.
I wish I could say they said “YES” but the truth is that they are reserving judgment. We’d used up their quota of focus for the day, so we have to wait until tomorrow for any decision – and who knows who might be in class tomorrow. Still, I’m beginning to believe that with this class, anything could happen.
Here’s what they have to say:
| Good | Bad |
| Learning new things | Homework |
| Gym – get my energy out & play games | The Office (includes being sent to the office AND “office people” who don’t listen) |
| Having fun (includes making teachers mad) | People who won’t listen |
| Making my own decisions | Annoying teachers: talking to me for no reason, telling me what to do, making me focus when I really can’t focus anymore, trying to help me when I want to do it on my own. |
| Using phones |
Persistence and Pedagogy 
Amanda, great job getting the students to open up about this list of the good and bad. All the best as you lead your students in making a difference this year and in “learning new things”
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Thanks! This is a complicated class (thus the tiny size), so this felt like a win, even though from the outside it looks like not much. I wanted to write about it to remind myself that these moments matter.
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Thanks, Denise! I found “learning new things” to be a very hopeful “good”.
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And – guess what you did with this blog post, friend? Yeah, you documented what happened. Beautifully. Including the product. You are freaking amazing.
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Wait – this is documentation? Hooray! I’m doing it!!
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““office people” who don’t listen” followed by “People who won’t listen.” To me it seems like you’re the first person who ever let these students be heard and there’s no doubt in my mind that they appreciate you for that.
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I *know* there are others who have listened to them, but now they’re in high school & they are nervous – I think they needed to voice this again: the things they hope for, the things that make their days harder… They just need to make sure that we know, too.
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That is such a refreshing sentiment.
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Amanda!
I’ve learned so much from this list and chuckled while reading the chart. I’m subbing in a class of Eng 10 honors. The kids are quietly working and heard me chuckle. A couple looked up as though to ask, “why are you laughing” so I shared some of this w/ them through my giggles. I do hope Mr. NO finds his inner Mr. YES and creates an amazing project. Also, this reminds me of a boo called “Why Is It So Hard to Get Good Schools?” by Larry Cuban. It’s old, but the title question has stayed w/ me for years.
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The sign of a good teacher — going off the plan when you see a better, more productive path. And it’s more interesting! I taught elementary for 20+ years and I remember some lessons when I should have followed the students’ lead instead of sticking to the plan.
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It sounds as if this (changeable) group will test you, but also that you will all learn from each other. What a story of developing trust you share here! Maybe a big step for some of your kiddos. And how respectful of you to let them know you “see them” and that sometimes teachers need to help less (and give them a break from focusing.)
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I made a poster today for a fifth grade teacher whose class had just created their charter. I was struck by the different language they used. Usually the words for how they want to feel are similar. They use some variation of respected, included, appreciated, The charter I was turning into a poster, though, said they wanted to be heard, secure, accepted and collaborative. I have nothing really against the first set of words, but I was struck by the second set, particularly “heard” “Secure” and “collaborative.” It seems to fit with some of the things on your class’s list. I think we (the adults), think we do a lot of listening, but somehow our students don’t always think we hear. Interesting.
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Office people who don’t listen are the worst!! It’s so interesting that feeling like nobody hears what we say is a universal complaint. It reminds me to always be a good listener.
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