Do You Know The Stories Of The Children You Teach?-The Importance Of Relationships

One of the most horrendous statements I've ever heard come out of a fellow educator's mouth was, " I don't want him on my class list. You know how those high yellow children are." Oh PLEASE tell me since my own sons are of mixed race. Please explain to me just how "those" children are. What scares me the most is how many "undesirables" passed through her classroom doors and how many of those children were adversely affected by her attitude. It is attitudes like this I blame for most of the failures in our educational system.

The old adage you get what you expect is unfortunately a truth in some classrooms. Some educators have preconceived notions about children that automatically set our children up for failure. The child is poor, a minority, a boy, lives in a broken home, has special needs and the list goes on. The attitude that "these" children have external or physical issues that will prevent them from success in a classroom trickles down from the teacher right into those he/she is responsible for. Expectations are lowered, higher children are the main focus and the lower functioning children fall farther behind. Sadly, at the beginning of my teaching career I bought into the excuse crap I had been sold, but as I continued along my journey, I began to realize that I had the control in my classroom to either make or break the children I had the privilege of working with regardless of their circumstances that I had no control over. It was my career awakening and from that point on I began to see major growth in all my students, not just the privileged few.

Teachers MUST make the most of their 7 hours together each day with the children. Trusting relationships must be developed, something that is highly undervalued in education; not only with the children, but with the parents themselves. In kindergarten I am working with many parents of first time school children and at times they come feeling intimidated. Until a parent is comfortable with me, there's a barrier, one that must be broken. Building those relationships can be very time consuming, but parent support is an invaluable resource in assuring their child gets a quality education. I'm no better than them, God knows I've had my share of personal struggles and it's a must that my students' parents understand that I'm not their judge. Am I accessable to them? Very much so. Aside from the school number and my email, I give them my cell number and tell them to text or call anytime they need to. Parents really seem to be comfortable with texting in this day of technology and instant communication and I've never had anyone abuse my number. They will text me if their child is sick, forgot something, or changes in transportation. As the year goes on, I'll hear from them on weekends telling me their child says "hi" and this year on Super Bowl Sunday they blew up my phone with well wishes and congratulations on my team's victory. In turn, I will send them texts at times when their child does something awesome and even send the ones with picture capability photos from field trips and other events. It's amazing how the informal communication naturally leads us into the academic and behavioral progress and needs. Parents attitudes trickle down to their children and if we keep it positive, our classroom environment becomes a product of that. The more knowledge I have of each child as a whole enables me to better meet their individual needs and in turn assure academic progress.

Who is in my classroom? This year alone I have 90% free/reduced lunch, over 50% minority, 8 of 26 children with IEP's and 2 more being evaluated. I have 2 children being raised by grandparents because the mom dropped them off and never came back. I have a child who's uncle was gunned down and murdered in their driveway in front of them and who's own mom and dad were jailed recently for trafficking narcotics. The police burst in their home in front of him at 2 am and took his parents away. I have a girl who's dad just got out of the penitentiary for robbing a gas station and beating the clerk with a tire iron. THIS is my class, these are my children I'm responsible for teaching and I guarantee that by May they all will have made a year's worth of growth regardless. How? Because I know their academic needs, not as a class but as an individual and it is those needs I address. I know my children inside and out, hold no judgement against them or their caregivers and make the 7 hours I have them the most valuable time I can.

Don't believe me? I'll blog our successful year in May!