Week 8: Teach Tenderly

Trevor MacKenzie started his talk by asking us to reflect on our own journey through education. Did we like school? Was school easy or hard? What got in the way of our learning? What impacted how we felt about going to school? What did teachers do that helped us learn? What didn’t help? After this reflection he talked about how our own personal experiences with school will most likely influence who we are as teachers, especially in terms of assessments. If a person was really great a multiple choices quizzes in school, that person is likely to assess their students in the same way. While there is benefit to recreating things you really liked as a student, teachers also need to be aware of what their students need and like. This is where Trevor talk about the idea of “teaching tenderly”. So often teachers get caught up in the busyness of day to day work and we get overwhelmed trying to make sure we fit all of the curriculum in before the end of the year. It is in this fog that we lose sight of our students and their needs. We forget that they are humans just like us. They have good days and bad days, and everyday they need to be treated with compassion and humility. I think “teach tenderly” is such a beautiful phrase. It makes me think about all of the amazing teachers I had in my life. The ones that where there for me no matter what. The ones that let me cry when I needed to and gave me a hug when I needed one. The ones that put me the student ahead of deadlines and grades. With those thoughts, I am reminded that I don’t want to be a teacher just because I did well in school and liked school. I want to be a teacher because I want to be able to give my students the same kindness and love that my teachers gave to me.

A few other points Trevor touched on is how we teach and what we teach. He talked about the curriculum as the guide for what we have to teach students, but it doesn’t tell us how we have to teach. For teachers, that is a really powerful freedom because we have the ability to work with our students to decide how they are going to learn and present that learning. Trevor talk about the idea of negotiated learning. Negotiated learning allows students to create their assignments based on their passions in order to meet a non-negotiable outcome in the curriculum. This type of learning creates student agency and ultimately gets kids interested in their learning, which is what we as teachers should strive for. We should strive to have students enjoy what they are doing. Ultimately, that enjoyment leads to them wanting to learn more and do more. Trevor describes this as “creating curious kiddos”, which is what all teachers want their students to be.

I really enjoyed listening to Trevor because he gave me a lot of things to consider as I move through my teaching journey. He also made me really excited to get out there and start teaching because teachers make the difference in a student’s educational journey.