Care, Understanding, & Gentle Reminders
These past few weeks have been very hard on my students. Every Thursday I come into class and ask, “how are we doing?” and since about week 4, I’ve gotten the same responses: tired, drained, long faces saying, “good” or “eh”. It makes me sad to see my students hurting but I also know that learning is painful. The long faces remind me that my students are doing their jobs, even if it makes me upset to see them in pain.
This week, however, my students said, “good.” I was pleasantly surprised by this. As I walked in they seemed to be in a joking and lighthearted mood, one of them even acting as the teacher before I got into the class (yet once I gave him the responsibility of leading the ice breaker he quickly backed down). I asked what everyone was doing this weekend or if they had anything good happen recently and I received some rather positive responses. Many people were planning to dress up for Halloween this weekend, hang out with coworkers, or even catch up on sleep. I was reminded that student play is an essential component of their well-being, and happy to hear people had time to take a break and let loose. After all, they’ve been working particularly hard as of recently, and their improvements have been showing within the assignments.
I partially include “we” when I ask how things are going because a class cannot be a class without the community. I also partially include “we” because I’m asking myself as well. I’m connected to my students just as much as they are connected to me, so in a sense, we’re an ecosystem. My students can only learn so much without me, and I can only facilitate so much without them. Including “we” in asking how they’re doing is a way for me to verbalize my feelings of connectedness while showing them my desire to engage in learning with them. As a teacher, I accept the responsibility to help my students with what they are going through, even though I don’t necessarily expect them to do the same.
Later on in the class, we had a conversation about mental health. With the topic of technology and emotions being the primary focus of that day’s class, I wanted my students to understand the importance of taking a break from social media at times and introspecting on self-care. I explained that our society’s, and especially our generation’s, continuous focus on extrinsic perception can cause a lot of anxiety. Even in one of my own classes this week we discussed the current young adult mental health pandemic, which I mentioned.
The looks I received from several of my students was that of longing. I felt a gaze from some that illustrated intense focus and participation with what I was saying as if they had wished someone had told them this all along. Others looked at me with sadness. I could feel the loneliness in some people’s eyes. I think deep down many of them understand that people cannot exist without community and that social media platforms cannot completely fill the primal human need for connection. I truly hope the classroom can be a place that they feel safe and within a community if they don’t always feel such a connectedness outside.
Since reading bell hooks, I’ve really been trying to focus on this idea of self-actualizing and understanding how my own mental/physical state affects my students. Sometimes self-actualizing looks like making sure I have coffee and food before class. Other times, filling my own cup looks like taking a break from work that morning so I can focus on preparing my lesson. In either sense, I really value being able to meet my students where they’re at, which also includes doing the same for myself. This week I was glad to give some care, even if it’s just in the form of a reminder. I knew it’s what they needed. #HeartworkisHardwork when you see your students in pain, but it’s healing to remind them you’re there.
This week, however, my students said, “good.” I was pleasantly surprised by this. As I walked in they seemed to be in a joking and lighthearted mood, one of them even acting as the teacher before I got into the class (yet once I gave him the responsibility of leading the ice breaker he quickly backed down). I asked what everyone was doing this weekend or if they had anything good happen recently and I received some rather positive responses. Many people were planning to dress up for Halloween this weekend, hang out with coworkers, or even catch up on sleep. I was reminded that student play is an essential component of their well-being, and happy to hear people had time to take a break and let loose. After all, they’ve been working particularly hard as of recently, and their improvements have been showing within the assignments.
I partially include “we” when I ask how things are going because a class cannot be a class without the community. I also partially include “we” because I’m asking myself as well. I’m connected to my students just as much as they are connected to me, so in a sense, we’re an ecosystem. My students can only learn so much without me, and I can only facilitate so much without them. Including “we” in asking how they’re doing is a way for me to verbalize my feelings of connectedness while showing them my desire to engage in learning with them. As a teacher, I accept the responsibility to help my students with what they are going through, even though I don’t necessarily expect them to do the same.
Later on in the class, we had a conversation about mental health. With the topic of technology and emotions being the primary focus of that day’s class, I wanted my students to understand the importance of taking a break from social media at times and introspecting on self-care. I explained that our society’s, and especially our generation’s, continuous focus on extrinsic perception can cause a lot of anxiety. Even in one of my own classes this week we discussed the current young adult mental health pandemic, which I mentioned.
The looks I received from several of my students was that of longing. I felt a gaze from some that illustrated intense focus and participation with what I was saying as if they had wished someone had told them this all along. Others looked at me with sadness. I could feel the loneliness in some people’s eyes. I think deep down many of them understand that people cannot exist without community and that social media platforms cannot completely fill the primal human need for connection. I truly hope the classroom can be a place that they feel safe and within a community if they don’t always feel such a connectedness outside.
Since reading bell hooks, I’ve really been trying to focus on this idea of self-actualizing and understanding how my own mental/physical state affects my students. Sometimes self-actualizing looks like making sure I have coffee and food before class. Other times, filling my own cup looks like taking a break from work that morning so I can focus on preparing my lesson. In either sense, I really value being able to meet my students where they’re at, which also includes doing the same for myself. This week I was glad to give some care, even if it’s just in the form of a reminder. I knew it’s what they needed. #HeartworkisHardwork when you see your students in pain, but it’s healing to remind them you’re there.
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