For the first time, my student attendance in 2140 is lacking. Lacking it is putting it mildly. I had a total of 10 students show up to recitation. All semester, I had my consistent 22 students showing up in mind and body. However, I noticed the past two weeks students felt and looked drained. Attendance decreased. I hoped perhaps getting past midterms might alleviate some of the tension. Standing in front of the room, faces of tired and fed up students stared back.
Uncomfortable.
As one might imagine, losing half my class felt personal. It felt like I had somehow become someone not worth seeing. I hate admitting and recognizing the excess of ego in that form of thought. I reached out to a fellow TA (Cyn) and asked for some advice. How many of your students are still showing up? Are they active in class? What are you doing in recitation to keep them engaged? Cyn, of course, replied with a candid answer, "I let them complain." I felt like an idiot. I stressed about my students without ever considering listening to them. Dannels (2015) would be sorely disappointed by my behavior. Dannels (2015) argued effective teaching resided in approaching the classroom with holistic interactions. Rather, an instructor needs to move beyond traditional academic instruction. Dannels (2015) noted passion within the classroom called for:
"engaging with students in interactions about their non-academic lives" (p. 209)
recognizing how my teaching practices offset or acknowledge their lived experience" (p. 209)
In the following recitation, I asked students if they were willing to participate in a unique icebreaker. For three uninterrupted minutes, students are able to complain to their peers, me, or in a journal regarding any stressors in their lives! Without hesitation, students took to the activity. Individuals started explaining shitty work environments, coursework, or minor annoyances. It felt like a veil of distress had been lifted just by acknowledging their anxieties. Moreover, I recognized this was a time to not only request for student vulnerabilities but reciprocate my own. I explained to some students my own stress about the current workload, and for a brief moment, we all felt seen and heard. We recognized our identities away from the restricting space of a classroom, and it brought life back into the space. I cannot really account for how the students felt, but I recognize how present I felt again. Reading the room, students seemed re-focused and engaged for the first time in a couple of weeks. As I continue to teach throughout the semester, I find it prudent to recognize how teaching styles need to support the demands of the students. However, not only in terms of academics but in relation to their entire persons. I will never be a perfect instructor, but if I teach #ForThem, perhaps I can be a valuable one.
Shout out to Cyn for providing this classroom icebreaker! I cannot imagine teaching this semester without all of the insight and help you provide. When I think about our journey this semester as TA’s, I find comfort in this Hooks (1994) quote, “ The academy is not a paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created” (p. 207).
Dannels, Deanna. (2015). Eight Essential Questions Teachers Ask: A Guidebook for Communicating with Students.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.
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