Teaching Hope: Anticipation

The biggest thing I gained in reading this first section of Teaching Hope, titled “Anticipation,” was the realization that all teachers get nervous.  As a “clipboard” learner with concrete-sequential learning preferences, I like to have everything planned out well ahead of time so that I have a general idea of what to expect when it comes time to actually tackle an assignment or, in my future case, teach a classroom full of unique individuals.  The fact of the matter is, however, that students are unpredictable and more often than not, things don’t always go as planned.  This first section of the book certainly acted as a reminder of the constant need to think quickly and to improvise as a teacher, and most importantly, not to panic when things don’t go as planned.  Even the most mortifying instances can turn into the most effective “teachable moments.”

A couple stories that stood out to me in particular were #18 and #20, both of which involved students stealing and the teachers having to deal with the tricky situations at hand.  While the teachers were at first struck with panic and irritation, they were able to find composure and approach the students in a calm, effective manner and actually help them to learn something from their poor decisions.  For example, rather than immediately reprimanding the student who stole the Freedom Writer books, the teacher simply asked him (in private) why he stole them.  The teacher’s attempt to understand the student before anything else clearly demonstrates her concern for the student versus the stolen objects.  If she can’t help the student first, how is she going to make sure that such things don’t continue to happen?  Then, rather than explain to him herself why stealing is bad, she let his peers do the work, which probably had a greater effect on him than hearing it from a teacher.  In story #20, a teacher loses $300 dollars in cash to her students when the rampage her purse during a lesson.  She too turns this instance into a teachable moment by holding a class discussion on victims of robberies and assaults.  This lesson successfully teachers her students about empathy, something many of them are unfamiliar with.  Thus, these stories reminded me not to “react” when things go wrong (which is something I tend to do as a “feeler”) but to first think about the ways in which you can most effectively help your students learn from their mistakes.