Teachers Please STOP Saying This to Your Students
36. That’s the number of years in my life that I have spent in a school setting both as a student and as a teacher. Throughout this time I have heard many lines spoken by teachers in the halls, classes, and staff rooms that have made me laugh, cry, question, feel confused, get angry and more. While emotions do play a pivotal role in the learning process, I believe we as teachers need to be very mindful of what we say to our students and consider the intended and unintended effects of our words. We want to ensure that we are supporting, encouraging, and challenging our students in appropriate ways and not confusing, misleading or giving them false impressions about themselves and/or the world around them.
While there are many traditional lines that have been used in schools to warn and/or scare students into compliance, there is one that makes me cringe every time I hear it.
Foggy Glasses Clouding My Perceptions: Lessons Learned from an Addicted Learner
It is often said that “perception is reality” and that has definitely been the case for me throughout this past school year. Now that the year is over I have taken the time to step back and reflect on my experiences throughout the year and I have realized that I made an unfortunate mistake: I did not clean my glasses. In saying this I am referring to the fact that I did not effectively take the time throughout the year to reflect on what was going on and what I was learning through it all. As a result, my ‘lenses’ became quite foggy and clouded my mind as I progressed throughout the year. This had a profound impact on my mindset, relationships with others, and strongly contributed to my distorted perception of this year being “the toughest professional year of my life.”