Carly Wade
Tarim Chung (English): We’ve also seen in a teacher a classroom persona that’s effective and true, and a public persona that’s quite different, but also effective and true. Maybe we all begin teaching as we were taught—we assume the style of our heroes. Josh: My favorite teacher of all time had absolutely no interest in speaking to people outside of class, but in class he was the most engaging person. Going to his office hours was like going backstage. Walter: He was a great actor. Josh: But here, we live with our students, so the job requires a much greater sense of honesty. Paul Archer (Classics): Being the classicist, the old-fashioned guy, I think classroom management is also important, best done when not seen. It can create a shared sense of purpose, in a place where differences matter. Tracy: When students who are not strong in our subject come to class excited—that means something is going right.
Elizabeth: I like when students in my classroom attribute ideas to each other, a sign of a community emerging from the learning experience. Carly: I try to model that behavior. Very often when I speak, I am connecting students’ points. Jenn: I love when in April a student references something said in September. The conversation has been alive for them, reverberating in their heads. It gives permission for the rest of the class to believe that conversations can seep out into their real lives. Carly: Over the years, I’ve learned to teach the students that are in my classroom—to try to meet students where they are and guide the material accordingly. Walter: I agree with that. Tarim: Though I wonder if the teachers we remember are the ones that were more generous with us or were those who drew a line in the sand and found some nice way of saying, “This is the standard and you are not meeting it at the moment.”
Jenn: I want to pick up on Paul’s comment about classroom management. We manage a classroom well if students’ fascination with the material and each other will actually tether them to good behavior in a way that our explicit restrictions probably never could. Tarim: Where does our command of the material fall in importance? Kim: Being smart, by itself, doesn’t cut it. Of course, you need to know your discipline; you need to be a lifelong learner, but I don’t think intelligence is everything. Carly: The more I learned about history, the more I was able to bring every student into the discussion. Elizabeth: Teaching biology often means saying, “Honestly, I don’t know the answer to your question.” Tomorrow’s understanding of an issue in my field can negate what we think today. That’s fun, but it also makes me vulnerable. Carly: I have always found that students like when a teacher acknowledges that. Milton Magazine
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