What is a teacher?

As future teachers, we go through years and years of school and learn all about what we, as a teacher, as expected to teach. Multiple grades, various subjects, Knows, Dos and Bes, life skills like holding a pencil and communicating with others, and literacy skills that stretch far beyond just knowing how to read and write. This list of what teachers are expected to teach to their students could go on and on forever. Are we, as teachers, expected to be an expert on every single topic? If you ask a young child, they will say yes, but in reality, the answer is no way!

 

 

I found an excellent video that explains what teachers are (see above). Never once did it say that teachers need to know everything or be perfect. However, teachers do need to be motivated, positive and passionate about learning and growth. This passion about learning and growth got me thinking…aren’t teachers also students? Ironically, I had a personal example of this last weekend. One of my gymnasts was very excited to tell her friends that she bought her first communion dress. This sparked comments from the other girls about how many communion dresses they tried on until they bought one, and how excited they were to go to the church with their school. After this conversation, another one of the girls in the group came up and asked me what a first communion was. Although I had a good idea of what a first communion is, I never went to a catholic school and therefore I have never attended one. Instead of trying to give her half an answer that would not be complete or necessarily accurate, I decided to instead ask one of the girls who had already had a communion. She was more than happy to explain, and gave a much more thorough answer than I could have ever given. Not only did the children learn something, but I learned a lot too. In those 5 minutes I learned a lot because I asked an expert, and it did not matter that the expert happened to be a grade three student. I am glad I had this learning opportunity for the gymnasts but also for myself.

So, how does this connect to the literacies?  It is likely that we, as future teachers, would not consider ourselves complete experts on every single literacy. So, how can we be the ‘experts’ that the children expect us to be, when we do not feel like experts ourselves?  I am going to propose a few different ways to be confident in teaching skills that we are not experts on, but this is just a small, general sample of what you can do.

 

First, like I did, you can ASK AN EXPERT. This may be an expert from the community, such as a professor, a teacher who feels more skilled, or a parent. This also could include a person who works in one of the professions, such as a banker discussing financial literacy, someone who works in an Ontario park to talk about environmental literacy, or someone from a media company to discuss advertisements. It is important to note that these people do not have to be professionals…a few months ago my younger brother, who is currently a college student, was asked to Skype into a high school classroom in British Columbia to discuss how he advertises online to sell music he creates in his bedroom-turned-music-studio. Do not be afraid for asking for help!

Next, you can BECOME AN EXPERT. However, I would recommend that you are intrinsically motivated to learn, otherwise the results will be less desirable for both you and your student. Thankfully, with literacies, there are so many different facets in each literacy that every teacher is bound to feel interested in or personally connected to at least one aspect!

 

Most importantly, ENJOY THE JOURNEY. Work with your students and enjoy the give and take. Disregard beliefs that you must know everything, and teach with a love of learning for you and your students.

 

Did you know that by creating a lesson, you will be using 21^st century literacy skills? Deciding what to teach and how to teach it, especially if you are using innovative lessons, involve critical literacy. Digital literacy can be used anytime a computer or other form of technology is used to search up sample activities or lessons other teachers have used. And, the moral literacy of the teacher will be used as they decide what is or is not something that they believe to be important and appropriate for students to learn. I bet you didn’t even realize how often you use some of these skills…maybe you are more of an expert than you thought! This allows you to be a role model for students, and by explaining what you are doing and your process, you are explaining part of the 21^st century literacy skills.

 

So, the main point of this blog post is that you will make an amazing teacher! Knowing every single thing is not possible, but having an open, positive attitude towards learning is possible! Learn with your students and colleagues around you. Even though your lectures in university may be done, that doesn’t mean you stop learning. So what is a teacher? A great teacher is MANY different things, but one of those things is that a teacher is not an expert, but they are a student who never stops learning!

 

This quote that I saw on Facebook stood out to me, because I’ve seen it to be true as a gymnastics coach myself. Recently, I’ve noticed that I spend a large portion of the class on teaching character. This includes emphasizing good sportsmanship, teamwork, sharing, and manners in addition to the gymnastics curriculum I am expected to teach the gymnasts. To be honest, I find that I have a much stronger relationship with my gymnasts, and this results in more trust. This relationship is KEY. Having a trusting relationship enables me to know the kids in my classes better, which leads to lessons that are tailored to their goals and needs, and to have a trusting relationship with each child. When I am helping young children learn to handstand on a 4 inch wide beam or flip backwards over a bar, trust is necessary. This trust also allows the gymnasts to learn even more gymnastics skills in their time at the gym, since they are able to learn with less feelings of fear. Fear in the gym often comes from fear of failure, fear of getting hurt, fear of not achieving something that their classmates have learned, and fear of judgement from others. The classes are definitely not always perfect, but I would say that the classes run a lot smoother once the class is supportive of one another. When everyone is comfortable in the social environment, the classes have a lot more smiles, laughs and success stories! I realize that it is my responsibility to educate a PERSON, not just an athlete.

How does this relate to literacies in the classroom? This lesson about educating a person is related to multicultural and mental health literacies for both a teacher and students. Multicultural literacy encompasses the fact that there are various cultures, races, genders, ages, and most common in this example, abilities (Hawkins, 2014). A teacher can promote a multicultural culture by being a role model. This includes demonstrating (implicitly and/or explicitly) that not everyone has to be at the same level of ability all the time, and that it is ok. In the gym, I am constantly teaching children that different people master skills at different times, and that any new skill is a reason to celebrate. We celebrate the small things as well as the big things, to promote that everyone is successful in their own way.

 By creating a supportive environment, mental health literacy can become easier to teach. Often, mental health is a touchy subject, and can be hard to talk about for teachers or students. It becomes even harder to have a conversation about mental health if students (or teachers) have the same fears as my gymnasts: fear of failure (to open up about personal situations), fear of getting hurt (bullying after disclosing information), and fear of judgement from others (particularly with stigmas). However, if the teacher is able to form a trusting relationship with their students, the students will be more likely to open and know that they are not alone. Just like my gymnasts trust me to not drop them, students who trust their teacher will feel able to disclose information without fear of a negative experience. If a teacher is able to pass on this trusting relationship to all the students in the class, and create a supportive atmosphere, mental health literacy will become even easier to approach and teach in the classroom, and instances of mental health will likely decrease.

 

 

So, in order to be a better teacher, you need to remember that school is not just a place for learning your multiplication tables or where to put commas, but it is also a place to learn how to support others and be a good person. Teachers should remember that they are not just teaching a student, but they are teaching a person with many needs, including a need for safety and security and a sense of belonging, according to Maslow’s hierarchy. When teachers are able to move beyond the curriculum and teach the person, it will become easier to teach the curriculum as well as 21^st century literacies. Overall, by teaching students how to be better people, your classroom will become better people, and the overall environment will improve! A better environment leads to better learning!

I challenge you all to give it a try! Try to connect to the one student that you can’t seem to get through to, or take advantage of a ‘teachable moment’ this week and teach students how to respect and support one another. Although positive results will take time, it is not impossible! I would love to hear your stories about how you teach people, not just students.

References:

Hawkins, K. (2014). Teaching for social justice, social responsibility and social inclusion: a

respectful pedagogy for twenty-first century early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(5), 723-738.