A good deal of teaching is about balancing. We try to create a balance between a classroom that has too many rules and expectations and a classroom without enough of them. We try to balance a classroom between having too much fun and not enough learning and too much content without much fun. We try to balance between presenting ourselves as strong and confident figures who have everything perfectly planned and presenting ourselves as open and vulnerable beings willing to take risks. It’s a lot easier to stick with the former. If you are like me, you love control. You cherish a lesson where you know exactly what is going to happen, where things move along exactly as you had orchestrated them, and where everybody does exactly what they had been instructed to do.
With that said, I must admit that some of my most transformative educational moments have come when I have been forced to drop the original plan and improvise. They are moments when I have acknowledged that things were not working out and that we would have to make adjustments. It can be uncomfortable. It means that you have to publicly admit that you were wrong or that you had been “less-than-prepared” for the event and would need to make a change.
Here are some thoughts on opening yourself up to being vulnerable.
Building Trust. Day One is not the right time to take the risk or to be vulnerable. There is an ingredient that must be established first, and that ingredient is trust. It is something that has to be established for both the teacher and the students. They need to know that they can speak and participate and engage without being ridiculed or shamed, and you need to know that you can be playful and have fun without having the class go completely off the rails. They need to know that you are competent, organized, thoughtful, and caring, which means that the early days of class are pretty important to setting that tone. They also need to know that when things go poorly, that you care, that you are going to follow-up with them and that they are always welcome and safe in your classroom.
Weekly Letters. I will preface this suggestion by stating that it is not possible for every teacher to do this. In intervention settings where class sizes are smaller, it makes total sense, but when there are upwards of thirty or forty students per section, it simply wouldn’t be possible, at least not on a weekly basis. However, one way I am able to establish relationships with students is through our weekly letters. Each week, they write me a letter / reflection around what we have been studying, but I also encourage them to include a little about their current joys and struggles if they feel comfortable doing so. In most cases, students actually write more about what is on their hearts than on what we have been studying. I figure that as long as we are exercising the writing muscle, building relationships, and discussing ways to improve academic performance, we have progress. These letters have been amazing opportunities to communicate with students, to see past some of the bad choices, and to help them in a very personal way.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask For Forgiveness. I make so many mistakes. It is a huge downside to taking calculated risks. You are bound to fail. And it isn’t just pedagogical mistakes, it is the interpersonal mistakes as well. I do not recall having a lot of teachers who were willing to admit when they were wrong, but I do recall the few times it happened and how much I appreciated their willingness to own their mistake and promise to do better. It would not be wise to make a regular habit of it (since it would indicate that despite making mistakes, you are not really taking the steps to fixing them), but I think it does a lot to establish a sense of connection and community that can sometimes be so allusive in a class.
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