#coolhuskies

#coolhuskies

On August 22 of this year something strange happened. I experienced a moment where lots of thing that had been vaguely floating around my mind finally clicked into a clear focused idea. 8-22-14 was the day that Mike Smith came to speak at our school. Mike is from a small town in Nebraska who has made it his life's mission to make the world a better place by being nice to the people around him. This message is very much needed among middle school and high school students. I love teaching sophomores because they are awesome, fun, and creative (for example), but they can also be shockingly mean to each other. His message slapped me right in the face because it sounded eerily similar to my own story. Here is a sample of Mike Smith's message.

My Story

My story of life in high school was remarkably similar the the story that Mike shared with our students at Aurora. I went to a small country school from 2nd to 6th grade. When I entered the town school in junior high it didn't take long for me to realize I didn't really fit in with my classmates. All of my clothes were garage sale clothes and I never seemed to have jeans that actually fit. I did too well in school to be very popular and I our family didn't even have a tv at home so I read...a lot. Needless to say, I got made fun of quite a bit and didn't really have many friends. Then, as a freshman I made the varsity wrestling team and ended up qualifying for state. Now, because I was good at sports, things got much easier for me. You would think that after my experience in junior high, I would be understanding and friendly to the kids were in a similar situation, but I wasn't. I think I was scared that if I associated with those kids I would fall out of the cool kids group. I wasn't particularly mean to those kids but I would ignore them completely and never keep my cool friends from tormenting them. I felt like I had matured a lot in college and that I realized all the stupid stuff that everyone thought mattered in high school really didn't.
However, Mike Smith's presentation left me feeling like, as a teacher, I was still doing all those immature things. I was still treating students differently based on how popular they were, still focusing on the students that have everything together instead of the ones that need my attention, still pretending I didn't hear the insults and bullying because its easier to just ignore, and still not standing up for the students who needed me to have their backs the most. Although I pretended I had matured from my high school days, I really hadn't.




My New Mission

Before this revelation, I thought my main focus as a teacher needed to be to teach science to my students. I always get frustrated by cliches but :

I was losing my some of my students because, instead of having their back, I was saying "I don't care about you" with my actions and lack of action. I realized very quickly that I had to step up my game and it needed to be in such a way that my students would recognize that something was different. I decided on a 3 pronged approach:

1) Go to extra-curricular activities and encourage my students to attend as well. I feel that in my school there is a large gap between the students that do every possible activity and the students that don't do any activities. I am hoping students at each others events will narrow that gap and give students something in common to discuss. The only problem with this strategy is that I might be just helping the "rich get richer."

2) Make sure I am more visible to all students and friendly to all students. Too often I was in my own world at school, thinking about what I had to accomplish or what I wanted to teach that I would miss opportunities to show students I cared. I quick conversation in the hallway can go a long way, especially when I notice a student might not be having the best day. It is really amazing how much easier teaching is when your students know you have their backs versus cramming biology information down their throats.

3) Make a super sick hashtag showing the world how super awesome Aurora Husky students are! I decided to take a selfie with at least one former student everyday with a positive message. It has been so much fun asking students to take a selfie and I have been pleasantly surprised at how well it has been received. I have only missed 2 days and hopefully I won't miss any more. I have put a slideshow of these rockstars on my blog site. Here are a few of my favorites to whet your appetite. You can check out the whole slideshow here (#coolhuskies)

What do you do to show your students that they matter? How do you encourage students to be nice to each other? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments section!