How well do you know your
students? I mean really know them?
Knowing
your students stories is deeper than giving a survey to find out about their
background experiences and favorite food or how they like to learn best. You really know a student when you can tell
me their hopes, dreams, struggles, fears, passions, and purpose.
Here are three reasons why really
knowing them is not just important – but imperative if you want to consider
yourself a great educator.
1. Helps
to develop empathy in the teacher
Empathy
allows us to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. It is key in creating trust between individuals leading to a stable and healthy relationship. It enables an educator to peel away from
their professional costume and remember what it is to be human. By knowing a student’s story – you are
creating empathy within yourself toward that student.
2. Enables the teacher to be aware of student growth and success
If
you are a teacher, you are a leader. One
of the things great leaders do is celebrate their teams’ growth and
successes. By knowing your students
stories, you can celebrate growth. The
celebration can be as simple as writing a note to a student for maintaining
positive class participation even while her grandmother had been in the
hospital for the past few weeks.
3. Aligns
with OTES rubric
The OTES
rubic is one of our measuring sticks for teacher quality. It would make sense then that knowing our
students’ stories is a part of this rubric.
Use what you know about their stories to help you create a better
environment for your students to learn.
In
the OTES (Ohio Teacher Evaluation System), under the Instructional Planning
thread is Standard 1: Knowledge of Students.
According to ODE, an accomplished teacher will:
·
Demonstrate
an understanding of the purpose and value of learning about students’
background experiences
·
Demonstrate
familiarity with each student’s background knowledge and experiences
·
Describe
multiple procedures used to obtain this information.
·
The
teacher should use this data to guide their instructional strategies, plans,
and content delivery so that the needs of all students and groups of students
are met
