Allison Behne
Last Thursday my son, Nathan, had an appointment out of town during the school day. Knowing he would be at school for less than an hour before needing to leave, my husband and I told him he didn’t need to go that morning and could sleep in a little longer. His response floored us: “Do I have to? Can’t I go and start the day and then you pick me up?”
I pressed for an explanation. “Really? You will only be there forty-five minutes. Tell me more.” His answer brought me happiness and satisfaction, and made me reflect on my teaching all at the same time. He said, “When Mrs. Hupp talks, I know I am learning something. Every minute I miss of school, my friends learn something from her and I miss out.”
Wow.
As I continued the discussion with Nathan, he told me four things that Mrs. Hupp does for her class that has him on the edge of his seat, waiting for more:
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“When we are about to learn something, she explains to us why it is really cool so we are excited about it.” She creates a sense of urgency.
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“She also talks about it in a way we can understand. If she knows we like soccer or basketball or a certain movie or TV show, she finds a way to bring that into what she is teaching us so we understand it better.” She relates to them by accessing prior knowledge and personal interests.
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“She learns right along with us. She isn’t an adult that thinks she knows everything. If we ask her something and she doesn’t know, we find the answer together. Sometimes she comes up with new questions like we do, and then we all have time to explore and find answers. She doesn’t just tell us. It is kind of like she is learning too, but she is just the smartest one in our class.” She is a lifelong learner and models her thinking and questioning for her students.
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“She laughs and smiles. You know, Mom, not all teachers do that. It makes me want to listen to her.” She is happy and makes learning fun.
So now I completely understand why he wanted to go to school, even if it was only for a short time. I would want to go to school too if I were Nathan and had this to look forward to.
There is a very valuable lesson in this short conversation with my 10-year-old son and it leaves questions for us to reflect upon: What are we doing to make our students treasure their learning time in our classroom? If they could come for only the first 45 minutes of the day, would they?
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