A Key to Community: Vulnerability
One of the things we stress in our CI classrooms is the need for community. It's something that I've put more focus and effort into building this year, and I think I figured out one (pretty obvious - duh!) place to start... being vulnerable.
If we want our students to share about themselves in class and grow closer together, we must model that for them. Many of them may come from situations where being open, honest and real isn't what is expected. Some of us may come from backgrounds where that is just not what our families expected from us. Sometimes this is an adjustment for both teacher and students.
1) I ask them how they are and actually care about their responses. It might be before school or during lunch duty when I see a student who looks tired or doesn't have their usual bubbly smile. I always try to ask them how they are doing. If they respond with anything that indicates something is wrong. I ask why why or what's going on. I never push them for more information, but I ALWAYS ask, "Is there anything I can do to help the situation?" during the discussion. If they do want to share, I listen and try to empathize with what they are sharing. Just last week one of my 6th graders stopped me after school to share that the family cat they've had his whole life was going to have to be put to sleep that evening. What a privilege that he chose ME to share that with. I cannot take that for granted. Being open and willing to hear them (even if they choose not to share), begins to show them that you care. Caring about 160+ students and being willing to hear their stories requires us to be vulnerable. It might hurt, it might make us smile, it might make us SO frustrated, but it is a part of being truly invested in someone else. They may not have anyone else that is truly invested in them as a human being.
2) I don't try to cover up how I'm feeling or what's happening in my life. Since I take a genuine interest in asking them how they are most days, they will often ask the same question of me. Sometimes it's in class, but sometimes it's not. When a student asks me, "How are you?" I don't lie to them. Most of the time I'm good, but some days I'm really exhausted or frustrated, and I'm not afraid to share that. Most of the time when my answer isn't "good" they will follow it up with "Why?" (The simple fact that they want to know why their teacher isn't good is a huge win in itself!) If this happens in L2 in class, it allows me to give them an opportunity to make a connection in SPANISH. Which is exactly why we learn languages, right? If it happens outside of class, I can still make that connection.
3) I share parts of my life that previously I would have shied away from sharing. I have grown a lot personally and professionally by making the switch to teaching for acquisition. A part of that growth has come from the idea that if I want my students to feel safe and comfortable in my classroom, then I need to show them that they can trust me. How do I build trust? By being open, honest, and finding ways that they can relate to me. The first time I shared my family tree with a class this year, they laughed. Like actually laughed when I was explaining parts of it. Instead of getting mad and vowing to never reveal parts of my life again, I took that as an opportunity to have a real conversation with them about what families look like. I KNOW for a fact that some of my students have family trees similar to mine, and if I allowed the students to laugh at mine, what does that say about how they students would respect each other's families? So, the next time I shared, I took a few minutes before to explain in English that we need to be respectful of everyone's unique family and really listen and learn about each other. You can see in the video below, that this class was SUPER engaged in learning about my family. This is probably the quietest they've been all year for input. Hopefully they picked up some Spanish through this lesson, but more importantly, hopefully, I've continued to build connections that will grow with these students who I will teach for the next two years.
How are you vulnerable in your classes? What is your favorite way to build community?
If we want our students to share about themselves in class and grow closer together, we must model that for them. Many of them may come from situations where being open, honest and real isn't what is expected. Some of us may come from backgrounds where that is just not what our families expected from us. Sometimes this is an adjustment for both teacher and students.
Here are some ways that I've tried to model vulnerability in front of my students:
1) I ask them how they are and actually care about their responses. It might be before school or during lunch duty when I see a student who looks tired or doesn't have their usual bubbly smile. I always try to ask them how they are doing. If they respond with anything that indicates something is wrong. I ask why why or what's going on. I never push them for more information, but I ALWAYS ask, "Is there anything I can do to help the situation?" during the discussion. If they do want to share, I listen and try to empathize with what they are sharing. Just last week one of my 6th graders stopped me after school to share that the family cat they've had his whole life was going to have to be put to sleep that evening. What a privilege that he chose ME to share that with. I cannot take that for granted. Being open and willing to hear them (even if they choose not to share), begins to show them that you care. Caring about 160+ students and being willing to hear their stories requires us to be vulnerable. It might hurt, it might make us smile, it might make us SO frustrated, but it is a part of being truly invested in someone else. They may not have anyone else that is truly invested in them as a human being.
2) I don't try to cover up how I'm feeling or what's happening in my life. Since I take a genuine interest in asking them how they are most days, they will often ask the same question of me. Sometimes it's in class, but sometimes it's not. When a student asks me, "How are you?" I don't lie to them. Most of the time I'm good, but some days I'm really exhausted or frustrated, and I'm not afraid to share that. Most of the time when my answer isn't "good" they will follow it up with "Why?" (The simple fact that they want to know why their teacher isn't good is a huge win in itself!) If this happens in L2 in class, it allows me to give them an opportunity to make a connection in SPANISH. Which is exactly why we learn languages, right? If it happens outside of class, I can still make that connection.
3) I share parts of my life that previously I would have shied away from sharing. I have grown a lot personally and professionally by making the switch to teaching for acquisition. A part of that growth has come from the idea that if I want my students to feel safe and comfortable in my classroom, then I need to show them that they can trust me. How do I build trust? By being open, honest, and finding ways that they can relate to me. The first time I shared my family tree with a class this year, they laughed. Like actually laughed when I was explaining parts of it. Instead of getting mad and vowing to never reveal parts of my life again, I took that as an opportunity to have a real conversation with them about what families look like. I KNOW for a fact that some of my students have family trees similar to mine, and if I allowed the students to laugh at mine, what does that say about how they students would respect each other's families? So, the next time I shared, I took a few minutes before to explain in English that we need to be respectful of everyone's unique family and really listen and learn about each other. You can see in the video below, that this class was SUPER engaged in learning about my family. This is probably the quietest they've been all year for input. Hopefully they picked up some Spanish through this lesson, but more importantly, hopefully, I've continued to build connections that will grow with these students who I will teach for the next two years.
How are you vulnerable in your classes? What is your favorite way to build community?
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