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Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion

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Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, “They don’t pay me to like the kids.” Her response: “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.’” A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

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“Accommodate now” (Valuing differences: Neurodiversity in the classroom, Rentenbach, Prislovsky, & Gabriel)by providing students with multiple modes of literacies to help with their learning.
Be flexible with your teaching. Every student is different and learns differently, so make changes to your teaching as necessary to reach every student.
Students express their learning in different ways, so give them different options to demonstrate their learning.

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Ask lots of questions! When the teacher asks their students questions it encourages them to ask you questions too. It is okay if none of you have the answers, as long as you are coming up with ideas to find them (Carjuzaa & Kellough, pg. 294).
Be respectful of everyone around you. We do not have the same beliefs, so keep that in mind when having discussions in class.
Listen to understand, not to respond.
Ask for help. It is okay to need help. That is what we are here for.
Speak up for yourself and for others.

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Treat students with the respect and kindness you would like to receive in return.

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Having empathy will allow me to understand my students and their experiences. I have had a lot of experiences that prevented me from prioritizing school, and I am very grateful to the teachers I had that were very understanding and allowed me to complete tasks at my own pace. They were kind and patient with me and I will be the same to my students. I will also be considerate of their backgrounds and beliefs. Being mindful of their backgrounds can help me navigate the topics I will cover in class. I can also point my students to different resources they may need to help them or their families. Even if they are struggling and misbehaving, I will always see the best in them. They have a lot to offer and defining them by their behavior will only hurt our relationship. I will not ever see my students as the behaviors they display when they have bad days. Everyone has bad days and that is okay. Your bad days and the mistakes you make on them do not define you.

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Have empathy.
Be kind.
Be considerate.
Always look for the best in people.

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Although I know that students make mistakes and have bad days, when they do misbehave or do things inappropriate for a classroom setting, or are disrespectful to their peers and teachers, it is important to recognize the mistakes they made and help them learn from those mistakes. Sending students out of class to the principal’s office or suspending them does not deal with the issues, only dismisses them. Any issues that students may have need to be addressed and the punishments should match the crimes (Restorative Justice in School: An Overview, Jennifer Gonzalez).
Disagreements will come up in class. Students should be allowed to voice their opinions without feeling ridiculed by their peers or their teachers. Teachers should provide students with a safe environment to speak up and express themselves. Give every student a voice. They deserve to be heard.
I will not always be right and know all of the answers. Part of my classroom management will be asking the students what they need from me, what they think works best for them, and how we can best work together. Students should be involved in the decision-making. Students should have a say in the things that they learn in class

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It is important to think of your classroom of students as full of individuals going through their own life experiences. Although school is important, students are human and have their own human experiences and will likely struggle, as we all do. So when teaching, be mindful of these experiences and have some patience. Students may not always be where you expect them to be in their learning and that is OKAY! Be curious about them and their lives and do your best to relate their learning to their experiences. Just remember, we are all learning and growing together.
Since I want to promote individuality in my classroom, I believe that it would be important to include topics that relate to my students’ identities. It is so crucial that we don’t shy away from topics that could be considered controversial because then it could make students feel silenced. Important topics are usually uncomfortable, and that’s okay. What matters is that we foster an environment that is safe to have this type of learning, that is safe for students to express themselves in.