Online Reflection #3: Have some faith and keep on trying (a reflection on the not so participative students)!

We’ve all seen them. Either as a student or a pre-service teacher, we have all had those students. They are difficult. They sit there, stubborn as a rock, head down, and refuse to do anything. They tune you out. I’m not talking about the disruptive kids, we have many of those. I’m talking about the kid(s) that simply do not do anything. They don’t take notes. They don’t turn in homework. They don’t participate. They rarely even talk to anyone. Not that they don’t have friends, but they simply do not want to contribute. But is that really the case? Or is that just our perception? Maybe they want to contribute, but they feel that there is some barrier that is hindering them. Maybe they want to turn in that homework assignment, but they are afraid of what you will think of it. I want to be that teacher that gets that kid to do something. Anything. I’ve sat back and watched teachers just ignore them. I’ve heard the responses, “Well they are responsible for their education…”. Yes, that is true, they are responsible.

But high school is about learning. It is about growing. We are preparing them for college and we want them to make grown up decisions, and no, we are not their babysitter. But I’m going to just throw this out there…they still need us. We can’t just give up on them. It isn’t fair to them. It isn’t fair to us. It isn’t fair to the rest of your class. It just isn’t fair.

I know for a fact that I will have these students in my future classroom. I’m also fairly positive, even though I’d like to think I’ll be super-teacher (I mean who doesn’t want that?), that I will have a kid that I simply cannot reach. I hope that will not happen. I hope that I will be able to reach these kids. But sometimes, you can’t. But the one thing that I’m not going to do is give up on them. From the first day until the last day that they walk out of my door for the last time, I’m going to try. That is all I can do. If they don’t respond to me, at least I tried. I will probably feel like a failure (I know that I’m not), but it will still come. We all have self-doubt and question our self-worth. But I will force myself to remember, that I tried.

So…how do we try though? According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, there are certain strategies to implement when dealing with challenging students. The first is one that I have already stressed. Authors Mark and Christine Boynton (2015) write that, “As a teacher, it is important that you go out of your way to show your students that you like and value them. Simply going out of your way to greet your challenging students each morning or asking them questions about sports or hobbies they are interested in is a way to display that interest, which in turn fosters positive relationships.” This is one thing that I myself find difficulty with as a pre-service teacher: finding something to talk to them about. I feel like it will come easier in my own classroom as I get to know each class of students as well as the school that I will be working in. But this one important thing is the equivalent to trying; you are letting them know that you are interested in them and that you care.

I have a student in my classroom this semester, which for privacy purposes I will refer to as John, that is one of these kids. He sits there. He doesn’t participate. He rarely takes notes. I honestly cannot wrap my mind around him. It was only after my first lesson that John and me really started to actually talk to each other. I had had conversations with some of the other students, but I could tell that John was starting to feel comfortable asking me for help.

Before that, I did not have much communication with John. I remember when we took a grammar quiz, there were simple questions (what is a noun, was one of them) and he just sat there. He put his name at the top and then put his pencil down. I watched him for a while and I didn’t really know how to respond. One of the co-teachers in the room started to give him a little boost and tell him to put something down. He didn’t pass the quiz, but the thing with John is, he knew the answers.

I struck up a curiosity about John and started questioning my mentor teacher about him. The class I am in is AP Language. The previous year, John was in a regular English class (and from what I know he did participate) and then he decided to challenge himself. Well day one came around, he met the students in the class, and he gave up. He had just decided that he could not compete with the kids in the class and decided not to participate at all, instead of attempting to participate and potentially feeling embarrassed.

John doesn’t hate school. As far as I’m aware, he does not have family problems. He has friends and outside of the classroom, he is social with others. He is not on an IEP and he does not have any problems with the classroom teachers. His one problem was that he felt he could not live up to the demands of this class and he did not want to feel embarrassed in front of his peers. So he plays the part of a student who does not want to participate, but I truly believe he does. He is just afraid to.

If we had given up on John from the get go, how would we have found out about this? We wouldn’t’ have. John is still having troubles, but he is doing far better than he was. He turned in an assignment to me and it was well done. He is a smart kid who just needed some encouragement. Some days, he completely tunes me out. Other days, he asks for my help or the help of the co-teacher. We just have to work with him on a day by day basis. But we will not give up on him. He has done nothing wrong. And even if John had not responded to any of us and to this day he still hadn’t, I would still be trying tomorrow. Because he deserves that. All of our students do.

References

Boynton, M., & Boynton, C. (2015). Dealing with challenging students. Retrieved November 6, 2015, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105124/chapters/Dealing-with-Challenging-Students.aspx