if i could design a course of classes for upcoming teachers i would create some new courses. i think they'd be a lot more helpful than what many of us took in college... some current teachers could even take them too... and believe me, if these courses were offered somewhere i'd be signing up for some refresher courses in a couple of them myself. in fact i'm sitting here reminding myself not to judge because i'm sure i'm guilty of some of these things myself. God forgive me...
how about?
- Let It Go 101- a course to help people learn to not be so anal and helping them to identify which battles are worth fighting and which ones are better let go to fight another day or to just never worry about again...
- Prioritize 103- a must for today's teacher- this course would help teachers understand just what they will really face (not what college profs tell you, but the real, nitty-gritty truth of teaching) & how to look at each day/week/month's demands, figure out what is the most important thing(s) and start there and leave the little stuff for later or never... this is a lesson i'm learning now after giving myself high blood pressure and killer acid/heartburn/ulcer-ish symptoms these past two years... wish someone would have offered me this course a loooong time ago (oh wait, my parents tried & i was too dense to get it!) :)
- Open Your Mind & Close Your Mouth 302- this class would be for those teachers/teachers-to-be who need to learn to engage their brain and close their mouth to help them learn to not say stupid things to or about students and their families.
- Let Go of Pettiness 457- this course would help teachers learn to not be petty about things that don't change what they do or affect their work in the least; teachers will learn to not worry about other people's planning time, who is the principal's "pet," or who gets the credit for stuff but just to go to work each day, focus on the kids and do their best; teachers will learn to celebrate others' successes, to cheer for their fellow teachers and support each other in the hard times; teachers would sign a contract to help them remember that negativity and gossip will cause a school to fail just as quickly as any other factor
- Walk a Mile 228- this class would teach participants that it's easy to judge when you've not walked in someone else's life or circumstances but better to give compassion & grace to each student & family regardless. it would provide hands on learning activities in humiliating life experiences with the goal of helping participants to build a "bank of compassion" that they could draw from even when they don't understand or approve of their students &/or families' lifestyles or choices. these hands-on experiences would include: buying groceries with food stamps & listening to other customer's & cashier's comments &/or see their disapproving looks, going to the welfare office & filling out an application for assistance, being refused medical care for lack of insurance or because you have a medicaid card, standing in a food line at a shelter or food bank, going without meals because there is no food, living in a car or on the street or sleeping in a shelter because you are homeless, dealing with an angry child who acts out and having to have a conference with the teacher &/or school where they judge you & make you feel like less... the focus of this course would not be similar to the ruby payne "poverty" course that so many educators go through, it would be real & dirty and hard, but participants won't have an "understanding" of the "culture of poverty" when they're done, they'll understand, 1st hand, how it feels to be judged, looked down on, put down & disliked just because they're poor and in the end, they'll look at students & families in a totally new way.
- Give a Damn 400- this course would teach teachers to actually care about their students' lives beyond the school campus, beyond their classroom walls, to see each child's "big picture" and take it into account when looking at and dealing with their problem behaviors, their lack of learning, their family history... and it would teach teachers to show a little care, a little love, a little compassion to every child- not just the best or the brightest.
- RESPECT- Give It To Get It 499- this would be the final course for all teachers; teachers would learn that they cannot get the respect they want and deserve if they don't give it to ALL students ALL the time. this course would help teachers learn that students are wiser than they realize and that children can see through us, through what we say to how we act and how we treat their fellow classmates. this course will help teachers realize that when we talk about respect to our children, but then treat one student poorly, the children see right through our act, they watch what we do much more than they listen to what we say. when they see us treat others with less respect they learn to treat others poorly themselves, thus breeding disrespect and unhappiness. the final exam for this course would be to provide daily doses of respect to every single child, regardless of their behavior, their social standing, their parents' lives, their looks, clothes, smarts, whether they "deserve it" or not in the teacher's book, but to give it because EVERY SINGLE human being on the face of the earth deserves love & respect just for being alive.
God help me to be a better teacher than I've ever been. I can't fix all the problems of society, of my community, school or even my own classroom. All I can do is work on me with Your help, and I'm sure wanting to improve this teacher. Please help me to be better next week than I was last, to fix the things You're showing me that need fixed and keep my eyes on You, the final prize, and on what's most important to me- the least of these that You love. Help me to remember all this and do better.
