I’ve been feeling, of late, insignificant to my own classroom. Not to my students, not to their learning, but to others’ expectations of me -- the educator. If I select a mentor text, analysis topic, or plan a learning experience, I feel almost like I’ve done something wrong, like I’m now one of those old-fashioned and ineffective teachers complained about in social media threads. Perhaps the engagement level in my room was near-perfection and the students’ energy was palpable, yet focused. Perhaps the students sat in their seats, contemplating staying when the bell rang. Perhaps my smile was at its max from insights and ideas in discussion. If the topic choice was mine or the pace predetermined, I feel like I’ve failed. I’ve selected the wrong side in the current educational debate over the role of the teacher. I must singularly decide: Am I a sage on stage or a guide on the side? Am I a person leading or a leader personalizing? Do I contain the knowledge or do I push the pursuit?
My IB English students are currently reading Toni Morrison’s Sula -- a text I selected from a prescribed book list written by the International Baccalaureate organization. Throughout our studies, I do not offer my own interpretation of the text but I do design discussions, thinking activities, stylistic writing prompts, etc. to lead students’ studies. I also run discussion-heavy classes to prepare students for a set interview-like assessment at the end of their studies, one that counts toward potential college-credit. While I picked the novel, the students own its interpretation. Each year during our studies of Sula, with my indirect guidance, IB English seniors discuss the reliability -- or, more specifically, lack thereof -- in approaching life’s elements as one of two possibilities. They tend to believe that neither Sula nor Nel, the novel’s protagonists, can be good or evil -- as the other characters suggest. This year, to the delight of my literary heart, John Green published a Crash Course Literature video on the novel pursuing similar thoughts. In his video commentary, Green describes Morrison as asking readers to “reconsider assumptions that emerge from binary thinking.” He notes that in such thoughts “one term tends to dominate -- to be privileged” over the other. In this spirit and with consideration to my feelings of insignificance, I want to challenge current conversations about educators. Why must I be one role or the other? I want to teach as a sage on the side -- when it’s best of the learners. I want to guide from the “stage” -- when it’s best for the learners. I want to personalize student learning -- when it’s best for the learners. I want to learn about students as people -- when it’s best for the learners. I want to help students master content -- when it’s best for the learners. I want to be adored and a friend -- when it’s best for the learners. I want to be respected and a mentor -- when it’s best for the learners. I want to be all the roles I can be and take all the approaches I can take -- for the best of my learners Why must I choose to be on the side or in the center to my students’ learning ? Why can’t I -- as challenging an endeavor as I can imagine -- be committedly central to it? - Amy
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