Classroom Practice

What we teach in elementary school matters to students now and when they go to college. I’m not just talking about fundamental reading, writing and arithmetic. But rather six principles I stressed years ago when I was a fourth-grade teacher in Westwood, Mass. Turns out that the basic concepts about life I taught were critical for their advancement in higher education.

In the course of the day, sometimes, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choices and decisions to be made, I miss the big moments.

Take a day last fall. We were coming from lunch when I noticed that Brendan was crying. “Malia, why is Brendan crying?” I asked.

“Oh, he’s sad that his caterpillars got let go,” she said.

Classroom discussions are usually dominated by a few “alpha” students eager to participate. We can all envision those students. Hands stretched high, fingers waving, literally or figuratively saying, “Ooh, pick me, pick me.” But how do you get that student who is desperately trying not to make eye contact with you—or anyone else in the classroom—involved in the conversation? 

My student Belinda got into a fight last year. It wasn’t a prissy, slappy, name-calling fight, either. It was a reality television-worthy, punch- throwing, eye-bruising fight that didn’t end until Belinda’s opponent had ripped the weave out of her hair and waved it around in front of the student spectators.

During one particularly frenetic transition in the classroom recently, Mila  bounded up to me and asked, “Mrs. B, do you think I could be a writer someday?”

Without blinking, I emphatically replied, “Absolutely, I can totally see you as a writer.” She smiled and skipped over to join her friends in line to go to recess.

A few minutes later, as we were walking through the halls, I overheard her say excitedly to a friend, “Mrs. B thinks I can be a writer. She told me so.” She walked out for recess practically on air.

"I'm done," I could have said. "Finished."

I felt I had potential as a teacher during my master’s degree coursework. "You have the building blocks to make a difference in the lives of children," one of my professors wrote on an assignment.

For two years, I have used the building blocks of compassion, courage and creativity to build my classroom.

"I just don’t know what to do about Jordan," confessed Mary, whom I’d just met. I don’t know if she was confiding in me because I teach English or because that’s just what one does at a nail salon. “Last year, he spent hours filling his journals and talking about being a writer when he grew up. Now he hardly writes at all. He says he’s not any good at it.”  

Throughout the summer months, Teaching Tolerance will present a series of lessons using photographs to teach about social justice. Each lesson will focus on a contemporary social justice issue. The lessons are multidisciplinary and geared toward middle and high school students. A new lesson will be posted online each week from June 6 through Aug. 22.

As a fourth-grade teacher, sometimes I feel like the social director on a cruise ship. On the playground, I try to match up students with peers. “Why don’t you go and see what Alanna is doing?” Or sometimes, “It looks like Daniel and Hunter are having fun playing tag—let’s practice how you could go and ask them if you can join in.” Then in the classroom, I pair students up to accomplish tasks. “Melanie and Jorge, you’ll be working together to read for science today.”