This is the sixth and final post in a series titled, “What Can I Do About Bullies?”
Guideline 5: Be a Teacher Your Students Respect
Ok, I’ll admit it: I love Oprah. Lump me together with all those predominately white, over the age of 55 ladies (true stat), I don’t care. From her book club to Dr. Oz, everything she puts on her show always seems extremely important to me. And I know I’m not the only one: 7.4 million people watch the show daily. Ms. Winfrey has the power to turn Americans away from beef, encourage millions to become more charitible, and more recently, help a certain democratic candidate gather up some much-needed votes.
If you have a book or film to promote, a product to sell, or an issue to discuss, don’t even bother spending the millions of dollars required for appropriate marketing. Just find a way to get on Oprah. Your book will become a bestseller (unless, of course, you pull a James Frey), your movie will become a box office smash by the weekend, your product will fly off the shelves, and your issue will be the talk of every town for weeks to come.
Oprah’s influence is astonishing and impressive, because people respect and trust her. She is an inspriition to many becuase of her past. Millions look up to her and want to be like her. She has been honest about where she came from and where she wants to go, and people therefore admire her for being real. Even if you don’t like her, you can’t help but to respect her for all her accomplishments.
In many ways, the teaching profession sets us up to be mini-Winfreys. Depending on how we relate to our students, we can have captivated audiences for hours each day. While we teach the content, we can simultaneously share ourselves with our students.
Cal Teacher Blogger recently discussed the importance of teachers sharing their stories with students. When teachers share their stories and open up to their students, they become real people in the eyes of their students, not just teachers. Students who know that you are real with them and care about them are more likely to listen to and respect what you have to say. When this happens, your power and influence in the classroom is comparable to Oprah’s.
Throughout my student teaching, I worked hard to present myself as a real person to my students. While still maintaining an absolute professional behavior, I shared stories and broke down those walls that the students and other teachers had built. When students began seeing me as a real person who had a husband and two dogs and liked to joke around and have school-appropriate fun, I noticed a dramatic change in the power I had over them. I gave up the teacher-on-the-pedestal image and embraced one of a role model. I could break up talkative students with a disappointed look, I could squelch inappropriate behavior simply by saying, “Oh, that’s not cool, guys.” I could even sway the majority of the class to use positive peer pressure on a disruptive or disrespectful student. My power felt limitless because the students trusted and respected me.
For any readers who followed this series: thanks for bearing with me as I learn and exercise different ways to better my blog and my writing. If you are interested in learning ways to improve your blog, Joel over at So You Want to Teach is providing some great pointers. I really enjoyed writing this series, because it reinforced in me my values of classroom management and how to handle middle school students. and who knows? Maybe you were able to take something away from this series as well.
