Teaching Secrets: Get Back in Touch With Your Inner Student

By Heather Wolpert-Gawron

TLN

In the following adapted excerpt from my new book 'Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, I examine the importance of honestly reintroducing yourself to who you were as a student. In the spirit of true transparency, the unabridged chapter includes an unabashed list of my own memories of who I was as a tween. In this excerpt, I ask that teacher readers do the same reflection based on the current grade level in which they teach.

In Mary Poppins, the children outgrow the ability to speak the language of the birds. In Peter Pan, the children outgrow the ability to fly to Neverland. And when many teachers reach adulthood, they tend to forget what really preoccupies a child’s brain. But just think, if you could have access to a child’s thoughts, wouldn’t it give you some greater ability to teach that child better? Well, you do. By accessing your own memories you can reintroduce yourself to a student’s priorities, thoughts, and reactions. Because while times, they have a'changed, and students today might sometimes feel like they’re from an alien planet, the fact is that kids are a very recognizable species from generation to generation.

Reflect back to your own days in school—to your friends, your enemies, the times you were the most embarrassed, the times you were the most ashamed, and the times you were the most proud.

As a teacher of middle schoolers, I think back all the time to who I was in 7th and 8th grade.

I think back on my mistakes and my accomplishments, such as they were.
I think back on my biggest zit and my smallest bra.
I think back on the boys I liked and the girls I didn’t.
I think back on seeing my first joint being passed at a party.
I think back on the first time I heard Prince’s "When Doves Cry." 

Unpacking my memories, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the academics of school life did not rank too highly. Sure, I can remember an essay I was proud of or an answer I was praised for, but those memories did not have the impact of, say, my first trip to the mall sans parents.

In fact, if I’m really honest with myself, I have to admit that what I teach and my methods of teaching it could very easily conflict with what’s really important to a tween if I’m not aware of what really drives their train. I have to remind myself that if I’m not careful, and if I don’t very purposefully tap into what tweens naturally love, then my efforts may not rank as high as I would like them to on my students’ own mythic memory lists one day, just as they did not ..

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