Don't be afraid to say, "I love you."

Our world has made it difficult to build relationships with students. We are constantly worried that something will be misconstrued or taken out of context. As a new teacher, I was terrified that I would be accused of something inappropriate. I had heard numerous stories of teachers having inappropriate relationships with students, and I did not want to put myself in a position to be accused of something so horrific, but in doing this, I was distancing myself from my students. I didn't let them in on my life. And I never, ever said, "I love you." That was a mistake.

I quickly learned that building relationships with my students was the most important part of teaching. This is for two reasons. First, I found that building rapport changed my classroom culture. When I began doing so, my classroom management improved dramatically. Through the years, I got better and better at this, and now, I have virtually no behavioral problems in my classroom. My students know I care about them, and they respect me for it. As a new teacher, I yelled A LOT. That was counterproductive. Students don't hear you when you yell. All they hear is, "I don't like you." They shut down and lose respect for you and create more problems in class. Secondly, and most importantly, I came to realize that I was the only positive adult interaction that many of my students had on a daily basis. I have the power to make them feel loved, purposeful, and worthwhile. When they see that I believe in them, their lives can be changed. If we do not work to build relationships with students, we are failing. Yes, it is our job to teach them English, or science, or history. But it is also our job to love them. I was still afraid to say it. I just felt weird and inappropriate, but I showed them I loved them that I loved them everyday. I smiled. I asked questions about their lives. I went to their games and concerts and plays. 

It wasn't until something terrible happened that I began telling my students that I loved them. Sure, I had said it to a couple special kids that I had great relationships with, mostly with kids that I interacted with in extracurricular activities. But one cold morning in January of 2018 changed that. One of our students walked into our school and opened fire in the commons area that was filled with hundreds of students. Two died, sixteen others were shot, and everyone's life was forever changed. It was a teacher and student's worst nightmare. That night, I send out a message through Remind telling my students, "I love you all and am so glad you are safe." Numerous students and parents responded back, telling me how much that meant to them. Ever since, I have never hesitated when a student says, "I love you, Mrs. Kinder!" I always respond, "Love you, too."

I will never again not tell a student that I love them. When they say it to me, I know they mean it and that they want me to say it back, that I may be the only person saying, "I love you," to them that day. So I don't care what society says. I love my kids, and I want them to know it.

Escaping the Disengagement

When I started teaching I had big dreams. I thought I was going to change the world. After about a week, I was crushed. My kids weren't reading, participating, or excited about some of my favorite stories. I thought, "What is wrong with these kids? What is wrong with me? Why can't I get them as excited about learning as I thought I would." They were disengaged, and I had no clue how to fix it. 

Fast forward six years. I am now in my seventh year of teaching, and I have experienced failure after failure, but I am finally beginning to experience triumph! I am always looking for the newest teaching strategies, and one I came upon last year is the Escape Room. I tried it, and my classes have transformed into what I envisioned back in 2012.

Escape Rooms are rapidly growing in popularity across the country, and whoever decided to make it work in the classroom is a genius. The concept of an Escape Room is simple. You are given a situation and have to follow clues, put together puzzles, decode messages, etc. to escape the situation. You can take any material or mundane worksheet and turn it into an engaging Escape Room. 

The results in my classroom have been astounding. Students who previously did nothing in class (you know that kid) are now reading, writing, thinking critically, and participating. THEY ARE ENGAGED, and it's a dream come true! I also flip the classroom in many of the Escape Rooms and make students accountable for their own learning.

I decided to use Escape Rooms frequently this year and made it into a semester- or year-long (depending on the class and how your year is structures) competition. Students pick their groups and stay with that group for the entire semester. At the beginning of each Escape Room, one member from each group brings me their phone with their stopwatch open. When I say go, they start their clock and begin. At the end, they stop their clock and I write down their time. I add up all times after each Escape Room and keep a running leader board. At the end of the semester, the three groups with the lowest overall times get a pizza party, and the overall winner also gets t-shirts. This provides a constant incentive to do their best work and not slack off. They get really competitive and have a ton of fun with it!

Begin by deciding what you want to teach. Then, break it into categories. For example, in one escape room, students focus on symbolism, irony, and theme in "The Story of an Hour" and "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Escape Room is broken into sections. I begin by passing out Part 1 and the worksheet, chart, or whatever students are completing. Students will have a task to complete in Part 1. In the previously mentioned example, I provided students with an explanation of irony with examples. Sometimes, I include videos of me demonstrating a skill as well. They had to read the information and fill in the appropriate sections of their worksheet. At the bottom of Part 1, there is a clue that hints at the location of Part 2. This is where it gets fun. You can simply hide things, give them a lock combination, use invisible ink and a black light, etc., or you can use the clues to review a skill that you are working on. For example, one clue I have used is to tell me the first, second, third, etc. part of an argumentative paragraph. It is best to give every group different clues. If you don't they just follow group ahead of them and 1st block tells 2nd block the clues. The rest of the Escape Room follows the same format as Part 1. 

I strongly suggest trying this out. It takes a lot of time and planning, but it's so worth it! Let me know how it goes!

I have several Escape Rooms in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can find them here: teacherspayteachers.com/store/teach-a-little-kinder

Ditching the Classics

I know. Just breathe. Some jackass says, "Ditch the classics," and you stop listening. I've been there. I've felt personally attacked, too. I've thought, "Screw you! The classics are classics for a reason and they have a place in the high school English classroom!"  But, I'm here to share the bittersweet news: letting go of teaching only my favorite canonical texts changed my classroom for the better.

Don't get me wrong; I love the classics. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is my all-time favorite book and not teaching it hurts my soul. But my kids hate reading about the likes of Huck and Tom.  I showed my passion for it. I connected the themes to their 21st Century lives. I did everything they tell you to do. BUT IT DIDN"T WORK, and that devastated me. I kept trying, blaming the kids for being uncultured, apathetic, and lazy. I was a literature snob and I expected my 14-18 year old students to be just like me. When I finally decided to try something new, I never looked back.

I started small. I pitched The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to my principal, and she bought it. (Sidebar: My principal is amazing and the most supportive administrator you could possibly find.) I was teaching English III, and I hated reading Colonial literature as much as my students, so I was more than willing to let go of those foundational American texts. However, I do believe those texts to be of importance. I began the unit by having students read carefully abridged excerpts of Mary Rowlandson, William Bradford, and Cabeza de Vaca. Through this, I began introducing modern issues associated with Native Americans. The Dakota Access Pipeline when I first did this, so I developed an argumentative mini-unit around the debate. By the time we had read what we needed of the classics and students had an understanding of modern issues between the U.S. government and Native Americans, we began reading Sherman's Alexei's masterpiece. It was the best decision I'd ever made in the classroom.

Students were ACTUALLY READING FOR HOMEWORK! They loved the book! They were still developing the skills mandated by the Common Core, but something more important was happening. They were becoming more empathetic. They were thinking of ways to help alleviate racial tension in our school. They were having deep, meaningful conversations on a daily basis. They were becoming better people. And isn't this why we teach? I learned more about my students in that unit than I did the rest of the year. I was so inspired that I began ditching more and more of the classic texts that I love in lieu of modern literature. It was hard and it was time consuming, but it was so worth it.  

Now, I teach modern literature in three out of four units in English III, and I now teach Looking for Alaska, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Crank with my transitional seniors (seniors who failed to meet the benchmark on the ACT). I still teach The Absolutely True Diary during Colonialism. In the Romanticism unit, we read some Poe and look at how the Gothic genre has developed in modern cinema. Then, students get a base understanding of Transcendentalism and read excerpts of and watch Into the Wild.  Students finish that unit by writing an analytical essay, and I've heard students say numerous times, "That was the best essay I've ever written!" During Realism, students read excerpts of Frederick Douglass's narrative then read Sold by Patricia McCormick, a modern slave narrative that follows a young Nepali girl named Lakshmi as she is sold by her stepfather into sex slavery. Students end that unit by raising awareness and money to help stop sex slavery in the United States. In my last unit, Modernism, I still teach The Great Gatsby because students really get into that one, and I found an amazing unit by Ashley Bible (Buildingbooklove.com) that gets them engaged in the novel.  I start the unit by giving students $200 (of fake money), and their goal is to earn money and get to West Egg. 

I still teach the classics, but I'm not married to them anymore. I use them to supplement literature that gets students engaged, and that's when the magic happens. Students weren't learning before, and I feel like I failed them. Now, since they are engaged in what we are reading, they are becoming better readers and writers, but more importantly, they are becoming better citizens.  I challenge you to try to ditch the classics like I have.  Start small and see where it takes you. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.