Story-time with Miss N....

Once upon a time there was a teacher who often said to her students "oooo, I've got a story for you". All of her students immediately looked at her, smiled, and engaged.

I am currently in my second teaching job.

In both my schools some of the feedback from my kids is that "We love your stories Miss!"

I am a bit of an extrovert. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I tell kids when I am stressed out about them and their assessment, and I tell them the details about my life that are mundane and not overly necessary in a classroom environment. Examples of this are:

that time I argued with the photocopier

that time I rung the radio....

that time I got my car stuck on the front lawn at 5 in the morning

that time the nachos caught on fire and the over door smashed

I am not revealing intimate parts of my personal life. I am just verbally, Facebook statusing to my students before I start the class.

It brings up a question. Am I risking them not taking my subject seriously and seeing it as a 'hangout' time. Or, am I actually, in the words of a Year 13, reaping the benefits of "it humanizes you, Miss".

Before I go on, I am well aware of the old adage "you're not their friend, you're their teacher" "don't worried about not being liked...." etc etc. And I am TOTALLY on that wagon. I very rarely give out my cellphone number and usually only to ensure they stay alive in my care (for more context read this post). I do NOT add past or present students as Facebook friends. I am not into being their friend and I don't particularly worry about being 'liked' - but I do see value in sharing information about myself, or using personal stories as context in teaching. In my teaching experience is generates a 'we're all in this together' environment.

I often ask students about their breakfast, and share info with them about mine. This may seem irrelevant about the learning context, but it touches base with the students and takes an interest in them. It also, I hope, encourages them to eat breakfast which is important, right? In an observed lesson once, it was noted that this eccentric habit of mine (which I call 'Breakfast Shoutouts!) was bringing hauora into the classroom - that's got to be a good thing.

It is not my intention in this post to be promoting some sort of ground-breaking pedagogy. I am just intrigued about the concept of being known by the students and what can be beneficial to their success.

It is nearly the end of the first term. It's a busy time, everyone is tired and feeling the pressure/pinch. And if you read yesterday - you'll note that I am elbow deep in assessment hoping to get everyone to some level of success before the end of the week. Maybe a 'we're all in this together' approach is not a bad place to start.