As much as it may not seem like it, students are social creatures. Students love to share stories and talk about their lives. Students often do this with each other but not as much with teachers. Why is that? If you’ve ever spent any time in an Elementary classroom, then you know that elementary students LOVE to share and will do so without any prompting. Why does this change as they grow up? I have a few thoughts on this.
One of the reasons that I think students have a tendency to stop sharing, is because we as teachers tend to stop sharing. That’s not to say that elementary teachers share more than High School teachers, but students start to learn things about the world. Students start to learn that sharing things with adults isn’t as rewarding as sharing things with students. I have found from my time in the classroom and from this past semester, that students are just open books waiting to be read. Some of the best connections that I made with other students were based on a story that I had initially told them. While in an in-person classroom this can get distracting, the online setting is a wonderful place to share stories with students. Here are my reasons for saying this.
The most wonderful thing about teaching online is flexibility. Students can spend as much or as little time on certain subjects as they need to. So since students are able to work on the material on their own time, that means that they can also check out additional resources, videos, or post that you make. We don’t have to worry about time in an online setting as much. In a face-to-face classroom, it can be all too easy for an initial story to run the class off the rails and take up valuable teaching time. I also feel that it’s almost crucial to share with our students some of our life stories. It’s entirely possible for an online student to go through an entire class without knowing a single thing about the instructor. This is not the most efficient or constructive way to run a classroom. If students don’t feel that they have a connection with a teacher, they will not seek their help when they need it. Or, when they finally do reach out to the teacher, it’s with anger and frustration rather than just confusion.
The last two semesters, I have been sharing many videos and photos from my life outside the classroom. I have had many students tell me that they really value this. Many of them have said things like “it shows me that you were a real person”. Showing students that you are real doesn’t seem like something we should have to do as online teachers. Of course, we’re real right? While students may subconsciously understand that yes, we are real people, showing them parts of your life shows them more concretely that you are actually in fact real. This makes them more likely to treat you better when phrasing problems with the class and makes it easier for them to come to you with questions. One of the best things that I took from my time at the MACUL technology conference, was from the BrandED session with Eric Sheninger. He said, “If you’re not sharing with students what you want them to know about you, they will make up their own.”
