The Art of Listening

After school I was reading an article from Yahoo! and it redirected me to Forbes.com.  Before taking me to my page, I was left with the above quote and a little time to ponder (before telling me to turn cookies on).  That quote hit home for something that came up today.

As teachers the oldest method of instruction known to us is Direct.  The teacher stands at the front of the classroom or at their desk with their document camera, and goes through the notes as their students copy down everything they say.  It is embedded within us and a safe method, rather, a comforting method of education.  I am not here to argue the pros and cons of it, but to illustrate a point; us teachers do love some talking!

I found myself in a rather tough situation with a student today.  The student is struggling in my class, but never asks for help and when I approach them they have the same rhetoric of "I'm good".  This is not just the case for one of my students, but the majority.  They do not seem to want to ask for help, viewing it as a sign of weakness or embarrassment.  Fortunately using solid methods like informal assessments I am able to see into their minds without cracking them open.  This student in particular, however, had had enough and chose a rather poor way of expressing their frustrations with their situation.

 Enter our meeting later today.  I asked two other teachers to be present and to offer insight as needed.  I began the meeting.  I told a story.  I asked questions that we both already knew the answers to.  I told another story.  I did, I said, I, I, I.......I did a lot of talking.  One of the other teachers in the room spoke maybe three times, all three were questions, and yet it garnered the longest responses out of the student that I have heard all year.  All this teacher did was ask a question, then listen.

I found it a little comical that when I got to that Forbes splash page that that quote in particular was up, as if it were directly speaking to me.  I immediately thought of this meeting, and how I could have handled it much better.  Teaching is a day-to-day grind that is always filled with surprises, but we have to remember what is at stake each of these days.  The education of our students is vital, but to succeed in that they need to have a voice.  They need to be able to speak freely and be heard, and from there we can begin our honest conversations and better shape the clay into the role models we seek to be like.  If students feel that they are heard, then they feel more invested and take ownership in their education.  Sometimes as educators we need to be direct in how we listen to our students, and not just direct with how we teach.