This I Believe

We Were a Family

I have one picture on my desk. The picture is of one of my journalism classes, and it was taken in front of the previous school where I taught. The students are all situated around a two-tiered bench. Some are standing on it, some sitting in front of it, and some are leaning against it. Kevin has his index finger sticking in Melissa’s right ear. Kyle is standing next to John with his right arm locked around John’s head. Jackie is lounging on the ground in front of the entire group with her legs stretched out. Ben is in the middle of the pack displaying the widest smile he could muster. There are sixteen students total, all with different personalities, all with different beliefs, but all with one common connection. They were all a part of our journalism family.

It was a family that formed even before they enrolled in the journalism class. It began when they were students in my English 9 class. During that year the students learned reading and writing skills, an appreciation for literature, as well as working collaboratively to complete projects. I had four separate English 9 classes that year, and while most of the students simply moved on to English 10 the next year, a small group of them continued with me and took my Introduction to Journalism class their sophomore year and signed up for my advanced journalism class both their junior and senior years.

All in all, we were together for four years, and after four years it was extremely difficult to say goodbye to them because we truly became a family complete with the good and bad that comes with being a family. I learned how to unconditionally care about a group of students, no matter if they misbehaved or broke a rule. I learned how to celebrate their successes and accept their failures. I also learned how to challenge them with their writing while convincing them they could do anything, as long as they believed they could. I learned how to become a teacher after having spent four years with these students, and I truly believe that I am the teacher I am today because of the time I spent with these students.

Whenever anyone asks me about this picture and the students in it, I refer to them as my kids. I don’t have my own kids, but if I did I would hope that they would have some of the same characteristics as the students in this picture. I tell people that this group would have done anything I asked them to do…including jump off of a cliff. I also tell anyone that asks about these students, that they would have jumped off of the cliff because they knew I would have jumped with them.

Remember, we were a family. And like families, not everyone got along all of the time, and not everyone shared responsibilities equally. I can tell you John wasn’t always a team player. He was frustrating at times, often got off task and sometimes seemed to get away with doing little to nothing. Since it was a production class everyone played a role in producing a paper every month and when someone didn’t pull his weight if affected everyone. Even though the class would have liked to have sent him “back” sometimes, just like an older sibling wanting to send “back” the new baby after the novelty has worn off, in the end we all knew that we couldn’t because he was one of our “family.” So we accepted him for who he was, nurtured his strengths and he eventually thrived on the sports writing team. Once he found success writing sports articles, he began tackling other articles that he had always believed he wasn’t good enough to write.

I’m not going to sugar coat this class. There was arguing, fighting, and disagreeing, and just like members of any family the students sometimes just tolerated each other, but not without one or the other having the last say and strong opinion about everything. Jeana was that student. She was extremely opinionated and was usually in the middle of every disagreement, whether it was a disagreement about what story to run on the first page or a disagreement about what ad design to use, she always had an opinion. Jeana meant well but her personality or tone or something usually rubbed people the wrong way. But in the end they put up with her opinion and her tone because they knew she meant well and would have their backs when push came to shove.

Jeana and John are just two examples of the students that contributed to the inner workings and dynamics of the class. All the students had strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. They all had many differences, including class schedules, friends, interests, but one similarity they all shared was the common connection of being members of our journalism family. It was a family that consistently met every day in Room 18. It didn’t matter what happened before they got to class or what happened after class, what mattered was they all shared the common goal of working together to produce a paper. They were honest with each other even if it hurt because that’s what families do.

I remember when I was enrolled in my teaching methods class in college I was assigned to write an essay about my philosophy of teaching and what I believed was necessary to be an effective teacher. I honestly don’t remember what I wrote, but I do remember thinking I had no business writing about my philosophy of teaching until after I had taught and felt like I was a teacher. So now, eighteen years later, my philosophy of teaching and what I believe makes an effective teacher connects back to this group of sixteen students because I believe I learned to become a teacher after having spent four years with them. I learned to unconditionally care about students even if they frustrate and challenge me. I learned to nurture students’ strengths, so in time they confidently tackle their weaknesses, and I learned to step back and allow them to have a say in the most important aspects of a classroom.