How well is the truth of a student’s day, or perhaps a teacher’s day, known within a school community? Let’s explore how a shared story can help to build empathy and inclusivity within the learning community.
If you are looking for the resources, here is a template you can use to do this activity or something similar with your class: The Truth of a Day at School
This piece of writing is a collaboration between IB Student Eddie (false name used) and IB Teacher Daryl Sinclair.
A Statement Regarding Child Safety and Personal Privacy
This article explores the sharing of stories within the school community. The school community is a place with critical considerations which underpin this article. Firstly, the professional relationship required within a school community must be acknowledged.
Child safety and respect for personal comfort and privacy must come first.
No individual is required or pushed to share beyond what is comfortable for themselves or conducive to their safety and privacy. When we explore our stories, the focus is on the experiences of school and our general feelings, not the specifics or critical details (i.e stating how you travel to school versus stating exactly where you get the bus and get off).
Reimagining the Teacher-Student dynamic
Schools and education systems are there to do just that, educate.
Unfortunately, the term “educate” can be perceived rather rigidly where people think of an enthusiastic teacher in a classroom with keen students. In truth, schools are communities full of diverse people with different realities and inspirations. People who subsequently may not be enthusiastic or keen every lesson (yes, students AND teachers).
The rigid idea of education can sometimes lack the flexibility required to welcome and be kind to the human experience. Both students and teachers are, or should be, contributors to their experience at school. Their contributions can ensure that the classroom has extra layers of learning;
- the dialogic layer; where students interact with their teachers and negotiate the learning environment and material taught
- the associative layer; where supportive relationships that honour personal challenges are built
- and the inclusive layer; where learning that is sensitive to the whole person takes place.
But challenging this reality is a common knowledge gap. Within schools, we must ask;
- Are students aware of the responsibilities of their teachers?
- Are teachers aware of the responsibilities of their students?
The time needed to support a positive answer to these questions is sometimes lost in the focus on academics. This pressure can push learning towards sometimes unkind exchanges. Exchanges where we do not consider the whole person we are engaging with whether a teacher or a student.
One approach to prevent this outcome is to acknowledge one another proactively. At the classroom level, open dialogue and reflection from both students and teachers can make the learning experience more kind and inclusive.
Creating this Article
My IB mentee and I agreed to work on this article together as an exercise to explore the approach described above. We hoped to simultaneously explore a successful approach and contribute to completing the IB CAS program.
We opted to share a general experience of a school day to help us reflect and understand each other better. Hopefully, our exploration may inspire others to consider others in a richer way within their school community.
All parts of this article are a collaborative expression written by us both. For the school day stories, only feedback was offered and minor edits for formatting etc.
Before we jump into the stories, we would like to acknowledge that our stories are not representative of the experiences of all students and teachers.
Our stories are unique; they are based on our life experiences, the ways we identify ourselves and are identified by others, our privileges and challenges, and simply our personalities.
As such, we invite you to read our stories and consider your own story, and the stories of others. We hope they can be a gateway to considering the whole person in education as you resonate with or are intrigued by our stories.
A Teacher’s Day –
Daryl Sinclair
A Student’s Day –
Eddie
The journey to school
The day usually begins at least five minutes before my alarm. I make my way to the shower, quickly glancing at my timetable on the wall and suppressing the mild panic about whether or not I actually know what I am teaching that morning.
A quick breakfast and mental run-through of the day prepare me for the short bike ride to school. Each thought is sprinkled with hesitance about whether or not things are ready; do I need to get in early to print something, will I be covering lessons today, and is there something I need to bring in for a student?
As an interruption to these unproductive thoughts, my bike ride gives me space to breathe. Feeling the road through my wheels and enjoying the air gets my blood flowing and puts me in a good head space. It clears my mind and reminds me of the confidence I have in what I do and the enjoyment I get from teaching.
The day usually begins with me continuously snoozing my alarm clock. It is supposed to allow me to fit breakfast and water into my morning routine but instead leaves room for me to refuse to open my eyes and imagine other places I could have woken up in.
When I finally yield to the alarm, there are only a few minutes left before I have to leave for my train. I squeeze in getting myself ready and grab the breakfast my family insists I have to eat.
As I approach the trains for my journey to school, I start to realise that their frequent delays could make me late and I begin to regret not planning my commute ahead of time. Why I haven’t picked up on the habit of doing so before I leave home I don’t know, but I’m sure that’ll change soon.
Regardless, I attempt not to let the changing train schedule occupy my thoughts while travelling and I check my first class of the day and whether I would benefit from catching up with school work.
Arriving at school
I arrive at school with more of a bounce in my step.
I enter the school with my head held high, partly to project the energy I want my students to have and partly honest excitement for the day. Nothing but cursory good mornings and short enquiries for my colleagues as the morning rush is a well-shared experience; we all know we are in a rush, and there will be no judgement in cutting short conversations as we hurriedly get ready.
I quickly check my emails before my first lesson for things which need immediate attention. Once checked, I quietly consider how I will approach the day and focus my energy on the positive experiences I am about to have.
I arrive at school without a thought, passively listening to the songs playing through my earbuds.
Entering the building, I would love to catch up with some friends and follow up on what we were talking about the other day. Unfortunately, there are only ten minutes until class starts, and the long conversations are traded for small talk.
Even during the small talk and banter, I realise that I should’ve prepared for the day more than I did last night and that I won’t get my diploma if I keep working at this pace. But seeing that this isn’t my first compulsive thought of the day I choose to try and ignore it.
Lesson time
As I step into my first lesson, I am confident but still have thoughts crossing my mind. Do I have everything for the lesson and how is the class’s energy today? These concerns are often dismissed as I am drawn into greeting the students and sharing in their morning jokes.
Once the lesson is done, I like to do a mental reflection. A quick run through what I have done in class, what I need to do, and perhaps things I need to address during the next lesson with that class. Though generally questions about what to review and where to start the next lesson, several questions cannot be so easily answered:
- Am I planning and teaching well enough for my class to succeed?
- Am I teaching in a way where the students see value in my lessons?
- How can I do things better?
Humility is the only resolution and honest reflection both during and in preparation for the lessons. Being able to openly say ‘I don’t know, let’s figure it out’ or ‘what do you think I can do differently to support you better’ has freed me from many doubts and I believe has driven a lot of growth for both myself and my students.
The same conversations continue as we sit in class and often extend to our teachers resulting in us laughing all together and enjoying the beginning of the day.
As the lesson starts, I focus on the material being given to me and push through with understanding what I am being taught. This usually includes making corny jokes about how the Latin name of a bald eagle sounds and how no one can pronounce it (Haliaeetus leucocephalus or Hal-e-ate-us Lew-co-sef-al-us for those of you wondering…).
Between classes, I keep a mental note of teachers I have spoken to and those I need to speak with. These interactions allow me to keep track of my smaller assignments and only take place if I remember to bring up the topic when I see the teacher. What drives my approach to these interactions is my desire to overcome several insecurities regarding the assignment:
- Will they think that I’m slacking?
- Will they want me to ask them questions right now?
- Will they be disappointed in my performance?
- Will they question my ability to manage my school work?
- How can I make these interactions less anxiety-inducing?
I have learnt that despite my initial revolt against open conversation, I often feel less anxious after opening up and more confident about the next conversation. I enjoy and learn from the mutual respect that opening up brings. Relaxing and trusting in a free-flowing conversation with my teacher, not with my concerns, is a habit I want to keep developing.
Break time
I make my way back to my desk for my ‘free period’. Free from teaching but not from working. Although sometimes interrupted by the natural events that take place in a school which may require my attention, They are my space to complete the planning, marking, and paperwork that comes with teaching.
I also dedicate this time to relationships with my students; to engage with them as people. Spending time in the playground, conversing with them and simply being available to others is integral to my vision of being a teacher. The emotional burden here can be great, but the rewards are indescribable for both myself and the students (I hope).
I need to do right by the students, and I need to be able to be proud of my work and the impact I have on the people around me. The interactions that help me learn are what stick with me when I go home each day.
Apart from classes and meetings, my day is usually filled with the laughter of my friends often accompanied by snarky comments. Besides socialising, I try to squeeze in studying solo or as a group, along with risking the humiliation of falling behind my friends.
As beneficial as studying together may be, comparing each other’s progress is fuel for my insecurities. Not understanding concepts as clearly and efficiently as my friends leads me to question and taunt my abilities as a student.
Other than that, I try to give myself the time to focus on nothing in particular and attempt to dodge any possible burnout during the day.
Funnily enough, I often feel as if there was something missing when I haven’t incorporated these factors, including the humiliation. It is all for the sake of reflection and working with the humility necessary to focus on growth rather than pride.
Home and ending the day
The end of the school day, sometimes at 15.15, sometimes at 19.00, is home time.
The laptop stays at school, as does the work and the stress, excluding perhaps a conversation with my partner. Although there are times in the year when working at home is unavoidable; the crunch times of reports, examination periods, or just when all the buses come at once; thankfully, this is not the norm.
The bike ride home is followed by a deflation; not doing anything which requires detailed thought or human interaction.
I have hard-learned the importance of having work at work and home at home, but I know my students don’t have that option. Though I can be mindful of setting homework, we are not yet where we need to be for everyone to be comfortable.
But maybe we can achieve more of that growth tomorrow…
The end of the school day marks the beginning of my journey home and the inevitability of studying.
The journey home is when I usually unwind since I’m often accompanied by a couple of my friends on the train. We laugh, tell more jokes and comment on the amount of work we have and material to study, which allows us, or me really, to release some of the stress of improving our performance level in school. Then after arriving home, I choose to spend some time not focusing on anything in particular to let my mind recollect itself before beginning to study or complete any necessary assignments.
Unfortunately, between allowing my mind to rest, completing necessary assignments and finding some family time, I often struggle with fitting in quality studying. The quality studying required to achieve the marks that I would be comfortable with in spite of what comfortable means.
But maybe tomorrow I’ll do better…
A Quick Reflection
Seeing our days side-by-side was eye-opening.
The number of times there was a feeling of deja-vu, a flinch of ‘I do that too’ or mild shock of ‘really, they have that much to do?’ was sobering.
The seemingly uphill journey we both faced with no clear end and seemingly only more expectations as you go higher was humbling.
Teacher ‘Mr Sinclair’
I personally felt a little saddened by reading Eddie‘s account at times. The degree of uncertainty which can be present in a student’s day, when they are simply trying to meet the expectations and requirements of others, is intense. Reading how the most intentional parts of teaching can be the most anxiety-inducing is concerning. Simultaneously, the passive conversations and small moments being so impactful make me consider where to focus in the future. Though I endeavour to understand and be sensitive to the requirements of students, seeing it eloquently laid out with the subtleties which are hard to raise in conversation, really touched me.
I think the fact that my concerns are largely self-driven whilst Eddie’s heavily reflect the expectations of the adults around her is striking. The development of intrinsic motivation is a guiding principle within my student interactions and perhaps how we communicate our requirements to others needs a similar focus.
Student ‘Eddie’
Overall, I found reading Mr Sinclair’s writing rather reassuring due to its personal touch. Reading about how intricate anxieties can be experienced and overcome within a familiar formal setting brought me a sense of comfort. Being able to relate to a written-out version of a day of a teacher, has heartened the reality of relating to them within school, and possibly the classroom.
Personally, this will encourage me to reach out more to teachers in and out of class which I hope will enhance the quality of my education and personal development. Similarly, this realisation has opened me to the possibility of interacting with teachers more personably in conversation.
Sharing stories between members of a community can help to foster understanding and change people’s actions. The resulting empathy can support identifying what is important, even when it seems to betray the ‘success criteria’ that have traditionally guided us. In fact, it may help us to achieve those ‘success criteria’ but in a kinder and more inclusive way.
Students and teachers are humans, and our writing screams the importance of human connection. Our concerns regarding what others think or what our impact is on ourselves and others were at the forefront. But combining dialogue with learning the reality of the people we engage with can put these anxieties to rest.
Perhaps we can try to push our learning in that direction and make space for one another as the most important consideration. Allowing our students and teachers to shed their doubts by using empathy to support collaborative and dialogic learning.
So What Next?
We strongly encourage you to undertake this task with your classes. Whether as a group activity for a form or year group or as a technique to support empathetic collaboration between members of the school community.
Simply provide a collection of topic areas you want to address in your writing, such as ‘how I feel as I get ready for the school day’, ‘what I do when I arrive at school’, ‘what I do when I get home’, etc.
Customise your questions for your class and year group, and always be mindful of privacy and safety (most notably, child safety). You may be aware of or uncover more challenging scenarios that people (especially students) are navigating at home.
Simultaneously, this can be a great tool to support decolonising your classroom and recognising each student as a valued individual with valuable stories to tell and contextualise their lives.
As part of an inclusive, decolonised, and democratic classroom, let the students know that you will be taking part. You can then have a reflection task upon reading each other’s stories as part of a journey to develop empathy and understanding. Great questions and discussions can be borne from this activity.
We hope that by refreshing the teacher-student dynamic and seeing whole people in their context, the school environment may become more inclusive and comfortable for everyone.
If you are looking for the resources, here is a template you can use to do this activity or something similar: The Truth of a Day at School
About Daryl Sinclair
Daryl Sinclair is an educator, geographer, and DEIJ specialist who believes in a systems approach to educational success. He champions Systemic Equity™, taking a non-ideological approach to DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) that focuses on practical actions and indicators of impact that create learning environments that realise the learning community’s mission. Through his writing and consultancy work with exam boards, schools, and publishers, he champions the idea that the success of leadership and DEIJ initiatives is in what we DO, not simply what we believe. Daryl’s work focuses on your journey towards consistently equitable outcomes for all members of your learning community.
Take your next step with DEIJ at www.Dsinclairwriting.com/consultancy
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylsinclairgeography/
1 thought on “The Truth of a Day at School; Students vs Teachers — an exercise in building empathy”