Really Seeing Our New Students

As we are diving into our new placements and getting to know a new set of students,  I am reminded of what we learned a few quarters ago from William Ayers' book To Teach.  In his chapter titled Seeing the Student he admonishes us not to fall into the trap of defining students by their incompetencies.  He reminds us that "labels are limiting . . . they conceal more than they reveal (p. 42)."  He goes on to note "the deficiencies list tells you almost nothing about me . . . it doesn't offer you any insight or clues into how you might engage me in a journey of learning or how you might invite me into your classroom as a student (p.44)."  I am reminded of this because before meeting some of the students in my new classroom for the first time, I heard them characterized by others with some pretty limiting labels that negatively colored my first impressions of them.  Without at first realizing it, I found I was predisposed to look for negative behaviors and incompetencies in these students.  Luckily, I quickly caught myself and have since been making a concerted effort to get to know the competencies and unique positive qualities of these "problem" students so that I can ascertain how best to connect with them and teach them.  I need to find out what they do know and what is important to them.  Little by little I am learning more about them which is helping me to help them more each day.  As an added bonus, with a more positive outlook, I find I am enjoying the class even more -- and I think they are too.