Is It Me or Is It My Student?

Are you the teacher who gets your roster before the school year starts and goes running down the hall like a track star trying to get the 411 about all of your new students by talking to their former teachers?

You go from classroom to classroom until you find the former teacher of every student. Those teachers go down your roster one by one telling you all of the students who are smart and awesome and those who will make your life miserable. Much of their talking is spent on the students who will make your life miserable, of course. (It's only the right thing to do. Isn't it?) They give you all of their behavior flaws and academic issues, and they don't forget to tell you about all of the drama they've experienced with their parents. Finally, in a calm voice, they tell you that they sympathize with you. ("Geeez!" you think.)

Maybe you're not the one who goes sprinting down the hall with a roster in your hand in search of your students' former teachers, but you.....YOU... are ACTUALLY the former teacher who goes hunting for your former students' new teachers. You go from classroom to classroom trying to find out who has those students that made your last school year so miserable, so that you can warn them of what to expect.

Hopefully, you don't fall into either of these categories, but if you do, I have some advice for you.

So many of us feel that we need to find out about our new students before we actually meet them. Is this fair? No, it certainly isn't.

Getting negative input about our new students only contaminates our minds and makes us prepared for the worst. It doesn't give each student a fair chance.

When you get another teacher's report about a student and accept it, you are forgetting that there is one difference between their classroom and your classroom and that is YOU.  Over my few years of teaching, I have seen many students behave differently from classroom to classroom. WHY? There are probably a number of reasons why, but here are a few things that may be contributing factors:

• Does the student feel like his teacher genuinely cares about him and wants the best for him?
• Does the teacher display a positive attitude?
• Does the student feel like the teacher already has preconceived notions about him that are negative? 
• Do their personalities mesh well together (teacher/student)?
• Does the teacher treat the student differently (in a negative manner) than the other students in the class?
• Is the student weak in the subject area that the teacher teaches?

You must always ask yourself, "Is the problem the student, or is it really me?" If a student's behavior is consistently negative among all of their teachers, then chances are it is the student who needs to make some changes.  However, if a student's behavior is awful with you, but pleasant with the other teachers, you must admit that the problem may just be you (the teacher).

It is always best to give each student a new slate when they come into your room. Yes, you may have overheard bad things about some of your students without even trying to hear it, but you still must give them a fair chance. You might be surprised at how well they perform for you!

(If you are looking for another article that can help you to have a successful school year, check out the post, "You Will Get the Students Who Need You the Most".)