When they give you a classroom to teach in, one of the first things they tell you is to pick a spot where you can hang some personal stuff up. The thinking is that after a while if you're a teacher kids tend to dehumanize you. That is, they sorta forget that you're an actual person beyond your ability to assign them homework and grade their performance in class, and that can lead to problems getting them inspired to do work that challenges their minds.
I don't know if I've ever had any problems when it comes to giving the appearance of being "real" person for my students (if anything, I probably run the risk of being a little too real at times), but I'm all for taking some space out of your little cubicle and making it your own. To that end, I have an area behind my desk where I hang up photos of my friends and family, drawings and cards that my students give me, or just anything else that I find interesting. And above that bulletin board I've got two movie posters (one for The Lost Boys, and the other for Heavy Metal) that I stuck up on the wall, partially because I didn't have a good place to hang them at home, but also because I think they say a little something about me and my personality, which goes back to that little tip they gave us in teacher training.
The only problem is that you can't really make a connection about somebody if you don't know what they're talking about, and both of these movies are waaaay before most of these kids time -- which basically means that in their minds they might as well not exist at all. This has led to a lot of questions like "Why is that lady riding a bird?" and of course my personal favorite:
And while the words sounded infinitley different coming from an adult math teacher's mouth, it was hard not to flash back to a much younger day in my life when there was an actual heavy-duty meaning that came along with a girl handing you a cassette tape with David Bowie and a bunch of muppets on the cover while saying,
I don't know if I've ever had any problems when it comes to giving the appearance of being "real" person for my students (if anything, I probably run the risk of being a little too real at times), but I'm all for taking some space out of your little cubicle and making it your own. To that end, I have an area behind my desk where I hang up photos of my friends and family, drawings and cards that my students give me, or just anything else that I find interesting. And above that bulletin board I've got two movie posters (one for The Lost Boys, and the other for Heavy Metal) that I stuck up on the wall, partially because I didn't have a good place to hang them at home, but also because I think they say a little something about me and my personality, which goes back to that little tip they gave us in teacher training.
The only problem is that you can't really make a connection about somebody if you don't know what they're talking about, and both of these movies are waaaay before most of these kids time -- which basically means that in their minds they might as well not exist at all. This has led to a lot of questions like "Why is that lady riding a bird?" and of course my personal favorite:
Mr. Luft -- is that you in that Lost Boys picture?Even stranger than that though are the reactions I get from all the other teachers who see the posters. A lot of the teachers here are close to my age - so not only have they heard of the films, but some of them actually hold a special place in their heart. One even went so far as to come into my classroom one morning and hand me cassette tape copies of not only the soundtrack for The Lost Boys, but one for the movie Labryinth as well.
Is that what you looked like when you still had hair?
And while the words sounded infinitley different coming from an adult math teacher's mouth, it was hard not to flash back to a much younger day in my life when there was an actual heavy-duty meaning that came along with a girl handing you a cassette tape with David Bowie and a bunch of muppets on the cover while saying,
"This is like my favorite tape, but
you could borrow it ..if you wanted."
[Listening to: Echo and the Bunnymen, "People are Strange"]
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