Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interest.
Often, we hear stories of people who go on power trips once placed in a position of power. I have heard many stories anyways, and I think as teachers it is super important to be aware of the privilege and power, we have over these kids we have in our classrooms. Ultimately, we are the boss, we have the power to decide what these kids learn about, how they are going to spend their days for 10 months out of the year. We as teachers hold a lot of power, and having simple awareness of this I think is the first step towards not abusing it. I have a very simple example of this, in my last practicum placement class I absolutely loved basketball, most of this class literally ate, slept, and played basketball. Now if you have explored my website at all you know hockey is my sport, that is what I love, I identify as a hockey player, and that is me. But this group of students weren’t hockey people, and that’s ok. I recognized that they weren’t hockey people, and I went home, and I watched the NBA playoffs, because I knew my students were going home and watching, this is what they were into, this was what they were passionate about and because of that I wanted them to know I was going to try and get into it to. It was important to me to make connections with the students fast because I was not there long, basketball was so clearly there thing that I set aside my passion and love of hockey to make some space for basketball because I knew this was what my students enjoyed. I was so happy to do it, they liked that I was going for a team in the finals, and I think I built connections with them faster and stronger because I showed I cared about what they were interested in. This was my way of acting in the best interests of my students, setting aside one of my loves of sport, to make space for theirs. I know very well I could have tried to shove my love of hockey in their faces, but in this short amount of time I had, I rather chose to jump on what they love, acting in their best interest and creating learning opportunities within something most of them enjoyed.
Within this standard as well the discussion of confidentiality takes place, and this is so very important. I have worked with a good amount of at-risk youth and custody, safety, it is all very prevalent, very scary at times. I understand the importance of not using students’ names in discussions, not posting students’ faces or information in places, because I understand the damage that can be done with even the smallest of slip ups. I have heard the stories, and I don’t want to touch or be responsible for something like that happening.
