I wish we could tell our students all about our own fears when it comes to writing, especially the high-stakes kind of writing, because it can be an overwhelming sense of loneliness and inadequateness when we believe ourselves to be the only person among the group to be insecure about our writing abilities. I would love to just say, “Dude, I was so crazy about failing the writing portion of the Praxis Core that I had nightmares for days before and after taking it!”
If I confessed this to my students, would they lose respect for me or start to think of me as weak? I guess that’s why no one really talks about these fears. Maybe this is the reason why we are taught to be supportive of our students and to help them discover their own voice… because we are not sure how we can take the fear away from them. We can teach them how to get more comfortable with their writing, how to approach difficult or boring topics, and how to edit their own work, but we cannot get into their heads and hearts when high-stakes exam time comes to calm them. We cannot slow down their racing heartbeat or make them breathe more easily.
So, is teaching all about us after all? I guess it is about us as much as it is about the students. This, of course, is a contradiction to one of my other posts because I claimed it isn’t about us, but isn’t everything about the individual person in one way or another? We’re only human, right?
I believe we just have to do the best we can and then hope that it worked. In the meantime, we should always have some chocolate ready and a hug to offer to our students when they are brave enough to admit to their fears.
Ellie Myron
If I confessed this to my students, would they lose respect for me or start to think of me as weak? I guess that’s why no one really talks about these fears. Maybe this is the reason why we are taught to be supportive of our students and to help them discover their own voice… because we are not sure how we can take the fear away from them. We can teach them how to get more comfortable with their writing, how to approach difficult or boring topics, and how to edit their own work, but we cannot get into their heads and hearts when high-stakes exam time comes to calm them. We cannot slow down their racing heartbeat or make them breathe more easily.
So, is teaching all about us after all? I guess it is about us as much as it is about the students. This, of course, is a contradiction to one of my other posts because I claimed it isn’t about us, but isn’t everything about the individual person in one way or another? We’re only human, right?
I believe we just have to do the best we can and then hope that it worked. In the meantime, we should always have some chocolate ready and a hug to offer to our students when they are brave enough to admit to their fears.
Ellie Myron