Teaching the Whole Student

Episode Transcript

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:00:00]:
Last time on Year One, we followed Jenna through her first sick day as a teacher.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:00:05]:
I don't want to take a sick day because number one, I only get so many. So there's that guilt of me being like, no. Like, I need to save them up for when I really need it. But, you know, I have to look outside myself and be like, no, I really need it right now.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:00:17]:
On this episode, we explore why getting to know students both inside and outside the classroom plays such a crucial role in teaching them effectively. This is Year One from Carnegie Learning, a podcast that chronicles all the ups and downs of one teacher's first year in the classroom. I'm your host, Kanika Chadda Gupta. Before we get started, just a quick warning that this episode contains a few stories of violence and drugs that may not be suited for all ears. If that's not something you are wanting to hear about, I'd skip this one. Okay, let's jump in. Up until now, we focused on Jenna's experience through all the early milestones of being a teacher. But given the topic of this episode and the limited experience Jenna has as a first year teacher, we want to bring in a couple of other more experienced teachers to share their stories.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:01:17]:
In this episode, we're going to focus on how crucial it is for teachers to understand the whole student inside and outside of school in order to connect with them more effectively. So we're going to hear from Jenna, but we're also going to hear stories from veteran teachers Maggie and Phanesha, who you've heard in a couple of the episodes before this to illustrate the diverse issues that teachers have to navigate as students from all backgrounds walk through their classroom. Hopefully more than any episode before, you'll see why teachers do what they do. Let's start with Jenna, who is gaining her confidence in her ability to connect with her students. She's found that one key factor has made all of the difference.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:02:01]:
It's the beginning of semester two. I've been with these kids for five months now, five complete months, and I've learned that time is the solution to a lot of things in the classroom. There are things right now that I know how to handle and I know how to do that. If these situations arise. Back in August, I would have had no idea what to do, or I probably would have triggered some kids and made them even more upset based on how I would talk to them and handle those situations. So when you're looking at how your students work as a whole, not just academic, not just behavior, not just social emotional, but when you put it all together, time is what really, really helps as a first year teacher and a teacher in general, because every year you get a different set of kids.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:02:47]:
Time is important, yes, but it means nothing if teachers aren't willing to build relationships with their students. In Jenna's classroom. She's also finding this to be true.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:02:58]:
I think when learning about these kids, it's really important to learn about where they come from and who they love and who their family is and what they're interested in and what they do outside of school, because not only does it help you build that relationship, but also it helps you understand them more, and then you can reach that kid even further. Seeing all of the different kids and the different types of kids, you know, what categories they fall into, things they like, how they learn. Like, there are so many things that work together to create this human being that you are molding for, you know, 180 days throughout the whole year. I'm literally detective. I gotta connect the dots, and I gotta store it in my back file so I can remember if anything ever comes up.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:03:43]:
One challenge of Jenna getting to know her students has been that these students are just starting to get to know themselves.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:03:51]:
I always joke that, like, the age that I work with, which is eight or nine, is when, like, the kids finally start to realize who they are as a person. They start to have some personality and some spunk, which might be a good thing, might be a bad thing, but they definitely start to, like, not just be a little helpless kid who needs direction. They start to become their own human being who is making choices, whether good or bad. So, yeah, there's a lot of jumps that happen between second and third grade.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:04:19]:
Another area where Jenna has grown is how she defines and views success on a daily basis.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:04:26]:
There's one girl in particular in my class who started the year completely normal, like, on track with everybody else, academically, social, emotionally, everything just, like, kind of was blended in with everybody else. And then all of a sudden, after fall break, she, like, plummeted. Like, I'm talking behaviors out the wazoo. Like, Foley would have these moments where she would, like, throw her iPad. She would hide in the back of my room and bang her head against the wall. Like, hide in the closet, hide behind furniture. Scream, cry when one small thing goes wrong. Totally plummeted.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:05:00]:
It took a long time to get here, and we're still not all the way up. But literally, in the past, like, three or four weeks, I have seen such growth with her. And as a teacher, I'm like, oh, my gosh, I've, like, helped her on that journey. I'm not responsible for her going back up. Like, that's her doing the work. But, like, I can see that even though we have this giant dip, like, I'm seeing the growth that she's making, not. Not even academically, just like, how she's growing as a person and how she's learning or relearning to handle these emotions based on whatever was that fall in the middle of something. That's helped me a lot with learning more about their home life or more about what they're interested outside of school is contacting the parents.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:05:40]:
And not just like, oh, tell me about your kid, sort of thing. But anytime I have an interaction with parents, I learn something new about the kid, either if it's something going on at home or, like, even if they're just asking, like, hey, my kid forgot their homework packet. Can you send me another copy and an email? Then I can respond and be like, here you go, blah, blah, blah. And if they respond saying, oh, you know, that kid is always messing around, always losing something or always forgetting something, then I'm like, oh, okay. Might be a habit. At school and at home, I had an interaction with another parent. She volunteered for my winter party right before break, and she was making me laugh so hard because this kid at school is, like, the most put together, perfect, super, awesome, exemplary student. And then she's like, why is he like this here? He's never liked this at home.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:06:28]:
He's so mean at home. He does whatever he wants, and he gives me such attitude at home, and I'm like, he never does that here. Like, he is perfect here. So just talking with parents, even an informal way, it just makes me understand more where the kid is coming from at home and maybe how their attitude or how their personality shifts from location at home to location at school. So just keeping that conversation open.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:06:54]:
We've talked about how home life can significantly affect the way students perform and behave. And the truth is, those situations can be really tough to witness for. Teachers family dynamics and trauma can really shape how a student experiences school, affecting their emotional well being and how well they can focus and engage in class. So, keeping that in mind, let's hear from Maggie. She worked at a title one school in a lower socioeconomic district where many kids face significant challenges. Just a quick heads up. The rest of this episode will touch on stories of domestic violence and substance abuse. So if those topics are tough for you, it might be a good idea to take that into consideration.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:07:36]:
Okay, here's Maggie.

MAGGIE JONES [00:07:39]:
Recently, I had a student that was very upset because they came in, and every morning I greet my kids at the door, and she wasn't her happy, bubbly self. And I asked her what was going on, and she just broke down crying. And that was not normal for this little girl. She was just little sunshine. And I knew it was rough at home, and she just said, mommy and daddy were yelling, and daddy threw mommy's phone and it broke. And now we can't call Mama if we need help. So things like that come into play. And, you know, there's times that as a teacher, we have to let other people know in the school district if we think there's stuff going on at home that they may not be safe.

MAGGIE JONES [00:08:17]:
And we have liaisons that go in and check on know kids and stuff, too. That was also the year I had another student that had lost her grandfather and another student that also lost someone close to them. So we had a lot of students that were grieving and trying to process that. And when they're losing it, you know, you want to get mad at them and honestly, you really can't. You know, if that's all they know, then that's all they know. So, you know, we're trying to help them learn and figure out why they're feeling the way they're feeling. And so, like, how do you. How do you juggle all that? Well, it takes a lot of patience and figuring kids out, and just every year it's just different.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:08:59]:
In one of the most challenging moments of Maggie's teaching career, she faced a situation where a student's father had shot the mother, paralyzing her from the shoulders down before turning the gun on himself and ending his life.

MAGGIE JONES [00:09:15]:
I had one student who a lot of traumatic, went through a lot of stuff at home, came from a very abusive relationship. The dad had shot them off to try to kill her and then turned the gun on himself while him and his sister was in the other room. So parents don't realize that these kids that come in, it's. They have a lot of baggage.

MAGGIE JONES [00:09:47]:
Teachers have really big hearts. And so when a child hurts, you hurt, too. And there's so many kids that you would like to take home. But I had this student, and he would absolutely lose it in my classroom. He would throw stuff and he would scream and yell, and, I mean, that's all he knew growing up, you know, and then to go through that and you try to get a seven year old to process that and try to regulate themselves.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:10:18]:
In Maggie's experience, the relationship she had with her students was the most important piece to being able to help them when they were struggling and being there. For children who need a stable, loving adult for 8 hours every weekday, especially those who have the opposite at home, that seems to be the reason teachers do what they do despite the difficulties they face. Phonisha echoes a similar sentiment when she reflects on how some of her most difficult times with students ended up being her proudest moments.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:10:50]:
I had one particular student. He grew up around drugs all his life, and that's what he knew. And me knowing that about him, I had to make a decision on, you know, how am I going to reach him? How am I going to teach him? And we came to an agreement on what we needed to do. And, you know, he began to start coming to class more, doing more assignments because I was pouring into him and asking him about his life and what do you like to do, you know, and come to find out he was an excellent mathematician. Nobody just took the time to even care about who he was. You have to know your kids. So I sometimes don't understand when we don't have relationships. I saw a post on Twitter not too long ago, and it was a teacher that said, you know, this school year, I don't want a relationship.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:11:38]:
I just want to teach. I just want to teach and go home. And it bothered me because in my head I'm thinking, why are you here? You know, I get it. You get burned out. It's a lot. I understand it, but at the end of the day, that's a child. I always felt like, for me, I needed to get to know my kids because once I knew who they were, I could teach them better. Kids don't learn from you if they don't like you.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:12:02]:
I think that that is completely true. I don't want to talk to adults if I don't like you. You know, so we have to pour into our kids, because if we're in this profession, we're not in it for the money. The money is never going to be what you want it to be. It's never going to be great. You have to have a love for educating the whole entire child, and that's finding out who they are. When I was an instructional coach, I had a specific student who was a discipline problem and he was in a discipline program. So it wasn't like, you know, we just diagnosed him.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:12:30]:
He, he had some stuff going on, and a lot of times he would come to class and me and him, we would duke it out like, it would be daily to the point where the other kids would be like, can you just get out? Because he will become a disruption. But every day when he came back, it was a clean slate. I wasn't mad about, you know, if he decided to cuss me out the day before we were going at it when he came back in the room next day, okay, hey, let's get this lesson. Let's do what we got to do and move on. And when I had to tell my group of kids there that I was leaving to go to spring for the promotion, he was the first one breaking down in tears. The hardest, baddest kid in the class, the one that gave me the most. And all the kids were looking at him like, why are you the one crying? But what he told me was powerful. He said, you gave me a.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:13:10]:
A chance every day. Even. No matter what I did to you, you gave me a chance every day. And he wrote me the most beautiful letter that I still have in a frame, and I put it close to me so I can understand what's my why every day. Why do I get up and I do this work every day? He taught me, taught me patience. I'm not a very patient person, and that baby taught me. He taught me patience and chances. Everybody deserves a chance, you know, kids deserve a chance.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:13:36]:
So, you know, for me, you have to get to know your students, because that's how you're going to be the best for them.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:13:43]:
One story in particular still makes Venetia emotional. All these years later, there was a.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:13:50]:
Baby who, during teacher appreciation week, I start to notice, like, a change. Like, she's always a very happy kid, and she just wasn't because I would take my gifts and for the week, I like sherry, coke zero. I like trolley candies and, you know, candles. And that's the stuff that the kids were bringing. They would just kind of pile up on the corner of my desk, and she would always kind of look, and she wouldn't say much. And she was still doing fine in class. And then at the end of teacher appreciation week, she gave me a letter. And in the letter, she asked me to open it while we were in class.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:14:19]:
I said, are you sure? She's like, yeah, go ahead and open it. And in her letter, she said, I don't have any money to buy you all of your favorite things, but what I can do is write you this letter and tell you what you mean to me. And you could have picked me up off the floor like, I'm reading a letter now. I can't teach. Like, I can't even get my head together to even do anything. And the kids were like, miss Hawkins, why are you crying? And I asked her, I said, do you mind if I read your letter? And she said, no. And so I read it and now the whole class is crying. And that was probably a very touching moment for me because again, you don't know what these babies are dealing with when they go home.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:14:57]:
Throughout this podcast, we've covered the many challenges teachers face, especially when they're just starting out. But despite all of that, many dedicated educators keep going because they see the real impact they're having on their students. For Maggie, Fenisha and Jenna in particular, that progress is what fuels their passion and keeps them coming back each day.

MAGGIE JONES [00:15:20]:
I think as a teacher, when I say, you see your kids grow, it's not just, oh, they can read and write now. It's they have grown as a person, like as a whole child academically, but also behaviorally. Like how they handle situations when they get upset, how they can use their words now and tell somebody how they're feeling. Or when you see another kid who is suddenly helping another kid. Before, they couldn't do that because they've learned those lifelines or what we call lifelines or life skills. Like, that's good stuff, you know, like the aha moment.

PHONISHA HAWKINS [00:15:55]:
You have to get to know your kids. And once you get to know them and they trust you and they understand that you care outside of just teaching them something, they will give you everything that they have. They will give you every, every bit of them once they know that you actually care.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:16:10]:
You need time to learn your students. You need time to develop everything. So whether it's academic or whether it's relationship based or behavior based, you need time to not only learn and establish routines and expectations, but you also need time to develop and work through things. You learn from your mistakes and you learn as time goes on. Teaching is more than teaching. Like, teaching is knowing all of these things about your kids, and it's placing it into action and it's treating those students with, like, the care and respect that that situation deserves.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:16:45]:
This is Year One, an exploration of one teacher's first year in the classroom, brought to you by Carnegie Learning. Join us for the rest of the series as we follow Jenna through every moment. And be sure to follow Miss MacNulty on Instagram and TikTok. For additional exclusive content, pre teaching resources, and more, visit yearonepodcast.com. Next time on Year One, we check back in with Jenna on how she's budgeting on her new teacher salary.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:17:15]:
It's just, it's very tight, and it can be very stressful. Like, I'll have probably a breakdown about it once a month when I'm actually paying my credit card bill or paying my rent where I'm like, oh, my gosh, I have no money.