investigaciones

any one of these factors or to set up a magic formula that
will work for every situation because the factors are so
unstable that they cannot be predicted nor relied on from
day to day. If I want to be able to have some input to how
any one student reacts to my class, I have to focus in on
the factors I can control. I am unable to control who is put
in my class, each student’s attitude toward English, each
student’s personality, or the lives those students live; but I
can control how I interact with those students and the
atmosphere I create where those interactions take place. I
can facilitate the construction of a classroom community.
This interest in the class as a community is not new for me.
Although I have been teaching for a relatively short period
of time, five years, I have been struggling with the sense of
community ever since my first teaching assignment. I came
in mid-year during semester change to replace a well-loved
teacher, and the students were not expecting me. His name
was on their timetable, but I was the one standing in the
front of the room. Dealing with the students’
disappointment over my mere existence and struggling
with everything that is a first year teaching position, led to
much frustration and a few tears. My misery peaked and
my understanding began one day mid-semester when I
casually picked up a piece of crumpled paper from the
floor. Distracted, I straightened the ball while conversing
with a student about his current assignment. As our
conversation ended, I turned to place the paper on the desk
from which it fell. I glanced down at the paper; my heart
was instantly in my throat, my body numb. There,
scrawled across the paper in dark ink, were words of hate
about me. Wordlessly I placed the paper on the student’s
desk. His eyes flickered to the paper and then to my face.
Our eyes met momentarily before I turned away; the pain
in my eyes met the panic in his. Those angry words and
that panicked look began my journey of understanding. I
questioned what I had to offer these students; and I
realized that if I was not working with them, then I was
working against them.
If I want to be
able to have some
input to how any
one student reacts
to my class, I have
to focus in on the
factors I can
control.
In each year since finding that paper ball, I have worked to
set up a collaborative atmosphere in each of my classes. I
have used class meetings, student set consequences,
rewards, and flexibility as my main tools in maintaining
that sense of collaboration. If I can create a classroom
community that has an inviting and safe atmosphere, I
hope I can circumvent those factors that I cannot control.
8
Teacher Research in the Backyard