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“That’s simple. That doesn’t require an iPad and coding. That just requires making the space for young people who are experiencing your teaching to give you suggestions on how to do it better,” he said.
The result, he said, is that the students know that their teacher cares what they think. The teacher gets professional development from people who are watching him work day in and day out. And the dynamic in the classroom begins to shift.
“It can change the game,” he said.
Emdin also suggests giving each student responsibilities in the classroom, so they know they have something important to contribute to the group. And he says it’s critical for teachers not only to allow students to be themselves, but also to teach them how to code-switch — how to be “social chameleons” who can navigate other cultures, too.
He urges teachers to leave their schools and get to know their students as three-dimensional people outside the classroom, and to know their communities as places that are not bereft of advantages but filled with strength.
It’s an approach that takes a lot of time, he acknowledges. “But you know what’s harder work? Yelling at kids all day. It’s easier work to just go observe the kids, hang out with the kids and use that to change your teaching,” he said.
He describes taking a white teacher to a black Pentecostal church to see how skillfully the preacher engaged the congregation, and how the preacher managed to have a plan for the service – and to depart from the plan when the energy in the room demanded it. “The preacher’s ability to have control over the service while allowing the congregants to guide his preaching can be replicated in the classroom,” Emdin wrote.
Emdin learned many of the lessons he is now trying to impart when he began his career teaching middle-school science in the Bronx.
“My first two years were a disaster,” he said. He was teaching in the community where he grew up. He knew the slang and the music. Yet he still couldn’t connect with his students.
“I had those challenges. Could you imagine somebody who did not come from that community? There’s no way you can tell me that person is going in there not having some sort of cultural barrier,” he said.
It wasn’t until he shed his idea of what a teacher was supposed to do, and started being himself, that things turned around. He began playing basketball after school with his students. They talked about all kinds of things, easily, and the connection translated into the classroom.
“My teaching improved. My students reacted differently, test scores increased, I didn’t have to yell anymore,” he said.
That’s what he hopes his book will be able to give other teachers who are struggling to connect with their students — even if the title, or some of the ideas, are difficult to stomach. When a white graduate student at Columbia, wrestling with his ideas about the failures of white teachers, asked him if she should stop teaching and go into policy, he said no.
“What you do is understand that the tension that you’re feeling is not a negative thing,” he said. “Anything that helps us collectively grow will at some point make us feel uncomfortable. I think tension is actually the seedbed for growth.”
The result, he said, is that the students know that their teacher cares what they think. The teacher gets professional development from people who are watching him work day in and day out. And the dynamic in the classroom begins to shift.
“It can change the game,” he said.
Emdin also suggests giving each student responsibilities in the classroom, so they know they have something important to contribute to the group. And he says it’s critical for teachers not only to allow students to be themselves, but also to teach them how to code-switch — how to be “social chameleons” who can navigate other cultures, too.
He urges teachers to leave their schools and get to know their students as three-dimensional people outside the classroom, and to know their communities as places that are not bereft of advantages but filled with strength.
It’s an approach that takes a lot of time, he acknowledges. “But you know what’s harder work? Yelling at kids all day. It’s easier work to just go observe the kids, hang out with the kids and use that to change your teaching,” he said.
He describes taking a white teacher to a black Pentecostal church to see how skillfully the preacher engaged the congregation, and how the preacher managed to have a plan for the service – and to depart from the plan when the energy in the room demanded it. “The preacher’s ability to have control over the service while allowing the congregants to guide his preaching can be replicated in the classroom,” Emdin wrote.
Emdin learned many of the lessons he is now trying to impart when he began his career teaching middle-school science in the Bronx.
“My first two years were a disaster,” he said. He was teaching in the community where he grew up. He knew the slang and the music. Yet he still couldn’t connect with his students.
“I had those challenges. Could you imagine somebody who did not come from that community? There’s no way you can tell me that person is going in there not having some sort of cultural barrier,” he said.
It wasn’t until he shed his idea of what a teacher was supposed to do, and started being himself, that things turned around. He began playing basketball after school with his students. They talked about all kinds of things, easily, and the connection translated into the classroom.
“My teaching improved. My students reacted differently, test scores increased, I didn’t have to yell anymore,” he said.
That’s what he hopes his book will be able to give other teachers who are struggling to connect with their students — even if the title, or some of the ideas, are difficult to stomach. When a white graduate student at Columbia, wrestling with his ideas about the failures of white teachers, asked him if she should stop teaching and go into policy, he said no.
“What you do is understand that the tension that you’re feeling is not a negative thing,” he said. “Anything that helps us collectively grow will at some point make us feel uncomfortable. I think tension is actually the seedbed for growth.”
