The Entire Student: EdTalk Reflection (Blog #2)

No matter your major, you’ll have to read many books in college. There’s textbooks galore and additional required readings on top of that- even more so if you’re an English major like myself. As such, it is no surprise that I find myself drawn to a good book. You’ll often find me reading young adult literature for leisure, but rarely have I stopped to consider the characters as if they were real, breathing, walking people. 

For the EdTalks project, my partner and I read the book Indivisible by Daniel Aleman. The story follows the Garcia family as their parents are deported to Mexico, leaving teenager Mateo to fend for himself and his younger sister, Sophie. He has very little support as he tries to carry both the emotional and logistical weight of his parents’ departures. Although his uncle tries to help provide for the children, nothing can cure Sophie’s depression, and Mateo struggles to prioritize school. 

The EdTalks project forced me to consider these characters as real kids that I might teach one day. Almost every question discussed by every group in class centered around providing for such kids.

But rarely were these questions concerned about providing for their educational needs, but rather their emotional ones.

As I’ve alluded to before, I learned a bit during my first student teaching experience that “being there” for a student involves more than just teaching them content. However, this project mostly taught me just how much this attitude of providing for the whole student needs to be the foundation of my classroom environment. 

Specifically, the discussions spurred from this project gave me ideas like incorporating daily group check-ins and hanging up affirmations in my classroom. I noticed that every pretend student (book character) would have benefitted from a trusted adult in their corner, and I want to be that for my future students. I want to be more than “trusted” by intentionally providing opportunities for relationships that encourage discussion- both academic and personal. 

For my own presentation, I checked in with the mood of the group using a thumbs up or down method. I felt that this clearly helped me assess the attitude of my “students,” allowing me to adjust my energy and delivery. Watching other groups present similar techniques emphasized the importance of incorporating these methods of personal connection into my future classroom.

I recognize that it is one thing to say that I want to “be there” emotionally for my future students and another to actually act on these ideas; however, my biggest takeaway from this project was the shift in mindset about how realistic these fictional scenarios can be, and how committed I must be to the wellbeing of the entire student.