This is OUR Classroom

Over the past few months, I have had this poster shared on my Facebook wall several times:  

I love it that people know how much I love my students and want to share ideas with me, but this is a poster that would never be allowed in my classroom.  Can you guess which phrase bothers me? It's the phrase, "This is my classroom."  

Several years ago, I read a book by Todd Whitaker called "What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most". (In case you are interested, there is an updated version of the book.  You can buy it here if you'd like to read it.)  A quote in this book shook me to my core.  It has changed everything that I thought I knew about classroom management.  I thought being a teacher commanded respect from my students.  I thought having two degrees and years of experience could get me through any class.  I was wrong.

This.  This quote has changed how I approach classroom management.  I respect my students and they respect me.  I treat them like adults because many of my students are the adults in their households.  Many of my students struggle each day just to get to school.  They do not need me to belittle them.  They do not need to me to point out that I am their teacher. They do not need me to threaten them with consequences.  They know all of these things. There is nothing about the above poster that says, "Welcome, let's learn!"  

What most of them need is love.  They need to feel respected.  They need to feel like their ideas matter.  It is possible to do all of these things and to maintain a classroom environment that requires critical thinking and risk taking; however, in order to do that teachers must make themselves vulnerable.  We must be willing to learn our students stories.  We must try to love them, even when we don't like them.  We must know that our hearts will be broken a million times over.  We must know that for some kids, we are all they've got.  So no, this is not MY classroom.  This is OUR classroom.  This is OUR journey.  We are in this together.  That is how we learn best.  I am so thankful that I had teachers who took me on their journey years ago.  Their classrooms were MY classrooms, too, because I knew I was important to them.