by Janessa Jordan

This morning, I was awakened by a new text message from one of my former Breakthrough students, J. “Ms. Jordan–I asked my mom if I could stay in Miami this summer! I’m going to Breakthrough! Are you going to be teaching?” This text message warmed my heart and demonstrated the importance of forming relationships with students.

J was one of my first students at Breakthrough in my 7th grade Biology class. Looking back at that summer teaching, I had no idea what I was doing! I was lucky that I was a creative, friendly person, which was helpful to create engaging activities for my students (slam poetry about DNA!), however the actual material that the students learned was utter rubbish. At that time, I had very little teaching experience and even less science experience, so J and his classmates had to endure my relatively horrid instructional practice. I let one of my students read Twilight in class because she always answered her questions correctly. I had a student with a learning disability and was inconsistent about modifying lessons to adapt to her needs. And here’s the best story: one time, a student asked me, “Miss  J, what’s a protein?” I panicked and answered, “Well, um…it’s a little message that your body sends itself to do things….” Sigh. Those poor children!

Even though my classroom instruction was less than spectacular, I dedicated a tremendous amount of energy and heart getting to know my students–specifically, my students’ “literacies.” By “literacies,” I mean the knowledge that my students came to class already experts on. These literacies ranged from freestyle rapping to chess to slang words. Each one of these literacies demonstrated competencies that my students taught me throughout the summer. By learning these literacies, I was able to form connections with students and be their student.

J and I connected over music. He was learning how to play the drums (from another Breakthrough teacher) and would drum in the background of my guitar-playing. During lunch or after class, I would ask him to show me how to do some of his drum riffs, and supported him during the end of the summer performance when he and the rest of his class performed. This past summer, he started playing guitar too!

When I think about my value-added that summer, it didn’t come from excellent instruction or leaps in student progress, but by working extremely hard at forming interpersonal relationships with my kids. Tight enough bonds that those students still feel comfortable contacting me today and talking to me about their lives, two years after my initial teaching them.

J’s text showed me three things today: a) J is excited about learning, b) he wants to communicate that to me and c) being his student helped create an important bond that still lasts today.  I’ll continue searching for ways to be taught literacy by my kids.