Talent: To Teach Them To Fly

I spent this first week of school on a myriad of community building exercises in my Constitutional Law/Government class~ Journalism~ and World Literature classes at Williamsburg Christian Academy. My affective goal was simple: develop talent and advance community!
I am fortunate enough to work in an environment were the affective goals are encouraged as part of our motto-"teaching them to fly."After our usual parade of "warm-ups"~ "speak-ups"~ and "get-ups"~ I asked the students what I could expect from them as learners. The list was impressive and they committed to each other to attempt to meet their self-expressed standards of personal deportment and academic excellence. I followed-up that question with an important extension~ "What do you want from me as your teacher? Give me your Ten Commandments for Good Teaching." What they collectively shared is platinum and I will offer their words to you! These are their words consolidated from the three grades (10-12).
1. Come to class prepared to teach us-don't fake it.
2. Make class fun by being authentic with us-don't mask your joy.
3. Be kind to us by being yourself-don't make us feel foolish when we make mistakes because we are learning.
4. Help us grow-don't put us down.
5. Laugh with us when we attempt to learn something new-don't laugh at us because we really are trying our best most of the time.
6. Stretch us with important stuff we can learn-don't waste our time with junk and off-topic stories.
7. Start the Socratic Seminars~ and get out of the way so we can conduct them-don't control our thinking.
8. Tell us how what we are learning fits into real life experiences-don't fill time with useless note-taking.
9. Say you are sorry if you make a mistake and let us feel we can too-don't judge us before you listen to us.
10. Bring chocolate or treats to class; surprise us!
Any graduate school of education can indeed support these ideas~ back the recommendations with research~ and punctuate the thoughts with data. Here are the words of kids eager to learn in a digital age; they want to be liked~ know they are safe~ secure that they can depend on the teacher to create a risk-taking environment~ and confident that we~ their teachers~ will have the talent to teach them to fly on their own!