We can derive from this then that the students who feel most out of place in a school setting are our most vulnerable students. So the question then becomes, how do we make our most “vulnerable students” feel comfortable in a setting that is ultimately intended to benefit them at all cost? Well, I am no expert but you can say that my “advice” (I use that term very loosely) is derived from my experience in the classroom, both as student and teacher. To give it an “academic-ish” ring, it is practice-based theory, and not the other way around.

Arguably, the most salient strategy involving making students feel at home at school comes from the trope of what it means to be inclusive. Including the culture of your students into their academics creates engagement. (I’ve written about this before…somewhere…but at this point, between my blogs, my Thesis, and my courses, the particular location of where I elaborated on this topic is a fuzzy blur to me). Brief example number one: at the beginning of the year, I “let” my students re-create the classroom. The parameters were loosely defined (No, kids, we cannot have a PS4 station for chillaxing when you’re finished all your work). My students, of course, came up with some fundamental symbols of the post-modern traditional classroom: a math wall, a student work wall, and a reading corner were all things we included. But students also came up with new and innovative aspects of the classroom that expressed important elements of their culture: we now have a Twitter Wall, and an IG wall. It is not too hard to take “their culture” and gently mold it into “school culture”. Our IG wall has only one caveat; the pictures posted (with our Polaroid Snap camera – hopefully they don’t break it before Christmas!), must demonstrate student learning. So, our wall consists of students doing school shit – working in groups on activities, photos of completed projects and work, all that type of stuff. Voila, I now have a “Student Documentation Board” in my classroom. Cutting edge pedagogical stuff, isn’t it? Only difference, it has a cool name. Our Twitter Wall is where students park a thought, experience, or insight they gained throughout the course of the week. We “tweet” on Fridays before the day ends. I am hoping that some of our tweets align with some of our photos. But if they don’t, they are both valuable to me and to my students. My students are still learning how to be self-reflexive of, and in, their learning.

Above all, both these examples situate ways teachers can include student culture into the classroom. Other examples include being cognizant of the type of posters you put up. In my class, our “reading wall,” or our “Get Lit (erature)!” board includes, not quotes from Shakespeare and other famous old, white dead people, but instead, rappers. Long story short, kids know these figures, think they are cool, and subsequently think reading is cool, since these quotes are situated in the reading corner (well, that is my elevator-pitch version of the philosophy behind it anyways). This is turning into a long blog; I didn’t even get to touch on how to actually infuse elements of particular cultures into curriculum and teaching strategies. For the sake of not boring you, I think I’ll stop there for now. Making students feel at home at school is an intricate and provocative topic. And that is why every teacher should be mindful of their practice in this regard. It is easy to leave students out even when we are still trying to do the best job we can do in the classroom.

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As I am writing this, my brother is playing music while entertaining a few friends and my father is gearing up for some NBA playoff action. Not only can I not be in the next room, I have to escape to the basement, close the door on the way down and any other preceding door that may yield off any indistinguishable sound waves.

I have to take these more than necessary actions just to concentrate. In grade 7, during a parent-teacher interview, my teacher all of a sudden turned into a pediatrician and told my mother that she thought I had attention deficit disorder and advised her to seek the nearest pharmacist as soon as possible. Thankfully, my mother quickly nulled her opinion and I eventually “matured” into a young man. I wonder if this may be the reason why I am personally not inclined to teach with an open door as much as I should. Perhaps Ms. Thomspon’s open door philosophy was the reason why she thought I was unable to focus.

Teaching with the door open is an example of the prescribed pedagogy that is filtered down through educational consultants and ministry offices that remains far removed from actual classroom experience. I am not saying that teaching with the door open is negative and doesn’t work. What I am implying here is that teachers must consider the reality of their situation whenever experimenting with new movements in education.

Slippery slope, indeed. Not everything new is bad. Not everything old is bad either. Teachers must be trusted with the craft they have worked hard on in order to make professional judgments for the sake of the children in the classroom. I know that my teaching falters when I become distracted by students in transition from one class to another or unexpected drop-in noise from outside my four walls. On paper, teaching with the door open sounds like a rosy, all-alleviating alternative that can be used to ease some of the ills that education currently sees itself faced up against. But will this undeniably work for every classroom, teacher-student dynamic, and school population? No. Teaching with the door open is a small and insignificant example of how pedagogical revisions forsake certain teachers. This is something that is not mandated, it is simply an effect of progressive minds thinking out loud for the sake of teachers who are always trying to better their craft. Unfortunately, there are many more explicit practices that are currently force-fed into the field of education. Education provides an open door for teachers to explore with new trends and progressive practices. But they should be allowed to close their door if it just doesn’t mesh with them.

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