Respect

Respect....what a word. It seems we have all been asked at one time or another to define this word.  And yes, I am going to attempt a definition of my own.  Right now.  

Respect is not just one thing, but an accumulation of several things.  To me it is looking up to someone;  valuing how they go about accomplishing their goals in life and the decisions that they make, regardless if you agree with them or not.  It's caring for not only yourself, but everyone and everything around you. While this seems pretty cheesy, there is really no other way to describe respect.  It is kind of hard to put into words, if I may say so.

As a current college sophomore who is in pursuit of a degree in music education, respect is obviously something that I hope to have in my classroom. While respect should be found everywhere, this post is centered around respect found (or maybe not) in a classroom.  There have been many instances throughout my schooling experience that I can recall where I really had respect for a teacher.  One teacher in particular would be my middle school band teacher.  He was an older guy who seemed to have that knack for teaching beginning band students.  He was patient, caring, and had the ability to make sure kids knew that they would succeed if they worked for it.  Everyone loved band with this guy.  How could you not?  To this day I aspire to become a band teacher because of him.  He took the time to make sure that I had the opportunities to be a better player (I play french horn, by the way).  Although I have been in college for a few years now, I made sure to keep in contact with him.  This past summer he even helped me work on my orchestra auditions for college.  Having a teacher that keeps encouraging you is one of the best feelings in the world and my level of respect keeps growing.

That little story is just one way that respect can be seen in a classroom.  A teacher can make class both fun and educational while instilling respect into their students.  On the flip side, when a teacher doesn't respect their students, it is hard for the student to have respect for that said teacher.  Another example from my younger days.  Even now, my face has a tendency to turn a ridiculous shade of red when I embarrassed. Well, in seventh grade I had this obnoxious geography teacher.  He was loud, tried to be funny, and loved to embarrass his students.  I was a personal favorite.  I recall one day very clearly.  I was sitting in class and was called on to answer some sort of question that I probably didn't know the answer to, so I got all flustered and embarrassed.  Well, my teacher took notice of my rather flushed face and went on to  point out to the rest of the class how my face matched my conveniently red notebook. When this obvious fact is pointed out, it just makes my redness worsen.  It was the most embarrassing thing in the world.  Not only just being picked on by my teacher, but being laughed at by the rest of my class.  I know this seems like a very childish thing to remember, but I can't seem to forget it.  I have a hard time respecting teachers who think that trying to be funny and picking on their students will make students like them. I don't want to be just a liked teacher, I want students to be able to respect me as a person.

I wish there was magical way that respect would automatically be a part of classroom, but alas, there's not.  It is something that has to be earned and that takes time, which takes patience.  I think taking the time to get to know your students and respecting them is a good way to start the process.  And all of this is just what I think will work....Obviously I don't have any first-hand experience with this sort of situation, so this is all how I hope to go about this 'respect' stuff when I start teaching. 

Respect....everyone should give it a try.