Teachers can make lasting impressions on students

    As the end of the school year draws to a close, feelings of excitement and perhaps even doubt, begin to mount. In the home stretch of finals week, the exhaustion and stress are quite visible on college students’ faces.
    Before finals week, I hold individual conferences with my students to touch base with them and give them an idea of what they should work on in their writing for the final. I’ve never thought much of my approach. It always seemed like a good idea to meet one-on-one to address the specific concerns and to applaud the improvement that I’ve noticed over the course of the semester. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I realized just how much one-on-one contact could mean to students.
    In closing my conferences, I always allude to some extracurricular or interest that I’ve heard my students discuss about themselves as a means of ending on a friendly note. As usual, I ended by asking one of my students, who had been talking before class about a family vacation, about her summer plans. At first, she seemed taken aback and I became embarrassed, thinking I had misheard or had gotten her confused with someone else talking before class. Instead, she smiled widely and began telling me how excited she was to be able to go on a vacation with her family, whom she had not seen since Christmas.
    Before she left, she let me know just how much she had not only enjoyed my class, but having me as a teacher because she found that it was extremely rare for her professors to take such interest in their students and actually talk to them outside of class.
Friendly approach works
    Having gone to a small liberal arts college for my undergraduate, I had not had the same experience that she had mentioned. As my student left, I realized that she was probably right: at larger research universities, most lower level college classes are lecture-based with stadium seating to fit the many students in the class. In those settings, it’s probably rare for a professor to know the names of all their students, particularly if the professor lectures once a week and a graduate student holds class for the remainder of the week. Just by taking the time to individually meet with my students, I realized that perhaps my class was the only one where they thought their voice was heard. I’d never had that outlook before, and I was grateful to be told how one student had viewed my idea of holding individual conferences as a means of reaching out and caring about my students as individuals.
    Not all semesters of teaching have been great experiences for me, but this semester, I truly learned how influential I could be to be my students. As an undergraduate, of course I looked up to certain professors, but it wasn’t until this semester that I truly realized that even I, a graduate student working on her doctorate, could be a role model to my students.
    The academic job market, like the regular job market, is not very promising. It seems that every semester I read an article reminding me that I should not continue in my pursuit of doctoral degree because I will not get a job and will only continue to accumulate student loan debt. But it is in these moments, when I realize how important my role is, that I remember why I continue to do what I do: for the students; because just as I looked up to my English professors at Spring Hill College, my students can look up to me.
    As summer approaches and the stress and exhaustion give way to relief and relaxation, I think it’s important to look at ourselves and see whether we realize how easily our actions can impact others. Are we being good role models for the upcoming generations? What can we do to better ourselves, and in that process, better them?
    Heather Bozant Witcher can be reached at [email protected].