Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me? A Student’s Perspective by Stephen G. Peters (©2006, The Peters Group Foundation: Orangeburg, SC.) provides insight from students he gathered during extensive interviews and uses this perspective to let teachers know what they may have missed in college. His goal is to help teachers learn how to care for all students by listening with all their hearts to the voices of students. Click the icon at the bottom of any page to purchase this fine book.

Stephen G. Peters

• Stephen has been an educator for more than 25 years with experience as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and director of secondary education. He is founder of The Gentleman’s Club, a program that seeks to change attitudes and behaviors of at-risk and borderline males and The Ladies Club that aims to empower girls to be their own best friends and inspire them to discover and be proud of who they are. He is also a partner at CasseNEX, a leader in online course design and delivery. For more on his work check his website.

It’s All About Relationships

• Stephen believes that the solutions to many education problems reside within the hearts and minds of the students themselves and that we all lose when we silence or ignore their voices. It’s the special relationships between students, teachers, and administrators that are the keys that unlock the door to success and excellence in any school. Part 1 features interview transcripts from four selected students.

Keisha

• Most students want to learn. We have a whole lot to deal with outside of school and we need respect, structure, and consistency. Her favorite teacher told the class on the first day that they all had A’s and that motivated her to work to keep it. It was her first A. As a 9th grader she finds that many teachers don’t seem to care. The best teachers treat you with respect and work hard to make lessons interesting.

Marvin

• Marvin’s favorite teacher told him he was smarter than he thought he was and made learning relevant and meaningful. She was a master at forming positive relationships with her students and never wrote discipline referrals. The other key influence in Marvin’s life was his coach. The relationship was so strong that the coach felt like a family member and Marvin worked hard to meet the coaches expectations. He was impressed when one teacher showed up at one of his football games. That made him want to work to pass her course. He also appreciates teachers who stay late to help kids and go out of their way to do unexpected acts of kindness. He doesn’t like the administrators as he has the sense that they don’t like him.

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