I Wish My Teacher Knew

The I Wish My Teacher Knew strategy provides teachers with an opportunity to build a strong relationship with students and form a strong classroom community. Students share with their teacher via a "I Wish My Teacher Knew..." jar or box some things about themselves that they would like their teacher to know. This strategy supports teachers to connect with their students on a personal level. When students feel known by their teachers, they are more likely to feel authentically connected to the learning community. Ideally, this strategy would be used in the beginning, middle and end of the school year to begin and maintain a meaningful connection with students.

Now that you have planned for the I Wish My Teacher Knew strategy it is time to implement it with students/teachers:

1. Introduce the I Wish My Teacher Knew jar or box to your students and explain what it is and how students can use it.

2. Model writing an "I Wish My Teacher Knew" statement. 

3. Have students practice writing "I Wish My Teacher Knew" statements at the beginning of the year and inserting them into the box or jar. 

   • This is a great way to get to know your students at the beginning of the year! 

4. Establish guidelines for when and how the I Wish My teacher Knew box or jar will be used, how you will respond to students' submissions, and how frequently you will respond.

The I Wish My Teacher Knew is a strategy that will take time to refine in your classroom. After you begin implementing the I Wish My Teacher Knew, consider the following:

• What’s working? 

  • How has the I Wish My Teacher Knew jar or box helped your or your students share their emotions with you? 

  • How has the I Wish My Teacher Knew jar or box contributed to a stronger relationship between you and your students? 

• What do students like about this strategy? 

• What do students need in order to continue doing this strategy successfully?

• What do students need support with to do this strategy independently?

• What do you need to change?

In a distance setting, there is greater challenge to creating strong personal connections with students. Using I Wish My Teacher Knew in a distance setting creates a space for relationships and belonging in a distance learning community. 

Implementation steps:

1. Select a tool where students can share their response to I Wish My Teacher Knew. If you already have a check in or feedback system, consider using this same tool. 

   • In Google Forms, teachers can choose to require the question and whether or not they want the responses to be anonymous. Use the short answer or paragraph option depending on the length or response you are expecting from students. 

   • Voxer creates the opportunity for students to respond through text or by recording their response. This can be sent to the teacher directly.

   • Flipgrid can house all student responses on one grid. If discretion is desired, the teacher can create one grid per student that only the teacher can access and respond to. This creates a rich opportunity for sharing between student and teacher in a central location.

   • Padlet in Shelf mode can be enabled for students and teachers to respond through both video and audio. Anonymity is an option in this format. Similar to Flipgrid, private Padlets can be created for each student, restricting access to only the teacher. 

2. Establish a schedule or cadence for using the strategy. Some examples are:

   • Every Monday, in order to establish a strong start to the week and share any important information from the weekend. 

   • Every Friday, as a part of weekly reflection. 

   • When returning from a break in learning, in order to re engage and reestablish connections with students.

   • At the conclusion of a unit or key moment of instruction as a part of self-reflection and assessment. 

3. Set the purpose with students if this is the first time implementing this strategy. In a synchronous setting, share with students that they are loved and important, which is why this is an opportunity to share something that may not feel comfortable saying aloud or in a group. 

   • To modify this for an asynchronous setting, the teacher may record themselves with Loom where they express the importance of each student as a part of the learning community. 

4. Share the links to the Google Form, Padlet, or Flipgrid with students or send out the "I Wish My Teacher Knew..." prompt through Voxer. 

5. As a teacher, it would be beneficial to monitor and track responses from students, in order to enrich future conversations and establish strong connections with students. A Google Sheet with each student as a separate sheet can be created from Google Form responses. Similarly, a separate Google Doc can be created for each student where information can be noted. 

Personalizing instruction through getting to know you activities is a foundational tool teachers can use to better support all students with disabilities to become more engaged participants in their learning. In order to plan effectively to use getting to know you activities to support students with disabilities teachers should consider the following modifications:

Modifications:

1. Teacher knowledge and acknowledgment of student disabilities is a key way to personalize instruction for them. Before deciding on a specific plan or activity for getting to know their students, teachers should consult with special education department administrators or specialized teachers for information on not only specific disability types and needs present in a classroom, but how students want those needs acknowledged. 
2. Ensure that any handouts used are structured or modified to help students with task initiation as well as provide clear benchmarks (bolded words, bulleted lists) to assess task completion. 

3. Use visual timers and verbal reminders for each part of a getting to know you activity to help students with task initiation and task completion.

4. Teachers should think carefully about the approach of quality over quantity when helping students with disabilities share information with them and their peers.  For example, a teacher could ask students to only share out three rather than five facts about themselves in order for students with disabilities to have more time to process information.    

5. If multiple teachers are present, careful thought should be put into co-teaching models and how they integrate into a differentiated I Wish My Teacher Knew lesson plan.