Keeping Track

"Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

This often-uttered adage has either made or broken many a teacher. Content area experts may be able to explain every facet of the photoelectric effect or balance a difficult redox equation, but this expertise will never reach its full potential if the one possessing it does not first and foremost communicate a care for the ones to whom he/she is teaching it.

Students spend approximately 7 hours in school each day, amounting to 35 hours a week, which when multiplied by about 36 weeks, arrives at a grand total of about 1,260 hours per school year. What are we filling their hours with?

Do students know that they have a teacher who is on their side, who cares about their hopes and dreams, and who knows more about them than just the grade they made on their last test?

Students, like teachers, cannot read minds, so expressing our care to students takes a concerted effort to daily communicate it via words and actions. Such communication can and should occur on a whole-class level, but it is also especially powerful when such communication is done on an individual basis as well.

One way I personally do this is by writing notes on sticky notes and placing them on students' desks. I also am intentional about finding time to talk with individual students before and after class and during other breaks.

However, it can be a challenging task to keep up with which students I have made these personal connections with during the week, especially when there are 75 students spread across three classes. I want to make sure I am investing in all students on a regular basis and not overlooking students who may be more shy. Yet, I also need a practical solution that can be implemented on a daily basis.

Therefore, I use a system known as a Caring Tracker. This document is based on the sentiments in Philippians chapter 2, verses 4 and 20, about being sincerely concerned the for interests of others.

It is set-up like a spreadsheet, with a list of student names in a column on the left, columns corresponding to days of the week in the middle, and a place for notes on the right-hand side. One sheet of the caring tracker is designed to last for two weeks, so I can easily take a glance to see which student I have a not reached out to personally in a while.

I am able to use a simple letter code to note when I performed a care-communicating action for a particular student and what the action was. For me, B stands for birthday note and sticker, N stands for note/card, and C stands for a conversation. In the notes section, I can specify what the note or conversation was about or if I need to take any further action.

Feel free to pick up your own copy here and use to it to help keep track of how you are caring for your students!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HZAp0b6FIqSZxkHEdIfKYIq_H738b_pa