The main image that will stick with me from my tutoring experience, though there are many, is the difference in liveliness between Mr. DuBe’s 6th and 7th hour classes. This can’t really be captured in a single moment, but the difference between the two classes is palpable: 7th hour simply feels so much more alive than 6th hour, and this seems to be the case because of a positively reinforcing cycle with no clear starting point: students are doing well in 7th hour, and not too many students are behind or overly confused about the material. Students are happy to be a part of 7th hour, as they chat at the beginning of class until Mr. DuBe quiets them down and they eagerly participate in classroom discussions and lectures, even sometimes when Mr. DuBe doesn’t want them to participate :). Mr. DuBe is also generally more excited about teaching the 7th hour, because these differences are consistent across days. He has remarked to me multiple times that 7th hour just feels more alive and he’s not nearly as concerned about them as he is with his students in 6th hour.

One aspect of 7th hour that I can point to and really sticks with me is the personality that exists in the class that simply isn’t there in 6th hour (if it’s there, it hasn’t emerged yet). Two students specifically come to mind: Wren and Luke. Wren seems to be quite extroverted at the beginning of every class, as she normally walks in in a hurry and immediately starts talking to her friends all over the classroom and interacting with Mr. DuBe. Around Halloween time, Wren brought in a huge bag of candy and was offering to give others candy, even giving me a twix bar and asking Mr. DuBe if he wanted anything. She consistently participates when Mr. DuBe asks if anyone has any good news, and she generally brings a lot of energy and happiness to the class in a very special way. I hope I get to teach students like Wren. Luke is another student who brings personality to the class, though for different reasons. Luke also very eagerly participates and raises his hand for almost every question, and he is a sort of fan-favorite within the class. People get excited when Luke has something to say, and his quirky attitude and excitement to participate gets others excited about class too. Other things about Luke also bring life to class, like his loud typing during writing activities. Something as simple as students giving a little chuckle to themselves when Luke starts typing really makes the room feel like a learning community, and it was genuinely heartwarming when everyone got really excited to celebrate Luke’s birthday and to find out that he was going to Red Lobster to celebrate with his family.

I think this is representative because it demonstrates how much joy there can be in the classroom and how it can come from the smallest moments, but it also shows how teaching can be incredibly draining when that joy isn’t present. Mr. DuBe struggles to connect with his 6th period class, but 7th period seems to come so much easier for him and bring him a lot more enjoyment. Seeing the contrast between his two classes has helped me to think about what kind of environment I would like to foster in my classrooms, but has also made me realize that so much of teaching depends on what students bring to class each day. 7th Hour is a classroom that I would love to be a part of, and while I thoroughly enjoyed helping students in both classes, I will take away from my tutoring experience the difference I felt coming out of 6th hour versus how I felt after 7th hour.

While there are some things that I think Mr. DuBe could do a little differently in how he interacts with students, he is unapologetically himself with the students in his classes. He shares personal details about his life when he feels like it (like that his wife recently ran a marathon), jokes with students in his dry manner, and is real with them about how some of the content they are learning is very important as he earnestly asks them to try and apply themselves to learning it. Students seem to respond well to Mr. DuBe’s demeanor, as his cool, collected nature makes it feel like he is the confident captain of his classroom ship. While this may not always be true, and he does a good job of sharing when has made a mistake or gotten something wrong, he is always himself when he is teaching. I think that is another key aspect of the environment of his classroom.

It is striking to me how all these different factors contribute to 7th hour being a more pleasant environment, both for Mr. DuBe and for all his students. It is hard to which aspect of 7th hour comes first in the process of making it an enjoyable classroom, so I’ve been trying to think about what Mr. DuBe can control about the room so I can think for myself what I would want to do in my own classrooms. He can control what kind of energy he brings into the classroom, the extent to which he tries to participate with students, and the manner in which he participates with them. Mr. DuBe told me the other day that when he first started teaching, he was trying to be someone he wasn’t. While his results were okay, he was incredibly exhausted and he knew it wasn’t sustainable. As he’s continued teaching, he has found that being himself has always yielded the best results and the strongest relationships with his students. When I’m teaching I want to be myself to the best of my ability; how can I feel good about the relationships I’m forming with my students if I’m not giving them a genuine version of myself? So I would say my conclusion is that while students and the teacher can play equally important roles in cultivating the culture of the classroom, it is my job as a teacher to give students that control and, on my end, to be my genuine self with my students and role model confidence in self.