On Teaching: "Noticing My Students"

I discovered something interesting this morning: the word “notice” comes from the Latin word “noscere”, which means "to get to know". So noticing something doesn’t mean, as I used to think, simply glancing at it in passing, as in “I noticed the snow-covered oak tree in the park as I drove to school.” That’s the kind of noticing I’ve been doing for years – just glimpsing, or taking a quick look, at things as I rush by on my busy errands. It’s been especially true in my teaching, where I’ve often scurried through my lessons with blinders on, hardly paying a moment’s attention to the individual, unique students sitting around the table. Now this morning I discover that truly noticing means truly getting to know, as in studying, paying attention to, and learning about. If my goal in teaching is to get better at noticing things, this means I have to slow down and look. I can’t just glance at my students and then push on with the lesson. Really noticing someone is hard work. It requires observing, contemplating, and beholding that person. It can’t be done quickly, in passing, the way I have often noticed my students. In a way, the word “notice” implies being a student, for I have to study someone in order to truly notice them. Perhaps that means I have to be as much a student as my students are. They are students of English because they are trying to notice (get to know) all the important concepts of reading and writing. I, on the other hand, am a student of my students. I need to study them. I need to get better at genuinely noticing them -- beholding them -- moment by moment, day by day.