What About Me? Reciprocating Online!

What About Me?  Reciprocating Online!

It is a truism now that effective teaching has to involve taking into account the individuality and the personality as well as the needs of the students in any class.  Those of us who aspire to be good at what we do, to be professional and responsible to our students, go out of our way to keep them in our thoughts, try to help them out when they are struggling and I know I am always on the lookout for materials that will make their learning journeys easier and more productive.  When my students used to thank me for being so good, I would always tell them that it took a good student to make a good teacher. I truly believe that it is my responsibility to bring out the best in each and every one of them.  I would argue that we have to do the same when we never see our students face-to-face.  It makes obvious sense. So what bothers me is that, especially online, the students don't understand that kindness and generosity and thankfulness go both ways.  This week, I found some articles that I thought would help my students understand certain things and so I send myself links to them and then posted the links in the materials I distributed to the students.  I found an article of especial interest, I thought, to one of my students and sent it to him. I have not even heard a word of thanks from him yet. This is the same student that I praised effusively because of the work he was doing and told him I thought he could take his ideas to a doctorate.  He didn't have to say he would actually do that, but it seems to me that he could very easily has acknowledged my generosity in his learning journey and thanked me for the kind words. I think students ought to learn that good teaching is not something that they are entitled to take for granted, not until all teachers are equal in the efforts they make for their students.