Saying Hello

My students and me in front of my classroom door during homecoming week

I have seen a lot lately about teachers greeting students at the door of the classroom each morning by name. Some have special handshakes for each child. Some do dances. Some designate a student to do the morning greeting. I have also read in many teaching books about the importance of greeting students every day by name. Some of these books give elaborate suggestions and detailed rationale. 

Of course I agree completely with the notion that teachers should greet students, but it just seems like common sense to me. It puzzles me that we need textbooks to tell us to be courteous to people. 

 Maybe we need to be reminded because sometimes it is easy for teachers, myself included, to get so overwhelmed and exhausted by the job that we lose sight that these are individuals filling our classroom who need attention, each one of them. This can be tough when you see over a hundred students in your classroom every day. It can be tough when there are only six minutes between classes, and there is often a lot to do during those few minutes. It can be tough when there is so much curriculum to cover, so many papers to grade, so much behavior to monitor, so much data to collect. We forget that these are people. We should be courteous, at the very least.

Maybe we need to be reminded because sometimes kids can make being polite difficult. So many times when I have told people that I teach high school the response has been something like, “How can you stand to be around teenagers all day? They have such attitudes. I don’t know how you do it.” And I have had the occasional eye roll, the infrequent back talk, and even the scarce pretend-I-don’t-hear-you-when-you’re-talking-to-me bit. But none of these things happen that often. 

The times when a student has been rude to me it is usually because he is dealing with something terrible at home or she is suffering a break up or he is on drugs or she is working too many hours behind the fast food counter. Or he is just tired and she is just stressed about school work. So I try hard not to take it too personally. I try to keep smiling. For their sake.

I am polite to my students. I tell them hello. I ask them how they are. I do my best to take an interest in them. I work to create an environment where, while the work might be hard sometimes or feel boring, my kids know it is safe and welcoming. I am a far-from-perfect teacher, but my students know they are wanted here. They know I won’t get angry when they ask a question. I won’t lose my patience when they ask for a piece of paper or ask for me to repeat the instructions over and over. I won’t be mad at them if they get a wrong answer. They know my room is a place where it is okay to make mistakes and to laugh. And it begins as soon as they enter the doorway.

It is really so simple. It’s just common courtesy—not a big deal. But perhaps the reason greeting students has gotten so much notice lately is the profound effect it has on our students. According to one study, these greetings substantially increase student engagement and actually save instructional time. A quick, easy, and incredibly cost effective way to improve the classroom is remarkably just being nice to our students. 

By the way, it’s not only good for the students. Every day, dozens of kids smile at me. Some tell me hello or good morning. Some ask how I am. Some give me a compliment. They all make me feel loved. I hope I make them feel the same way.

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