Resources

On a recent visit to the faculty breakroom to heat up my lunch, I ran into a colleague who asked, “Richelle, how is the semester going?” We had not seen each other very much during the semester. We were at the midpoint—administering exams and collecting assignments. Among the faculty, there was an awareness that the consistent use of AI was presenting problems. We felt anxious because we were uneasy about moving forward regarding campus policies and the use of AI. We were skeptical and questioned whether students were even interested in learning anymore.My colleague’s question prompted me to move beyond the default response, “The semester is going well,” but I took a few seconds to answer. “I am experiencing some sharpening this semester.” With a puzzled look, he followed up with, “What do you mean?” “I am being challenged relationally by students, and vocationally I am being stretched.” Our brief conversation ended with him telling me to hang in there, and with me returning to my office to take some time to reflect on my response.Proverbs 27:17—“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” One Bible commentator offers: “Iron cutting tools are made sharp, bright, and useful by rubbing them against another form of iron. A person without the company and conversation of a friend is alone, dull, and inactive; but with the fellowship and communication of a friend, they are refreshed, revived, and fitted for—and incited to—action.”The experiences of sharpening that I encountered were not directly connected to friendship, but to the teacher-student relationship. I recalled the two intentions I set at the beginning of the semester:As a teacher, I would strive to be the best version of myself. As a teacher, I would help students read, write, and think better. The first intention caused me to remember my teacher, mentor, and dissertation advisor—Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon. She often shared the legacy of Black women educators in the Jim Crow South who taught in overcrowded, one-teacher schools with scarce funding and out-of-date resources. This lack did not prevent them from proclaiming to Black children, “I will give you the best that I’ve got, and I want you to be even better.” This mantra was my guiding star throughout the semester. I created, prepared, rearranged, revised, added, subtracted, engaged, and explored content and teaching strategies for student-centered learning.The second intention called for a complete overhaul of the first because I was confronting the reality that some students do not want to be better readers, writers, or thinkers. There was resistance and, oftentimes, a refusal to engage in those foundational educational tasks. My self-dialogue centered on the following questions:Why do they resist reading and writing? It seems like using ChatGPT is always their first choice—why do they refuse to think on their own? Have they been taught to think critically? Beyond offering objective answers, many students would not respond to questions in class. Students used ChatGPT for complete reflection questions and other learning assignments. Using AI is not a big deal for students—everybody does it. Students often avoid doing hard things. Facing consequences and/or being held accountable for actions, good or bad, has not been consistent.As I became more intentional about engaging in prayer and reading scripture, and paid attention to what I was seeing and experiencing among my students, I resonated with Matthew 9:36: “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” This verse helped me to identify the students’ need for character development, critical thinking, accountability, and facing consequences for their actions. They were confused and helplessly attached to cultural norms, social media, and subject to poor decision-making.These revelations helped change my perspective and navigate more effective ways of being my best self, while incorporating character development, accountability, critical thinking, and consequences within the foundational activities of reading, writing, and thinking. God was calling me to be a shepherd for this group of sheep, guiding them beyond confusion and poor decisions. This experience of sharpening is a continuous process. Progressing through the semester with these new changes was not easy, but it introduced all of us to becoming better—if not the best—versions of ourselves. Challenging, refining, and improving one another, the sparks and friction that ensued were difficult but necessary, and will hopefully produce lifelong learners who benefit from the sharpening.