The nation’s top teacher, Rodney Robinson, inspires UMW’s future educators to make real connections with students. (Suzanne Carr Rossi ’00)
Children need to feel safe, understood, and loved to succeed in the classroom. That’s the message 2019 National Teacher of the Year Rodney Robinson delivered in late January at UMW’s Dodd Auditorium.
About 200 people attended Robinson’s talk, including aspiring teachers from UMW’s College of Education and working educators from the community.
“It’s about relationships,” said Robinson, who teaches history at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center’s Virgie Binford Education Center. “It’s about touching their hearts and making them want to change.”
Robinson believes teachers must meet students’ basic social and emotional needs before tackling academics. He urged educators to get to know their students, empathize with them, and consider the students’ interests and experiences as human beings. “Every day, everything I do is viewed through a lens of equity,” Robinson said at UMW. “I believe that all students can learn, and it’s everybody’s job to help teach the children.”