Video Case 3

At the Cold Spring Middle School in Reno, Nevada, action is being taken to ensure that

every student is personally known by at least one teacher. These teachers and administrators

assert that students will both perform and feel better at school if they can easily see that they are

wanted, cared for, and simply known by the faculty of their school. The faculty is currently

going through the process of picking up the metaphorical slack that they have accumulated, in

that they realize that they had not adequately made the effort to get to know and connect with

their students. Now, the staff regularly converses with, hugs, high-fives, and learns about the

students through genuine interaction and conversation.

This sentiment and effort are, without a doubt, incredible and vastly commendable on

behalf of the Cold Springs Middle School faculty. School can often be a place where students

feel isolated, afraid, and insecure, concerning their teachers just as well as their peers, so the

work of this group addresses an easily noticeable cause. As per the video detailing this school’s

work, the students seemed to genuinely appear happy and content at school. This admittedly

contrasts the general appearance of my peers and myself when we were of similar age to the

students in the video. Often, we were unhappy, crowned with grey, sullen eyelids too heavy for

our adolescent heads, and out teachers certainly could not seem to care less. Students, though

expected to work diligently and not considered to be fully developed, thus have their identities

and emotions glossed over by those in charge of them. The efforts of the teachers at Cold Springs

Middle School show what amazing things happen when these things go unglossed.