Because I'm a chronological type of girl, I wrote about the first week's assignments in the order they were assigned. Here are some thoughts on Making the Journey...
Chapter 3: Planning for your Teaching
I enjoyed this chapter because planning = order and I love order. I love organization and pattern and reason and this chapter allowed me to reflect on my own planning styles as a tenured teacher. I was able to recall back to my first year of teaching, when I struggled to write good lesson plans, all the while knowing that I would be breaking up fights more than educating students. If I could get them interested in ANYTHING, the battle for that day would be won, but I was certain I would lose the war. Christenbury discusses the importance of reflection on the lesson, and that's something I find myself doing more and more of now that I have several years of successful teaching under my belt. I almost never lecture, and rarely speak more than my students do in any given class period. Although I keep my seventh graders on a short leash, I do foster a discussion-based classroom. Pairs and small groups are often utilized after brief written work is completed so everyone has an opportunity to decipher his or her own thoughts independently. Christenbury says on page 68, "it is time for students to take the information and use it, question it, incorporate it, illustrate it, something it so that the knowledge does not become someone else's point but their own." I couldn't agree more, and that's why my focus for this year is to offer more culminating activity options to my students.
Chapter 4: Those Whom We Teach
This chapter discussed the importance of building a relationship with students in order to better serve them. Christenbury said on page 95, "getting into an instructional rhythm with these students, trying to take their perspective about assignments and grades, understanding their motivations to work - or not to work - were crucial to my teaching success." I've known many students who fall into categories based on the grading scale. The A students always do their work, try their best, and often stress about maintaining the A. They drive me a bit nuts, but are genuine in their pursuits. The B students are the salt of the earth; they either are capable of A work and don't reach to obtain it, or are truly adequate B learners. I try to light a fire under some of them who I know can do better; sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The C students are truly average and again, some come by it honestly, and others are not working up to potential. The D and F students struggle for many reasons, but even if I can't convince them to try harder, I make it my job to make sure they aren't doing poorly because they don't understand. This is where the relationship comes in. If my students don't feel they can trust me and open up about their academic journey, then we've all failed. Christenbury talks about several types of students: the apathetic student, the violent student, the alienated student and the best way to get in touch with these students in by building a relationship with them. If they know that I care as their teacher, they may start to care also.
Chapter 10: A Question of Ethics
Although I know of cases where student/teacher relationships were questioned (such as one young man in my pre-service teaching placement), I've never been involved in such situations and honestly don't spend much time worrying about "crossing a line" because the thought of an innapropriate relationship has NEVER crossed my mind (yuck). Christenbury makes a good point though when she says, "One of the hardest things for beginning teachers to do is to draw a line between their roles as professionals, teachers, and their understandable desire to be friendly, even friends, to students" (278). I think this falls under acceptable classroom management strategies. It's effective and appropritate to learn about your students, be kind to them and understanding of their place in life when they enter your classroom, but there is always a line. Every new, young teacher wants to be liked by his or her students. I've found the best way to be liked is to be a role model more than a friend. My students talk to me about things going on in their lives because they trust me and they appreciate an adult's perspective. If ever something they told me seemed a bit outside of the normal zone for interaction, I'd certainly take it to a higher authority to deal with, such as a counselor or administrator.
And now, some thoughts on Cultural Reflections...
Chapter 1: Constructing a Teaching Life
On the same note as building relationships with students, Gaughan mentions how our professional lives are shaped into categories of teachers, scholars, or mentors. In order to achieve these goals, there must be a strong relationship between teachers and students. Gaughan calls it harmony. He describes his first year of teaching and his ninth-period group of boys that were his largest struggle. "I didn't know how to teach them. I didn't know how to control them. How would we ever achieve harmony?" (Gaughan 10). I was again reminded of my own first year of teaching in the inner city and day after day how I was perplexed by the same exact question. What happened was Gaughan kept trying and eventually made it through the first year. He took the lessons he learned from that toughest group and made himself a better teacher. My mom's favorite saying is, "the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time." Although the first year of teaching is a huge elephant, it's worth getting through each bite of it to gain the wisdom one does after completing a year in the trenches.
Chapter 2: Teaching Thematically: The American Dream
Gaughan says that teachers must learn what will work with their own students. I find this to be especially true with middle schoolers. For example, I have a fantastic literature circle unit that culminates the year and gives my students the freedom to work in small groups to analyze and discuss novels. The problem with this unit is that someone long before me decided that the novels should be medieval historical fiction to coordinate with history content. That's all well and good, but my students complete four projects that are built in a cross-curricula fashion with history and by the end of the year, they are not only tired of history and English, but to add insult to injury, the novel choices we offer are pretty terrible. What is a teacher to do when the district has invested a lot of money in novels that are no longer interesting to students? Develop a new unit. In the near future, it is my hope that we can use novels that are higher-interest and multicultural in nature. It's something I'm working on, but I think we're still stuck for a few more years with the old novels until our budget can allow more choices. Just as Gaughan developed his American Dream projects, I hope to expand literature circles to better suit the needs of a diverse population of learners.
Chapter 10: Constructing a Curriculum
Speaking of a new curriculum (see last entry), I agree with Gaughen about using teacher portfolios as an evaluative tool. Lucky for him that all PA certified teachers must complete an in-depth portfolio to receive their permanant certification. When I completed my own portfolio a few years ago, I was able to review what I had done, how I had taught various lessons, what student results occurred, and how I could improve as a teacher. Gaughen states, "We may never compose a product we can't revise, but that's what makes our chosen profession so dynamic" (212). I agree wholeheartedly with him - the ability to constantly change is what makes teaching so great. I still look back on my lessons at the end of each year and search for ways to improve them. My unit binders are covered in multi-colored post-its based on what color was available when a brain surge occurred. If I didn't seek to improve myself, my art would be dead. It's my only hope that after 20 years of teaching, I'll stilll be looking for ways to improve myself and the way I reach my students.
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