I've also come to quickly realize that all of you are experiencing the joys and frustrations of putting theories and methods and activities into practice with real, live students. People sure complicate things!
The day-to-day inexplicable complexity of teaching is why it cannot be learned in a book--it's why these field experiences are so valuable to you. Good teachers learn, through lots of practice, to listen and to pay attention and respond with care, thoughtfulness, and intelligence.
And, it's all in the "paying attention" part. This is something I am going to start emphasizing with all of you as you spend more time in classrooms--what is happening here? what is being said? performed? indicated? alluded to? how does it make you feel? how are you going to respond? why?
I look forward to this final week in middle school, to seeing all of you teach a lesson, to reading your final reflections from middle school central, and to gearing up for high school. Don't poop out on me yet!
2 comments:
I wrote a lot on the other post, so all I will say here is "I LOVE THE GRAY AREA"!! The gray area is where imagination, inspiration, molding and creating lives.
Fat Guy and Eraser Man...(take on the vegetables).
How cool are these kids? Their creativity blows me away. Two students in our class showed me a comic they were writing yesterday, Fat Guy and Eraser Man... (take on the vegetables). All I have to say is it encompasses a pie truck (pumpkin pie, cherry pie, etcetera,)and a pizza hut. These students want to write and expand their creativity, we just need to give them an outlet, a way in our classrooms that they can express this creativity, along with their thoughts, opinions, and ideas.
On our last day at WMS Beth was talking to us about an activity she once tried with the class and how it "bombed." That's useful to me, to know that things are not always going to work and that teaching can be a trial and error experience.
One student said to me, "Miss so you want to be a teacher when you're done with college?" I nodded my head and told him that was correct. He went on to say, "And you want to teach English?" He sounded kind of shocked. But again I agreed, and he said, "Why?" I couldn't help but think of the reflective pieces we wrote at the begining of the semester of why we all chose English... our passion, the writing, the authors, everything. Instead I just said, "I love it." I probably would have elaborated but his attention quickly transitioned to some students next to him. I figured, one important thing I want my students to know is that I love teaching, my content, and the students, and that I want to be here.
Caught Ya is cool. I like that when a correction is made to the Caught Ya the students have to explain WHY - making them think and giving a reason for doing things instead of just regurgitating information.
The last four weeks have gone by quickly. Allison and I put into practice some of the things we have learned along the way, from learning students names to scaffolding our lessons, everything makes so much more sense when you are in a classroom putting it into practice.
I am VERY excited to come back to campus and hear about everyone's experiences and prepare to go to NPH. Middle School has been great and every day was a learning experience. See ya then Ninjas.
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