The title of my thread this week should give you some idea of what I am asking of you: write to us about how you are enacting your teaching principles in your classroom right now. How are you walking your talk as a teacher? How are you living up to your own standards in your classroom?
Return to your list from seminar, and flesh it out a little more if you'd like. What core principles comprise your teaching tenets (your teaching commandments, if you will)? And, how are those principles coming to play out in your teaching? In other words, what's happening when the rubber hits the road?
Of course, I don't expect you to provide a narrative that demonstrates to us every single belief you have. But, I DO expect you to identify one or two core beliefs that you carry into your classroom and to SHOW US, through dazzling description and specific detail, how these beliefs look once they are put into action in your teaching and in your students' learning.
For example, I wrote that something I teach for is: having a voice. Something I teach against is: silence and complicity. So, what does this look like in my teaching?
I walk into my classes every day with the expectation that I will hear each students' voice at least once during the class. And, instead of playing the passive aggressive teacher who acts disappointed when students do not speak up during "discussion," I provide instructional opportunities for students to share their voices and opinions with others--small group work, short responses to questions or prompts, a quick read-around, a write/pair/share. Notice that putting my belief into practice is on ME--it is my responsibility to create an environment in the classroom that will cultivate the kinds of interactions and learning opportunities that are important to me.
I hope my example helps illuminate what I'd like you to craft this week for your blog post. We are following a thread here--tracing how your talk becomes action, how your burgeoning teacher beliefs play out in the classroom, how theory becomes actual practice. I can't wait to see what you have to say. See you all on Thursday evening!
9 comments:
I teach for listening, I teach against hearing.
At the beginning of each class I start with a journal prompt. I write the prompt on the board and then read it out loud to the class. I ask them to write silently for ten minutes. It does take a little bit of time to get every quiet and writing, but when it works, it works. The next part is sharing, and I journal as they do, so I have something to share too. The class seems to like when I share first, to listen to what I have to say and start off the conversation. I find that sometimes when a student shares, and other students are not interested in what they have to say, they start their own conversations within themselves. They hear the student talking, but they aren't listening. I make it a point to stop and say, "Hey, everyone, up here, we are listening to "joe" right now. Students usually begin to LISTEN to what the student sharing is saying. Most times, getting the students to REALLY listen to each other sparks conversation about the topic between classmates, which is more productive than little side conversations. Plus, I like students to know that their opinion and what they have to say is important. As the teacher, I make sure I am always listening and responding to their thoughts and comments, as well as making sure their classmates are listening to them.
I teach for setting and reaching goals, I teach against giving up.
As I teach, I make lesson plans, where I want the class to be at the end of fifty minutes. I set goals for myself and the students. Sometimes it is hard to get them on task and keep them there, but I have learned that setting goals for them and making sure they know they are be held accountable for the work helps to get them there. Yesterday my period 3 class was a little crazy. They were going in every direction possible, and maybe I wasn't clear enough with what the goals were for the class that day. So, today I went in with the goal to do better. I told the students my goals for the by the end of the class. There were certain things that they needed to have completed and I was going to come around and check that it was done, and put a classwork grade in my book. After this, I told students what we were doing next, and what had to be done by the end of the class period. Once the students knew exactly what they were working towards, they were on task and well behaved. I know there will be good days and bad days, but setting goals and telling students where they need to be helped.
I teach for optimism!
Aimee Marsland. You are part of what keeps me going. Thank you for your articulate, well written post. And thank you for participating with your students, for letting them have some space too, and for caring enough to not settle for "some of the time" or "some of the students." Brava. You ARE optimism.
This week has been a little rough. We had a girl in tears this morning with a case of abuse,and a couple other issues, and I found myself overwhelmed in dealing with all of this and my own life. I realized somewhere in second period that I was teaching for the last bell and teaching against still having students infront of me. I realized it was a BAD place to be, and once the class got to work I journaled for a minute, found a space for myself on a page in my notebook while still trying to keep a " teacher presence". I tried to not beat myself up about, stopped denying that this was what I was feeling and excused myself for my downfall. I just needed to remind myself WHY I was doing this and why it's ALL worth it. I reflected on what made me learn in high school, what my teachers did, things they said, and it made me smile. I regained my sense of self as teacher and reminded myself that I said I was teaching for learning and against disruptions. But today made me realize that there are MANY kinds of disruptions, and some you can't teach against, you have to teach how to deal with them. It threw me for a little while, and I think it's great that this was the question for this week.
One thing I can speak to is teaching for individuality and against conformity and the "right answer". Today the students worked on writing survival plans for Hurricane Katrina, but worked in groups to depict their plans with pictures. They could draw or use magazines and after some time they really got into it. One group turned their project into a book titled "Survival Plans" and were considering titling it "How to get out of Katrina". The students are talented, a couple a GREAT sketch artists and it's AWESOME that we're putting that to use in their ENGLISH class! Several students kept coming up to me saying "Miss, is this right?" and I kept telling them things to guide them towards more detailed and completed work, but they would start to get frustrated and ask "Okay, but is this part right?" I wish we could get rid of this whole right and wrong black and white issue. I also love how CLEARLY I can see if someone is cheating. And having more than one day on the project allows me to monitor and adjust that so they studnets can fix their work to be their OWN ideas!
At first I browsed through the list I created during last weeks class. I thought with this post the most difficult part would be giving examples of use, but I can't even get that far. I feel so strongly about all that I wrote.
When it comes down to it though, there is one aspect of teaching that I will always follow.
I teach FOR pushing the envelope of learning (analytical/higher order thinking) and AGAINST teaching to the test.
I remember so many of my experiences in high school going from cover to cover, taking the quizes and vocab at the end of the chapter and writing the stereotypical five paragraph essay.
Because of this I now use the Lit book as a guide, a mentor, but not the engine that runs the classroom. I find that by using ancillary text, movie clips, different assessments, and giving students voice and choice, students push themselves and become more motivated.
A great example of this is actually part of the short story unit I am teaching currently. For the story "Checkouts" I had students create their own ending, for "The Lottery" I had the students teach each other about the vocab and we are watching "The Island" and writing a paper on differences, and for "Cask of Amontillado" I'm focusing on revenge (journal entry) having the students get into groups and locate misunderstood or unknown words and showing a clip form "Romeo and Juliet".
All of these activities enhance the text and create a situation where students can increase their learning though different avenues. So far this "beefing up" of lessons seems to be working out wonderfully. I feel that the classroom is alive with learning rather than reciting information verbatum.
I teach for voice in the classroom.
From the very first day of school in both creative writing classes, I let the students know that they would be required to read their writing outloud to the class. I explained that poetry needs to be heard. By getting the students to share something new about themselves and trying to get them to call each other by name, I have started to develop a community in the classroom. From day one, I made "having a voice" not only a requirement in the classroom, but it is the culture of the classroom.
On the second day of classes I conducted an activity called the fear and anxiety continuum. I asked students to stand in a line that ranged from completely comfortable with speaking in front of other people to totally petrified. I had each person explain their position in the line, which not only broke the ice, but you guessed it, caused them to talk in front of the class. There were lots of smiles and laughs, and this activity showed the anxious students that they were not alone in their fears.
How do I know that the culture of sharing has worked in these classes? Last Friday, in both creative writing classes, we sat in a circle and every single students in both classes, shared an original poem out loud. Every student! Some students were hesitant, but I had the rest of the class chant their names until they fostered the courage to read. At the end, I played an original song on my guitar as a way to share something that I have written with them. It was amazing. Toward the end of the song, the students were joining in on a simple lyric and that is when I realized, that we had built a community in two weeks.
I teach against rows.
Lisa and I spent a fair amount of time deciding how we wanted the desks in the classroom to be arranged. In the end, we created four half circle tables that sit at various angles in the room. It allows students to see and hear each other, but it is not the traditional cirlce. The best part is, the name tags that the students created on the first day. They leave them with me after every class, so before class begins, I strategically place them where I desire. This is a plus, because I have made it so every student will eventually sit next to every student in the room. Since there are four groups of tables, when a student is at the same table as five or six other students, there is the inevitable feelings that they are part of the same group. This technique causes students to acknowledge other students that they may have otherwise ignored.
I think that is a big part of why the students already feel comfortable speaking in front of each other and sharing out. So yes, I teach against rows, which leads to teaching against isolation and silence and I think is why the chicken crossed the road.
I, like Charlene, also had a rough week, but it applies to this post so I will discuss it a little here.
I teach for Respect (for self, others, and the world).
This week we started a poetry unit and for homework last night the students were supposed to write poems based on "I Was Rasied By Women" http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/03/raised-by-women.html. Today in fifth period the kids shared their poems with the class. I asked a student to read her poem because I thought it was well written, but she was too shy to read it aloud. Another student offered to read it to the class because he said he could relate to what she had written about. (Side note: earlier this week I found out that the female student is a cutter. She claims she has stopped, but I'm not too certain about that. Needless to say her poem made reference to cutting.) So as the male student read the poem, some other kids in the class were laughing and having a side conversation. I asked him to stop reading and confronted the group who was talking. I asked them what was so funny and they didn't have an answer. I told the class that it was important to respect each other and listen to one another's writing. One of the students who was talking had already read their poem aloud so I pointed out the fact that everyone had been quiet and listened to him when he read. The students quieted down and we continued to listen to the poem being read. After he was finished reading, one of the students who had been called out for talking asked what "emo" meant. The female student had ended her poem with the line "I was rasied by emo". The poem reader proceeded to explain to her what it meant saying that emo often was associated with being sad and how sometimes you're going through a bad time and you don't really know what to do. Then he started to talk about how he cut himself last year after his best friend died and he didn't know how to cope. The emotions of remembering this incident must have triggered something because he began to cry in the middle of class. He tried to pull himself together, but needed to step out of the classroom (luckily Susan was there to go and talk to him). When he left the room the students were visibly upset. The girl who had asked what "emo" was said, "I didn't mean to make him cry." I told the class that she didn't make him cry, and that it's good to ask questions when you don't understand something. I then told them that they need to realize that some students have open wounds and that's why it's so important that we listen to and respect one another. I know it is something we will continually need to work on, but I could tell that the students were affected by the incident (I know I was), and I hope they learned something from it.
I teach for Responsibility.
Last week I passed out a contract that Susan and I came up with. The school mandated that we make students aware of the grading policy for our class, but we took it a step further. We gave each student a contract that not only laid out the grading policy, but also reminded students that they are responsible for finding out what assignments they missed if they were out, and that they are responsible for asking questions if they don't understand what's going on. We/I want students to care about their education and understand that they should ask questions and do their work in a timely manner. I read over the contract with the students (making sure to tell them that they should NEVER sign something they haven't read or don't agree with) and then asked them to sign the line stating that they understood the expectations of English 2.
I teach for confidence and self-esteem.
It has been about two weeks now in my classes and I have come across a lot of students that happen to be awesome writers, or awesome speakers, but are to afraid to share with the class or participate in discussions. I knew right away that I could not let these student's voice go unheard (which is why I teach against marginalization) and slip through the cracks while I am trying to show the class that everyone has a voice that is worthy of being heard. What I found to be a big help was simple encouragement, and having the students consistently interact with each other every day in class.
The whole desks in rows thing was not working out for me, so I started grouping the students together and giving them tasks where they need to build off of each others ideas in order to come to a certain goal. For example, each group had to brainstorm ideas and details to write a collective narrative essay that they had to present to the class. This has been great for getting students to talk with each other, as well as share their writing and ideas becuase now they are seeing that they all have a positive contribution and play an important role in the success of the class. Sometimes I even have to ask them to stop brainstorming so we can move on to the next step of the lesson. Now that the students see that they can rely on each other for guidance, ideas, and encouragement to succeed, I am seeing more and more hands going up to share, as well as conversation between students (academic conversation, of course).
It is great seeing the shy students take control of a group or a discussion, and seeing students that normally can't share in front of people volunteering to read their work aloud. Even just getting students to come out and ask questions has been easier now that they are confident enough to know that what they need help on, or what they want to show to the class is relevant and important. This didn't happen overnight, and I am still working with some students, but I am sure that soon enough each student will have the confidence to share and be heard in my class.
I teach for equal treatment of students, I teach against prejudices.
Yesterday in class I had my students create a top ten list of things that they think I should know about them as students. The whole class read at least three things about themselves, with some students sharing their whole list. One of my students wrote as his number 10. I love God. Some of the other students in class began to snicker and laugh. I put a stop that this immediately. I explained that in this classroom we do not laugh at people's beliefs and values. Everyone is entitled to believe in what they believe in or not believe in. Respect for diversity is at the center of my classroom. Culture and family is important to my students. I know this because they have told me.
I teach for students learning to their potential. I teach against "I can't".
I have a class of inclusion seniors and today in class I was telling them that I would be willing to help them with any college applications and essays that they may have to write. They quickly began to respond "No Miss we cannot get into any colleges that require us to write essays". This began a class conversation about college options for my students. How to pay for it...how to apply for them...what they have to do. There is no I cant go to college because I am in a comp class. There is no I cant do this work because I am in a comp class. My students are more than capable to achieve just as much as students in a CP class with some effort. As a teacher I am striving for my students to produce work to their potential. It may take a little more time on my part but the results will be more amazing that I can put into words. Today was an inspiring day.
The first thing I did when I got home was to read your posts. I am sitting here with goosebumps because, taken all together, as a kind of class poem, these posts are amazingly inspiring and seem, almost, like a prayer or a mantra. It kind of reminds me of the NPR vehicle, "This I Believe." To read each of your voices first stating what you teach for and then telling us how is POWERFUL. Look at the change you are making in the world already! Look at the positive forces that you are sending out into your classrooms each day and that your students are taking home with them each night. You are an impressive group of thoughtful individuals--I loved our sharing tonight because each of you was tooting your own horn in appropriate ways--please, please remember to see what is good about your work each and every day and, when all else fails, remember the wisdom of our own Aimee Marsland: tomorrow is another day to start again.
Peace, folks. Enjoy your weekend.
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