Genre Reflection #2 The Game

The Game

The sound of a quarter on a table,

It is distinct.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You ask me for a quarter

But I don’t have one.

Yet somehow, you always get one:

This is how our day starts

The bell has rung, and class is beginning

And they are arguing about who is winning.

Spinning, stopping, and sliding with no remorse

But before I step, in nature takes its course:

The spinning stops, the quarter falls to the floor

Playing this game shall be no more.

You ask me for a pencil

I tell you mine is on the desk.

This is how our day starts.

The game is won, nonetheless.

Positive Perspective

As teachers, how can we teach to multiple perspectives within our lessons?

“We must continually remind students in the classroom that expression of different opinions and dissenting ideas affirms the intellectual process. We should forcefully explain that our role is not to teach them to think as we do but rather to teach them, by example, the importance of taking a stance that is rooted in rigorous engagement with the full range of ideas about a topic.”
                 -Gloria Jean Watkins (author, educator, human rights activist)

Perspective: an outlook of weighing importance of the subject to the individual.

Having multiple perspectives is having the ability to look at the subject on a larger scale and weighing out how it might be important to another person.This is something that I have found to be difficult to teach students.

Throughout my lessons that I have been teaching I have posed many questions to my students. Most answers are similar, but that one student that gives a different view, they find something interesting that I did not notice or consider at first. I am then able to teach the students how another persons point impacts ideas and interpretation.

One brain can think of things that the other brain has not connected with yet. We teachers need to help build more connections by letting students add input into their daily discussions. Teachers should quit lecturing for hours and start asking questions to find out what their students think about what they are learning.

We must note that students do NOT have the same value system as we. We know that our excitement over a subject does not always extend to them. So, it is our job to at least relay our importance and try to get them to see it from our point of view. Students need to learn how to view life and its situations from multiple perspectives in order to become the most successful.

Students need to be guided throughout learning, they need to be guided in how to learn about themselves. We need to guide them and teach them how to reflect on what they know and build on their knowledge.

Today in class we talked about LGBT students and how they suffer from harassment everyday. Here is a subject that requires having multiple perspectives in order to be able to understand and even care about what is being said. We need to teach acceptance of others, at least in their perspectives. It should be the outline of every lesson.

Randy Bomer talks about how teachers need to take multiple perspectives on how they teach so that it is significant to them: “We have to help students become involved and invested in literate tasks that are significant to them not because they were born to love reading and writing but because of the ways literate activity connects to other things in life that matter to them.” Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classrooms

We have to connect our ideas to their perspectives... to their backgrounds. 

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ---Jalad Rumi (Persian Poet)

KATE Reflection

This is the only the second conference that I have ever attended, so I did not really know what to expect... 

After I had arrived at the right hotel, previously stopping at the wrong Marriot, I walked in and found another woman who had been running behind. We introduced ourselves and walked into the ballroom together. The keynote speaker at this time was Brent Crawford: I see my professor, her smile calms my nerves of running late, and I sit down in the back of the room. I then knew it would be a great conference...

Keynote Speakers

Hearing the keynote speakers was by far my favorite part of the conference. I have never heard stories of how writers began there career, so this was very interesting. Brent Crawford was absolutely hilarious and I feel bad for laughing at all of his true stories, but it was so true I think you just have to laugh: you can picture yourself in that situation. He filled the entire room with smiles and good energy to start the conference off and his story was truly simple and real, and that is what students need in literature, something that they can relate to. 

The other keynote speaker, Rachel Hawkins, had a great story as well. I thought that her story was intriguing because not only did her husband believe in her, but she believed in herself enough to trust that her writing would do what she needed it to do for her and for others. 

Both stories would be great for students to hear so that they understand the power of writing and what it can do for the individual person: not only the writer, but the reader even more so. The power of writing and literature is what many English teachers want to pass on to students. This would be a great way to connect that idea to their everyday life by having actual authors tell students their stories of writing through life. Students need to understand that they can write for many reasons other than to fulfill a teachers wants and get a grade in class, it should occur outside of the classroom and should satisfy a students needs as a person. Writing is a great tool for SOOOO many things I couldn't even begin to list them. 

Breakout Sessions

I attended Co-teaching: The Power of Two, with Kathy Whepley and Kelly Frederick. I love the idea of being able to use two professionals in a classroom. I know how beneficial it would be for students if every class had at least two 'teachers,' there is much more flexibility with students needs, with the lesson, and so much more. If I could have another teacher, tutor, para, or student teacher in the room to help I would be ecstatic. Possibilities are unlimited within the classroom, and with two it is easier to make it happen. 

Literature Circles, with Maeve Bolin is the other that I attended. This was a very cool lesson plan that can be implemented into many classrooms. It is has many parts for open ended learning. The lesson occurs over a period of time and students are given jobs to fulfill while reading texts, analyzing different parts with each job. This lesson allows students to discover the power of reading by discussing texts and meanings in ways that are relevant to them. The discussions are students led. I like the idea behind letting go of control within the class and putting students in charge of what they learn in a text. It is interesting to see what can come from self discovery. I will definitely be incorporating this into my class and also into my semester plan (YAY!). 

 Networking

Networking within any career is extremely important, but even more so with teaching. I talked to so many people and even got to speak to Brent Crawford briefly after lunch. It was awesome and inspiring on so many levels to be able to talk with people with such great ideas and real life experiences. As a teacher it is important to keep growing and learning with your students. People can show you so many cool things that you never thought of, its all about looking at life from multiple perspectives.

Anything Else?

This conference gave me so much to use for teaching and as well as make me wish I had a class to use them in. I think conferences get you more excited about what you do and it also shows you the reason why it is important for you and others to be a teacher. I was inspired throughout the whole thing and am excited to implement these new ideas into my class. 

Genre Reflection #1

Eight O’ Clock

Silence creeps into the classroom at eight o’ clock in the morning. Nothing seems to move but feet dragging into their places and back packs slumped onto the ground. The eyes are lowered as if there is nothing to see. At about 8:05 feet pick up and eyes lift away from the floor. Slowly, life is entering these bodies that fill the class.

Working on syntax is not the most exciting but, it must be done. After all we are preparing for the A.P. test, so it really must be done. Reading and writing is going on all around, silence still lingering in the air. The first sound that bellows into the room is “Ms. Conway!” I am one of three adults in the class and they want me to help? WOOHOO! I jump up with excitement and run to the rescue! The students seem to be drawn to my energy. The key is to try to make them feel it, like I do… all the time. Asking questions is really all I do, thanks to my A.V.I.D. experience. Students seem to like to answer questions rather than being told the answer. They know the answer, they just have to figure it out. This is where I come in: I try to teach that learning is not just being taught something, but experiencing it for yourself, try to see how it impacts you. When I read their writing I am truly amazed. I tell them, “See how awesome this is! You are a writer!”

 I walk around the room and start reading other students writing, I ask some questions. Then, I look up from the paper I am reading and students are sharing their writing and asking their table partners “Do you get what I mean?” I hear, “Ms. Conway, will you read mine?” There is movement and noise all around. The bodies that were once so silent are now actual students engaging in their writing through critical thinking.

Silence shall be no more, even if it is eight o’ clock in the morning.

Seeing More Simply

Whew! I know those of you who are finishing up this last year in college are feeling the heat right now! I sure am. I am so close to the finish line and I see things starting to piece together. I can actually picture myself in front of my own classroom.

I seriously thought that with all this planning that my life would be too overwhelmed, let me tell you I work ALL the time! I actually found that I enjoy doing my work because I know it is getting me somewhere and I also have fun making the lessons. I have motivation. I thought to myself... I am accomplishing my goal. This is something that is hard to feel when your dream seems so far away (Something to think about because students often feel this). My dream is right in my reach... speaking of which I will be getting formally observed for my unit lesson next week.

Something many new teachers seem to fear is the thought of being observed. I am totally awkward so I am used to people watching me all the time... but, I am still kind of nervous. I think this will be a great experience before we jump into student teaching and I am hoping the kids won't think I am too much. I want them to have fun with this "analysis lesson" that I am teaching, so I have to make sure I am having fun teaching it. I did incorporate a personal poem that they are going to write so they can analyze how their writing may impact someone. I don't know if they will enjoy this as much as I will, but it will be good.

Overall, I feel really great about going into this lesson, I am much more confident than I expected to be. This will be the first time that I will have a whole unit to teach. WOOHOO!!!! I will keep you updated...

I Love New Ideas

In the past week or so, working in schools and also learning in my classes, I have seen several new techniques that I can and will incorporate into my English class. The two ideas that have inspired me the most  is when we did a "book pass" in our Methods class with Dr. Mason. I have never seen this idea used before. First, the teacher will demonstrate how they pick out a book from the library. Then the students are given a  short period of time to look at one book at a time and rate each book as they go, reading the cover, and title page, or whatever else a reader uses to choose their favorites. This will be a great way to show students that there are a lot of books out there. Some may not be as interesting to you as others, but you can learn something from each one.

Also, I saw my CT doing a book club within her class. The students are given about 5 books that they can choose from and they form groups with the people who chose the same book (of course some modifications would need to be made for group numbers). They then do small group work over their reading, there is a question sheet they fill out given by the teacher that has different activities that they can do while they read. For example: write down quotes and either question, analyze, or defend it. Also, draw a picture of what you think it would be like to be that character and see what they see.

Having high school students work on activities seems most logical. They build several different skills while doing this: social, collaborative, and much more. They are forced to listen to other ideas and do different tasks each day. They will not bore as easily if they are constantly thinking and working.

 I have been brainstorming some goals for me as an educator and how I want to run my classroom.

I will...
- Have a community based classroom that comfortably allows freedom of speech
- Have the students thinking critically and engaging in the tasks assigned
       - I will accomplish this by having an activity based classroom. I will have to ask higher level
         questions, as related to the Blooms Taxonomy, and give plenty of wait time (LISTEN!)
             -workshops, Socratic seminars, debate clubs, etc.
- Model how literacy is used daily, so eventually my students will adopt the techniques I have shown them and be able to use literacy in their everyday life.
- Demonstrate my love of language and the power of communication
        - I will do this by always being enthusiastic, even if it is not my favorite subject to teach, enthusiasm is
         contagious!

To be continued...

Hello all, I am going to have to get used to this whole blogging thing. I am totally out of the loop with social networking. But, to start I guess I will say that I am super excited that this is my senior year and I am going to start teaching soon!

For my first day with my students for pre-student teaching I think it went extremely well. I am working with teachers that team teach during the period I am working with, so I will get a different perspective than what I have seen previously. Both teachers are very enthusiastic and very personable with the kids. They already have a relationship with their students and know all of their names. I hope I can do this on the first week of school as well  as they have. I think that this experience will be a great benefit to me and my students.

Gathering experience is what teaching is all about. Experiences is what creates us, it is what makes us who we are. It is how we learn to adapt to our environment. Allowing your experiences to make you and not break you is what makes a person strong. I have not broke once and I don't plan on letting anything stop me.      I am ready for this year to prepare me for my future. BRING IT ON!