It's over...

Can you believe it guys...it's over? The classes are coming to an end, the homework is almost complete, the fines are almost gone (which is great because of the tuition increase), and it is finally time to get into the classroom full time. Has it flown by?? I have been in college since the Fall of 2005 and it feels like i just started and now it is over. I am scared to death to enter the classroom and have the lives of 80-100 kids in my hands for 8 hours a day...but with being scared, i am full of excitement. I can't help but think to myself: will they take me seriously? I am only 3 years older than some of my students, but have been through the college experience and learned so much, that i think they should...but will they? I know all of these questions have probably entered your minds...but it is just scary to think about it. It's over now...and it is time to grow up... :'(

Teachers go to Wal Mart too.

I just had to laugh at my own title... When my mom, an eighth grade American History teacher, and I go shopping we occasionally bump into one of her students. I always chuckle when the students gaze at my mother in awe and exclaim, "What are you doing here?"

It is important for me as a teacher to take time for myself by doing normal (outside of school) activities. When I read this chapter I had to think to myself "when was the last time I read a book for pleasure?" The answer--Christmas break. Hmm... Even as a college student I should do things or activities that I enjoy.

On another topic I found this cheap but funny film that sums up the entire chapter. Here is the link--

www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog?p=289

If I hear the term "burnout" one more time...

Burnout is all anybody is talking about lately. At least it seems that way. My husband is a teacher (special ed and science) and he talks about his colleagues being burned out. I have several very good friends who are teachers, and they constantly talk about the burnout rate. I read about the burnout rate in text books. Etc, etc, etc. I'm tired of hearing about it. Any employee of any profession can suffer from burnout. It's all about how you handle yourself. Have outlets (as Kendra mentioned), make your classes fun and full of variety, enjoy yourself, keep your sense of humor, and think of how fortunate you are to be doing something you love and getting paid (albeit not that well) for it!
I would be interested to see who of us are still teaching in 10 or 15 years. We've all got such potential to be great teachers, but I know the stresses of the profession will probably get to some of us. I don't see myself giving up on teaching any time soon. I've spent waaaay too much money and time on this to give up on teaching easily. I'm really excited about my first year of teaching next year. I'm nervous as crap, but excited nonetheless!

The Textbooks

For my last blog post I wanted to talk about the textbooks that we just finished reading. When I first started reading Making the Journey, I was pretty excited to read a textbook written by a real teacher with real advice. Then I realized that Deeper Reading was essentially the same book as Making the Journey. What I didn't like about tehse books is that neither one had much in regards to controversy. As I trudged along with tehse two books I never felt inspired by the anecdotes provided. Each chapter started to feel like a chore. I'm not saying that there wasn't value in the texts, but I am saying that when I'm sure this class is over I will be selling them. I can't see myself referencing these texts when I start teaching. I wasn't expecting them to reinvent the wheel (gotta love the cliche) , I was just hoping that these would be books that I could use when I felt like I was in a bind in my first years of teaching. Instead I got two books full of common sense advice.

Avoiding Burnout

Since the first day of the first education class that I took, I have been warned about the awful aspects of teaching. I've been told the statistics, that half of teachers quit their first year. I've been told that I would cry on the drive home because of the horrible encounters I was going to face. I've been told that the administrators will destroy my love for teaching with their evil regulations. I have also been told about the cynical robotic behavior of the students that I will be teaching. All of these warnings and I still stayed in the education program. Why? Because I don't give a rat's ass what other people think my reaction will be to these things.

At this point I might just succeed so that I can spite the ones who told me it would be too hard. I think that some of the teachers quit because they hate their students going in. Before the first day begins they decide that they hate their students. I always wonder where the hell these failed teachers go when they quit. Do they piss away their hard earned education for a shitty job at Wal-Mart? Do they get a different degree? Wherever they go I say good riddance. We don't need teachers who are willing to throw in the towel after a couple of tough years. When I start teaching I want to be around people who like what they are doing.

I think that going into this career you need to remember what it was like being in the position of your students. Don't just assume that your lessons aren't going over because of the lazy kids. Maybe you are presenting the lesson in a boring way that makes your students want to cut themselves. You should always assume that it is your presentation of the material, not that the students are lazy. Don't forget what it's like to be in a boring class with a teacher that hates you.

I don't plan on being a statistic. I don't care what the warnings are. I thought long and hard about what career I wanted to persue and I chose teaching because I thought that it would be fulfilling and meaningful. That and I still remember how terrible some of my high school teachers were and I feel like I have to prove to them that you don't have to be a boring jerk to get students to learn.

Will I be a statistic?

I would hope not. After spending this amount of money to join a specific profession. I better like it. I think I will, though. I've had a lot of fun in my student teaching practicums and it feels like I was meant to do this in life. That's a very good sign. My mentor teacher this time told me she was a statistic the first day I went in and she was burned out, after just five years. She doesn't like the education restrictions enforced by administration. But, I've also meant teachers that are going to have to force themselves to retire. So, Christenbury definitely brings to play some accurate scenerios in chapter 11. I agree with Joseph. It's all what we make it. We can focus on the negative things, or we can pursue a great career that gives a lot of oppurtunity with an open and positive mind that will shape our future about all endeavors, whether that means teaching or some other position in education. It's up to us. Everything boils down to a choice. I just want to say that I've really enjoyed collaberating with all of you and hope to work with some of you in my new career. It's been great fun learning new ideas and sharing them with you guys. I think we should all pursue keeping the education system a great place to be by taking part in the 4 Contemporary Challenges Christenbury brings in to focus: 1 standards 2 testing and reporting 3 increased awareness in muliculturalism 4 being a professional activist. One of us could have a major influence on bettering the educational system if we take part in the areas that make or break it. Put on your dancin shoes. It's almost our time to shine.

Priscilla

Chapter 11

What a chapter to end on. I can see various reasons why teachers could get burnt out on teaching. I worked with a teacher while I was in high school for a cadet teaching program who said she was burnt out with the job but kept doing it because she felt she was too old to do anything else. Something I noticed about her, and also about other teachers who have become burnt out, is that she had a very defined routine for her classroom.

Every day the students would come into the room, and there would be a D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language for those who may have never had these in high school) on the board for the students to complete. After five minutes, two students would correct the sentences on the board, and they would move on to a story in the book. They would read the story aloud with the reader moving up and down along the rows of students. After reading the story, they would answer the questions at the back of the story, and whatever questions they didn't finish in class were taken home as homework. They turned these questions in daily. Everyday, it was the same routine, excluding the one novel they read each semester and a trip to the library every two weeks.

How could you not get burnt out if you taught using the same exact routine for twenty-something years? I think that an important part of staying fresh and excited about your job is changing things up once in a while. If you're teaching the same routine seven times a day for twenty years, of course it's going to get old.

By popular demand...at the top!

Burnout...

Chapter 11 in Christenbury really got me thinking a lot about burnout. I have a mother for a teacher, and she has taught for 25+ years and doesn't plan on retiring any time soon. How do you avoid burnout? I think a lot of it has to do with your mental makeup, the support you get from other teachers, and what kind of administration you work under. Christenbury correlates talking about certain things and burnout, but I think that the burnout influences the talk, not the other way around. I also heard one of the coolest teachers I've ever had (Tita Baumlin) say recently that you have to have passions outside of your work environment in order to survive and be happy...so I guess that's some advice from an awesome, experienced teacher as well.

I do love the encouragement Christenbury gives about us keeping up our reading as teachers. If we expect students to read, love reading, or get anything out of reading, then I do believe we must be continuing to do the same. Teachers who are out of touch or don't care, reflect that in their teaching...and hopefully teachers that really love reading reflect that as well.

THE END!!!!

Well, these two books were great and have become valuable resources, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that they are finished. No offense to Christenbury or Gallagher.....I'm just spent.

However, I got a little scared at a part of what she said. I honestly feel like I can see myself teaching for the rest of my career. Sure, I might jump around the country or at least around a few school districts, but I see myself teaching for a long, long time. But what if I'm one of the teachers that burn out immediately - that get too caught up in all of the crap that goes along with it, that I miss the joy that comes with this field of work?? I would be crushed - especially since this was a second career choice that involved 3 additional years of school (yep, that's right - 7 years of college).

I'd like to think that this won't be me. I mean, I have learned how to work full time and go to school full time (in addition to all of the other things I am involved in), so its not like busyness is not a familiar condition for this girl. But part of me is still scared of it. I just can't see myself doing anything else with my life, so if its not teaching.........

So I take to heart the advice that she gives - having an outlet, having my own social time, reading my own books, finding a hobby to pursue, etc. These will be part of the answer to keeping me in the classroom for as long as I love it. And I hope that's a really long time.

And with that, farewell to the blog!!

Chapter 11

Its funny as I was reading Chapter 11, I didn't really think that any new information was given, but at the same time, I was interested in what Christenbury was saying. Then I came to the part about BURNOUT. It was odd that Christenbury had brought the reasons up on why teachers don't stay in the teaching profession. See, just yesterday I was approached by a woman I know and she told me that as soon as I was done teaching she had a job waiting for me, even if it was 2 or 3 years from now since as she said, "teachers don't last long". I must have looked at her like she was crazy, not that she was saying anything I had not heard before, but it was the fact that I had never really thought about myself being one of the teachers that left the profession early, really early for the matter. This woman said it so matter of a fact, like she knew I would be calling her in a few years wanting this great job that did have quite a few perks...but it was missing one important thing, I wasn't going to be helping students and having an impact on their education and their lives! So when I read Christenbury's section on teacher burnout, I really read it (does that make sense??!!). I'm glad that she wrote about why teachers might leave after just a year or two and why teachers stay in the classroom. If I am more aware of reasons why teachers leave, I will be able to recognize them faster and hopefully be more prepared to deal with them head on rather than leave a profession I am SO excited to enter!!!!!

They still need an education, but some things have changed.

After reading Christenbury describe the similarities and differences that exist in schools today I realized, as she said, that school has not changed much in structure but the purpose of the school is growing to include personal needs and not just education.  This represents the change of times.  While she mentions this in the chapter, I think it is important as future teachers that we remember that whether we like it or not or job of giving students of education is evolving.  Students are looking more and more to their teachers for advice, encouragement, comfort, someone they can trust.  People are getting busier and busier with life and having time to invest in your own  child in some instances gets put on the back burner.  Students look at teachers as someone that can give them a chance.  Students will rebel against us because we are authority figures but am I willing to give up on students, give up on the future because kids are being kids or will I be able to see through that and reach students.  If you just read all of this thanks for reading my ramblings.

Making the Journey...

Christenbury, if nothing else, gives us many ways to look at our teaching styles in this chapter. We can be maniacal and devote 110% of our time to our class and end up hating our students, our job and ourselves, or...

We can take the road less traveled for new teachers. Balance our workload, keep grading and planning work at school (including griping to your spouse), and find someone at school you can share with when times are hard.

I find this to be a successful bit of advice in any profession. As a much older student, I've had numerous jobs where I have attempted to do my best, but have been hampered by rules, mandates, and bureaucracy. My solution has been to find someone who you can gripe to. You don't want to find someone who is overly negative, as they may push you to the "disgruntled" personality. You want someone who can agree when they should and help you find that light at the end of the tunnel when it's there. This will keep you balanced, but feeling like you have a true avenue for venting.

~Stan

20 years down the road...

Can you imagine that in 20 years, you will be sitting at your computer reflecting on all the times you put into your classroom? 20 years in a classroom...in any place...seems like a long time. Do you know how many students you will have in 20 years of teaching? Do you think it is important to make a connection with each of these students throughout the time spent in your classroom? Well, I do. I know that after 20 years of teaching, i will be able to look back and reflect on the fact that i touched almost 2000 students lives. I think this will be an amazing feeling. For a feeling like this, do you really think it will be easy? No- it will not be easy. In fact, the first 5 years are going to be the hardest, but we must return to the classroom every day, year after year, because we have students lives to affect. My favorite teacher in high school (one who i still talk to every week) was in the classroom for 30 years before i had her as a teacher and she still seemed enthusiastic about her material every day. Yes, she has probably been teaching the same information year after year for the past however many years, but she still loved it and still did it every day. Now that she is retired, she is back in the classroom subbing at least 3 days a week because she loves it so much. I hope that in 20 or 30 years i will be as excited about teaching. I know that seems like a long way away-- but i am excited for that feeling!

Wow.  I can't believe it is about that time where I can replenish my wallet with green and see my lists of things to do become less daunting.

It is weird to be done with both Gallagher and Christenbury, and now I am nervous about student teaching, and I fear that I'm not going to be a natural at this whole teaching thing.  I have always had this idea in my head that most people who come into this profession chose it because a parent or family member is a teacher.  You know - "my grandma and mom are both teachers and I have always wanted to follow in their footsteps" type thing.  It seems like they are meant to be in the classroom and will be so natural at it. Well, I definitely don't have anyone in my family that was or is in the teaching profession, and as a little girl, I remember saying that I didn't want to be a teacher.  All this goes to say that the people who knew that they were going to be teachers all along intimidate me because it seems so natural for them and something that they have wanted for so long. Sometimes I still wonder if I'll succeed in this profession and if I will love it.  I was so encouraged when Christenbury quotes Susan Ohanian when she states, "It is possible, I suppose, to have an inborn talent for teaching, but I am sure that those teachers who endure and triumph are made - rigorously trained - and not born" (297).  It is good to be reminded that becoming a teacher is a constant learning process and something that you aren't born with.  Sometimes it may not come naturally, and that is okay.

I also think that to "love" my job also means having a life separate from it.  Burn-out is a scary thought for me, and I think that one of the hardest things to do will be to make sure that I am taking time out for myself and enjoying my life, apart and away from my job.  I like that Christenbury says that you should buy season tickets or schedule social times so that you make yourself get out once in a while.  I think it can be so easy to just stay home and claim "I'm tired."  If we fail to make ourselves "get out" once in a while or spend time on ourselves, eventually we may find that we are unhappy, and ultimately our jobs will become less than enjoyable.

Self-Explanatory

Another Article TELLing You What to Do

This post is in homage, so to speak, to another blog reel I write, which everyone should check out and comment on whenever you are able: Half the Gladdness Thy Brain Should Know.

Now, I say this because on that blog I put articles within paragraphs of my own opinion and it's up to the reader to follow the link and gather more vital information. Because of the controversy from last week, I've decided to put a link to a website that TELLS you what to expect in the first year of teaching... to not scare you away. Now, if you've read the last big story "The Job is the Fight," then you may realize quickly that I don't really take to too many of these quotes. But I think they're fun and worth discussing (especially if you want to argue with some of them as much as I do).

Still, don't fret, Stan and Kevin, I'm working on another post that's sure to get under someone's skin. Keep your gloves up and no hitting below the belt... let's get it on!

Chapter 11

As I was reading the "Staying in the Classroom" section of chapter 11, there was one part that really stuck out to me. The statistic that 30-40% of beginning teachers do not return to their classrooms. I realized that not 100% of teachers always return to the classroom, but I had no idea the number was that high, especially for beginning teachers. Honestly, that's pretty scary. I really don't think I will be one of those statistics, but you never know. The section says that many of the reasons that teachers don't return to their classrooms is because of isolation from other professionals, pressure, the workload, and the constant demand from administrators, teachers, students. etc. I feel I am pretty prepared for those things, although I guess I don't know until I actually find out. My practicum teacher did emphasize how much work she does and how she feels it takes away from her family. She told me numerous times how she stayed up till 1 a.m. grading papers and she still isn't done.. or how she has this to grade and has this time limit to do it in...
All I can do is just try to do the best I can and deal with everything one at a time. And hopefully, I won't be another statistic.

Some Food for Thought...

I have been reading through the blog, trying to go from beginning to end. It is really interesting reading what people have written. However, while reading I was reminded of something that I think most of you will enjoy.

Many of our post include sayings like "I want to make a difference' or "I want to be there for my students." Reading these comments and ones like them reminds me of a student teacher I had when I was in ninth grade. Every morning while she was there, before beginning the class, while we were doing our daily reading, she would make cards. Simple things really, made out of pieces of construction paper, and would write encouraging messages on them. The messages would be of so many different aspects. They could be some thing like "your hair looks really pretty today," "that shirt is awesome," and could go to something like "your comment about X was really interesting yesterday." Sometimes she could tel our moods and write comments that reflect what we were thinking and give us encouragement if our mood was not a pleasing one.

I have to say that I really appreciated those little comment cards. In fact she left such an impact with me, even though she was only a student teacher, that I kept in contact with her for years after ninth grade, and I believe I still have most of the cards that she gave me almost ten years ago.

Many of you talk about making an impact with your students. By simply showing that you care enough about them to write them personal notes every day (sometimes she didn't get a chance to write them every day but it was most days), you make an impact. I guess you could say that it is the "little things that count."

One More Thing

I didn't understand what the big deal was with the teacher who let her studen write about Wicca. I'm no 1st ammendment scholar but I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court has covered religious expression in student papers.

Chritenbury is Out of Her Mind

I am all about rule bending but I think that Christenbury was insane for allowing Ray to skip her class and forge her attendance sheet. I think of it as a bit of an injustice that she allowed this kid to skip class everyday while holding every other student in her class accountable. This is where my sense of justice outweighs my rebellious side. This was completely unfair to every student that she did not give this opportunity to. I can guarantee you that Christenbury has had students a lot worse off than Ray and still failed them for their poor attendance. I think that if I were in her position I would have tried to meet with the administrators early on and worked something out. I do appreciate that she chose to include this story in the text. It shows that ethical dilemmas are a part of the job.

Fun Times

I'm glad that we finally started delving into some controversial topics on this blog. This is honestly the first time that I have read more than a couple of posts since we started this blog. It has been interesting reading all of the various comments over the past few days. I think that this is an important topic to think about before going into this career. I'm always wondering how seriously I am going to take school rules and policies. I just can't see myself enforcing dress code with a vengeance or slapping a kissing couple with a detention. I think that many policies are made by people who have no respect or trust for young people and I just don't see myself blindly following policy that I see as ridiculous or counterproductive. However, I also think that Dr. Franklin has an excellent point about taking it easy in your first year.

I think that some of us may be underestimating just how freaked out we're going to be when we take control over our first class. I have a feeling that I am going to be too busy trying not to frack up to fight back against the Man. And I will say this; there are ways that you can fight back as a teacher without losing your job or alienating yourself. Many communities hold these things called "school board meetings" and "city council meetings" that welcome all members of a community including teachers. I plan on attending these meetings and I will speak out if something is going on that I think needs to be addressed. Don't forget that even though you might be considered a public servant, you are still a citizen of a democracy and have a right to petition your views.

When I opened the book to chapter 10 I expected to read about the normal topics: Don't date your students, don't talk about your personal beliefs/religions, and if your student is being abused notify a counselor. In all actuality I was met with an informative and interesting read. I thought that the section about teacher/student relationships was written exceptionally well. As a teacher we must remember our number one responsibility to the student and that is to fulfill our role as the teacher. Last week Dr. Franklin stated in some form, "If you dislike a particular student you just haven't spent enough time with him/her." I find that statement to be true for school and in one's personal life. The reading that shocked me the most was the section about breaking the rules. I do think that there are circumstances that allow teachers to bend/break the rules. An appropriate time for breaking rules could be allowing a student one more chance before writing a referral, but I believe Christenbury's approach with her absent student was wrong.

Emms' Journey 10 Response

Like some of my fellow classmates have already mentioned a lot of this chapter was a reiteration of ethical aspects we already know. However, it is nice sometimes to be reminded of these since we cannot remember everything and now they are "fresh" in our minds. Something that I really liked Christianbury reminding me of is being fair to students. I think that this is something we all need to keep in mind. Every student is going to create a new and unique relationship with us. Some of these we will like and some of them we will dread. These differences in our relationships should not persuade us to treat our students different from another. We are there to teach them and not be their friend, or build lasting relationships. We are a breath in time for them and we need to do what is best for them.

One Can Make A Difference

It's funny what one person can start with few paragraphs. If you haven't noticed lately, there has been an uproar on this blog ring that I started. After thirteen comments and three other posts about the original post, I feel that I've done something right. I might not win the battle on my own but I can start something by myself. I can stir the energy with words and let others do the action. This is why I want to teach. I want to stir up the raw energy the students keep tapped from their teachers and have them battle it out in the classroom and eventually the world. Thanks Stan for helping me bring energy to our blog and a battle between the students. My confidence in my stride has improved.

For those who don't know yet, you need to read "The Job is the Fight" and continue the fight until the end of the class. I, for one, would like to know everyone in the classroom's opinion on the issue. Don't stand by and let your fellow students bicker without your input. Make your stand!

Okay, I know I said I didn't want to write anymore but I just got finished reading Stan and Michael's debate and I think everyone else should as well. I don't agree with either of them but I think when you see two sides of an issue and the arguments they make it can help form a new opinion outside of the parameters of the original argument.
Hopefully, we're all willing to fight for something worth fighting for...for me, the only thing I can think of so far is the students. I will fight if I think the students are being cheated, which puts me on Michael's side but I also think it's slightly immature to think that we're going to change the world...I'm not sure anyone that has ever changed the world has set out with the express purpose to do so...it seems like more often than not it happens on accident.
That being said, if people are idealistic, thats great. Hold on to idealism as long as possible, just be careful, because like Stan said, it's hard to make a difference in the classroom when you're unemployed...

Valerie mentioned in her post that she thinks the chapter on Ethics is all common sense. In most ways I agree with her but the problem is that common sense simply doesn't exist or everyone. We all know (or hopefully all know) how to protect ourselves and our students from innappropriate situations and yet you see things all the time where a teacher simply did something stupid in a moment of passion (I'm not talking physical passion, but emotional) and yelled at a kid or said something stupid that ends up destroying their career. It's scary how simple it is to screw up in the teaching world. Hopefully we will all be able to keep our heads on straight and not make any mistakes, but I can see how easy it would be sometimes to mess up. Fortunately we have other teachers to fall back on and ask advice. Students are essentially good kids in my opinion, so I hope I can manage to stay calm in all situations, over all I once again enjoyed the reading, but I just finished my Unit plan and don't feel like writing anything else, so that's the end of my post.

I love the way Christenbury is her own person. Even though she sincerely believes that teachers should be ethical in and out of the classroom, showing a positive view for others to live by; she also has taken it upon herself to help students in need and give them hope for a future when it has meant breaking rules. Ray's story was heartbreaking because I have always held a view that administrator's should be ever so careful to give students' every reason to continue their education. To hear about one verbally abusing a student, making them feel worthless, makes me want to put them through the ringer. I know this happens more than we hear of. I know good ethical standards are important for teachers, and when we go against our authority it's a chance we take. Noone wants to lose their job. I don't know that I could work with him on things after losing the respect for him as I would in this case, though.
Chapter 10 leads you into chapter 11 well, going on in 11 to talk about the 30-40% of teachers that don't last after their third year. After the Ray story, it would make you feel like your school administration really needs counseling. What will make us stay? The book says "love of students, intellectual engagment, the chance to make a difference...shape futures." I think these things are why I want to make a difference in education, too. Maybe I can help the system weed out people who are willing to break an innocent student's spirit, such as this V.P. did, somehow. I have already heard several teachers use the language detecting teachers that will continue and not that Christenbury discusses. Luckily, my language has been the continuing teacher, so maybe I'm a keeper.
Just as Christenbury talks about teaching as relating to her favorite metaphor that portrays it "Making the Journey," I'm going to pursue it as such. In chapter ten, when she explains how education has changed, and education has stayed the same, it motivated me to make the best of it. Whether it changes, or not, I think the key to continuing the journey might possibly be being able to change as education does. We need to keep up with the changes in certain areas, but be able to adapt in others to the old school notions. Hopefully, the areas that need to change will, and the areas that need to stay the same, likewise.

Priscilla

Music to blog by. Really, just music.

Is your Child a Future Axe Murderer?

I'm glad Josh agrees with me. It's nice to be agreed with. Josh, you get a gold star for the day.

I think Christenbury brings up some valid points, as some others have pointed out. She says some things that may sound redundant to us, as it's constantly reinforced in ED classes and rhetoric. But it doesn't make it any less important. Teachers must act like professionals, at the very least; in some towns teachers must be the epitome of morality. No joke.

But the attitude I am concerned with is excessive caution out of fear. Last spring I received a mailing from the NEA about classroom ethics that included something to this effect: The most valuable and important asset you have as a teacher is your reputation. Don't ever do anything that might jeopardize it. Ever. It made me scared to death to be a teacher, as if I was going to accidentally brush up against some high school boy in the hallway, get sued for sexual harassment, be fired and retire humiliated to a hermitage in the woods.

Consider this: The actions we take as teachers, both on-duty and off-, contribute to our reputation. Build your reputation deliberately - don't let it happen to you by chance.

Ethics

I felt like the majority of this chapter was common sense. I think that it is extremely important for us to realize that many of the assignments, especially the use of journaling and free writing, are set up in awhile that students will/should/could express themselves and things about their lives. As English teachers, we are essentially setting ourselves up in way in which are assignments may be seen as "therapy" and therefore there may be times when we, the teachers, need to call on extra help from those around us. Like Christenbury discusses on page 276, we have an obligation to our students and their to report anything we might deem necessary. We cannot focus on our teacher-student relationship that might be a jeopardy by doing this, we must focus on protecting our students. It is just another reminder to what an huge job teaching can be?! I do not believe in being friends with students, but I like how Christenbury says that being kind and supportive is important. I have experienced too many classrooms where this is not the case. You cannot go around acting like your students and joining in their activities and what not, but you can be an adult supporter of their ideas, activities, etc. There is a fine line that hopefully we will all be successful at finding and eventually will help us in becoming successful, amazing teachers!!!

Making The Journey

While some people believe this chapter was a no-brainer and others thought it was essential, this is something that future educators are often reminded of.  We are basically going into a hostile environment where one misinterpreted move or act can bring in to question our integrity and our job.  If a students says a teacher said or did anything to them without any evidence the teacher is pretty much screwed.  The issues this chapter discusses are important for us as teachers to remember.  As we are changing students lives and trying to help them make a deeper connection to the world we still have to be aware of all of our actions and how they may look to others including students, parents, teachers, administrators.   

One item that stuck out to me from this chapter is where she talked about not getting a long with all the students and how teachers can not take it out on them with grades.   I believe for me this would be something very easy to do.  If there was a student I did not get a long with I think it would be very easy to punish them through grades.  It is good to be reminded of how to deal with things such as that.

Wow..Again

To me, this is one of those inevitable chapters that you know that you're going to come across eventually, and I thought when I started reading this that I wouldn't read anything that I didn't already know. After all, isn't it supposed to be obvious that your students have a right to privacy or that you have to step in and call out inappropriate behavior in the classroom?

I think that Christenbury went a lot deeper with her explanations than I thought she would, and it really helped to change my perspective of things. I like that she talked about being friends with your students, because I can relate to that. I had a couple of teachers in high school that also ran some organization or another in the school, and they made quick friends with the students in their classes that were also involved in whatever organization they were in. Although they tried to say that it didn't have an impact over how they treated those students over how they treated other students, you could tell that there was an obvious difference. It's easier to befriend students the more you are with them, but there's still that separation that needs to be there to protect both the student and you/your job.

I really have enjoyed reading the debate between Stan and Michael. They both make a lot of interesting points. I'm still leaning towards Katie's comment, though, when she mentions the fact that it's possible to be a thought-provoking and inspiring teacher without breaking the rules...maybe just bending the rules will do the trick? Another great chapter...and I'll end my post here.

classroom ethics

Some of the things in this chapter were very obvious - report abuse, don't be sexually inappropriate with students, don't be BFF with your students, etc. Then there is this issue of "breaking the rules" that I'm going to leave for the boys to battle out in the post below.

So for here, I want to address what Christenbury talked about at the beginning of the chapter. As English teachers, we are going to be having a lot of conversations with our students about things that don't necessarily have a right/wrong answer. Much of what we read will delve into the topics of racism, religion, justice, decision making, honesty, etc. and we will want for our students to actively explore these issues. Chances are good that as adults, most of us have already figured out how we feel about these issues and have made our own determinations about what is "right." The tricky part is going to be allowing our students to explore these issues without trying to convince them of our idea of "right" and being okay if they come up with something other than what we believe. And then there is the need to facilitate discussions fairly, which I think will be harder than we initially want to believe.

So maybe not the most thought-provoking chapter, but still some good things to think about and consider.

You need to reconsider...

My first instinct would to be agree with most everyone that this chapter is a no-brainer; however, I think that people are really not considering how important this chapter is to YOU. Okay, so I understand that none of us are going into the profession planning on crossing any boundaries when it comes to sexual relations with our students, and I'm sure all of us will be wanting to give each of our students fair opportunities, and we will do our best to protect them and report things that need to be investigated further, but have we really considered that all these things could and most likely will happen to us?!

I don't know about you but I have already seen how easy it could be to find ourselves breaking these "ethical" rules (whether intentionally or not). You think that you are going to be able to give your students fair opportunities? I work at an after-school program with the same kids each day. I have students that I enjoy more than others, and it is hard to be fair to everyone and not take my frustrations out on the kids who pose the most problems or rub me the wrong way while I may let another student get away with it (until the one I don't care for points out that I'm not being fair). We can't be so quick to say it is obvious that we need to be fair to each student because we will all reach a point in our careers when we find ourselves not being fair.

Have you ever really considered the privacy that our students deserve? No doubt, we have a job where students can really feel comfortable talking with us and really opening up to us - especially as English teachers. We understand that they don't have to open up to us. We understand that they have "bubbles" that should be respected. However, what about those times where you find out about a student's miserable home life, about his/her life outside of school, or some other private aspect of his/her life? Teacher lounges are breeding grounds for talking about students and what we can dish about their home life or their parents. We all want to hear it, and I'm sure at one point we are going to be the ones sharing the private information. Lets talk ethics - it isn't as obvious and easy of a matter as we think it is.

Lastly, I think that we really need to take the issue of sexual ethics seriously. I certainly have no plans for anything near what Christenbury talks about, but I think that it is something that we have to constantly be aware about and consider how our actions may be giving wrong messages. We never know when a student could take our body language, speech, etc. the wrong way. Furthermore, who knows what kind of actions our students will do, even without any "encouragement" from ourselves? One of my roommates went through her student teaching last semester and while she was at one of the school's basketball games, with her husband and sitting with some of the other teachers, one of her male students came and sat on her lap. Of course, she was quick to get him off and show him that it was very inappropriate. This instance had nothing to do with her actions in the classroom, yet it certainly did not look good for her, and it is frightening to think about what could possibly have happened if this student took her reaction the wrong way and decided to spread rumors.

Before we begin saying that this chapter is "obvious" or "a no-brainer," I think that we need to reconsider our view of what Christenbury is saying. Who are we to say that the topic of ethics shouldn't take our careful consideration? When we get into the classroom, we are going to be hit with a wall of issues surrounding this topic, and I am quite certain that each of us will find ourselves at a point in our career where we will have to reconsider if we are treating everyone fairly, making sure we aren't telling other colleagues confidential information regarding our students, and making sure that our actions (even if unintentional) are not giving our students the wrong messages.

Input needed!!! ~~~ Calling all Bloggers!!

Everyone please join the discussion Michael and I are having in the "The Job is the fight" posting. We are discussing the topic of when and if to fight as a teacher and would like to hear additional opinions, even Kevin's.

Besides, you will be able to fill your "comment quota" on a fun and heated post for once. There is some life in this blog. Ding..ding..

~Stan (not pictured)

Ethics...important enough to repeat!

This chapter on ethics was very powerful. Yes, it was a lot of things I already knew or assumed about teaching, but these issues are still hugely important. I think Christenbury had to address these issues somewhere in the book in order to stress how important these things are. I think we would all be surprised how many teachers violate these rules on a daily basis. I think it is easy for us to say that we will never do any of these things now, but who knows?...maybe years down the road when our fresh perspective on teaching has worn off, we might be tempted to slack a little. The whole concept of giving students respect is very broad. Sure, it seems like an obvious thing to say, but it is good to think about actual scenarios where you might forget to show the student respect. Also, being a professional in the classroom is a good reminder for me not to try to be on the student's level. I obviously want my students to like me a lot, but that isn't always going to happen. My priority needs to be maintaining my professionalism and being a teacher, not a friend. It is also very important to know where the boundaries are as far as building relationships with students. Physical contact, like hugs, pats on the back, or other gestures you might do to show your appreciation or care about a student, might be offensive or inappropriate to that student. Making sure to recognize those boundaries before we step into the field is going to be crucial in us keeping our jobs. Overall, this chapter did say a lot of things I was already aware of, but it was defintily necessary to be included in this book. It showed me how important Christenbury viewed these ethics, and it is always a good reminder for us.

The Job is the Fight

After reading the chapter and going through what a lot of you guys posted, I realized that there are a lot of wussies in our class. Sure, the chapter told us a list of what to do and what not to do and it was a no-brainer and, sure, it is a job so it should be viewed as such and nothing more. I understand these points of view completely but they're wrong.

How many jobs have you had where you can inspire or challenge another's complete outlook on life? How many jobs have you had where you really wanted to know the people and the potential of the people you worked with? How often have you hid in your safe shell of a job and were afraid to say or do something different because you might get fired? Stop kissing ass and take charge of what you love!

I know from my own experience that I have never done what I was told to do just because. There had to be a good reason backing it or I would never do it. Every job I've ever had, aside from acting, was one in which I rebelled against my oppressors. Every job I've ever had had hypocritical management and a list of things to do and not to do and I just ignored them. Granted, I read and heard them but I tweaked them to suit my needs. As an educator, you need to tweak the way your school is run based on the student's needs. They're not giving you enough money, work on the weekends as a server or hotel manager. They're telling you how to do your job— shut the door and teach your way. They're telling you "you have to teach for this standard or test," teach how you feel is the best interest for the students... so they can get a job and have a successful life after high school. They're telling you that you'd be fired if you go on strike, have your students go on strike for you! Keep the rules they've shoved down your throat in your forethought but teach those kids and worry less about the stipulations of the term "job."

Teaching is more than a job; it is a way of thinking, a way of idealizing, and a way of setting the standards for the future of the nation. Take the power from the corporate vagabonds and federal government and remake America from the schooling outward. Stop cowering and worrying about your job security, grow some guts and take a stand. You shape the future, not them. When the rest of the leaders of the world lack popularity and the youth stop looking to them for guidance, they look to teachers. We make the difference. Get out there and risk everything. No fear.

Busy Work

I was wondering how many times you have been on the receiving end of "busy work." Have you ever experienced an assignment that lacked challenge and any potential for learning?

Take a look at each of the assignments in your unit plan. Are you asking students to do busy work?

Ask yourself, "do these assignments help student to explore the essential question?" The essential question isn't something that you discuss the first and last day. The essential question guides the activities that you do. You want them to do something about justice. Then the assignments ask them to explore justice in the texts you are reading. But, I think it has to be more than just exploring the idea in the canon. Are you tying in the "here and now," as Matt mentions below?

What are some examples of busy work that you have seen?

We've talked about sponges some times. I wanted to tell you my favorite "sponge." I had a library in my class, and students at all times either had an independent reading book or could grab a book out of my library. Any time there was extra time at the end, or if they had to wait on other students to finish, students picked up their books and read.

As "English Teachers," we are teaching reading, writing, and thinking. Above all, I hope that you go out and create a love of reading, writing, and thinking in your students. They won't all be English teachers, but you have the power to create some spark and inspiration. They may not teach English, but I hope that they always pick up a book. I hope that they always pick up a pen and write for themselves.

So, ask yourselves, do the lessons I provide ask students to do "real" work as opposed to "fake" work? Great unit plans will have students inquiring and asking questions and figuring out.

"The teacher's conduct, at all times and in all ways, is a moral matter."

I really liked that quote from page 274, and it's one that we should all carry with us into our classrooms.

I enjoyed this chapter even if it did cover the blatantly obvious stuff about teaching. I especially liked the section on breaking the rules, and I thought it was interesting how many teachers had knowingly and willingly broken school rules.

One thing I wish had been covered in this chapter that wasn't was what to do with the student(s) that make us uncomfortable. Because most of us are going to be entering into the teaching field while we're still young, we will have students who are fascinated/infatuated with us (just as Christenberry stated). So...what do we do with students who cross the line or just plain make us uncomfortable? Do we try and handle it on our own? Do we hold a conference with the student? Do we involve administration as soon as possible? Or do we pretend it's not happening? I would be curious to hear different views on this and various ways to handle it.

Chapter 10- A Question of Ethics

In Chapter 10, Christenbury discusses being and becoming an ethical teacher. I hope I am never like one of those teachers that walk into the classroom acting like they know everything. I sort of had a teacher like that in high school, and I really remember hating him and him hating me back. I felt like he had no sense of humor, and often times I was afraid to really say anything because I would be shot down because he was the teacher and he was always right, and i am the student and I was always wrong. I don't think that's how it should be. Of course we are older and more educated, but that doesn't mean we are right 100% of the time. I don't think that I had much respect for that teacher, and I don't think I would get much respect if I acted in that way. I think that if we show our students that we are human and that we also make mistakes, they will think more of us.

DUH!!!

I will have to agree with Stan that this chapter was basically a no-brainer. This chapter basically states a list of what we, as future teachers are supposed to do. We are supposed to:
*report when our students have told us something that is harmful to them whether they ask us to or not
*respect their privacy
*be fair to all students
*assert ourselves in the classroom
*remain professional in the classroom
*maintain a relationship with students without crossing the line
*keep the students' best interest in mind
**Did i miss anything?
Basically i feel like Chapter 10 was just along list of what we are supposed to do. I agree with the key points that she made and think that it is important to reiterate these things, but i also feel like she has already state these things in previous chapters. I really enjoy the way CHristenbury writes and think this book will be a great help when i become a teacher...but this chapter really didn't do anything for me.

No Brainer Christenbury...but thanks anyway

Some of Chapter 10 was a bit of a no brainer. I guess some people might need to be reminded that students are not to be seduced, dated or otherwise molested in any fashion. Thanks Mary Kay Letorneau, Pamela Rogers (pictured left) and others. This was the no brainer part. I think male or female, crossing that line dictates that there are more than ethical boundaries that have been breached.

Now, with that said, while I had students reading during my lesson, I did walk around and slightly tap boys and girls on the shoulder to indicate they should read next. I think the "common sense" rule would say that this might get me in trouble as well. Learning names will avoid this interaction altogether. Which should be easier in my own classroom. We all might have a similar practice we do. The key is to be mindful of it and try to eliminate it.

Christenbury's thoughts on "students privacy or rights, where are we supposed to learn this? Is there a handbook? Policy statement? Class for beginning teachers at a school? I'm hazy on what is reportable. Some things are, again, no brainers such as abuse and suicidal thoughts.

"Breaking the Rules," although it appears we will all engage in the act at some time in our profession, doesn't sound all that appealing. I can see doing things that may not be "by the book" such as letting a student write about Wicca, but the incident with Ray was an episode in sheer stupidity. After all, Christenbury does include the quote from Nieto, "Teachers are not miracle workers. Nor are they social workers or missionaries." We need to remember this is still a job, with an employer and the possibility of being fired. I don't see myself breaking anything for several years of teaching.

~Stan

Reflection

It does seem like we are reviewing a lot of the same ideas about teaching, class management, and other things we can use in the classroom in this chapter. As a whole, the entire book brings a lot of things to the surface that we need to continually reflect on, so we learn in a process related way. I think this will help it to really stick in our minds. Like after you learn a process and then it just comes naturally to you. I'm ready to start my student teaching and try a lot of the ideas we've learned from each other and in our books in the classroom environment. That will really be the test. After you've been in the classroom a couple of months and then see how you feel about teaching, what you learned in school, compared nto the experience of the classroom at a little longer longevity. I really liked the Digital Project Larry Nueberger gave us in his lecture. I want to try something similar to this with my students. I've noticed that the students love to play roles in the class I'm observing. It gets them up and moving. Movement helps the brain circulate --as we learned in Edc.

Field Experience Teaching

I just recently taught in my field experience classroom. I was at Study Middle School with sixth graders. My lesson was introducing the students to two different newspapers. The class started by writing everything they knew about newspapers and what they liked about newspapers. They were then broke up into groups and discussed what they wrote down. The students were paired up and one student in the group was given a U.S. Today and the other was given the News-Leader. The students explored the newspapers and filled out some questions. After a set time the students then filled out a venn diagram. The students where then given a homework assignment to create their own newspapers about whatever interested them. I thought overall the lesson went well. I had a good time teaching it.

Ch 10

The two student strategies that he says his students most often use are strategies I know I have used myself and it can be very frustrating.  I thought the questions he asked himself about what he wanted his students to get out of reading by themselves and with his assistance was really good.  It is important for me to remember that in teaching it is not always about what I know for students to realize how brilliant and great I am but it is necessary to guide and lead students to deeper thinking.  Again, I  really enjoy his examples he uses in his classes about the AIDS crisis in Africa.  It is not just about the good old literature from the past but also about what is going on in the here and now.  One thing I thought was good especially for a future middle school teacher was the fact that he reads the first few paragraphs to his students before he silent reads to them.

DP Chapter 10 - Emms

Well, there was not a whole lot that I liked in this chapter as well. It seems that as the book progressed the same stuff was being said again; for me, that it completely boring. Finally a couple of pages from the end of the chapter something peaked my interest a little. "Danger 2:The Student Becomes Overreliant on the Teacher" section was so true, and not mentioned so much before. Keeping in mind that teachers are there to teach their students to learn how to read deeply is essential. If teacher don't do this and constantly guide the student(s) through every step then the teacher fails at teaching. They are there to bring the student's abilities up to par to make them ready to go out into the world so they can be successful in their future lives. Leading them does not prepare them at all and actually hinders them. The students do not acquire the abilities that they need to survive. They will constantly need to rely on other people to get them through aspects of their careers and lives all because their teacher didn't back off and let them learn how to do these things on their own. I know that this is a little dramatized but think about it. It can, and most likely does, happen.

Once again, a chapter that means something to me, this book is great. Essay questions that get the students thinking and using their own opinions...who would have thought we could do that? Gallagher's suggestion questions were great, I love the idea of getting students thinking and not trying to trick them with questions but rather continue to guide their learning by asking them to explore their own opinions of a text. I've started selling most of my books back but the ones from this class are definitely taking a permanent place in my collection.

Question of Quality

So, I'd like to think that I post good comments on this blog. Part of my brain is thinking about how useful it is to have a network of future educators sharing ideas with one another and giving ideas for the future but while I'm posting I can't help but think, "I'd better fill my quota of two posts for the week". I'm not really saying that I would post a whole lot if I didn't have the requirement hanging over my head but would you? Would your students? Honestly I don't know if I'm the only one that feels this way. I normally like to share my ideas but I really don't post with that in mind. I post because I have to. So here is my question. Is it possible to have a blog like this and encourage honest and deep conversation without stringent requirements, or do students need the motivation to post anything at all? I really would like to hear your thoughts on this.

I realized that I forgot to post about my field experience teaching, so here it is. The lesson was basically a class think aloud in which we went over a poem and they found examples of their poetry terms from the unit. This went pretty well except some of the kids were completely lost, or just talking for the fun of it and not paying attention. This is not unusual in this class so I tried to take it in stride and continue on with the lesson.
We then did an activity involving their terms again, which was a review for their quiz at the end of the class. They were extremely hyped up that day so it was hard to get them to calm down but eventuallly most finished the assignment.
In all the experience went well, though not as smoothly as I would have hoped. I like working with freshmen but I constantl have to remind myself how young they really are, and therefore how immature they can be, but it worked out for the best. I need to work on deviating from my set lesson if things aren't working out, because I know this happens pretty often and thinking on your feet is an important skill that teachers need to be successful in their classrooms.

practicum lesson

Last Tuesday I taught my lesson for my practicum at Parkview. For the most part, I was really pleased with how it went.
The students had just finished the book Animal Farm, and the teacher Mrs. Weber wanted me to focus on power and whether power corrupts and that sort of thing. I wanted to make the book relevant to them and their own lives, so I started out talking about a subject that I hoped would interest most of them: superheroes. I brought up Spiderman and the famous line "with great power comes great responsibility" in order to introduce what power means and how to use it responsibly. I then had them think about people from their own lives and who had used power responsibly and who had not. I then moved onto a discussion of the characters in Animal Farm and who had the power and how they abused the power and whatnot. Then I had them get into groups (this was relatively easy, because they already had pre-existing groups from their litcircle projects) and consider a scenario: they were suddenly put in charge of the school. What commandments (a la the animals' commandments in the book) would they come up with?

I particularly enjoyed this part of the lesson. The kids seemed pretty engaged in the activity, and I had some interesting responses. Some took it really seriously and came up with some excellent rules. Others took it less seriously and came up with such rules as "clothing optional" and "look good." Dr. Franklin pointed out that many of them were corrupt with their power and how that was my whole point. She suggested that I should have brought this to the students' attention or had them come up with that on their own by having them compare the commandments. I thought that was a great idea and I wish I had done something like that, but by that point I was starting to feel as though things were getting kinda rowdy and I was eager to wrap things up. I also felt a bit awkard in my transitioning through the different steps of the lesson, and my brief lecture on Animal Farm could have been better prepared. But overall, I had a good experience and I think the students did as well.

The Text is Made of Sunshine and Lollipops!!!!!!!

For the most part I have to say that I agree with most of the class; I like these two textbooks. The information provided about the practical aspect of teaching is useful as a student freaked out about his future as a teacher. The unfortunate part of this is that I don't picture myself thumbing through a textbook when I feel lost as a teacher. I know in the back of my mind while I'm reading these books that teaching isn't something that can be learned in a textbook. I know that it is important to have some kind of resource available for ideas and inspiration but each class and each teacher is different and even if we use the ideas presented in these texts we're still going to have to format our lessons to our individual classes. So again I can admit that I like these textbooks but I'm not quite ready to set up a candlelit shrine in my closet with the hair of Christenbury and Gallagher topping off the detail of my Voodoo love statues.

Ok then...

So here goes a little reflection about by lesson at Central not too long ago. I never really did this, so take my hand, and let's see what happens...

My lesson at Central High School was with an English III class (mostly Juniors) on the Great Gatsby. The goal of the lesson was to introduce Gatsby and get started with the beginning of the text. The first thing I did was introduce the text itself, telling them what we would be reading, and why we would be reading it. I introduced it as a book about lying, getting ahead in life, being accepted, and social classes. The students grabbed onto the idea about social classes rather quickly, so I ran with that for a bit.

The next thing I did was give them a set of anticipatory questions to get them thinking about the text. I first gave them the questions to look at individually, and then we got into small groups and they discussed their opinions (agree or disagree, and why). Lastly, I let them discuss the quetions as a class and I facilitated the discussion. I felt like they really enjoyed this part of the lesson best, although I had a little trouble keeping them only going one at a time, at least that meant they all cared about the questions and wanted to discuss their opinions.

Then we did vocab. I am not a big fan of vocab, but teacher wanted me to incorporate it, so I did. I gave them a "I've know this/I've seen this/I've never seen this" vocab worksheet, and they went over it in small groups. I then gave them dictionaries to look over the ones that they couldn't come to a consensus about, and last we went over them in class and they said aloud what they found. This, to me, was the most boring part of the lesson. I do not know a better way to do vocab though.

The last thing we did was to get into the text. I read the first 10 pages of the text before the class was let out and the extremely annoying bell rang. Reading aloud to the class seemed like an issue to me because I was afraid they would act up while I was busy reading, but luckily they were very respectful and listened.

The class closed with a "write something you learned" writing assignment for the last couple of minutes, and then they left. By the way, I didn't tell them it was my last day (goodbyes are stupid), so apparently that surprised some of them.

All in all I felt like my transitions from one part of the class to the next was the main thing I need to work on. I was fairly confident (as I should be because I'm pretty great), and I was quite well prepared, but the passing out of papers, etc., made it difficult to not lose them in the process.

Ok then.

Thoughts on the Reading

I found this chapter to be very helpful for me as a future teacher.

There are many examples of deeper reading questions to provoke the students' thinking. The concept of backward design also outlines where the teacher should be going with readings and questions for an anticipated ending understanding from the students.

I enjoyed the reading article about AIDS, and I grasped the importance of background information. Gallagher listed other topics/graphs that would help students and myself understand the epidemic better.

I also agreed with Gallagher when he stated what you test is what you get. Questions should evoke thought and opinions supported by text.

Field Experience Teaching

Friday I taught in class for about the third time. I had taught on Monday, and I taught the class before the one that Dr. Franklin observed. Overall, I think it went well, but there were some moments throughout the lesson where the students were a little overwhelming. I'll explain.

My lesson revolved around chapter 12 of Tuck Everlasting, and the main part of the lesson involved the students creating a crossword puzzle on the ReadWriteThink website. Using the websites Crossword Puzzle Generator (great tool), the students entered in some of their vocabulary words from the current and previous chapters as well as the clues/definitions that went with those words. Then, they switched computers with their table partners and completed their puzzle. To wrap the lesson up, the students responded to a question about the crossword puzzle activity on their class blog.

The time when I noticed the most problems was during the computer swapping process of the activity. Throughout the week, the students had been dividing up vocabulary words among their tables, and each person was responsible for a number of words; they were supposed to help each other fill in the words that they didn't complete, but for some of them it didn't happen. So, when it came time for them to do the other pair's crossword puzzle, some of them had no clue where to look if they got stuck on a word. So, they became frustrated and started roaming around the room. Other than that, the lesson seemed to go pretty well. All of the students enjoyed creating the puzzles, and they also seem to enjoy writing on the class blog.

I thought I did this already...

Katie, you've only got two weeks left. Don't be losing it now. Just hold it together. And stop talking...er...typing to yourself.

Right.

Gallagher was great. Do you know the difference between a theme and a moral (as described by my practicum teacher, Alisa)? Morals are prescriptive and in the second-person. Themes are descriptive and universal. For example:

Moral of the chapter: Don't ever teach a book without knowing what you want the students to learn and guiding them in that direction.

Theme of the chapter: Sometimes people make mistakes, but they still learn from them.

I think my work is done here.

TEN

Seriously...I love this text!!! It is probably one of the most useful texts I've been assigned to read while in school. I will definitely be using multiple ideas from this text as I explore the world of teaching!! I loved the beginning of this chapter. Gallagher's breakdown of what students learn on their own and what they through us, they're teachers is extremely important information for us to be aware of. I think that the breakdown of first draft reading, second draft reading and collaboration is an essential plan I want to implement in my class while we read and evaluate texts. Also, using Gallagher's idea of "Reflective Response to Text" is something I think that we can use to help students become aware of issues of our society as well as bring a text that might seem outdated to students and help them find themes in it that relate to their world!! All in all another great chapter...Thanks Gallagher!!!

Did they get it??

I really thought that the second part of this chapter was great! The discussion about the final exam questions and essays is important when thinking about assessing the sudents through a test. I really enjoyed the list of final essay questions because they seemed like opinion questions, but they were also relevant to the text. For example, students decide who changed the most or least or had the most or least important role in the text. THis is opinion and then they have to back their choices up with information from the text that shows that they understood the assignment. THis allows students a choice and they really like that. I think these types of questions are better than multiple choice or true/false questions because it really gets the students thinking and involved in the material. It allows them to use their higher-order thinking skills and make a connection from their lives to the book. He is absolutely correct that you don't want to WYTIWYG because that shallow assessment results in shallow thinking. As an artist, we dont want our works to be shallow. Therefore, as a teacher, we dont want our students' thinking to be shallow.

my own experience

One of the English professors on campus conducts his assessments in a way similar to what Gallagher is talking about. He issues a mid-term and a final exam, both of which are essays. The assignment is for us as students to look at each novel we have read in that half of the semester and create our own thesis statement that emcompasses ideas from each book. So not only are we looking at the novel holistically, we are looking at the entire half-semester holistically and drawing out themes that are evident in all of the books. We then have to craft an entire essay proving the thesis statement that we created.

This approach scared the crap out of me the first time I encountered it, but once I became a little more confident and mulled my way through that first essay, I realized how much I gained from the assignment - because I had to utilize some deeper reading and comprehension in order to do it. I had to know each book well and how each book tied into the others.

I think our students at the middle/high school level may not be ready for that deep of reading or that much freedom in even creating their own thesis, but I think some of the principles are the same. Using some of those essential questions as essay exam questions will help our students learn how to walk through the unit/book always thinking more deeply than surface level stuff.

Field-Experience Lesson

Well since it has been over a week since I did my lesson at Nixa and I wrote a paper about it and was mad that I did this before realizing that all we had to do was post - I finally motivated myself to post on here.

My lesson was over the subject of satire so I wanted to give my students a variety examples of what satire is. I started my lesson with having them write down their ideas of what a typical fairy tale entails, and I introduced them to the movie Shrek to show them how it challenges the ideas of what consists of a fairy tale. Then I moved into political cartoons and we answered the questions: What does it say? What does it mean? What does it matter? and we explored how we could see satire in the cartoon. My final aspect of the lesson was introducing a piece of writing that contained satire.

I really enjoyed this lesson and I felt really good about it. My students were really well behaved and they seemed interested in most everything that we were discussing. There are, of course, things that I could change to improve my lesson. I think that using Shrek was a great idea because it got them into the lesson but when we reached the political cartoon they were just answering my questions and they didn't seem as interested in it as I thought they would be. I don't know if it was the topic of the cartoon (which was school shootings) or something else, but I definitely feel that I could have gotten more out of them. However, the piece of writing that contained satire and that we read aloud was really exciting. Basically the woman was using satire and saying that all the races should be segregated to end racism (obviously, her message was that to end racism we should all be integrated and embrace multi-culturalism). During the reading of the article and directly after the reading, there was so much good tension! Everybody had something to say about it and it really got them talking. I would have loved to incorporate the Socratic Seminar so that they could be able to discuss the article. Some were having difficultly seeing how the writer was being satirical so I was quick to point out some language that she used to reveal to us that she was using satire to get a greater message across.

I could really go on forever about this lesson. I was pleased with how it went but I definitely see ways that I could have improved. I have to say, though, that at the end of the lesson I was still uneasy if they really understood satire. I had them fill out exit passes (asking them for their own definition of satire and something they learned abou it) and those really confirmed for me that they did grasp what I wanted them to get from my lesson. I think that this teaching experience gave me so much more confidence in who I want to be as a teacher and just in my lesson planning - I really gained a lot of lessons from it and I wish that I could have just taken over that class for the rest of the unit. We were going somewhere that day.

Chapter 10...The Adventure Begins...

I liked his introduction of the final exam topic at the beginning of the unit. Why should we spring this tid-bit on them at the end? Why not let them know what they will be working on the whole time. They will be able to draw inferences, relations and correlations between information presented in class and the final exam topic. I like this idea.

We are giving them general focus, to be explorers in their knowledge. After all, Indiana Jones doesn't go exploring through ruins having no idea what he's there for! Why should our students trudge through books and lessons and have no idea what their goal is? Goals and focus provide a road-map for our students learning. Asking a billion questions along the way is how they learn. Asking a billion questions along the way is how we become effective, productive teachers.

~Stan

Witty-wig

"If I measure my student's thinking through shallow assessments, I will receive shallow thinking from them; if I measure their thinking through assessments that require deeper thinking, I will recieve deeper thinking from them" (211).

I think that backwards design is something that will only benefit me as a teacher. It makes our lives so much easier! I think that by understanding what we want the final product to be from what we teach will make us more likely to create better lessons that lead students to a particular and speicific area that we want them to reach. By having an ultimate goal in mind, we as teachers will be more focused and I feel like it would help us stay on track and be reminded of where we want to lead our students. One of the things that I enjoyed most when beginning to create my Conceptual Unit was choosing culminating activities. It makes me excited to see the kinds of products that my students would be able to create and know that each lesson will lead them to that point where they can show me what they have learned. I don't want my assessment to just be tests - I want them to be able to express themselves and what they've learned through so many different avenues, and in return, I am able to gain a greater idea if they have reached the place that I've wanted them to reach.

My Practicum

I had my practicum lesson on April 9th at Nixa HS. I felt like the teacher pretty much planned everything for me, so it wasn't really my lesson. What she basically had me do was talk to the students about what we would be doing in class, refer them were they could find the answers, and then walk around and answer questions the whole period. They were doing beginning work on research papers- learning how to cite, paraphrase, properly introduce a quote, etc. The source they were given was about multitasking. They had a packet of information that they were to refer to for the answers. There were only about 10 students that asked me questions. The rest were either too scared to ask me, or knew, or pretended they knew the answers. I didn't feel like I got to interact with my students a lot. I tried to incorporate my own ideas into the lesson, but the teacher pretty much had a set way that she wanted it done. I look forward to my student teaching where I can make the lesson mine.

A bit intimidating...

Okay, as if I wasn't intimidated enough by the thought of teaching, Gallagher's words on page 198 completely freaked me out. All of this talk about effective and ineffective teachers has led me to wonder...if you're an ineffective teacher, do you know it? Or are you just walking around in a haze thinking you're genuinely helping your students? I mean, I can think of some incredibly ineffective teachers right off hand, but the effective teachers are harder for me to come up with. Are effective teachers elusive creatures? Is effective just a relative term? Can you ever be effective for every one of your students? Is there enough time in the day to accomplish that??

Useful links - Bookmark These and be like ME!

These are some of the links that I have bookmarked in my search for both resources and information.

http://www.4teachers.org/tools/
This site has many links to other sites that are part of the whole. There is Rubistar for making rubrics (and tracking data), Assign-a-day for planning a class calendar, and others.

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm
This site has is a glossary of English terminology, such as alliteration, allegory, etc.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm
Everyone's favorite, Grammar. this site has everything you ever DIDN"T want to know about Grammar.

http://www.coe.uga.edu/~smago/VirtualLibrary/index.html
Conceptual Units plans from Smagorinsky article.

http://www.literaturecircles.com/article1.htm
Explanation of Literary Circles

http://readwritethink.org/lessons/index.asp?grade=0&strand=0&engagement=0
Teaching Resources - Lesson Plans - from IRA and NCTE

http://citationmachine.net/
Never mess up on citations again. Have your students use this, but they will need to increase the font size to 12pt after formatting.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.geocities.com/mrsjacksonsclass/inspirations.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.geocities.com/mrsjacksonsclass/inspirationsquotes.htm&h=225&w=225&sz=23&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=yB9mny9mTPbMEM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dteacher%2Bsayings%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den
Poems, thoughts, saying for use in the classroom

http://www.education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+Activities/Notebook+Activities/
Lessons for use with a SmartBoard if you have one in your class, or know how to use it!

http://thereflectiveteacher.wordpress.com/2006/06/07/statement-of-educational-philosophy/
This has a bunch of resources in the side bars. Explore at your own will!

http://bunintheoven2008.blogspot.com/
My blog! Amazing isn't it. I actually have changed this around several times. It was initially set-up for our relatives to journey with my wife and I through our first pregnancy which sadly ended in miscarriage. I arranged it as an explanation so we didn't have to retell everyone the sad story over and over. Didn't really work. You can open this in one screen and listen to the music I have loaded through Finetune. It's handpicked by me!

I'm done procrastinating on my Educational Philosophy now. Back to work!

~Stan

My in-class lesson

I did my in-class lesson last week at Central with one of Alisa Boyd's classes, AP English IV. I've done a few lessons with this class before, so I was a bit familiar with the students and their strengths and weaknesses (Strengths: Some REALLY bright students who say very thought-provoking things in class discussion, some excellent writers. Weaknesses: Reading aloud and turning in their homework).

I started by discovering Springfield Public Schools blocks Youtube, so I couldn't show the movie clip I wanted. Naturally, I tested this before the lesson, so I had time to improvise. I had a song I could play for them on my flash drive (the lesson was on a "Dust in the Wind" theme), but apparently Alisa's sound card on her pc broke months ago and she's waiting for a new one. So I improvised - I just distributed the song lyrics and asked a student to read them aloud.

I think the strengths of my lesson were content and presentation. It was mainly discussion-based, and students really delved into the chosen texts. I had a lot of enthusiasm and no classroom management problems to speak of. The weaknesses were the opening and closing, especially the closing. I ran out of time at the end of my lesson and frantically tried to tack on the assignment as students were headed out the door - big mistake! I should have just asked them to turn in a quick note or something to check comprehension. Only two people in the class turned in the assignment the next day - a few were unaware they even had one. I think Alisa is just going to give extra credit for it. If it were my classroom, the next day I would have revisited the lesson and explained the assignment, and not penalized my students for my mistake. I find that students are pretty forgiving if you correct yourself, but if you hold on to your mistakes and pretend you're always right, they get tired of it.

But on the whole, I think it went well. Not as good as some I've done, but it certainly wasn't a train wreck. You definitely learn by doing, practicing, and I just need a lot of practice.

Chapter 10

So, I do my lesson plan next week and it's on deeper reading. Just so happens that this week we are reading chapter 10. Gallagher gives many great ideas in this chapter, so I am modeling my lesson plan activity after vocabulary predictions, with a little bit of my own twist. At first it started out well, but now I am feeling like it's not really coming together like I thought it would. I know I am probably just making it harder than it really should be, but everyone has done such a great job so far that I feel like it's a hard act to follow. I want my students to become familiar with deeper reading so they can tackle those hard texts that Gallagher talks about on page 197. On page 198, Gallagher talks about what a difference a teacher can/can't make in their students reading. I want to be one of those teachers that can make a difference. I also want to be finished and ready for my lesson on Monday.

I swear, this blog will be the death of me.

I read my reading this week. Honest, I did. And I even read it before Sunday. Wednesday, in fact. That is why I forgot to post this reading reflection on time. In an attempt to not procrastinate, I completely forgot about it. My intentions were good. My execution was poor. *sigh*

Anyway. After reading a few more posts on this blog, I thought I'd make this point clear:

GALLAGHER IS A DUDE.

If you thought he was a girl, don't feel bad. The name Kelly threw me too. But there's a picture of him on the back of the book. So seriously. Stop insulting his manhood. This could be an excellent lesson in researching before you teach, because appearances could be misleading. But I'll let you construct the objectives on that one.

But again, this chapter was fantastic - I loved his ideas for exploring theme. In my practicum, I definitely noticed this was something most high school students have trouble with. Frankly, I have trouble with theme. Sure, it's easy to pick up common motifs in a work, even abstract concepts the author may be communicating. But condensing the intricacies of an argument the author has spent an entire novel trying to create into a sentence? Not an easy task. But probably one of the most essential to true understanding.

The Book Gallagher Should Have Written

Okay, first Gallagher is a great writer and has a lot of great ideas. Chapter 8 in particular starts off with Gallagher explaining that he teaches mini lessons based on statemetns about the importance of reading. These categories like "reading makes you smarter" give Gallagher the opportunity to teach students answers to questions that they may already be asking. "How is this helping me?" would be a big question for me. I am definitely going to rip off this particular idea because it is a great one.

Now that that is out of the way I would like to see a book by Gallagher that gives information regarding culture and language differences between teacher and student. Magnolia High School in Anaheim California is where Gallagher is employed. This school has a 67% hispanic student population. Now, it is obvious to me that Gallagher is a successful teacher but what I really want to know is how he adapted to teaching students who belonged to cultures that he may have been unfamiliar with and who may have learned English as a second language. This is something that It think about because I don't plan on staying in Southwest Missouri, home of the Midwestern Anglos, forever. This is also a subject that has never been thoroughly discussed in my education classes. Can you imagine your first teaching job being at a school where you had no idea how to reach your students because of cultural differences? That is a scary prospect for me and I would like to know how he did it.