So I'm really enjoying Making the Journey. I think I like it because it's totally real. It's not trying to sugar-coat the experiences we're going to have with trouble students, and it's not trying to make us believe that we will always be a driving force in the lives of our students. This book is laying it out there for us and preparing us (as much as it can) for some of the crap we're going to come up against. We will have students who hate us, students who don't do anything, and students who try their best to get us to break down. These are the things I truly fear about being a teacher, but I also know that plenty of good will come with the bad. To be honest, thinking about myself in a room full of high school kids frightens me to death sometimes...how will I handle being called names, being disrespected, or being ignored? I guess I just need to start thinking of it as hazards of the job!
Deeper Reading is decent so far. I got his analogy about baseball and reading, but I can't say that this book has really impacted me yet. I appreciate the analogies, but I really like reading about real-life experiences of teaching (i.e. Christenbury's experiences that we've been reading about). I really don't have too much to say about this one...
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I agree with your comment on Deeper Reading. It's "ok." I think for an intro chapter it was bland, but I think we probably have just scratched the surface!
~ Stan
Having just read MTJ, I see what you are saying about the classroom experiences. I mean, what do you do in those situations? I'm a guy, so I assume there will be less chance to physically confront me, but what if? I wonder if everyday things like these will be addressed by Christenbury?
I think you are right....plenty of good will come with the bad....we aren't always going to be able to reach every student. As much as I hate that idea, I have to come to terms with it. But what worries me maybe even more is how do you deal with these problem students in such a way that doesn't take away from the class as a whole. I don't want 95% of my class to get less than my best b/c 5% think they need to be rude, obnoxious or complacent. We can't just send them to the principal or into the hall every day. So how do we survive these kinds of situations?
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