Identity and Risk Taking

During my undergrad classes I remember learning about theorists Erikson, Piaget, Freud, etc.  I didn't really care about it too much then because, quite frankly, I was still an adolescent concerned mostly about what party I wanted to attend the next weekend.  I was a risk taker, probably more of one than I like to admit.  I was the "problem" child that caused lots of gray hairs for my parents.  I don't think I ever really did anything too horrible, just didn't fit the mold they wanted for me.  And, I hated school.  When I was in my teacher certification classes, much later in life, I was raising three kids, one very much in adolescence and two just out of it.  Man, those were trying years.  I appreciated learning again about all the adolescent stuff at that time because in some ways it gave me hope that I didn't really suck as a parent (ha!) and that our kids were actually normal-ish (double ha!).  All three kids came to Joe and I through our divorces so that added some interesting color to the adolescent drama as well.

Well, many more years later, it looks as though Joe and I successfully did it, we successfully raised these kids.  But I can't help but think it was dumb-ass luck.  Especially after reading Nakkula.  I think if I had read Lighfoot's research on the "culture of adolescent risk taking" it probably would have made me very nervous.  She doesn't argue that kids have to take risks to be healthy nor that kids have to challenge authority, what she argues is that high risk behavior is "common and deeply meaningful."  Yikes, glad I didn't read too much about this when I was parenting during this stage.

Parenting aside, I am finding Nakkula very interesting.  He and Toshalis pose some very interesting insights into the thoughts and actions of teens.  I like how they throw in the theorists but then add some resent research that in some ways contradicts the theorists and in other ways, enhances the research they did many years ago.  The most fascinating thing I read was on page 55.  Nakkula tells us that challenging our students more in school can actually reduce dangerous high risk behavior.  Really?  I'm hoping we have a chance to chat about this some more in class

Relationship Building and the Reflective Teacher

After reading Duckworth, Campoy, and Nakkula I found myself thinking back to when I first started teaching which is only eight years ago.  These readings reminded me of the many students I have connected with along the way, many of which still send me emails and come into school to let me know how their lives are going.  Those moments are the ones I cherish because most of the students were difficult to reach.  The students that come to high school feeling discouraged, apathetic, and on the "low level track" usually are the students that have behavior issues and overall like to drive the teachers crazy.  When I first started teaching, they drove me crazy!  But through lots of reading and taking classes, I realized that the problem I was experiencing was mostly mine, not the student's.  I was not connecting with them and eager to learn about their lives.  I needed reminders as to why I went into teaching in the first place.  Somewhere along the line, we lost these kids.  Somewhere they were "told" they were not bright, they could not write, or do math or do science.  They were just pains in the asses.  And every teacher they came in contact with confirmed this self-loathing.  One year I decided to spend the first two weeks of school doing community building and I really tried to break through the barrier of "us" vs "them".  And it worked.  I couldn't believe it, but it worked.

I very much look forward to reading Nakkula from cover to cover.  On page 6, Nakkula writes that "no one is a solo author.  All life stories are multiauthored.  The adolescents with whom we work as educators are cowriting our narratives just as we are cowriting theirs."  What a powerful statement!  This is definitely true for me.  I feel as though I have learned as much from my students as they have learned from me.  Through teaching I have become much less judgmental and much more patient over the years.  I'm actually more judgmental and less patient with the adults!! Ha!!

Nakkula goes on to say that if teachers are not careful, because of the lack of extrinsic reward, they could find themselves burned out as they loose sight of their students as individual people.  It can't all be about the standards, curriculum, etc.  We really need to remember why we went into teaching to begin with.  Connecting with a tough kid and seeing that student light up when I tell him he is a good writer (after being told over and over both verbally and through bad grades that he sucks), one can not put a monetary value on that.  It truly touches the soul and helps me to get up and go to work the next day.  I'm not saying I give kids grades they don't deserve, but I think the community building also builds trust not just with peers but with me as well, which in turn motivates them to succeed.  Many of these kids have been taught not to trust.  Not to trust their parent, teacher, relatives, etc.  They have been let down so many times.

Although I have heard about and read about the zone of proximal development, I am not very good at judging where that is for some of my students.  Also, how do I make sure my students are getting pushed just slightly beyond their limits when my classes have such varied levels?  My sophomore college prep/advanced freshman classes keep me up at night as I try to make sure I am challenging and pushing the freshmen without losing the sophomores.  There are more sophomores than freshmen in each class but that really doesn't matter.  I hope Nakkula talks about that some more within the text.

The Journey to Teach, Part 2

I agree with Ayers’ statements at the end of the book regarding the challenges teachers face.  I wish my teacher training focused on the challenges and what to do personally and professionally when the challenges become overwhelming.  I know what to do now, but this book would have been helpful to me many years ago. 

Pages 96 through 99 offer interesting techniques and methods to help teachers with the challenges.  For instance, the “finding allies” technique talks about the importance of finding like-minded people.  I immediately thought of five or six teachers that have the same or similar philosophy on teaching as I do.  We tend to make sure that the teaching we do in our classrooms is research based, we attend similar English related professional development, and we are constantly helping each other with lessons, projects, assessments, etc.  These colleagues are a positive force in my work life.  In addition to finding allies, Ayers talks about finding the right "balance and clarity".  I tend to overly research things to the point where I get myself overwhelmed.  Finding the right balance is really tough for me.  I don’t feel as though I am a very creative person, as my LSI confirmed, so I find myself thinking everyone else’s idea is better.  But, when I just trust myself, it typically works out just as well and I save a ton of time.  These few pages offer interesting insight into the trials and tribulations in the teaching profession.  Teaching is a huge challenge, one many people outside the profession just do not get.  I also love how the book ends with graduation.  What a great way to end a book called the journey to teach.  I think all of us have the same goal, to watch our students cross the stage.  It is my favorite night of the year.

To Teach: The Journey in Comics, Part I

When Dr. Horwitz came to our class in the spring and mentioned we would be reading a graphic novel I was really psyched.  I have a colleague at work that uses graphic novels in his classroom  and the two of us instantly started talking about this book and how much he liked the book.  So, instead of buying the book I borrowed it from him.  However, after reading the first few pages I went to Amazon and bought my own.  This is a book I want I my shelf that I can refer to from time to time.  Just a nice gentle reminder that all teachers question their practice as well as question the folks making decisions about our profession that have never entered a classroom.  Let me clarify, folks that have never entered a public school classroom.

I found it interesting how on page XIV Ayers called comics a medium and not a genre.  As an English teacher who loves graphic novels and have read many, I never really thought of it as a medium.  But when I look back on the many that I have read, such as Fun Home, they were non fiction stories in graphic novel form.

On page 20 and 21 Ayers points out that we must focus on what students CAN do and not what they CAN'T do which I found quite ironic.  Just yesterday a senior student showed me work I corrected four years ago that I had butchered.  There must of been 15 or more corrections just on the first page!  I was embarassed when I saw this because since I had her I realized that writing all over students' papers does not make them better writers.  I asked my student how she felt when she received this paper back and she said defeated and stupid.  If I had focused on what she did well, and gave her a goal or two for the next paper she probably would have become a good writer.

I loved how at the end of the section we were required to read, Ayers wrote about the importance of creating a community in the classroom.  Last year I got so caught up in Common Core State Standards and Teacher Evaluation that I did not take the time to create a classroom community.  I did a few things to get to know the students but not like I had done in the past.  I have to say, it was a difficult year, in part, because I did not establish a community of listeners and participators.

I look forward to the second half of the book ...

The Week in Review

My class project.

I chose to do a Six Word Memoir using the web application Animoto because the Six Word Memoir is a lesson I have taught for a number of years and I have wanted to try Animoto.  The Six Word Memoir is a very short, but powerful, writing piece.  This type of memoir is fun to do at the beginning of the year as a way for my students and me to get to know each other.  The idea to use Animoto came from a student’s senior project presentation this year.  She used Animoto for both her introduction and her conclusion and the judges in her room were very impressed with it.  I also participated in a National WritingProject Webinar where a teacher in the Midwest talked about how much fun she had taking her Six Word Memoir lesson to the next level while presenting it using Animoto.  Right there, I was sold on the idea of using Animoto in my classroom this coming school year.

Animoto will enhance the Six Word Memoir because it allows the student to present the memoir creatively and in a more personal way.  A few years ago students took their memoirs and added a visual component to it, which basically meant they drew a picture.  A couple of students asked to use photos, either personal or Google images, and since I thought that was using technology I said yes right away.  The world has changed drastically and now there are so many ways kids can be creative in the classroom using technology.  As students use Animoto, they add images, as well as connect music, videos and background styles to their memoir.

In addition to connecting Animoto to the classroom curriculum, it is a tool that I think many scholars we discussed in this class would like.  As I began this class, I was intimidated by the technology component.  I am considerably older than many of the teachers so I certainly identified as a digital immigrant as coined by Prensky in his article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”.  Prensky describes me perfectly when he writes, “Those of us that were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are … Digital Immigrants.” I am fascinated by technology but even though it intimidates me, I am not too afraid to take it on.  I was pleasantly surprised that most of the young teachers in our course identified as being an immigrant as well. 

Another scholar we discussed in class, Michael Wesch, would like Animoto because he proved through extensive research how important curiosity and imagination are to student learning in a digital world.  I can have students write Six Word Memoirs with a pen and paper, but to have them produce a video that goes along with the theme of the memoir giving them lots of digital choice in the outcome is a powerful assignment Wesch would like.  The technology is not replacing the content since it is still a Six Word Memoir; however, the technology enhances the lesson and the final assessment.  The kids will have fun using the tool allowing for a more enjoyable learning experience and I will have fun assessing the memoir making my teaching more enjoyable.  In John Waters article “MichaelWesch:  It’s a Pull, Pull World”, he quotes Wesch saying, “The new media landscape is a ‘pull’ environment.  Nothing is pushed to you from the Web, which makes it essential that we inspire students to seek out the knowledge that’s out there. The content isn’t fundamentally different, but the environment just demands more curiosity and imagination.”  I think  all the technology we studied in this class connects to Wesch  because we all need to use technology appropriately and students need to be taught how to do that.  Many times during this course I heard teachers say that they didn’t really know a particular web application well, but once they showed their students the basics, it was amazing what they produced.  I cannot tell you how exciting that type of teaching and learning is for me.  I love to watch my students grow while learning something new they discovered without me.  By using more technology in my classroom, maybe students will see the relevance of school and the skills we are trying to teach them.

But I do have some concerns about this new digital world with regard to my disadvantaged students.  The critical side of me questions the logistics of how technology will work in my particular classroom and in my particular school.  How do I require students to use technology outside school when a number of my students don’t know where they are sleeping on a given night?  In this course many teachers talked about how handouts and assignments on paper get lost in kids’ backpacks and there are some tools available online to help end the backpack-black-hole.  But if we require students to go home and post an entry on a blog and they do not have access to the Internet, how is that different from the backpack problem?  The disadvantaged kid is still disadvantaged.  I know some people will argue that most kids today have access in some way to technology, but that is not the case with many kids in my school.  In his article,  "Bridging the New Digital Divide" , Finkel raises many points about how superintendents and administrators are trying to grapple with technology while at the same time getting kids college and career ready in a new digital world.  Most of the article focused on teachers integrating technology into their classroom, but part of the article was about the student as well.  I think we all agree when Finkle quotes a superintendent saying, “[Technology] is an equalizer.  We’ve got to use the technology as a leverage or a force in the classroom to help focus on what people call these 21st-century skills, or soft skills: the ability to communicate with others, to think analytically.”  I guess I’m just looking for someone to really think about the kids and how the new digital world could leave kids behind now more than ever before.  The Sugata Mitra TED talk we saw during the course proves my point perfectly.  Once Mitra put a computer in a kid’s hands, anywhere in the world, he or she excelled. In my opinion, putting some form of digital device in kids’ hands is a high priority in America, not just for superintendents and administrators but politicians as well.  If America wants to educate all kids AND be on top intellectually, academically, and economically, then we must level the playing field for all kids by giving them full access to the digital world both in and out of school.

Sherry Turkle

I think of all the readings, I like Sherry Turkle's the best.  She claims that we are in such a plugged-in society that we are all forgetting to connect with one another on a more personal, human level.  There is nothing like speaking to someone, face-to-face, as we try to work out a problem or tell a funny story to our family and friends.  It is through this form of communication that true love and connection can happen.  I have never allowed technology at the dinner table with the exception of the TV during a crisis or something truly important that the family wants to check out together.  My family tries really hard to be together during dinner time.  It doesn't always happen and sometimes we may eat quite late to be sure we can all eat and talk together, however, it is truly my favorite time of the day (not sure if it's the food, conversation, or wine ... probably all three)!

I do feel as though there is a place for social media though.  I know I would not know so much about my grandbabies that will be arriving soon if it were not for social media.  My step-daughter works crazy hours and is in school full-time so I get bits and pieces of how she and Anderson are doing through texting, Instagram and twitter.   My step-son lives in Miami and they face-time with us once a week.  Seeing little Ryan growing beautifully each week is such a gift that I would not have had if it were not for social media.  I guess I would receive pictures and such but it is not the same.  It is a face-to-face connection that I look forward to.  Also, it was through face-time that they told us they were pregnant.  We certainly had a human to human experience that night.  I cried like a baby and my husband teared up.  What a moment I will never forget!!

When I think about Turkle and Wesch, I really don't think of them as having opposing sides.  I think of Wesch as a person that is focusing on teachers connecting with students and Turkle as connecting with human beings in general.  I think they both have very valid arguments but these arguments are not opposing, just different.  I'm not sure if that makes sense.

I look forward to talking about this article!

Freedom Writers

The article I chose to reflect on is “Freedom Writers, White Teacher to the Rescue” by Chela Delgado.  Delgado is the community action coordinator at the June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco.  Delgado argues that the movie Freedom Writers is unrealistic in its portrayal of a white teacher changing the lives of her students of color. Delgado raises a number of questions at the beginning of her piece, two of which I found most interesting:  “Is it the young white teachers saving kids of color?” and “Is it the guilt I feel as a teacher who may not have succeeded as well as these superheroes?”

Over the past year I have been reading quite a bit on the “white culture of power” and how important it is for white teachers to be sensitive to the needs of their students of color.  I guess I’m trying to figure out, after all the readings, why some people believe white teachers cannot teach black students or Hispanic students or any students that don't look like them.  I have also wondered along the way, why there aren’t more teachers of color teaching students of color.  At least in Rhode Island, it appears to be a predominantly white profession.  I feel as though it is important for all teachers to be sensitive to their students’ needs and to pay attention to the culture and environment these kids live in every day.  As a teacher, I think it is my obligation to know my students very well in order to reach them and teach them to the best of my ability.  I do a lot of community building at the beginning of the year since I teach a very diverse group of kids.  Some years the community building works better than others, however, I have a good baseline in which to find ways to connect to my student’s lives.  I think it is important for any good teacher, no matter what color, to find ways to connect the curriculum to the student.  I also find it fascinating to watch my students talk to the class and teach us all something new, something interesting about their lives.  I don’t pretend to like the things my students like.  For instance, I am old and white and I don’t really like hip-hop music.  I love country music which is the last genre my black students want to listen to.  They would see right through me if I came into class playing the latest hip-hop songs.  However, I am constantly asking them to connect literature to a song, a movie, an app, something that they are interested in. Then they have the opportunity to show me what they like as I am showing them why the themes in literature are timeless.  There have been many, many times my students have chosen a song from a genre or group that I did not think I would like, and I was pleasantly surprised that I loved the song, bought the song, and now have it as part of my playlist.

Anyway, I’m ranting.  Delgado did make me think about her second question which is how teachers that do their job everyday with so many obstacles in their way, can compete with the Hollywood super-teacher mentality.  This one is hard because some teachers are at the right place and at the right time to make a significant impact on their community.  Is it luck?  Is it that this teacher is better than others?  We can all sit back and come up with excuses as to why some teachers appear to be so over-the-top awesome while others, equally as good, receive a “thanks, you really helped me overcome ___ and I appreciate your help” (isn’t it great when this happens?) from their students.  I don’t know, I think if we were in this profession for the sole purpose of getting lots of kudos, maybe we are in it for the wrong reasons.  I feel really good when a lesson goes well and I reach a student in a way that surprises us both.  I will still go see the teacher-hero movies because I find them to be inspiring.  Will I feel bad about myself that I’m not that teacher?  No, I won’t.  Although, I might walk away with an idea or something interesting that I may try in my classroom.