Thoughts About Our Readings & Discussions

Wow, I guess this is our last blog.  Really?  I was beginning to get more comfortable with examining my thoughts.   If this in indeed our last blog, I’d like to thank everyone who has given my feedback on my blog.  Thanks for taking the time to learn a little bit about what makes me the person I am, at least a little bit of that.  Also, thank you for opening up and letting me see someone else's viewpoint with each of your blogs.  It's been interesting, enlightening, and sometimes funny.  :-)

To continue the discussion on what we’ve been exploring in class, I’d like to start by examining what was in last week’s reading, “Part One – Teachers ‘Experimenting with the World,’” I felt the article was summarizing so much of what we’ve then discussing in class.  There were a few points that brought it all home for me.  The author (I’m sorry, I missed who this person is) quotes Karen as saying, “You have to be passionate about what you are and have to believe in it for it to take shape.  You get that from experience.  And you need the passion to be a teacher.”  (pg. 57, “I Didn’t Even Know There Was A River”)  As we work in our school, we will sooner or later find the underlying politics lurking around as we all find once we break the threshold and become part of the large group dynamic.  We need to realize that whatever the climate at your school, the real reason we are all there is to help our students be the best person they can become.  That’s it, bottom line.  Karen had hit the nail on the head.  We need to be passionate about teaching.  How can we expect our students to find their passion if we don’t model ours.  Let’s give it all.  We can plan lessons that inspire. 

We need to be listeners.  Stop waiting for the “correct” response and listen to what the children are learning.  We need to be aware of our students.  Find out who they are.  Scripts don’t care who the kids are or what they think.  They don’t form a relationship with the students.  We need to go beyond the scripts and explore ourselves, our students, our community, and through knowing ourselves and each other we will all learn on a deeper level.  The barriers will be down.

In the articles we’ve read recently and in the teacher narratives, it seems that so many students are struggling with what it means to be American.  I hope we can all find a way to help students find their definition of American and at the same time, keep their cultural roots intact.  I hope we can all be a part of sharing and celebrating in our differences as well as in our sense of community.

“Three Teachers Honoring Children’s Environment” says, “The class discussion were interesting and seemed important to them; they weren’t just about giving right answers, and they learned they had something to say.” (pg. 62)  That is powerful; they learned they had something to say.  That’s how we raise up thinkers, learners, doers, reformers, activists, and amazing human beings.  Show them they have something worthwhile to offer.  Teach them they have something to say.