#reflective teaching

Marie, of The Caffeinated Classroom

“To Be Brave”

In Education we were taught that if we were to be in a helping field, then master teachers like Paolo Freire could be read to exemplify the caring component.  And in practice, over the many years when lucky to engage with so many different school programs, so many different communities and cultures, one begins to combine the theories of Anthropology, and the theories of Education, to uncover how…

Sometimes songs and words and singers simply enter our brains and remain there like material on a computer and then at the right time the words resurface or the sounds reappear, making the day a little brighter and reminding one of how very much past, present and future can be intertwined.

Yesterday evening I had been entering material into my “journal”, a “private” entry, not a public blog; and…

This is a little warmup of something I have been working on... my Action Research Thesis project for my Master's degree! I will be uploading my audio-visual interactive project reflecting on a lifetime of studenthood soon, so stay tuned! I specifically designed it to be accessible and interesting for anyone, not simply other educators, so I hope you take a look.

"Miss, is it good?"

My intermediate ESL students shove their papers in my face with this question all the time, wanting their writing to be validated. I chuckle at their black-and-white thinking; the idea that their writing is either "all good" or "all bad." It frustrates me, but I don't know how to change it.

I've been mulling over this "Is it good" question for a while. I look at myself. How have I modeled that idea to students? (Students don't pick up their values out of the ether; consciously or subconsciously we demonstrate those ideas.) I make a goal: to shift from the general "Is it good?" to the specific "Is this aspect of my writing good?" Better yet, a shift to students having the confidence to evaluate their own writing and answer that question themselves.

So... I'm trying to take an inquiry stance toward my own teaching. Reading Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them.  Her goals as a writing instructor are ambitious - but doable. The thesis of her book is that students aren't receiving meaningful writing instruction unless you, their teacher, creates and sustains a meaningful writing life - that you literally participate in the writer's workshop with your students as you facilitate instruction. This stance reminds me of Paulo Freire deconstructing the line between student and teacher; it fits with a teaching philosophy I have that you should never ask students to do an exercise you wouldn't do yourself. So, we agree there. 

So, it's helping me look at my own work. I'm realizing that my ESL 3 classroom time is a ton of reading instruction - whole-class, independent reading, and small-group - but the time on writer's workshop activities and encouraging students to think of themselves as 'real' writers is more limited. I think I'm going to use some of her ideas, like including more quickwrite activities that develop into real writing works, asking students to select their own mentor texts, doing text study (reading like a writer) and doing a LOT more writing alongside students.

Day 21

Do you have other hobbies/interests that you bring into your classroom teaching? Explain.

Day 20

How do you curate student work–or help them do it themselves?

Day 18

Create a metaphor/simile/analogy that describes your teaching philosophy. For example, a “teacher is a ________…”

"learning is a never ending journey, pack only what you need."