In the introduction and chapter one, Palmer makes the case for teaching being a spiritual endeavor, and that "To educate is to guide students on an inner journey toward more truthful ways of seeing and being in the world" (p. 6).
Does this resonate with you? In what ways?
He also makes the case for teaching beyond technique and honoring subjectivity. As novice teachers, you are probably depending on techniques and strategies. Have you experienced some times when you have reached beyond this? Describe those, and how that felt different than implementing a particular technique.
Or, if there is something else in these chapters that you would rather write about, please do.
I will post a second prompt regarding questions for the student teacher panel.
One thing I’ve always believed in as a teacher is that we are responsible not only for the content our students learn, but also the adults they grow up to be. As a future high school teacher I will only ever encounter a student for a maximum of four years. In that time can I really say the thing they will remember about high school is the lesson I teach them about grammar, or any other lesson I teach them. While these are important I can’t say with any certitude that my students will ever remember the lessons I taught them. I can say this because I have graduated high school and if you asked me a specific question about any such lessons there’d be a pretty high chance I don’t remember when or where I learned it. I remember reading Macbeth for instance, but if you asked me what the unit it was about, what we focused on, what I even thought about it, I couldn’t tell you. What I can tell you is that I know how to read Macbeth. I retained the tools if not the specifics of how I used them when I learned.
ReplyDeleteHigh school seems to be more about creating a future generation gifted with a tool box hefty enough to come in handy when they need to look at the world in different angles. Even now as I’m student teaching, and finishing up schooling myself that I realize the students I’m teaching will one day have to take up the mantle of a functioning member of society, and that I too will have to. My function will be guiding them through the art of understanding literature and the written word, but they will have to take those skill and apply it to their own lives. Most of my students will realistically not be English majors, so the skills I have to teach them have to transcend analyzing Shakespeare and go further towards how one can analyze the world as a text.
"High school seems to be more about creating a future generation gifted with a tool box hefty enough to come in handy when they need to look at the world in different angles." I want to post that everywhere, I love how you put this. thank you for sharing.
DeleteI like your focus on application and suggesting different ways to see the world.
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ReplyDeleteEver since I started on the path to becoming a teacher, I knew that it was more than reciting Shakespeare and reading lessons out of a grammar book. I think that, with English especially, students benefit heavily from each other and the teacher, not just for a grade, but to learn with how to handle and maintain themselves outside of school. In classes, we talk about culture, characters who struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, and, very often, talk about topics that are not discussed as much as it should. Teachers create tolerance and model it as well.
I agree with Joey's statement: “High school seems to be more about creating a future generation gifted with a tool box hefty enough to come in handy when they need to look at the world in different angles.” Often times, we talk about our teacher toolbox and all the lessons and resources we have accumulated over time that created what was once a tool box and later into a tool shed. What we do (or do not do) with these tools is up to us. I think that by modeling and showing students how to use some of these tools themselves, it not only makes them successful and ready learners in the classroom, but ready and capable persons in general.
From what we read so far, I agree with Palmer when he claims that to be successful teachers we must sometimes expose our inner lives: to show our passion for our craft. None of us chose English (at least I hope not) because it was “easy” and “not much work” or “it is all up for interpretation anyway so I will not have a hard time”. I know that I chose English because it was something I enjoyed and I wanted an opportunity to share something I love and teach it to others. Passion: I think that is a good first step into the inner journey—what are you passionate about?
Right now, I do model a lot of the teaching methods others have used. However, I did notice that I like to walk around the class more than teachers I have seen do, and I like to ask kids, often, to relate themselves to the book they are reading “raise your hand if you have been to this place. Have any of you done this.”… I have always been under the impression that we learn best from a multitude pf people, especially those close in age, so I do like for students to learn from one another as well as myself.
I am starting to notice things too: who is quiet, who is a hard worker, who works alone even in a group, etc. I am developing habits to help alleviate some things that could be hazardous to students’ learning or to what Palmer states. We are still works in progress, but we are using our craft and modeling those around us within ourselves to create something entirely unique to us. And that---I think that is good for where I am presently.
"From what we read so far, I agree with Palmer when he claims that to be successful teachers we must sometimes expose our inner lives: to show our passion for our craft." I could not agree more!!! Also, I love that you state that "we are still works in progress". I think a lot of student teachers feel this way, but I also think many veteran teachers feel the same way. We should always be works in progress. We should always be looking for new and exciting ways to reach and teach students!!
DeleteI think a lot of student teachers feel this way, but I also think many veteran teachers feel the same way. We should always be works in progress.
DeleteYou bring up a good point, and I think Palmer agrees to this as well- that we are always works in progress and progress with each class and new curriculums. Thanks!
I like your noticing of details regarding your students, Danielle. Sometimes it's hard to see that because we are so worried about what WE are doing!
DeletePalmer’s deduction that teaching is about “guid[ing] students on an inner journey” is something I completely agree with, especially as an English teacher. Teaching the mechanics of spelling, grammar, syntax, and reading comprehension are the building blocks of English education, but it’s not all that teaching English is about. The reason we read texts is not only for the mechanical benefits, but also the spiritual benefits. It’s why we read works that have meanings beyond the words on the page. As an English teacher, it is my goal for my students to see literature not only as the story that’s there, but as a way to reflect and relate to their own lives and experiences. I think this echoes in part what Joey said about taking the “tools” from English class and applying them beyond the study of English.
ReplyDeleteAside from our content being applicable outside the classroom, I would also like to echo what Joey said about being people who are, in part, responsible for the adults these adolescents grow up to be. I would also like to add the fact that being an adolescent is an important and influential role and we are contributing to our students in this stage of life in much more immediate way! As we all know (both from learning about it and living through it), young adulthood is the arguably the most universally tumultuous time American species encounters. It’s imperative that we are reliable and caring adults in the lives of our students. In this way, we can encourage them “see” and “be” productive and compassionate people in their everyday lives right now.
"As an English teacher, it is my goal for my students to see literature not only as the story that’s there, but as a way to reflect and relate to their own lives and experiences." I love this, Jess!!
Delete"The reason we read texts is not only for the mechanical benefits, but also the spiritual benefits. It’s why we read works that have meanings beyond the words on the page." Well said and very true. I think this says a lot about you as a teacher and I hope you let students see this thinking that you possess.
DeleteYes--we all need to be "reliable and caring." Thanks, Jess, for those words of wisdom!
DeleteI can honestly say that I do not remember any lessons from high school. I do remember one intro and I think I will always remember that. I remember the content, but for some reason cannot remember any of the lessons. I remember the bigger picture lessons I was taught (be kind, be responsible, be respectful, be your own advocate). I think this will be the same for my students. While I do think the lessons are important, I feel that the bigger picture lessons are equally if not more important.
ReplyDeleteAs teachers we are guiding students through life and its important that we also teach them lifelong lessons and skills. I am a firm believer in teaching being a “spiritual endeavor”. It is important that as teachers we teach and model life’s bigger picture lessons (how to treat others, how to communicate effectively, be kind and respectful). All of my current students are seniors and I find myself talking with them a lot about the ways in which their lives and responsibilities are about to change much more come graduation. We talk about how they need to learn to be respectful towards others even if they do not like them, how time constraints NEVER go away (something they seem to feel ceases to exist after graduation), and how they will always have expectations set by others for them (something they also thought would vanish once they graduate). They seem to talk a lot more when we have these discussions too. I have noticed that when these side conversations start we tend to get off topic for longer than I like, but at the same time I like that they have all these questions about life and they choose to voice them with me. Unfortunately, there have been times where I have had to stop these “spiritual endeavor” conversations to come back to the topic on hand. Even though I love the content I’m teaching and the lessons I’m developing, I have to say that I love the real world conversations much more. And I am honored that they trust me and feel comfortable enough to have these conversations with me. So far that has been my favorite part of student teaching.
"Even though I love the content I’m teaching and the lessons I’m developing, I have to say that I love the real world conversations much more" maybe, as you progress further into teaching, you may be able to combine these together to make your whole lessons meaningful, thus, making the content worthwhile to your students. : )
DeleteI love that you're talking to your seniors about the reality of life outside of high school. I think we all have that curse, where we think a lot of obligations "go away" after graduation (be that from high school or college!) but the truth is that they just transform in format and multiply in quantity. It's a huge compliment to you that they will speak openly with you!
DeleteHow funny that they think deadlines will go away! So nice that they trust you, but also that you are able to bring them back and forth from school to real-world questions.
Delete"To educate is to guide students on an inner journey toward more truthful ways of seeing and being in the world" (p. 6).
ReplyDeleteThis quote resonates with me, mainly because it echoes back to something that I remember hearing in a TED Talk, one that I hope to be using soon in my student teaching. It was delivered by Chimimanda Adichie, and it is called “The Danger of the Single Story.” And, in short, the “thesis” is this: When we only have a single story of a place, or a people, we flatten their lives, and make them incomplete. And, as English teachers, educators who are tasked with opening our student’s minds to a globe’s worth of history in composition form, guiding students on an inner journey to seeing things more truthfully is the most important things we can do.
I also think of the Common Core Standards, which mention something about this “wide base” to draw on. “CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.7 Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment.” It is of the paramount importance that we show “complex truth,” not “cardboard cutout truth.” And here is a legendary Nigerian author and the writers of the Common Core State Standards agreeing on something, representing a subject in different mediums (not to mention Parker).
We must, subjectively, teach as complete an image as we can. It is something I am reaching for, and hoping I grab. It is not only useless to read something like Heart of Darkness and try to judge a continent, it is harmful. They become a sort of stereotype, and as Adichie says, it is “not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.”
On the other side of the coin, we must not let our students flatten themselves into two-dimensional figures to be analyzed and put in “little boxes made of ticky tacky” as the old song (“Little Boxes”) says. They must find their own truths, and as teachers, regardless of subject, we have the duty to help them do that with every fiber of my being. I do not know where I would be today without my teachers, and without the people who taught me things. Education has awakened something I would like to call “Awareness” in me, and I am suspecting it has done the same to everyone else in this program (and anyone else who happens to be reading this). So, as a teacher, I am taking it on myself to spread this “Awareness.” Paying it forward, so to speak. And I’ll start with literature, and its cousins. I know it well, and I am confident it will do its job well.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
"TED Talk, one that I hope to be using soon in my student teaching. It was delivered by Chimimanda Adichie, and it is called “The Danger of the Single Story.”" Probably my favorite TED talk, thanks for bringing it up again!
DeleteI used Adiche's TED Talk to frame my Native American unit! I think it's so eloquent yet accessible. I never would have thought to apply it to this prompt, but it totally makes sense!
DeleteI also really like your separation of "teachers" and "people who taught me things". It's important for us to remember that what they learn in school is only a fraction of what they learn.
I like that you brought in the CCSS, along with the TED talk. I think it's important that we don't set up the CCSS as a "straw man" when educational reform fails. Reform fails because it, at least now, is sticking to that single story--that all we need to do is find the right stuff to teach and students will learn.
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