Teaching Journal Issue 4

The theme that has run through this week’s reading has been one of children being allowed to be children, and our job as educators to recognize each child as an individual. Playing into that is the continuing issue of racial and cultural stereotypes that can invade the classroom. I found it interesting in the article by Lisa Delpit, on children being themselves, that while we may unknowingly take pride in being fair and treating everyone the same, it may in fact be harmful in teaching. Rather than ignoring the differences in race and culture for instance, we should embrace our differences, and use it as a tool to include and get children to participate actively in the classroom. Too often I think we tend to overlook the shy, non participating child, when in fact they should be engaged in class discussions. Too often children, and for that matter adults, are made to feel embarrassed if they don’t have the right answer or ridiculed and giggled at. It is our job as teachers to engage everyone and to create an atmosphere that promotes participation without criticism. I am an active believer that the education process needs the involvement of parents to understand the child as Ayers promotes. In my previous working life, as a production and distribution manager, with a background in work-study, I found very early on that everyone is not the same. In the demanding world of production standards and piecework, not everyone’s productivity would be the same. I strongly believed understanding and evaluating an employee’s strengths and weaknesses was always the first step in matching a person to the job. My job was to make them successful, and to find, wherever possible, that job that they were proficient in. The point I am making is that in education you need to understand each and every child beyond the surface appearances. I don’t think you can thoroughly do that without the help of the parent. Will the parent always be helpful? Not necessarily. As I was reading I was already formulating in my mind how I would need to better understand the culture of each ethnic or cultural group in my classroom. I would need some kind of hook to tap into each child to make that communication connection that would make us partners in learning.

In the Buchmann article, the theme started last week in class on “professionalism”, is explored from the standpoint of the classroom and the freedoms teachers may or may not take in regard to how curriculum is taught. The point I take away is that we, as teachers, are not free to choose methods, or content for our students, and probably rightfully so. To do so could deprive our students of a well rounded learning experience. I think the points are well taken in that human nature does often take over, and we tend to do what comes easy to us, to teach what interests us. That would be selfish reasons to be sure, considering the impact we have on our student’s lives. I do believe that this work need not be dull or uninteresting as it may seem to sound. It is our job to make it interesting and challenging to our students. I have no problems with carrying on the prescribed curriculum and framing it in a presentation that would be challenging to my students. At least I hope so in any case. I would not be true to myself that some coursework may prove to be challenging to myself to teach. I look at the way math is taught now in the 5^th and 6^th grades, and it looks unfamiliar to me. It’s not the math problems but the methods now employed for those students to arrive at the answer. But I can learn, just as they have, I am sure. On the subject of professionalism, I found it odd in class that evidently teaching is not considered professional by some outside the academic community or perhaps even within it. Not that it’s not a profession, but that it is not considered professional by people. Call me naïve, but I have always considered teachers professional, and worthy of great praise and admiration in their choice of professions.

In this week’s Ayers reading, I again have found him endearing to my thinking of how teachers should be, or strive to be. I also looked up Taylor Mali on You Tube and found him to be both funny and inspiring. These first few weeks have offered up a not always a rosy picture of what I am endeavoring to do, but I agree that the program would be remiss in not giving us the full picture of teaching; it’s rewards and challenges. As a student of history, and especially the history of the plains Indians, I could relate very well to the coming of age quest of Zayd, who is inspired by the legendary Sioux warrior, Crazy Horse. I am now reading the book, A Terrible Glory, about Custer and the summer campaign that led to the Little Big Horn. In the chapter Seeing the Student, it further affirms that we as teachers need to connect in some way with our students. If you read my educational biography, few of my teachers made a connection with me. Now certainly that is not all their fault, and I must take the blame, but few took the time to connect with me, and to challenge me. I hope when Ayers says“ outstanding teaching is built on a base of knowledge about students”, it is in fact a reality for me. I believe myself the kind of person that is very engaging to people and to children I know. Ayers also recognizes that culture, and understanding it, can be a valuable key in connecting with students. It is bridge building, as he aptly puts it. It’s building bridges to the child, and to the child through the parents and grandparents of the child. It is all about again the community that a school is, and the community that it serves. Delpit reminds us that “each person is an expert on himself or herself; that the people with the problems are also the ones that can solve them”.