I find myself pondering the obstacle of pressure that Molly talked about in her blog. I know just from listening to my 13 (almost 14!) year old daughter, the huge range of pressures she is contending with all the time. School work, figuring herself out, finding friendship, organizing her life, handling moments of self-doubt, alternately craving privacy and sociability, managing changes in her body... the list is long. Watching her, and being her ally (as much as a can be) brings me back to my own adolescent years with a hard thump. And it's interesting to me that when she was little I was so deeply invested in ensuring that her life would always be happy while now I feel a much stronger need to let her know that getting by in life in part of learning to manage all the inevitable difficulties that come our way. What an incredibly difficult moment in life! To come to terms with the fact that so many things--though challenging, gratifying, at times exhilarating--are just not easy.
So the idea that pressure is a major obstacle to learning comes as no surprise. Then, I add the insights and concerns of various teens from The Freedom Writers Diary, and it's clear that the level of pressures can range from "my hair looks weird" to "My father is a drug dealer" to "I'm a lesbian and I'm terrified that no one I care about will accept me when they find out." Then, as a teacher and a person, we come into the classroom with our own pressures. Our own life concerns that extend beyond the classroom, pressures to teach in a certain way, pressures to handle students that aren't easy to engage..." Our list can be daunting as well.
Where to go with this? In part, I think a good teacher needs to be mindful of these pressures and realistic about the ways in which that will effect every student in the classroom. Being compassionate and empathetic can help. Also, creating a safe space, where, at least in some cases, students can leave some of those pressures behind--if only for a class period. But also, thinking about ways to engage the uniqueness of the adolescent struggle with identity, belonging and fitting in and using those concerns as teaching points. Middle school teachers are doing a lot--but they cannot forget that they are also dealing with students who are managing a slew of issues emotionally and physically. Otherwise pressure may be too great an obstacle for many students to overcome.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
"My views" of teaching and learning include:
1. Learning is…something that we should be engaged throughout our lives--whether we are a "student" or not. In fact, I believe the best teachers are deeply invested in the notion that first and foremost they are learners themselves. Learning about their students, learning how best to connect with them, challenge them, help them to engage in the process of becoming learners themselves. Viewed as a lifelong pursuit, learning then is all about the attitude we bring to what we do and see: we are curious, we ask questions, we believe it is worth our while to know more and we are excited to learn from those who do know more than us.
2. One learns when…we feel excited, curious and motivated to actively pursue knowledge. We learn best when we feel like we are part of a sharing and supportive learning community. It can be hard to learn alone--it's exciting to share what we know and get positive feedback from those we share with. We learn when we feel confident--the more we have been valued and supported for what we have learned, the more we want to keep at it. We learn when we collaborate--it's always amazing to look at things in ways you hadn't thought of yourself. It broadens what you know--and how you appreciate all the different ways in which you can know!
3. Teaching is…activating other people's desire to learn. It is creating a community that supports learning that is open, engaged, supportive, deep and often without a clear end-point. We teach to create lifelong learners. We teach to make the act of learning something empowering and far-reaching. We also teach to create a community of teachers--it's not just about us imparting knowledge to others, but rather about helping students understand that they are knowledge-givers as well!
4. Meaningful connections and experiences in learning happen when...we are in a community that fosters exchange and collaboration. We need to feel safe in this community--because it is only when we trust our collaborators to be respectful of our thoughts and ideas--even if they do not necessarily agree with them--that we can really enter into meaningful exchanges. When we feel secure we are much more capable of allowing ourselves to take risks and to go places we do not feel comfortable. It is when we push against these boundaries that we feel most exhilarated and rewarded as a learner.
5. Different ways of thinking occur by…the very nature of the different people we are. Nothing is more fascinating than spending time playing with an idea or problem and then realizing that others around you have been thinking about it in a very different way. Indeed, problem-solving is an open act of interpretation and approaches and there can be numerous ways of reaching the same conclusion--and in many cases, simply numerous conclusions. It is through conversation, discussion, collaboration and exchange that we can be introduced to these different ways of thinking and learn from them and in turn incorporate them into our own reality.
"Obstacles"
1. The top 10 obstacles facing middle level teachers…understanding, time, appreciation, imagination, experience, open-mindedness, sense of humor, possibility, content knowledge, resources.
2. The top 10 obstacles facing young adolescent students…insecurity, change, hormones, fatigue, social absorption, lack of confidence, being overwhelmed, lack of support, transitionality, the need for constant reassurance.
3. The top 10 things that you think young adolescent students need to know…changes are normal, they are NOT alone, uniqueness is a thing to value and strive for, acceptance is not everything, kindness is worth pursuing, it's okay to be different, they can seek help from adults at their school, being smart is a WONDERFUL think (in whatever way you ARE smart), it's worth it to take (SAFE) risks, identity comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes!
1. Learning is…something that we should be engaged throughout our lives--whether we are a "student" or not. In fact, I believe the best teachers are deeply invested in the notion that first and foremost they are learners themselves. Learning about their students, learning how best to connect with them, challenge them, help them to engage in the process of becoming learners themselves. Viewed as a lifelong pursuit, learning then is all about the attitude we bring to what we do and see: we are curious, we ask questions, we believe it is worth our while to know more and we are excited to learn from those who do know more than us.
2. One learns when…we feel excited, curious and motivated to actively pursue knowledge. We learn best when we feel like we are part of a sharing and supportive learning community. It can be hard to learn alone--it's exciting to share what we know and get positive feedback from those we share with. We learn when we feel confident--the more we have been valued and supported for what we have learned, the more we want to keep at it. We learn when we collaborate--it's always amazing to look at things in ways you hadn't thought of yourself. It broadens what you know--and how you appreciate all the different ways in which you can know!
3. Teaching is…activating other people's desire to learn. It is creating a community that supports learning that is open, engaged, supportive, deep and often without a clear end-point. We teach to create lifelong learners. We teach to make the act of learning something empowering and far-reaching. We also teach to create a community of teachers--it's not just about us imparting knowledge to others, but rather about helping students understand that they are knowledge-givers as well!
4. Meaningful connections and experiences in learning happen when...we are in a community that fosters exchange and collaboration. We need to feel safe in this community--because it is only when we trust our collaborators to be respectful of our thoughts and ideas--even if they do not necessarily agree with them--that we can really enter into meaningful exchanges. When we feel secure we are much more capable of allowing ourselves to take risks and to go places we do not feel comfortable. It is when we push against these boundaries that we feel most exhilarated and rewarded as a learner.
5. Different ways of thinking occur by…the very nature of the different people we are. Nothing is more fascinating than spending time playing with an idea or problem and then realizing that others around you have been thinking about it in a very different way. Indeed, problem-solving is an open act of interpretation and approaches and there can be numerous ways of reaching the same conclusion--and in many cases, simply numerous conclusions. It is through conversation, discussion, collaboration and exchange that we can be introduced to these different ways of thinking and learn from them and in turn incorporate them into our own reality.
"Obstacles"
1. The top 10 obstacles facing middle level teachers…understanding, time, appreciation, imagination, experience, open-mindedness, sense of humor, possibility, content knowledge, resources.
2. The top 10 obstacles facing young adolescent students…insecurity, change, hormones, fatigue, social absorption, lack of confidence, being overwhelmed, lack of support, transitionality, the need for constant reassurance.
3. The top 10 things that you think young adolescent students need to know…changes are normal, they are NOT alone, uniqueness is a thing to value and strive for, acceptance is not everything, kindness is worth pursuing, it's okay to be different, they can seek help from adults at their school, being smart is a WONDERFUL think (in whatever way you ARE smart), it's worth it to take (SAFE) risks, identity comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes!
Johnny Appleseed...
On Johnny Appleseed...
When I think about Johnny Appleseed, one of the ideas I take from his story is his ability to do something for the future without an immediately measurable outcome. Like the planter of any seed, Appleseed needed to take a giant leap of faith that a small kernel in the vast earth could years from then be something much more than that. It's the ability to have faith in what could be even if you may not see the eventual outcome that allows us to be teachers. Because I think that as much as we are driven by immediate returns--the daily successes we can see in children who are thriving or overcoming or moving forward in discernible ways--it is equally, and perhaps more, important to be driven by the notion that we are helping to nurture a future that might not be so readily or obviously connected to the present we deal with every day.
I suppose the pedagogical seeds I am pondering right now are related to whole-child education. We are given the time to work with children who themselves are like seeds slowly taking root in the world. We can support their growth by understanding that our ultimate hope is that they will grow into someone who flourishes and plants new seeds themselves. To think that way is to think expansively about the project of being a teacher--and I think that's important. It's not about a single tree--but about legions of trees. It's not about one single season but about a lifetime's worth of growth from seed to sapling to something strong and resilient capable of meeting challenges and also bearing fruit. We, as teachers, are simply one part of a process that is much bigger than us. So we should always put our time spent with students into the context of the big picture of what we can do to foster a lifetime's worth of growth!
When I think about Johnny Appleseed, one of the ideas I take from his story is his ability to do something for the future without an immediately measurable outcome. Like the planter of any seed, Appleseed needed to take a giant leap of faith that a small kernel in the vast earth could years from then be something much more than that. It's the ability to have faith in what could be even if you may not see the eventual outcome that allows us to be teachers. Because I think that as much as we are driven by immediate returns--the daily successes we can see in children who are thriving or overcoming or moving forward in discernible ways--it is equally, and perhaps more, important to be driven by the notion that we are helping to nurture a future that might not be so readily or obviously connected to the present we deal with every day.
I suppose the pedagogical seeds I am pondering right now are related to whole-child education. We are given the time to work with children who themselves are like seeds slowly taking root in the world. We can support their growth by understanding that our ultimate hope is that they will grow into someone who flourishes and plants new seeds themselves. To think that way is to think expansively about the project of being a teacher--and I think that's important. It's not about a single tree--but about legions of trees. It's not about one single season but about a lifetime's worth of growth from seed to sapling to something strong and resilient capable of meeting challenges and also bearing fruit. We, as teachers, are simply one part of a process that is much bigger than us. So we should always put our time spent with students into the context of the big picture of what we can do to foster a lifetime's worth of growth!
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