I thought that this week’s readings fit nicely in to the end
of the semester. They were sincere, moving calls to action to think about as we
continue our hard work in becoming classroom teachers. They also made me think
about my work on my case study and how to reframe a lot of my thoughts. By
having honest, real conversations with our students it seems nearly impossible
to teach using the banking pedagogy seen in Freire’s piece. That pedagogy
discounts that our students think for themselves and that they have values and
experiences in place before they enter our classrooms. My conversation with
Alyse, who I’ll discuss during my presentation, exemplified this for me.
It was as challenge just to meet with Alyse for this
project. I wasn’t able to go to her home because of remodeling so we agreed to
meet at a Starbucks near her home. I left class early on Wednesday and rushed
to Southpark Meadows to meet with her. I had a sinking feeling that she was
going to cancel on me and lo and behold at 7:26, four minutes before we were
supposed to meet, she texted me to say she couldn’t make it. I was a bit
frustrated but I could tell she felt sincerely bad about having to miss. The
next night, after weeks of pestering on my part, we finally sat down to talk. I
learned so much about Alyse’s values and beliefs I would have never learned in
our two-minute talks at the beginning and end of class. It’s impossible to have
conversations like the one I had with Alyse with every single student I’ll ever
teach. I know that, but I need to at least keep in mind that there are outside
factors in their lives and they do not merely exist to come and sit in my class
while I bestow my superior knowledge unto them.
I think Bomer and
Bomer made a really great point when they said, “We have let ourselves get
mired in todays busyness at the expense of tomorrow’s transformations.” It’s
hard to always keep in mind why we are becoming teachers. What are our mission
statements, and teaching philosophies? What is our end goal? We need to take
the time to sit and think about these things before we start teaching. Then we’ll
get bogged down in the minutiae of teaching like learning the bell schedule and
when we have lunch duty. Getting to know a really great student, like Alyse has
reminded me why I am becoming a teacher and who these amazing students are that
I will get to work with every day. Keeping our philosophies in mind while we teach
will help us create our classes as a springboard for social action. We can
relate our class to students’ real lives. An English class doesn’t have to be a
static environment that’s only end goal is getting a good grade. It can foster
social action and critical thinking that extends beyond the classroom.
