Why are we here?

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.