A frustration that seems to be permeating at my school is a lack of community and like minds amongst the teachers. I find that the teachers I work with feel overwhelmed with a lot of the things we have to implement, like this program called Teengagement and Scholastic Reading Counts. They haven’t received training on how to implement these programs but they are expected to put all of these things in place.
The teacher next door to me is a new arrival to Texas and AISD. She taught in another state for years and she’s having a difficult time adjusting to how things are done. When we talked the other day I mentioned the Heart of Texas Writing Project. I told her it would probably help her keep her purpose in mind and it would be good to connect with other teachers who share her views on writing in the classroom. I was talking about The Dreamkeepers with her and how one of the teacher’s experiences at a 7-week conference renewed her enthusiasm for teaching. It is ironic that I told her about the book because she actually studied under Ladson-Billings.
The teacher I’m referring to in The Dreamkeepers said that the conference was “kind of like a recognition that the way I thought about teaching was all right. It was the intellectual activity, you know, the thinking.”
I’ve been thinking about this idea a lot this week. It is so valuable to make sure we are part of a community that supports our philosophies and helps us put them to practice in the classroom. If this community isn’t available at your particular school it is a necessity to find it elsewhere. It’s easy to sucumb to peer pressure or doubt yourself because of what you see others around you doing even if you know it’s not best practice. I’ve been having a bit of a hard time with the things I’ve been required to teach this semester so I’m trying my best to make sure I’m keeping my ideologies in mind and trying to implement them when possible.
This Wednesday I’m going to start a poetry unit that’ll last about 2-3 weeks. My CT thinks I should start with the beloved PowerPoint, which would be an introduction to the ideas and terms we’re going to focus on for entire unit. They are tone, imagery, simile hyperbole personification and symbolism. Do yall have any suggestions on how to spice this up? I pretty much don’t have much of a choice about having to specifically address each one but I want to make sure it’s not a snoozefest that the students can actually engage in and relate to rather than just writing notes.
Its funny reading your blog because I have been sharing in your experience. I agree that having a community of teachers that support our growing philosophies is important. I also think that almost every school has a "community of teachers," but when the philosophies are based in deficit perspectives it is these communities that create and sustain damaging pedagogy. So the idea of "teaching communities" in and of themselves is not enough.....because these communities must be grounded in authentic teaching and constant professional growth/reflection.
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