Our origami cranes, the students wrote haikus and wrote them on the wing
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading Ayer’s this past week. It’s been a bit of fresh air for me. I find that I gravitate to more practice and methods discussions than theoretical texts that we read and Ayer’s is certainly someone I’d love to talk to about my classroom over a coffee, or beer (depending on what kind of day it’s been). A lot of struggles I’ve been facing in my placement, he addresses so eloquently and reminds me that this experience is just the beginning of my teaching career. He acknowledges and discusses the frustrations that all teachers face about burning out, being forced to present watered down curriculum and the other insane aspects about being a teacher.
He talks in-depth about keeping your purpose in mind and not straying away from yourself as a student yourself, always learning and reflecting. This is something I’ve talked about a lot in class and on my blog. At times I get frustrated with things going on at school or in my personal life. I get bogged down in the “now.” When I consciously realize that I am stuck fixating I try to take a step back and remember the good things and those moments that remind me of why I want to teach in the first place.
One of my student's poems modeled after "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams
School on Friday was a great reminder for me. So as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been working on a poetry unit in my 10th grade Pre-AP classes. Friday we had our publication celebration complete with takis, rice krispie treats (homemade by yours truly) and creative, revelatory poetry from my students. So many were eager so share their poems and everyone reacted positively and gave thoughtful, constructive praise to their fellow poets. One of my students who doesn’t normally participate, shared almost every poem who wrote with the class. The poem above is his. I mean, how great is it?! Overall, I had a really great week with my 10th grade. We had to cut our unit short which was disappointing, but because of that, we got to have a writing workshop this week in class. I got to spend the week working on poetry with engaging, emerging poets. How cool is that?! In my class I want this to be the norm not the exception to what we usually do. We’re starting to wind down our student teaching experience and I know for most of us it hasn’t been exactly what we were expecting. I feel like I’ve been learning how to get along with people I don’t necessarily agree with completely and how to be patient when I can’t do everything that I want to do. I just know that I am really, really ready to be in my own classroom where I can have sincere inquiries and discussions, writing workshops and where I can learn from my students as much, if not more than they learn from me.
I'm glad that you focused on learning from your students. I tried to cover stuff in my blog, but somehow lost that and it's such an important point of Ayers'. Keeping our purpose in mind and constantly reflecting on that, reminding ourselves why we're here doing this hard (often under appreciated) thing, it's really trying sometimes. Maybe sometimes letting go a little and really giving yourself space to learn from your students is the best way to stay situated. I'm glad your sticking to your goals in the classroom with workshop and inquiry - when you get your own space, it can only get better :)
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