Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Final Thoughts
I know that there could be a million things I could say here in my final thoughts section, but what I feel is most important is how much I have changed since the beginning of the semester. I have consistently felt like I needed to prove myself to everyone around me, my classmates, teachers, etc. but I have since discovered that what I really needed to do was prove myself to ME. I have such confidence issues I have struggled with forever and I am so happy that I am finally starting to break through these issues. And again, I have the learning center to thank for a lot of this. I don't know if I make things up in my head or not, but I feel like I surprised a lot of people with my center. When I first think about this it kind of hurts my feelings until I realize that I surprised myself with it, so really I need to stop worrying about everyone else and start telling myself I know I do fine and I know I will be a successful teacher one day and I cannot wait until I finally get to have my own classroom and students. After all these years I have finally discovered where I am most comfortable and it is so very exciting to be starting a new chapter in my life!
A List of Ideas
After reading William Cronon’s “Only Connect: The Goals of a Liberal Education” for my Teaching Adolescents class, I have decided to make my own list to organize the ideas that have come into my brain during these last few months. This list represents things I wish I could be (and hopefully one day will be!), and also derives from qualities I find myself admiring, and even envious at times, in others around me. I think everything on Cronon’s list is just as important in being a free and intelligent person, but these traits I not only desire to have myself, but also hope to employ in my future students each year.
The list is as following:
1. They can live without fear or limitations.
I have spent too much of my life being held back by my fears, from public speaking all the way to failure of any sort. In order to make progress in life, you have to really put yourself out there without worrying about negative outcomes. This is not to say you should not be conscious of the possible results or make irrational or irresponsible decisions, but you should never NOT do something just because there is a chance it will not end as perfectly as you might have hoped. People who have the ability to do this have the potential to make great changes in the world and I so hope that one day I am able to join them.
2. They are confident, but not too much.
Obviously a person needs to feel good about what he or she is doing, to feel comfortable and knowledgeable, and overall confident in their skills. The most important part in my opinion though, is to be able to question your own abilities and have the selfless intelligence to know when you need to make changes and/or further your understanding. This way, you are constantly learning new information or adapting new ideas to things you already know, but you still feel worthy and capable enough to use your knowledge to help yourself and others live a fruitful and rewarding life.
3. They take what they know and apply it.
Of course once you learn new things, you have to be able to understand them well enough to know how to apply them to your own life and to the lives around you. What is the point of having knowledge if you do not know how to use it?
4. They can see both sides to situations.
Having opinions is human nature. Seeing valid points from both sides is a little bit trickier. It is hard to see value in something you strongly oppose but I feel like having the ability to do this would make the world a much more peaceful place (cliché but true.) Besides, if you can find good in every side to an argument, it not only makes you more intelligent, but it makes you optimistic!
5. They employ both knowledge and wisdom.
It is one thing to be blessed with brains but it is quite another to have the desire to actually shape and use them. An intellectual individual contains loads of knowledge but a wise person makes the conscious decision to do something with this knowledge and actually try. Too many people in this world waste their potential. How different life could be if this were not the case.
6. They are pillars of inner strength.
It is simply fact that every person on the planet goes through rough times in his or her life. The people I find myself admiring the most are those who do not simply overcome the situation, they turn it into something good. It takes a great amount of wisdom and patience to be able to do this.
7. They draw connections from everything in their lives.
Okay, so this one was already stated in Cronon’s “Only Connect,” but I felt that it was so important it needed reiteration. Being able to see all the relationships between everything in our lives, our experiences, and the world itself is something I wish every person had the ability to do. This is what allows people to discover the purpose of their own endeavors and to me, is the most important aspect of them all in being an intelligent person. I want to be able to show the world how alike we all are and how we are able to create peace within our own worlds even if it might be impossible, or less likely, to do so on the greater scale worldwide.
These are just a few of many traits people could have to help shape a better world, but these are the ones I have found to be the most valuable in my life. Fortunately, teaching these kinds of ideals would be easier to do in English and creative writing then another subject such as math. This, however, might just be because English comes more naturally to me then math so someone proficient in that subject may feel differently. I am confident, though, that as I am exposed to more experiences, influential people, places, and new information I will continue to grow in each of these areas and continue to seek the deeper and ultimate purpose. I plan to be able to also inspire my students to experience this growth as well. So if I have twenty students a semester and work for thirty or so years, there would be about twelve hundred students I have the potential to inspire into fashioning a better world (and I said I did not like math!). I can only hope that they will be as passionate about making a difference as I am so that together we can work to create a better place for future generations.
The list is as following:
1. They can live without fear or limitations.
I have spent too much of my life being held back by my fears, from public speaking all the way to failure of any sort. In order to make progress in life, you have to really put yourself out there without worrying about negative outcomes. This is not to say you should not be conscious of the possible results or make irrational or irresponsible decisions, but you should never NOT do something just because there is a chance it will not end as perfectly as you might have hoped. People who have the ability to do this have the potential to make great changes in the world and I so hope that one day I am able to join them.
2. They are confident, but not too much.
Obviously a person needs to feel good about what he or she is doing, to feel comfortable and knowledgeable, and overall confident in their skills. The most important part in my opinion though, is to be able to question your own abilities and have the selfless intelligence to know when you need to make changes and/or further your understanding. This way, you are constantly learning new information or adapting new ideas to things you already know, but you still feel worthy and capable enough to use your knowledge to help yourself and others live a fruitful and rewarding life.
3. They take what they know and apply it.
Of course once you learn new things, you have to be able to understand them well enough to know how to apply them to your own life and to the lives around you. What is the point of having knowledge if you do not know how to use it?
4. They can see both sides to situations.
Having opinions is human nature. Seeing valid points from both sides is a little bit trickier. It is hard to see value in something you strongly oppose but I feel like having the ability to do this would make the world a much more peaceful place (cliché but true.) Besides, if you can find good in every side to an argument, it not only makes you more intelligent, but it makes you optimistic!
5. They employ both knowledge and wisdom.
It is one thing to be blessed with brains but it is quite another to have the desire to actually shape and use them. An intellectual individual contains loads of knowledge but a wise person makes the conscious decision to do something with this knowledge and actually try. Too many people in this world waste their potential. How different life could be if this were not the case.
6. They are pillars of inner strength.
It is simply fact that every person on the planet goes through rough times in his or her life. The people I find myself admiring the most are those who do not simply overcome the situation, they turn it into something good. It takes a great amount of wisdom and patience to be able to do this.
7. They draw connections from everything in their lives.
Okay, so this one was already stated in Cronon’s “Only Connect,” but I felt that it was so important it needed reiteration. Being able to see all the relationships between everything in our lives, our experiences, and the world itself is something I wish every person had the ability to do. This is what allows people to discover the purpose of their own endeavors and to me, is the most important aspect of them all in being an intelligent person. I want to be able to show the world how alike we all are and how we are able to create peace within our own worlds even if it might be impossible, or less likely, to do so on the greater scale worldwide.
These are just a few of many traits people could have to help shape a better world, but these are the ones I have found to be the most valuable in my life. Fortunately, teaching these kinds of ideals would be easier to do in English and creative writing then another subject such as math. This, however, might just be because English comes more naturally to me then math so someone proficient in that subject may feel differently. I am confident, though, that as I am exposed to more experiences, influential people, places, and new information I will continue to grow in each of these areas and continue to seek the deeper and ultimate purpose. I plan to be able to also inspire my students to experience this growth as well. So if I have twenty students a semester and work for thirty or so years, there would be about twelve hundred students I have the potential to inspire into fashioning a better world (and I said I did not like math!). I can only hope that they will be as passionate about making a difference as I am so that together we can work to create a better place for future generations.
Learning About Centers
Well last week our learning centers were due. I know I have irresponsibly been A.W.O.L. in blogtown, but this crazy learning center took over my life for a while. However, I am so pleased with the outcome. I'm not bragging, just stating that I am 100% satisfied with the work I produced.
I won't deny the fact that this was a lot of work, but I was surprised at how much I thoroughly I enjoyed doing it. It was homework, stressful, and time consuming in an already busy time, but I found myself getting more and more excited about it the more time I spent on it. I even had to cut myself off because there just wasn't enough room or time to complete all the ideas I had! This is particularly good news because it means (hopefully) that when I actually finally get to be a real teacher, I am going to be happy doing it and excited to go to work everyday, except for maybe the getting up at 6 am everyday. That part is not so enthralling.
Regardless, the point is that as time goes on I am feeling more and more comfortable with the things I do and I am finally starting to be a little bit confident in it. I am so glad we did learning centers because it really was the final push to give me this. I even felt so good about it, I sent friends here and at home the assignments I had created and the photos from when it was all complete. I got so many compliments on it, from the "cleverness" of the title to being able to make writing enticing. So really, if you haven't already picked it up yet, I couldn't be happier with the outcome!
I won't deny the fact that this was a lot of work, but I was surprised at how much I thoroughly I enjoyed doing it. It was homework, stressful, and time consuming in an already busy time, but I found myself getting more and more excited about it the more time I spent on it. I even had to cut myself off because there just wasn't enough room or time to complete all the ideas I had! This is particularly good news because it means (hopefully) that when I actually finally get to be a real teacher, I am going to be happy doing it and excited to go to work everyday, except for maybe the getting up at 6 am everyday. That part is not so enthralling.
Regardless, the point is that as time goes on I am feeling more and more comfortable with the things I do and I am finally starting to be a little bit confident in it. I am so glad we did learning centers because it really was the final push to give me this. I even felt so good about it, I sent friends here and at home the assignments I had created and the photos from when it was all complete. I got so many compliments on it, from the "cleverness" of the title to being able to make writing enticing. So really, if you haven't already picked it up yet, I couldn't be happier with the outcome!
These are little drawings that go with one of my assignments. You have to draw your face while looking in the mirror without looking at your paper! It's quite difficult. Mine is the top left, though I'd like to think my face isn't as chubby in real life.
Here is a photo of my help center, supplies, and student folders.
Finished backboard!
Complete project! :D
Sunday, November 16, 2008
More on Goats (Because They're Fun)
While at the pumpkin patch, the owner showed us probably the coolest invention since before the refrigerator. This crazy old machine is a classic product of technology developed for the need of efficiency. You take a piece of corn and stick it in the opening and then simply turn the handle and the corn spins down the ridged metal pieces around it that in turn pull off the corn kernels. So at the end you have a whole bunch of kernels in the bottom of your box ready to feed to the chickens or goats, etc. and a blank cob to use for whatever you heart desires. The owner said she usually uses them in starting fires, which seems like a pretty smart idea to me. The point though, is that technology is so awesome because it takes a problem, whether it be something damaging or something tedious, etc. and comes up with a solution for it. Can't get any better than that.
Here you can see the kernels flying off the cob.
This really tickled my hand a lot! :]
"Field" Trip
A couple weeks ago the class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch where we got to do all kinds of exciting things including picking our own pumpkin. Here is mine:
Along the way we counted cows (a difficult task), gas stations, and calculated the average time it would take to get from school to the farm. I really enjoyed looking at all the differences in the houses and buildings along the way because they were so diverse. I took these through the window of a moving car so they're not that great.
From this house (that looks like it has on an old school metal army hat)
To this little guy. We had to turn around in this driveway because Bobby drove right past the pumpkin patch! :]
To this little guy. We had to turn around in this driveway because Bobby drove right past the pumpkin patch! :]
Once we arrived there was all sorts of things for us to do. Some students completed a maze, some raced on to find the perfect pumpkin (or destroy the rotten ones WITH permission of the owner), some stayed in the shed with the warmth of the fire, and some (like me) found the most entertainment from the animals there, particularly the goats.
I was fond of this one. Okay, I was fond of both. But this one smiled for me.
In the following weeks our class circulated the entire curriculum around pumpkins. So not only did we enjoy ourselves on our trip, we also learned an important lesson in how simple it is to incorporate all subjects into one simple idea. It sounds like a task but once you start, it just spirals out and actually becomes effortless and really is a much more effective and efficient way of teaching.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Encouragement
I visited my old high school last week when I went home to do some observations and I was glad to see some improvements. When I went there the place was beyond a joke. I never had to try to succeed at all because everything was either way too easy (in general, not because I'm a genius) or because the teachers didn't care enough to even try. I graduated first in my class, which to most people would be something to be proud of, but I don't consider it a great accomplishment since I didn't have to work for it. This has been so damaging to me because it has conditioned me to think I won't ever need to work for something, which is obviously very untrue. When I came to Berea I was so overwhelmed and overall behind, I thought I would never catch up and it was hard not to think I was stupid. This has been something very hard to get over and I hope I will one day be able to use my own negative experience there to make some changes. The most disheartening thing about it was that I did have a couple good teachers while I was there, but they usually ended up leaving and teaching at the rich/smart school instead and deserting all of us when we were the ones who needed the help.
When I visited the other day, I was surprised to see more than one room covered with exciting things students had created. One door I paused and sneaked a photo and tried really hard to read as much as I could without lingering since there was a class going on in that room and next to it as well (if you look close enough you can see a girl looking at me like I'm crazy so I didn't get to stick around long enough to read the entire assignment.) However, each student apparently had gotten to make a mask and they had collaboratively written on sheets of paper "What We Learned", "What We Excelled At", "What We Need to Improve", and "Plan of Improvement" and listed ideas respectively. This reminded me so much of things we have done in 150 and I was happy to see a little bit of light in such a dim area. Hopefully things will continue to improve!
When I visited the other day, I was surprised to see more than one room covered with exciting things students had created. One door I paused and sneaked a photo and tried really hard to read as much as I could without lingering since there was a class going on in that room and next to it as well (if you look close enough you can see a girl looking at me like I'm crazy so I didn't get to stick around long enough to read the entire assignment.) However, each student apparently had gotten to make a mask and they had collaboratively written on sheets of paper "What We Learned", "What We Excelled At", "What We Need to Improve", and "Plan of Improvement" and listed ideas respectively. This reminded me so much of things we have done in 150 and I was happy to see a little bit of light in such a dim area. Hopefully things will continue to improve!
Westward Bound
So this January during Short Term, I am westward bound yet again. This time though, instead of going out to sunny California to do wedding photography, I'm going to Arizona to teach on an Indian reservation.
There is a group of about eleven of us going and I think I'm guilty of being the one who is most nervous. I wish I had more confidence in myself and my abilities so I wouldn't be quite as worried, but I can't seem to stop being my own worst critic. Despite this nervousness though, I am incredibly excited. We're not flying either, we're going old school and road trippin' it. I think that is so cool. Driving across country (or close enough anyway) is definitely one of those things you want to do before you die. Plus, we're going two different routes one the way and returning to Berea so we can see all sorts of interesting things. I am super excited about the ample photo opportunities I am certain I will have throughout the entire trip.
Hopefully though, the best part of the trip will be working with the students. I haven't yet gotten my placement and I am very anxious to see what subject area and what age group I get to work with. I am positive I will be happy with whatever I get and I can't wait to get started!
There is a group of about eleven of us going and I think I'm guilty of being the one who is most nervous. I wish I had more confidence in myself and my abilities so I wouldn't be quite as worried, but I can't seem to stop being my own worst critic. Despite this nervousness though, I am incredibly excited. We're not flying either, we're going old school and road trippin' it. I think that is so cool. Driving across country (or close enough anyway) is definitely one of those things you want to do before you die. Plus, we're going two different routes one the way and returning to Berea so we can see all sorts of interesting things. I am super excited about the ample photo opportunities I am certain I will have throughout the entire trip.
Hopefully though, the best part of the trip will be working with the students. I haven't yet gotten my placement and I am very anxious to see what subject area and what age group I get to work with. I am positive I will be happy with whatever I get and I can't wait to get started!
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