My blog: Down and dirty

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Down and dirty

Well, not exactly. Kevin said we shouldn't worry about our table-top exhibits. He said they would be "down and dirty", implying that they would be no fuss, no muss examples of what could be done in our classrooms if we had the time. That wasn't exactly the reality of the situation, now was it? In hindsight, I'm awfully glad he so grossly misjudged what we would do with this challenge. In the moment (and by moment I mean those nights I was up until 2 a.m. researching Chinese business culture and cutting flaps into faux menus with my Exacto knife) I wished I could reign in that part of me that has to have everything just so. I wished I could be "down and dirty". But I can't. Neither could anyone else, it seems. Clearly, after today's presentations, we should all be proud of the work we've done. We found our own ways to teach using object based education. Our exhibits were engaging and inspiring. Kudos, classmates!

Lest I hurt myself patting myself on the back like this, let me get to the real point of this blog. I had an epiphany today as a result of our class. I think, as a teacher, I have too often forgotten how long some assignments and projects can take. As a student, I have just been forced to remember. Everyone has been telling me that becoming a mom is going to make me a more compassionate and gentle teacher. I say, if that happens, it's because of my recent experiences as a student. I'm starting to feel like I need to do my own assignments so that I actually know what must go into completing them. I seriously doubt Kevin ever thought that Monica's assignment would require teams of people to work for hours and hours outside of the classtime allotted. Yet it did. How often do I misjudge how long and how hard my students will have to work to successfully complete one of my assignments? I wonder.

And so I harken back to one of the best teaching practices I've ever engaged in - one I need to revisit in the future. I once gave an assignment to write on article on language akin to William Safire's column of the same name. My AP Language and Composition class asked, "Will you write one too?" I paused. They were giving ME homework! Why? Not to stick it to me. Not because they thought the assignment unfair or odious. Not because misery loves company. They were intellectually curious young writers who wanted to share the experience with me. Just as I wanted to know what they thought, they wanted to know what I had to say. And so I wrote. And I shared. And I understood, really understood, what I had asked of them. I understood not just because I knew how to do what I had asked of them. I would never ask students to do something I couldn't do myself. I understood not just because I had once done assignments not unlike this for English teachers. I understood because I actually did the work myself.

1 comment:

Shach Attack said...: Yeah, I thought the same thing, I really didn't realize how much time these projects take. I mean I knew, I just didn't understand. Good epiphany.; July 27, 2008 at 3:04 PM

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Teaching Metaphor

Metaphor: A year of teaching is the metaphorical equivalent of the period of human gestation
Pregnancy: Ten long months stretch out before you. You’re expecting. The test came back positive and now you’re experiencing a mixture of excitement and trepidation. You recognize the enormous potential within you now. But realizing that potential will not be easy. No, it will require ten months of work, of study, of mental and physical preparation for the day when you finally bring your baby into this world. Your goal is simple: produce a healthy child capable of surviving outside the womb. Achieving that goal, however, is anything but simple. This will be a period of preparation, self-sacrifice, growth and change, evaluation, and massive responsibility. You believe that you are up for the challenge. You hope that you are right; the cost of being wrong is unbearable.

Reflection and Interpretation: It’s not surprising, I imagine, to see me likening teaching to pregnancy. After all, these are the two things that have consumed my life this year. As an English teacher for the past eleven years I have come to well know that an effective metaphor must point to a similarity between the tenor and the vehicle. In this case, the tenor is teaching, specifically, being a teacher leader. The vehicle is pregnancy. In order to create the metaphor I have to ascribe qualities of pregnancy to teacher leadership. The similarities between the two are manifold.
First, teaching a class for a year was like pregnancy in that both lasted for approximately ten months. In that time, I made many sacrifices. The sacrifices I made during pregnancy included giving up certain foods, like raw fish and unpasteurized cheeses, and activities, like riding roller coasters and sleeping on my stomach, and expenditures, like paying to go to the movies or getting a manicure. The idea of sacrifice is inherent in teaching as well. I know that I have always dedicated innumerable hours each school year to the teaching of my students. This comes at a cost too. During the school year I have never had the free time to spend as I would like – reading books for fun, spending time with friends, traveling. In fact, it’s become a running joke with my friends that “Summer Stacie” and Mrs. Collins are two different people. My friends know to call me when Summer Stacie can answer. Mrs. Collins is busy working from September through June. Just as an expecting mother cares more for her baby’s health and well-being than the baby does or is capable of, a teacher often puts in far more time than her students caring about their futures. Successful teachers are ones that dedicate time to their craft, especially those who expect to become teacher leaders.
The forty weeks of pregnancy were a time for me to get to know my child, even before she made her way into the world. The same can be said for the ten months of a school year. Before Erin was born a couple of weeks ago I already knew that she would be a night person. I had grown accustomed to her periods of activity and inactivity. Heck, I even knew that she would be prone to bouts of hiccups. The school year affords teachers the same opportunities. The ten months is time for teachers to develop a rapport with her classes, to get to know her students in ways that others cannot. As an English teacher this happens for me in two ways: through class discussion and interactions and through student writings. Students reveal themselves in the ways they conduct themselves in the classroom, thereby setting much of the tone of the class. Also, as individuals they reveal themselves through what they write, especially when they write in their journals. I believe that a teacher leader must be someone who helps students to find their own voices. To do that, one must be willing to “listen” for that voice, just as a pregnant woman must be in tune with her own body and the subtle movements of the unborn child within. Interestingly, in both cases, the pregnant woman and the new teacher can both “cheat” to find out about the child or student. The pregnant woman has an arsenal of tests she can use to ascertain information about the growing child. From ultrasound to amniocentesis to chorionic villus sampling, an expectant parent can know everything from the baby’s gender to whether or not the baby will carry the gene for cystic fibrosis. The teacher can also gain information about her new students. From reading their IEPs to discussing them with the previous year’s teachers, a teacher in September is faced with the same choice as the expectant mom: have others give me information or wait to find out for myself. There are, of course, relative merits to each. A teacher leader should be able to distinguish between the times when prior knowledge will be helpful in dealing with a new group of students and when it will merely bias her.
Finally, the key to success in both teaching and pregnancy is preparation. Pregnancy would have been a frightening maze of physical and emotional changes, with childbirth as its terrifyingly painful conclusion if I had not educated myself along the way. The same is true for teaching. It too can be confusing, exhausting and fraught with innumerable changes. Being a teacher leader means educating yourself about teaching, about learning, about ways to help your students become their personal bests. Just as the goal of any educated expectant mother is bringing a healthy child into the world, the metaphorical equivalent of health here could be skills. The goal of an educated teacher leader is to help a student gain the skills they need to make their way into the world beyond that grade. Both ten-month periods are about growth and change, the mark of success being the ability to carry on without you.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Down and dirty

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