Music: Keane, "Hopes and Fears"

Okay, so I jumped the gun a bit with that last entry...I have more to write (I may be having too much fun). I think that I will write one more blog today, a sort of "greatest hits" from what I'm learning from reading my students blogs today. Here I am, blogging about their blogs. That, in itself, is interesting.

Surprises and connections. A student wrote about a connection she recently had between our Lit/Phil class and another class--human behavior, I think--and this surprised the $%#@! out of me! I was fascinated. Here is her post:

So I finished my paper on how the United States will become more sane. I wrote it on the Banking Concept of Education. While writing the paper, I began to realize how many things actually connect. I was shocked to see that ridding this concept actually would help the population to fulfill their human needs. From there, I started to think about how my classes are connecting. Many of the themes talked about in my core lit class correspond to the themes talked about in my human behavior class. This is probably because both are centered around the theme of who am I? What do I know? and given what I know, what can I know? I like to be able to use alternate examples to further produce arguments in the class.

In a previous blog entry, the student explained the assignment a bit more, and it was in this blog, I think that she began to come up with the idea for how she would draw on the Freire article to complete her "Sane society" paper.


2.

Another interesting moment. We've been talking in class about Freire's "banking concept of education"--here, I was able to connect it to one of the students' posts. Here's her words, first, followed by mine:

What is also different from highschool is the context of the reading. For the last ten years, when asked to read for homework, it was generally out of a textbook. Reading for college is completely different. You are given novels that hold some sort of underlying meaning which relates to the class. From this novel, you are challenged to make the connection as to what that is. I am actually enjoying this way of learning much better. Textbooks were never appealing, and at least with the novels, they hold stories and plots.

Here is the "comment" wrote to her post:

Also, you are right. Textbooks are a problem. One could write an entire essay on "the textbook as banking method"...I mean, think about it--it's like the way the chairs are set up in our room: they direct all attention at the professor and take the emphasis off you all, or us. The important person, the room set-up suggests, is the professor. Textbooks do the same thing, sort of (I'm just making this up as I go here, riffing). Textbooks organize students' entire learning experiences for them and tell them "everything they should know." They are written by those who, in theory, have all the "knowledge" already and its the job of the textbook to transmit that knowledge to the students. The textbook is the "vehicle" by which banking is accomplished, right? Wow, I never thought of this before.

I love this idea of the textbook as the vehicle of banking or the means of banking. I really never had thought of this. I mean, I have often thought about the problems with textbooks--the stuff in them appears acontextually. If you want to read a Paolo Freire essay, better to pull it out of the book in which it actually appeared, instead of coming into contact with it in a textbook. Textbooks kind of sterilize learning. At the same time, there are good things about textbooks, too. If you're teaching a class for the first time, they give you ways of thinking about how to organize the material. They offer "assignments" and "activities" for students to do...but this is sort of evil, in a way, because, realistically, isn't that the job of a good teacher? But, I have learned SO much from reading the textbooks that I use while teaching. So, I don't want to go all nuts on textbooks, calling them evil. At the same time, I know that when I had to read them, I often found myself falling asleep. I don't anymore. But, I'm older and more patient and more practiced in reading difficult texts. There is something horrible, though, about facing the textbook--it's pages all look the same, the columns are all the same width, the book itself is heavy and awkward. These days, textbook publishers work to try to make them more accessible, adding marginal features and using different fonts, typefaces, organizational designs and layouts, etc. But a textbook is still a textbook--a how-to or a collection. I think I prefer primary sources and documents. I still love the metaphor, though, "textbook as banker."

3.

The blog as opportunity for identifying projects/assignments.
Student wrote:

My biggest weakness as a teacher is my terrible spelling skills. This is one of my biggest fears, that I will be in the front of the class and be unable to spell a word, or a student will notice a misspelled and point it out embarrassing me. There isn't spell check on a chalk board! This past week in my literature class we have been focusing on Phonics. I can read very well, but breaking down the sounds and spelling words is difficult for me. I am convinced that somewhere in my own education I missed this important skill.

To which I responded:

wow...interesting confession. I would like to propose a project (and you could do this for Ass. 3 in this class and I could help, if you like). In my field, the teaching of writing, people have studied this exact question: how do people learn how to spell (my own opinion is that it's a hard thing to learn, some people never get it, the more you read, the better you'll get at it). There is an entire body of literature on how to teach spelling. I'd love to have you look into this, if it appeals to you, for Ass. 3. We could talk more if you like, let me know. If this doesn't interest you, no worries.

Music: Amos Lee, "Supply and Demand"

I have a bunch of stuff I want to write about today. I'm reading over student blogs. I really am enjoying this assignment. There are a lot of students, and so, a lot to read and I can't read everything. But I really look forward to the time, at the end of the week, when I can sit down and read what is going on in students' lives and hear their stories about school. And I love doing it via blogs. I love that I can read what they are writing and I can comment (I can type TWICE as fast as I can write with a pen!). I love the interactiveness of this assignment. In some ways, what I've done is taken the old "keep a journal" assignment and updated it for a new time. But, I'm wondering if there is anything else going on here, other than just switching an age-old practice (journaling) from analog to digital. I should think about this a bit more.

I learned something really interesting from one of the students this afternoon. The student is a tutor and she was writing about her experience working as a peer tutor. This is the passage that really made me stop and think:

Professors can be intimidating, but tutoring and learning from your peers is so much less intimidating. Sometimes, its easier when hearing the lesson from another perspective, and peers are in many ways much more approachable. Peer to Peer, Tutor to Tutee. Which is which? Am i the tutor or the tutee?...

Over the years, I have often thought how important it is for people who teach things to continue trying to learn new things. I teach writing and I teach tennis. Right now, there is not much new that I am trying to learn, other than how to be a good dad. A few years back, though, I tried to take up piano. I took lessons for about two years. I even performed at two recitals where I was the only adult present with a whole slew of kids! I'll never forget sitting at the piano in this recital hall in Boston and realizing I had NO IDEA how to begin the piece I was supposed to perform. That moment was INCREDIBLY powerful...I haven't thought of it in some time. I sat there for a good minute or so just COMPLETELY unable to recall how the piece was supposed to begin. So, I went on and played the second piece first and prayed to god that the first piece would come to me while I was doing the second piece.

Sorry for that diversion...anyway, I was saying...how important it is for people who teach stuff to keep learning new stuff and to keep putting themselves in the position of being the novice, the learner, the student.

What the student made me think about, in her posting, above, is the importance of the other side to this coin. It may be just as important for students to have moments where they get to be teachers as it is for teachers to have moments where they get to be students. Why? Well, if you are helping someone else, you learn A) a heck about the subject you are teaching (some people say you don't really know a subject or a skill until you have to teach it to someone else) B) a heck of a lot about how learning works (or doesn't work)...when you are responsible for helping someone, you have to get creative about doing it. You learn how difficult teaching is and you gain an appreciation for the good teachers that you might not have otherwise had. YOu gain an appreciation as someone who also teaches. C) When you teach someone else, it's hard not to end up having that mirrored back to you and causing you to think about who you are as a learner and how you learn. You learn about yourself. D) When you have played the role of teaching, I think you may take learning, in general, more seriously. But I'm not sure about this one.

So, there may really be something to this. Perhaps all education should contain both of these kinds of moments for those engaged:

teachers to become students
students to become teachers

Thanks R. for teaching me that.

Putting my money where my mouth is...

This entry launches my new teaching blog. Today, my students and I had a wonderful discussion about what we want our class to be and how we want to proceed with our semester's work. First, I asked students to freewrite and to think about the kinds of things they would like to change or set into motion in regard to our class. All of this has been spurred by a reading from Paola Freire, from his book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed."

I was fascinated to see what the students would come up, so, first they wrote, and then I asked them to get into groups to chat about their ideas. I wanted the groups to elect a spokesperson who would summarize the conversation, this way, students who had gripes or criticisms wouldn't feel as though they couldn't speak their mind (or so I hoped--let's be real, there is no way to completely neutralize the power relationship between the students and I, nor should one try to).

After the groups had some time to talk, I asked the spokespeople to share some of the ideas or criticisms. I was pleased to find that a number of the students had good things to say about the class (or perhaps they just felt as though they couldn't be truthful, that the situation was too contrived). One of the ideas that came up, and this was, by far, my favorite moment in the class today, was when a quieter student, serving as his group's spokesperson, suggested that, if students were going to be required to keep a blog on their college experiences as students, I, too, should consider keeping a blog on mine as a teacher. So, here is that blog.

What I appreciated or enjoyed about the class today was the feeling that we were in the process of creating something new, different, and interesting. Well, we have the potential to create something new, different, and interesting, who knows what we will actually create. Judging my some of the comments, it seemed as though some students weren't really looking for that much change--more discussions, they said. More student-to-student discussions, too. They wanted me to continue my role as a facilitator, perhaps not wanting to have all responsibility for class discussions placed on their shoulders. This, especially, I found interesting. One student said something along the lines of wanting me to continue guiding discussions so that "things wouldn't get to awkward." Next to the suggestion/request that I keep a blog, I found this to be among the most interesting moments of the class. What did she mean by this, exactly? "Too awkward"?

It's funny, in discussion-based classes, there's always this tension--how much should the professor lead, how much should the class take the lead. And during those moments when the professor tries to hand off the responsibility for keeping the conversation going, it can sometimes get really quiet. I think that's what this student meant by "awkward." Whenever this happens, inevitably, the most outgoing and gregarious students (and there are always a few) will pipe up and help everyone out by trying to kick start the conversation. But, generally, I think that quiet in the classroom is often perceived as a bad thing, as uncomfortable, as awkward. And this can be true for students and professors.

It took me a long time to get used to and comfortable with quiet. When I first started teaching, I felt as though I had to fill the entire class session with talk. I sometimes tell the story, and I'm embarrassed to tell it here, but when I first taught a college course, previous to the first day of the semester, I mapped out the first 5-7 weeks of class periods in 5 and 10 minute increments. I was THAT concerned that we were going to run out of things to talk about! I look back on that now and laugh. But at the time, there was this real fear of...what if no one says anything? What if we run out of things to say to each other? What if the activities I planned fall apart? As things turned out, the students had plenty to say and classes flew by. By the end of the first week, I had thrown my five weeks of scripts in the trash.

Today, it's often the same thing--time goes by. I don't have to find ways to fill it. I have to find ways to get to the things I want to get to. Today's class was a good example--we spent 5 minutes writing, 10 minutes in small groups, discussing, and and hour and five minutes talking about our plans going forward. We never even got to the two activities I had planned for the class--a discussion of the Preface and first chapter of My Freshmen Year, by Rebekkah Nathan and a writing activity where students brainstorm on people to interview for their second writing assigment.

As for the silence, I have come to see that it can serve a good purpose. Sometimes, you want students to feel that awkwardness--if no one is saying something, or, if what you're talking about is, itself, confusing or complex or just not at all black-and-white. Perhaps more importantly, people need quiet time to think. New teachers will pose questions, allow a few seconds for someone to respond, and if no one does, they'll answer the question themselves. In this situation, it's often not that students don't have anything to say, it's that they weren't given enough time to think about the question and think how to formulate a response. Silence can be useful, but it takes a while to find out how.

In the meantime, I'm happy to continue to faciliate discussions and feel as though this is my responsibility. I've been trained to do it, have practiced it for some time, and have come to feel that I am good at it. And I enjoy it. So, why not?


Well, I think that's about it for now. Thanks to the group who suggested this. I'm having fun already.