Some Scattered Thoughts

Despite the frustration that I sometimes feel towards how this semester is going, I also feel fortunate to be able to be with the students for a full year rather than being thrown into the classroom half way through the year. It's easy to get pulled down by the expectations that our MU classes and our placements place on us but I have been loving my time in the classroom. Sure, some days I'm bored (after the third, fourth, and fifth viewing of the Of Mice and Men movie) and sometimes I'm tired (okay, most of the time), but overall I love seeing the kids get excited during a discussion, and I love when they surprise me with the thoughtfulness of their questions. They have just as much to teach us as we have to teach them. I truly believe the classroom should be a collaboration of learning, and I love when I get to see this mentality come to fruition.

As mentioned in class, too often we are expected to "trick" the students into learning, and, while that may be necessary in some cases and in some grades, most students appreciate honesty. In my high school I never gained a firm understanding of why we were doing the assignments that we were doing. Why not be up front with students and tell them the value of each assignment?

How has everyone been doing with developing a teaching persona? How is your persona in the classroom different from who you are outside of the classroom? I have only taught a few times and I never felt like I was being that different from who I am outside the classroom. Any advice about how to develop a teaching persona? I know it is different for everyone but i'm curious how others act in the classroom.

The conversation about emotional objectivity and reframing in scott's class hit home for me. The other week I taught a mini-lesson on run-on sentences and the 7th period class left me feeling discouraged. A few of the students were disrespectful and were often disruptive and it left me feeling drained. But, I need to not take it personally (I have since moved past it). However, it is difficult to keep a positive attitude when the actions are taking place. I know it takes practice to keep a positive mentality and I hope to maintain an encouraging demeanor despite the actions of students.

I want to create a classroom library for my students. I hope that if I have books in front of them as much as possible they may become more proactive in their individualized reading. Does anyone have a library in their classroom? My mentor and I were thinking of compiling the books that we own and bringing them in for the students to check out at their leisure. I was also thinking about giving them the option to write a short summary of the books they choose to read to help other students know what the books are about. If I had a better knowledge of young adult books and authors I would also like to implement book talks into my classroom. How are students supposed to know what books are out there if no one takes the time to show them? Of course that puts extra work on me since I am not well- informed in what YA books are worth my time. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I also was having a discussion with a friend of mine who just graduated with a degree in video game design. We were discussing the potential for the implementation of video games into the English classroom and how exciting it would be to see how that could be arranged. Obviously, it would take A TON of work and would require hours and hours of planning and strategy but I think it's worth the thought in our current technological age. Imagine an RPG (don't worry, in video gaming jargon that stands for Role Playing Game) that allows students to navigate a literary character through levels that reveal themes, plot, setting, etc. What if their completion of a video game revealed their competency in a subject? I know it may sound ludicrous but I firmly believe it could be accomplished with the right amount of time, thought, and design. I have played games that have taught me about historical contexts and have forced me to think creatively in order to accomplish certain tasks. I have also played games that required me to explore and decipher visual and textual clues in order to act appropriately within a certain context. With tweaking, these skills could be applied to Englishy subjects. If you have no idea what I'm talking about then it is probably hard to imagine video games having any place in the classroom, but I've played enough games to know that it can be done. Anyone agree? Disagree?

Thanks for reading my ramblings.