NH literacy journeys

Reflections continue… I look forward to your thoughts.

Reflections continue… I look forward to your thoughts.

Reflections continue… I look forward to your thoughts.

Reflections continued… I look forward to your posts.

Hey… just curious. Have any of you tried the video? I’m going to, but I keep forgetting.

So the book takes off in a curious way, I think. The “Anatomy of Fear” in the second chapter began with this quote: “If we want to develop and deepen the capacity for connectedness at the heart of good teaching, we must understand–and resist–the perverse, but powerful draw of the “disconnected” life. … On the surface, the answer seems obvious: we are distanced by a grading system that separates teachers from students, by departments that fragment fields of knowledge, by competition that makes students and teachers alike wary of their peers, and by a bureaucracy that puts faculty and administration at odds.” Do you feel this disconnection here? I admit that I do at times, but I also have some very deep connections with colleagues that mitigate it. Since two of the members of this group are new to the staff this year, it seems like their answers may be different. What was your reaction?

And then I encountered this… “… the ferocity with which some faculty insist that today’s students are vastly inferior to those of their own generation makes one wonder whether social change alone can account for such a dramatic decline. Perhaps the DNA itself has degenerated within the past quarter century!” (41) He’s being funny, but I certainly here that ‘kids today’ mantra from many… they won’t/they can’t/they don’t know… and I just don’t buy it. I know they are different, but inferior? What do you think?

Lastly… I loved the idea of writing the paradox that Palmer introduced on page 69, but since your reading was through 62, I’ll save it for later. I look forward to your thoughts and observations on the reading.

I thought the introduction to this section was ideal for this first Monday after Feb. break: “We all experience stretches during the school year when time oozes by and the grind of each day takes its toll.” (69)

“Wild Geese” (75) is a real treasure… the whole of it is my approach to teaching seniors. But another favorite was the passage from Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard. It is a well-worn book in my library at home. What a treasure her language is. I love how she talks about the “caring for each other and for our life together here,” because however long we all work under this roof here on Eagles Way, we are able to sustain and encourage each other by paying attention. Life moves fast, but slowing down to listen definitely has its gifts.

I look forward to reading your thoughts about this section.

I hope you have found these personal teacher stories as engaging as I have. I have included a few quotes I found interesting in this post, but I encourage you to comment on anything you were thinking as you read.

“Learning unleashes incredible force, and not only am I energized by that, but I want to know why it happens and how we can consistently create the conditions to make it happen again and again…Teaching requires that I experiment with a multitude of variables and build a program that produces results.” (39-40) When have you felt that incredible force? Do you work in a program or classroom that produces results?

“My second year of teaching made me question what I was doing… Because I was going through the motions but failing to nourish the relationships I had built with my students throughout the year, my classroom began to feel lifeless.” (47) The writer found her personal life overtake her professional one. What do you think we can do for our colleagues when we see this happening?

“All these teachers created a space where students who were afraid feel safe, become confident, and find out how much more there is to know.” (53) Do you have that space in your room? What do you need to achieve it?

I look forward to reading your reflections on the reading.

I’m sure you were relieved to finish reading about wounding and move onto healing… although comments on this section of the book can refer to what you read in chapters 1-2 as well. Two quotes I found provocative:

“As a culture, because we don’t yet have a discourse that allows us to frame school wounds personally–in terms of being denied pleasure in our own learning–we also lack a coherent larger critique of our systems of schooling that keeps us from questioning why educational environments operate as they do.” (86) Are there things that keep us from questioning our school environment here on Eagles Way? Do you have your own school wounds that get in the way of your work?

“We need to stop (labeling children). We are clearly hurting children. What we are doing to our children is tantamount to giving them drugs. Labeling them has the same effect. It dulls the mind and senses. They experience depression, confusion. It weakens their resolve. Their classroom instruction generally lacks stimulus. The flame is extinguished. Once extinguished, it is damn near impossible to ignite.” (109) Is this real to you? Do you see some students who have been hurt by labeling? Which labels here at Kennett do you find damaging? Can we change this?

Please also feel free to comment on anything you found interesting in the reading. I look forward to reading what you write.

Teaching is difficult, but it can’t be merely difficult or we’d never have the strength to continue. Free write your thinking about the things that make teaching wonderful, inspiring, hopeful, and rich for you.

I hope you found your day at UNH valuable. I’m hoping we can discuss the field trip experience on the blog, since we’ll likely run out of time to fully hear from everyone during class. In particular, I’m hoping you’ll reflect on how well we are preparing our students to succeed in college. What insights did you get from having lunch with our alumni or watching the class and wondering about what students were asked to do?

I look forward to reading your responses…