Channeling the Writer
I can’t believe that this course has come to a close already. It almost sounds so cliche for me to say that I have learned so much in this short amount of time. But I have-- it’s true. This course has forced me to be serious about my writing. And by serious I mean being disciplined. For years I’ve talked about wanting to start a blog. But for whatever reason I never did. I always had excuses and truthfully I didn’t know where to start. This course gave me the push that I needed to get started. In the process, I found out that creating a blog wasn’t as hard as I thought. It was actually relatively easy. I don’t know what I was afraid of all of these years. Through my blog I found my voice. Something I hope my students will be able to do when we do our own Letter To the Next President. I found out what issues and topics made my fingers hit the keys a little faster and which ones caused me to stall, take breaks, and walk away from the keyboard in utter frustration.
As a writer there is no doubt that I am a procrastinator, for whatever reason I like to wait until my back is against the wall and the pressure is on. During this course I discovered that this may not be the best way to work when you have a hard deadline and several things to write about. So I was forced to be more committed to my writing. I had to discover which time of day best suited me. When I was most productive? There still isn’t a set time for that thanks to my children. A great time is whenever they are napping and/or being watched outside of the house. But there was never enough time. I was always stealing time between mommy and wife duties. But there were some powerful moments when I would sit at the kitchen table with my girls working on a paper while they were doing their summer work created by me of course. And I would realize that this was an important habit I’m instilling in them. It was 90 degrees outside one day and yet they didn’t want to go to the pool until their work was completed and corrected by me. Additionally,I had to read my work to them as well so they could check mine.
Writing my TIW was the most difficult part of this course.. Even though I’ve been a teacher for six years going on seven years now, I have never had to think about the theories that I believe in as a teacher. Well, that is not entirely true. I do think about them but that’s about it. I don’t get to incorporate them into my actual lesson planning because sometimes my theories may not align with what I am required to in my district. Reflecting on that part of the TIW really made look at things I do as an educator and the theories that I believe should govern my teaching. When it comes to my education theory I go between being a progressivist and a cognitivism developmentalist. If my students are able to learn and recognize real problems and understand the connections between the academic disciplines to see the bigger picture of the education then I have done my job-- well I might add. Making progressivist learners is my ultimate goal as an educator but, I have to also be mindful of the obstacles that stand in the way of my students’ learning. I understand full well that because of their financial constraints, restrictions and limited cultural capital that it may be difficult for them to achieve this.
Every time we had a conversation that was about teaching or teaching strategies I couldn’t stop taking notes or bookmarking things on my laptop. It was so wonderful to be around teachers from different districts that weren’t jaded about the students they taught. Even though Colin and I worked with a population of hard to reach children we hadn’t given up hope that we could still reach our students. And it was interesting to learn that Imogen worked with a population of farm children that didn’t have much value for education either. And I was simple fascinated by MaryKate’s students and the remarkable things she was doing in her classroom. I learned about websites that I can use to have students start their essays. MaryKate used a book for her TIW called Reading Fiction by Kylene Beers. I was so impressed with the strategies in that book that I ordered it from Amazon plus another one that I could use in my social justice class titled Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts & Strategies. I can’t wait to read this and pull out things that I can start using in my class right away. Each and every new thing I learned made me think about how I could better improve my teaching. I continually asked myself, “How can I incorporate this into my classroom?”
My prior experience was a great foundation for this course. It really grounded me and allowed me to see the relevance in every piece we read. No piece resonated with me more than the New York Times piece about Balanced Literacy because I had personal experience through my school with the author and teaching in this type of classroom. But at every turn I saw opportunities to expand my thinking about my profession and ways to improve my practice. The biggest part that I am going to take away from this experience is the reflective component. Often times as a teacher I do some reflecting standing in the middle of my classroom at the end of the day quickly thinking about ways I can do things differently so that tomorrow can be a smoother day. And sometimes my principal may ask me a reflective question after an evaluation but I always give answers that will allow me to keep my job. But the this idea of reflection has been thread throughout this entire course. It has been the most cathartic and meaningful reflection I’ve done in my professional life. At each turn I’ve been allowed to take a step back and think about the events of the day looking for the meaning and purpose in each moment. And writing out my thoughts as opposed to just keeping them locked up in my headspace has given me a different perspective. I am able to take away things that I want to keep and correct things that need correction. The assignments given throughout this course at first seemed all over the place. I was trying to find the connection. But, now at the end, after I have done everything I see it and the reflective lens is so important. Through our reflective lens I’ve done the most critical thinking about my writing without even realizing I was doing so.
Peter Elbow claims that our creative and critical thinking parts of our brains are opposite and they involve mental states that conflict with each other. He goes on to say that most people need to move back and forth between those two mental states. The creative leads to the critical and I think that has been true for me. The array of assignments completed for this course ranged from creative to the critical and it is true that the critical part was harder for me When I was inspired to be creative I went with with. But through my revisions and reflections which were totally separate from my creative process I was able to be think critically about my writing by reflecting on what I’d said. Usually at the close of a semester I am glad when the class is over. However, that is not the case this time. Luckily there is always my blog so that I can keep my writing spirit alive by doing so will help me become a much better teacher of writing.
Sources
Elbow, Peter. Teaching Thinking by Teaching Writing. Philadelphia: Heldref Publications, 1983. Print
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