What Rashid was saying about critical literacy spoke to me today. After my demo he spoke about using this as a tool to get critical discussion going in the classroom. Not just this but how we can create an environment of discourse and openess in the classroom. Although it is not guaranteed this occur, it leads to the possibility that children will open up enough to let new ideas in and let out troubling ones. It could extend beyond what we can do for society but what, as a community of learners, we can do for each other. I struggled this year with my student's getting along, in SECOND grade! I feel like I'm a reading, writing, math, social studies, and science teacher but I'm also a character education teacher. I teach them how to become people in society, how to interact. One skill I need to work on is creating the community like a family where we can be honest without fear. I find this demo was more than I expected. Not just a unit but something deeper into thinking about how we interact with others and creating that interaction in classroom.
I can't wait to try out the museum box. Rashid's demo was helpful for me to have time to think and learn. It is not often enough I give students the opportunity to explore a topic. To read and interact. I feel restricted by time and constraints but need to make the time for these experiences. I loved reading the background or "tipping point" of when these revolutions happened in Africa and the Middle East. It reminded me I need to stay informed no matter how busy my life may seem. That it is important as a teacher and a citizen to look at the world through these eyes: where did it all begin? Because if we ask that question, we can make the connection to our students. Where do they begin as writers? Where do they begin as thinkers? Where do they begin as change makers in our society? In the younger grades, I want it to start with me or with an idea I give possibility to. It doesn't have to be: I really started thinking about social injustices in Mrs. Cole's second grade class. They don't have to remember ME as the source. But how cool would it be to remember the first time I got excited about discourse and how that has shape my life? hmmm...something to think about.
Great idea of the day:
Writing is composition. Writing is creating, not the genres we label. The writing studio where brushstrokes make life of our experiences.
Ashley, I love all these questions you're asking. It's as if you crawled up in my head and pulled them out, and I teach high school! My students this past year sound like yours--already "finished" learning when I knew they had so much more to do. But with all these wonderful ideas floating out this summer, surely some of them will stick and we can just ooze excitement about school/learning!
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Ashley, I am really drawn to how you are talking about beginnings... makes me think about history. Like our writng histories, our teaching histories, our family histories, the history of our neighborhoods, school, etc... the history of the English language. The history behind homelessness... it gets at the background stuff that can so easily be erased, ya know? There is a context and history that shapes everything... if we can dig into those, start to piece it all together, we can maybe understand the root issues and work toward questioning and changing them... you've got me thinking here!!
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