Faced with starting to teach my unit plan in ONE week, I am starting to contemplate how I might have to adapt my lesson plans. I purposely made sure that I really jam-packed all my days, because when I interviewed the principal at the school he really emphasized that he wanted the students to be learning from bell to bell every single day of the week. Knowing that, and also realizing that our professors, supervisors and students would want there to be interesting stuff to do during the class period, I really tried to integrate student-centered activities into every lesson plan. However, I realize, as Dr. Kist pointed out in my evaluation, that activities and projects can be time consuming, or even overwhelming for students.
I think I am going to see how the first couple days go, as far as, students' pace, and then hopefully I will have a better understanding of if or how I could alter or adapt my lessons plans to fit my students needs. Even if it might mean cutting out some of my well thought plans.
This sort of reiterates one my major thought processes when it comes to education. I believe one of the best things a teacher can bring to a classroom is flexibility. It allows you to adapt to different learners, navigate classroom environments and hopefully, pull off unit plans.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Hungry Minds
The article Hungry Minds: Tales from a Chelsea Soup Kitchen by Ian Frazier, is fascinating in its description of a writing workshop within a soup kitchen in New York. The stories within the article are amazing, moving and disturbing. I really liked how bizarre some of these people's stories were...who ever heard of a traveling homeless men soccer team? It shows that there are all kinds of people even when they are put together in a common group, such as homeless. They are still individuals; they still have their own stories and voices.
I will admit that when I think of writing workshops, my mind goes directly to the classroom atmosphere. Whether it be college or high school, I picture the teacher and students sitting in a circle discussing the use of concrete language. While I know that workshops are more in depth, and they often contain more feeling than that, I think that this article opened my eyes even more to the possibilities of workshops. It even made me think of what a great service project idea. Students could become more involved in the community by participating, or perhaps in some instances, leading writing workshops with other community members. I am not necessarily suggesting homeless shelters or soup kitchens, because as was described in the article, several of the workshop members had criminal backgrounds, very often involving drugs and alcohol. While it might perhaps be an eye-opener for students as to the negative affects of some of those habits, it also poses a safety risk, and I think one of the most important roles of a teaching is protecting the well-being of your students. Perhaps the students could participate in writing workshops in other venues, such as elementary schools or nursing homes. This would allow them to interact with people in different age groups, and maybe to allow them to better understand different aspects of writing and creativity.
However, this article also proves that a workshop outside the classroom is not a necessity. As I said, it seems to reiterate how unique every individual was. How every person had their own voice; their own writing style. The same would be true for a classroom, as I am sure our own class will see as we do our writing workshop.
I will admit that when I think of writing workshops, my mind goes directly to the classroom atmosphere. Whether it be college or high school, I picture the teacher and students sitting in a circle discussing the use of concrete language. While I know that workshops are more in depth, and they often contain more feeling than that, I think that this article opened my eyes even more to the possibilities of workshops. It even made me think of what a great service project idea. Students could become more involved in the community by participating, or perhaps in some instances, leading writing workshops with other community members. I am not necessarily suggesting homeless shelters or soup kitchens, because as was described in the article, several of the workshop members had criminal backgrounds, very often involving drugs and alcohol. While it might perhaps be an eye-opener for students as to the negative affects of some of those habits, it also poses a safety risk, and I think one of the most important roles of a teaching is protecting the well-being of your students. Perhaps the students could participate in writing workshops in other venues, such as elementary schools or nursing homes. This would allow them to interact with people in different age groups, and maybe to allow them to better understand different aspects of writing and creativity.
However, this article also proves that a workshop outside the classroom is not a necessity. As I said, it seems to reiterate how unique every individual was. How every person had their own voice; their own writing style. The same would be true for a classroom, as I am sure our own class will see as we do our writing workshop.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Ending Pending
I am not going to lie, when I opened the Modern Library Writer's Workshop by Stephen Koch, I jumped right to the end. Not because I thought the rest of the book held no value, but simply because I wanted to see what Koch had to say about endings. I love to write, from the time that I knew how to I was keeping journals, making up (really horrible) song lyrics and jotting down any little thing that crossed my mind that I considered somewhat profound. As I got older my writing progressed, I started writing short one or two page stories, which eventually led me to writing 10 to 12 page "glimpses" (as I like to call them) of what I would hope would someday be a future novel. There was and still is only one significant problem: I have a terrible time writing endings. Sometimes its because I have no idea what I am trying to accomplish when I start writing. Sometimes because I have such a clear cut idea of what I want that I find it really hard to transition from the beginning of the story to what I want the end to entail. I guess it could be said in Koch's terms that I am "lazy." I get frustrated and then I want to move on to something more fresh, more exciting, so the unfinished story gets shoved in another notebook on my bookshelf or another folder on my laptop with the note of 'Ending Pending' in hopes that one day I will miraculously figure out how to accomplish what has become the impossible.
While I just sort of chalked this ending disorder to be my own problem, Koch's views on endings, more specifically, his views on writer's who have difficult times with endings, hit a little close to home. Case and point: "If there is no ending, there is no story." This sentence stirred up some of the anxiety I have about teaching creative writing in the classroom. When it comes to endings I don't want to be one of those 'do as I say, not as I do' educators. I realize that at some point this is going to happen in the classroom. Teachers are not going to be great at everything, nor are they going to know everything. I mean we are humans, but my worry with this, as I am sure, with everyone else who teaches, is that my short comings may negatively influence my students experience with creative writing, or even worse, their learned ability/skills with creative writing. I don't want to be the reason that someone did not understand this, or never really liked that. Is that inevitable when you become a teacher?
While I just sort of chalked this ending disorder to be my own problem, Koch's views on endings, more specifically, his views on writer's who have difficult times with endings, hit a little close to home. Case and point: "If there is no ending, there is no story." This sentence stirred up some of the anxiety I have about teaching creative writing in the classroom. When it comes to endings I don't want to be one of those 'do as I say, not as I do' educators. I realize that at some point this is going to happen in the classroom. Teachers are not going to be great at everything, nor are they going to know everything. I mean we are humans, but my worry with this, as I am sure, with everyone else who teaches, is that my short comings may negatively influence my students experience with creative writing, or even worse, their learned ability/skills with creative writing. I don't want to be the reason that someone did not understand this, or never really liked that. Is that inevitable when you become a teacher?
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