Ongoing Reflection Part II: Risk
Second Theme: Risk
What frightens you as a teacher?
What risks do you take to overcome your fears?
posted by Lydia @ 4:49 PM
English Language Arts - Methods and Madness
Monday, December 11, 2006
Second Theme: Risk
What frightens you as a teacher?
What risks do you take to overcome your fears?
English Language Arts - Methods and Madness
Links
- "The Harvest" (Amy Hempel)
- National Council of Teachers of English
- Free Lesson Plans from Read-Write-Think
Previous Posts
- Ongoing Reflection: Environment
- Short Story Suggestions for 7th Graders
- Adding Links to the Blog
- Amy Hempel.The Harvest
- Memoir Text Recommendation
- NYU Library Online Database How To
- Book Recommendation
- Teachers in Time Inc Mags
- Help me!
- We All Need A Little Pick-Me-Up :~)
1 Comments:
I notice an impulse in myself to fill up all the available time with my own talk or with elaborate worksheets for students to fill out. I’m afraid that I’ll ask obtuse questions and get no response, so I sometimes won’t wait long enough for student responses to my questions. I get nervous about letting class conversations or student questions wander into territory that’s not on my lesson plan because I don’t trust myself to be able to bring it back or to recognize the value or related-ness. I worry that students won’t “get” the material if I don’t overexplain it seven different ways. I’m afraid of what might happen if I had no plan—I had a nightmare about that.
My fears can prevent me from listening to students and from giving them space to think about things on their own. I started by having a backup plan for every class. I had material in the wings in case the students didn’t respond to my questions or freewrites or if they didn’t do the activities I set up. That helped me and now I’m a little more comfortable with empty silence. I’ve grown to sort of like it, because sometimes I think it means that there’s thinking going on in the room. After a silence a student will often say something quite interesting, and I’m learning to trust all of our spontaneous creativity. I’ve tried to move away from teaching to right & wrong as much as possible. I’ve been asking broader questions, bringing in materials and asking students tell me if and why they matter. These things help.
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