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100 Day Project – Day 19 – Excuses and Reasons

September 26th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Children, Musings, photo of the week, Teaching & Learning, Work

Day 100 Project – Day 19 – 7:53 p.m.

The excuses, oh sorry, reasons, have begun.  Why my reading response is late, and when I’ll get it in to you — okay?  I’ve learned at community college that many excuses are reasons; and incredibly legitimate reasons.  Just today a young woman called to tell me she was in the hospital due to domestic violence – that’s one I never doubt and that I’ll be as supportive as I can to get her back on track.

But some days, there’s just so many “my printer is broken,” “I lost my flash drive.,” “I have to work late.,” excuses I can take.  I’ve learned to be completely respectful, even as I doubt a little, because I really don’t know.  I give each one of them the benefit of the doubt, because in just two to three more weeks, the ones who aren’t going to be responsible with their work will give up telling me excuses, and likely fail the course.  And, the others, whose reasons were accurate will catch up and come often to get my reassurance.

And sometimes, I just wonder if I give out too much homeowrk:  but that doubt doesn’t last long.  If you want to work with children: in my book, that equals a deep reading, and writing, and working to construct important knowledge about those children.  That doesn’t come easily.  Today I’m thinking about excuses — or maybe it’s reasons.

Teaching cartoon

 

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100 Day Project – Day 18 – Carla

September 25th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Musings, Quote of the Week, Teaching & Learning, Work

100 Day Project – Day 18 – 1:45 p.m. (when I started)

“Here’s the lesson: If you have something to say on the page, don’t hesitate. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t make excuses. Seize every moment you find to write. Honor your voice and your stories. Starting now. Because this moment is all we have–take it from me. Write. Now.”

Great thought from a blog I just found while actually poking about looking for a picture to use as a writing prompt.  I missed writing on Friday (although funny thing was  I woke up from a dream that morning having blogged in my sleep and spending most of the day thinking I’d done my blog for the day – with no time to log on and check!).   I’ve had a busy weekend, and am still in the middle of being on call for some moving that’s going on while hubby empties a long overdue for it clean out a storage unit day.

This quote and the news I heard this morning about a dear friend’s passing coincide in a way that my dear friend would truly believe was no coincidence.  She was a loving soul, open to all kinds of living, and life.  We spent many many hours together as young mothers: she with one child (before she remarried and had two more children), and me with two.  We spent many hours talking as women, and many hours enjoying life with our children at beaches, and ponds and hiking and amusement parks.  I shall miss her so dearly.

What does this have to do with teaching?  Everything.  I am how I teach.  I cannot separate the me from the teacher I bring to the classroom.  Oh, I can do the professional behavior thing of not crying in class this week; but that’s not the same as my dear friend’s passing (at a young age of around 60) doesn’t remind me to enjoy the moment of my teaching.  Watch for the student’s smile; watch for the enlightenment bulb go on, and remember that one or more of them may be sitting there with heaviness in their hearts as they try to learn what I am trying to teach trying to still the heaviness in my heart.  Today I think of Carla and her living in the moment.

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100 Day Project – Day 17 – Power

September 22nd, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Musings, Quote of the Week, Teaching & Learning, Work

100 Day Project – Day 17 – 9:47 p.m.
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A student that I had last semester came up to me (she’s currently taking two courses with me), and asked to speak to me.  Of course, I said.  She then replied,  “I want to tell you how proud I am of my writing!”  Her face was beaming.  Mine was as well when I answered that she should be proud.

She has a ways to go, but her writing is becoming visibly improved.  At the beginning of last semester, with her first written assignment, I wrote on her paper to come and see me after class.  I gently shared with her that I felt her writing was weak and needed a good deal of work to begin to be college level work.  I recommended she see the Peer Tutoring Program.   She agreed, and was eager to improve.  She had a weekly standing appointment with a peer tutor and her work improved.

This semester, the improvement is palpable.  She is carrying a heavier load and doesn’t have as much time to use a Peer Tutor, yet her pleasure in the written word, and her belief that what she has to say is important is strong.  Each piece of work she submits is better than the last, and I see such potential for even more improvement.  So exciting for her and for me!  Incredibly rewarding!  I see, as well, changes in her interpersonal interactions in the classroom; choosing excellent students to partner with, obviously creating friendships, and exploring her own development.  It’s a great way to end a work week.

In our department we talk often of the power of, and our continual support of, the personal transformation that is so important in the first two years of college.  And, for some of our students, maybe the only two years of college for many years as it is their goal and intent to work with young children in early care and education settings right away (and a 4 year degree might happen years later).  It’s so exciting to watch this personal transformation.  Today I’m thinking about the power; the power of learning, and the power of self.

 

 

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100 Day Project – Day 16 – Social Contract

September 22nd, 2011 · Musings

100 Day Project – Day 16 – 6:23 a.m.

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory… Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea — God Bless! Keep a Big Hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.” — Elizabeth Warren

With the political campaigns heating up for this November and next year, this quote that a friend posted on Facebook seemed to speak to me today. (If you’re keeping count, Day 16 was yesterday – but my internet was down last night when I finally got home.)

Paying it forward to the next child, the next generation: something, I believe that many Americans have forgotten.  We speak often of our devotion to the young; but that’s all we do – speak.  We don’t put our funds there anymore.

One of the myths of child development is that “all children need is love.”  Yep – true, to some extent.  Children need adults who care for them in all that that means, beautiful places to go to school, current tools and equipment to learn by, excellent teachers (the kind I work so hard and such long hours to support and train), and communities that fight for these things.  Nope – “just” love is not everything in this case.  But, so many folks don’t see the connection between their taxes, and the adulthood of the current children; children who will one day be our firefighters, our nursing home caregivers, and our politicians.  It’s sad and infuriating.  Today I’m thinking about stupid politicians, the rich, taxes and the loss of the social contract.

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100 Day Project – Day 15 – Balance or Roller Coaster

September 20th, 2011 · 100 Days Project, Musings, Teaching & Learning, Work

100 Day Project – Day 15 – 9:17 p.m.

Today was a teaching high!  Last fall in a 100 level course for pre-service early care and education students, I introduced the concept of deciding what you will read when.  Well, it’s not really choosing what you will read of any material – but what you will read of the material I’ve chosen.

The readings consist of two short textbook type books, and two anthologies of teacher articles focused on the content of the course.  Depending upon how you split it up, it comes to about 15 to 30 pages of reading twice a week for two class meetings — about average in my experience.  I am repeating the experiment this semester, and it’s working so well.  I ask students by the third class to submit a reading plan.  It has to be exact: pages numbers, etc.  But I am not asking them to read the material in any order.  It is completely their choice.  Each article and chapter must have a written response.  In this case, a fairly standard reading response piece: the type you can find recommended at several college websites; and even find “how-tos” for if you are the student.  Each student must then be prepared to participate in a “Reading Talk” time during the first part of the class meeting time.

So far, I’ve allowed them to sit with whoever they are sitting with when they arrive, other classes I’ll divide them up in various ways using random cards, straws, etc.  Today they flew!  They made connections with the material, with each other and between materials.  It generally turns out that in groups of three, most of the time at this point, they have each read something different and have a lot to talk about.   Today, after general response reaction sharing, I asked them as groups of five (five groups) to summarize two vital points from all the material the group had read to this point.  The resulting list of points was excellent!  There’s no way I feel I would have succeeded so well with just picking topics and lecturing at them.  It was my kind of teaching day in that class!

And, then in between my four classes was an administrative curriculum change activity that completely frustrates me; that I find little patience for (and little understanding of need for) the minutia and the repetitive checking in.  Incessant waste of time.  So frustrating.  I may look unorganized at times at my desk, but I’m really efficient – this task is the opposite of efficiency.   So today the only word I can think of is Balance.  Or is it Roller Coaster?

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