Week 4: January 20th - January 27th
"Educational Inspiration"
I am a graduate student again! It feels so good to take a few hours out of my day to be a student. Though I am still a full time teacher and don't have the beautiful luxury of being able to dedicate every second of my attention to my graduate school work, it is still so wonderful knowing that I am back in an intellectually stimulating community.
I poured over this week's assigned reading with gusto! Printing off the pages upon pages of scholarly material and attacked it with my highlighters and pens. I relished in the art of annotation and carefully composed my reflective commentary to share with my peers. It felt so good to type out my thoughts and "publish" them to a forum of readers that I knew would read them. Though my words were merely my own thoughts and musings, it made me feel good to think that my peers were reading them and possibly gaining insight from my reflections and ideas. I know it is egotistical but I like to think that my writing is impactful. I hope that my words are able to reach and influence others. I see it happening more and more with my students, yet I am beginning to fear that my students almost trust me too much at times and are beginning to value my thoughts and ideas over their own. I certainly did this in high school and in university. I wrote down every single word my teachers' said and looked to them for insight and clarity. What I am learning now in my Master's program is that truth, especially literary interpretation, must come from within and we must steer clear of consulting "experts" on matters of interpretation. Only individuals can extract meaning from texts or works of art. Though we can look to experts to reveal more information and facts about a text or work of art, discovering meaning is a purely personal act. While our experiences, relationships and knowledge may influence our judgements, we must accept that all ideas and opinions are valid.
Getting back into the reading of academic texts was a struggle at first. I found myself worrying about whether or not I was reading deeply enough into the articles and I had to read and re-read passages over again several times before I felt like "I got it". Yet I enjoyed the challenge and reminded myself, as I always remind my students, that reading is a struggle. If it was easy, it would be pointless. The fact that I had to stop to look up words and re-read passages and write down questions in the margins made the act of reading more meaningful and therefore, more valuable.
It felt so great to post my reflections on this week's reading materials and watch our online classroom start to blossom with replies and additional commentary responses. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this intellectual community. I am so inspired by each and every single one of my peers. We all have unique personal and educational backgrounds and we are all teaching in very different types of schools, but what unites us is our humility and our fierce desires to be better and to question the educational system in the United States. We notice, wonder and connect our ideas to our readings and our experiences and to one another. It is a beautiful collaborative process and one I feel privileged to be a part of. I get to work and think alongside some of the most interesting and innovative minds in America!
My one complaint is that we are all learning and collaborating virtually....which is not terrible, but I crave the personal stimulus of face-to-face interactions and dialogue. I can "see" my peers in their distinctive writing voices on our online learning platform (Moodle), yet it is no replacement for seeing them in person. We had such a wonderful time together this summer and I miss that carefree, warm and driven environment we had created for ourselves in the hallowed Teacher's College halls.
Oh how I wish I could be in graduate school full time forever....
"Professional Irritation"
This weekend, January 22-24, I joined approximately sixty of my colleagues for a professional development conference in Manama, Bahrain. As the days of the week bore on, my colleagues and I squirmed with excitement at the prospect of doing work over glasses of wine in a more liberal Arab nation! Truth be told, we were really all more interested in the social aspect of this weekend's conference over that of the actual professional development. Yet I think we all thought that the conference would be able to provide us with some "take aways" to help us all strengthen our teaching practices and work together as a team. I have always loved professional development conferences. Even though I find most of what is being talked about to be redundant I can usually find at least some good in everything.
That was not the case this weekend.
The keynote speaker of the conference was boring and the subject of her talks concerned information that I already knew about. This surprised me considering that I am only a fifth year teacher and by no means consider myself an educational expert. Yet as I dispassionately stared at her powerpoint presentation I couldn't help but think, I could be giving this speech. I do not say this often, as I pride myself on being a nerd with the belief that everyone has something to teach, but I was utterly bored out of my mind.
My saving grace was the fact that I was attending this conference with my amazing, bright, inspiring, intelligent and interesting colleagues. We call ourselves "The Dream Team" and I do not exaggerate when I say that working alongside these people I can easily call friends as well as co-workers, is indeed a dream. We all ignored the speaker and made the most of our weekend by working together on our own lessons and units. We were actually quite productive when left to our own devices. Something that never ceases to frustrate me about teaching conferences and workshops is the amount of micromanaging that goes on. I am a teacher, I know how to focus and get to work, I don't need to be shuffled from room to room and reminded of the task or to be given "five minute warnings" -- I'm a grown woman, I have a watch, I'll get there. The people who run teacher trainings treat us like children. I resent the fact that I must be told what to do and when to do it. I am a good teacher and I genuinely love my job. You don't need to tell someone to do something when they love to do it. I know I am unique in this regard. There are many teachers who do not find inspiration in what they do (and unfortunately these are probably the ones going off and getting their PhD's and torturing me with their speeches and expensive conferences).
I do not mean to insult those hard working educators who do get their PhDs and publish studies and findings and books about "best practices" and "strategies for teaching success" but I am somewhat disdainful of the fact that I am spoken at like I am not a good educator. What really boils my blood is to think that these types of professional development "master" speakers probably (most definitely) get paid THOUSANDS of dollars to spew off their theories.
I typed the following remarks to my graduate school online forum during the conference while in the throes of irritation:
" Its mind-blowing to me. I am in a conference center with hundreds of other teachers in great international schools in the Middle East, all of whom I am sure have great ideas and innovative ways of approaching learning, and yet we must all now sit silently and listen to a PhD (no offense Adam) published educational curriculum theorist talk AT us about what we should be doing in our classrooms.
I admit I was a little "heated" and I was writing from a place of frustration, but my general sentiments still feel true to me.
I work in one of the greatest schools in the world alongside the greatest teachers in the world. I have learned more about teaching after working here during the past two years than I feel I could have ever learned in a non-teaching graduate school classroom. To become a better teacher you must teach. You must stand up in front of other students and through trial and error you will find your rhythm and very quickly discover what works and what doesn't.
While my experiences at this teaching conference this weekend frustrated me, I have learned from them.
I have learned that those who can't do, teach and those who can't teach, teach teachers.
But I, alongside my inspiring cohort of Master's candidates at Teacher's College at Columbia, am going to change all that!
"Educational Inspiration"
I am a graduate student again! It feels so good to take a few hours out of my day to be a student. Though I am still a full time teacher and don't have the beautiful luxury of being able to dedicate every second of my attention to my graduate school work, it is still so wonderful knowing that I am back in an intellectually stimulating community.
I poured over this week's assigned reading with gusto! Printing off the pages upon pages of scholarly material and attacked it with my highlighters and pens. I relished in the art of annotation and carefully composed my reflective commentary to share with my peers. It felt so good to type out my thoughts and "publish" them to a forum of readers that I knew would read them. Though my words were merely my own thoughts and musings, it made me feel good to think that my peers were reading them and possibly gaining insight from my reflections and ideas. I know it is egotistical but I like to think that my writing is impactful. I hope that my words are able to reach and influence others. I see it happening more and more with my students, yet I am beginning to fear that my students almost trust me too much at times and are beginning to value my thoughts and ideas over their own. I certainly did this in high school and in university. I wrote down every single word my teachers' said and looked to them for insight and clarity. What I am learning now in my Master's program is that truth, especially literary interpretation, must come from within and we must steer clear of consulting "experts" on matters of interpretation. Only individuals can extract meaning from texts or works of art. Though we can look to experts to reveal more information and facts about a text or work of art, discovering meaning is a purely personal act. While our experiences, relationships and knowledge may influence our judgements, we must accept that all ideas and opinions are valid.
Getting back into the reading of academic texts was a struggle at first. I found myself worrying about whether or not I was reading deeply enough into the articles and I had to read and re-read passages over again several times before I felt like "I got it". Yet I enjoyed the challenge and reminded myself, as I always remind my students, that reading is a struggle. If it was easy, it would be pointless. The fact that I had to stop to look up words and re-read passages and write down questions in the margins made the act of reading more meaningful and therefore, more valuable.
It felt so great to post my reflections on this week's reading materials and watch our online classroom start to blossom with replies and additional commentary responses. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this intellectual community. I am so inspired by each and every single one of my peers. We all have unique personal and educational backgrounds and we are all teaching in very different types of schools, but what unites us is our humility and our fierce desires to be better and to question the educational system in the United States. We notice, wonder and connect our ideas to our readings and our experiences and to one another. It is a beautiful collaborative process and one I feel privileged to be a part of. I get to work and think alongside some of the most interesting and innovative minds in America!
My one complaint is that we are all learning and collaborating virtually....which is not terrible, but I crave the personal stimulus of face-to-face interactions and dialogue. I can "see" my peers in their distinctive writing voices on our online learning platform (Moodle), yet it is no replacement for seeing them in person. We had such a wonderful time together this summer and I miss that carefree, warm and driven environment we had created for ourselves in the hallowed Teacher's College halls.
Oh how I wish I could be in graduate school full time forever....
"Professional Irritation"
This weekend, January 22-24, I joined approximately sixty of my colleagues for a professional development conference in Manama, Bahrain. As the days of the week bore on, my colleagues and I squirmed with excitement at the prospect of doing work over glasses of wine in a more liberal Arab nation! Truth be told, we were really all more interested in the social aspect of this weekend's conference over that of the actual professional development. Yet I think we all thought that the conference would be able to provide us with some "take aways" to help us all strengthen our teaching practices and work together as a team. I have always loved professional development conferences. Even though I find most of what is being talked about to be redundant I can usually find at least some good in everything.
That was not the case this weekend.
The keynote speaker of the conference was boring and the subject of her talks concerned information that I already knew about. This surprised me considering that I am only a fifth year teacher and by no means consider myself an educational expert. Yet as I dispassionately stared at her powerpoint presentation I couldn't help but think, I could be giving this speech. I do not say this often, as I pride myself on being a nerd with the belief that everyone has something to teach, but I was utterly bored out of my mind.
My saving grace was the fact that I was attending this conference with my amazing, bright, inspiring, intelligent and interesting colleagues. We call ourselves "The Dream Team" and I do not exaggerate when I say that working alongside these people I can easily call friends as well as co-workers, is indeed a dream. We all ignored the speaker and made the most of our weekend by working together on our own lessons and units. We were actually quite productive when left to our own devices. Something that never ceases to frustrate me about teaching conferences and workshops is the amount of micromanaging that goes on. I am a teacher, I know how to focus and get to work, I don't need to be shuffled from room to room and reminded of the task or to be given "five minute warnings" -- I'm a grown woman, I have a watch, I'll get there. The people who run teacher trainings treat us like children. I resent the fact that I must be told what to do and when to do it. I am a good teacher and I genuinely love my job. You don't need to tell someone to do something when they love to do it. I know I am unique in this regard. There are many teachers who do not find inspiration in what they do (and unfortunately these are probably the ones going off and getting their PhD's and torturing me with their speeches and expensive conferences).
I do not mean to insult those hard working educators who do get their PhDs and publish studies and findings and books about "best practices" and "strategies for teaching success" but I am somewhat disdainful of the fact that I am spoken at like I am not a good educator. What really boils my blood is to think that these types of professional development "master" speakers probably (most definitely) get paid THOUSANDS of dollars to spew off their theories.
I typed the following remarks to my graduate school online forum during the conference while in the throes of irritation:
" Its mind-blowing to me. I am in a conference center with hundreds of other teachers in great international schools in the Middle East, all of whom I am sure have great ideas and innovative ways of approaching learning, and yet we must all now sit silently and listen to a PhD (no offense Adam) published educational curriculum theorist talk AT us about what we should be doing in our classrooms.
I apologize for my disdainful and snarky remarks. We are all tired and exhausted (from nights of poisoning our livers to days of poisoning our spirits). I just find it incredibly frustrating when people who have not stepped foot in a classroom in DECADES tell me how to teach. A teacher friend of mine from Australia said that in her school district there principals can only be principals for five years at a time and then they must go back to a classroom for a year or two and then can go back to being an administrator. I love that! Don't get me wrong, I am a nerd and I love reading articles and would get several PhDs for fun, if I could, but the people that should be making the most money and should be the ones standing up and telling their stories and theories are teachers. Hard working, red-ink stained finger-tipped, bags under the eyes, young, old, white, black, experienced, inexperienced classroom teachers.
I admit I was a little "heated" and I was writing from a place of frustration, but my general sentiments still feel true to me.
I work in one of the greatest schools in the world alongside the greatest teachers in the world. I have learned more about teaching after working here during the past two years than I feel I could have ever learned in a non-teaching graduate school classroom. To become a better teacher you must teach. You must stand up in front of other students and through trial and error you will find your rhythm and very quickly discover what works and what doesn't.
While my experiences at this teaching conference this weekend frustrated me, I have learned from them.
I have learned that those who can't do, teach and those who can't teach, teach teachers.
But I, alongside my inspiring cohort of Master's candidates at Teacher's College at Columbia, am going to change all that!
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