Unfinished - Genre Reflection #2

Pick up Fragile Acts by Allan Peterson. Try to read

Some poetry with beautiful imagery before the semester starts.

You found it in a coffee shop full

Of used books. Your choice was complemented by the cashier.

Join a book club. You choose first. All your coworkers recommend

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. You were completely disappointed.

Next up is White Noise by Don DeLillo. Try to read

In snatches on the shuttle on the way to class.

You think if you read it on your phone, then maybe you’ll at least

Have time. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin is what Mark suggests.

You barely even start that one before we move on again. Shalimar the Clown

By Salman Rushdie seems wonderful. You keep meaning to finish these.

Graphic novels at least don’t take much time. Some you can finish

In one sitting. A boy you like gives you Saga of the Swamp Thing.

It’s by Alan Moore, and you soak it up, like you soak up time

With this boy. Then The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman.

You end the semester with a pile of books

You’ve started, but haven’t finished. And with the hopes

Of many more books you’d like to read. How can we expect

Students to do this if we can’t do it ourselves?

The Topic on all Teachers' Mind's: 2016 Election - Online Reflection #3

I know that the current election results is something that is on a lot of our minds, but especially as educators, it's something we may have to deal with on a day to day basis, and it's a topic we can't really talk about. So, what do we do?

Well, I propose that we talk about it anyway.

As teachers, we know that we are not supposed to bring our personal opinions into the classroom when it comes to topics like who our new president is, but I fully feel like this is a conversation we can have with our students without revealing how we feel one way or another.

One of our main goals as teachers is to make and environment for out students in which anyone and everyone can feel comfortable. This means everyone. The biggest result of this election so far is that it has caused so much division in society, and everyone is more concerned with who you supported than what other wonderful traits you have as a person. People are being reduced to "Hillary supporters" or "Trump supporters", and that simply isn't how to world works.

Now, we've all known for a long time that in a culture that is a diverse as the American culture, there is no way that everyone can think in the same ways and believe in the same things, but all of a sudden, we see people who come from different perspectives, and we tell them that they are inherently wrong. This is not something we would ever want to hear ourselves. So of course our students wouldn't want to hear this as well.

As a result of this election, many students are scared. They may be scared because they see the tension that surrounds a situation like this, and it all seems too big for them. Many of us work in culturally diverse schools, so we see students who are all of the sudden worried that they are going to be discriminated against for being who they are. This is the case for all of our students. Hispanic students express fear over the safety of their families in America. Gay students wonder, when things were just starting to look better, if their lives will be increasingly more difficult. And students who are considered more conservative are treated with mistrust when they have never shown any reason to be.

We need to get our students talking. We need to keep them as informed as we can, so they aren't spreading misinformation and just propagating mistreatment on any scale.

An article I read by The New York Times talks about an Iowa school that experienced student protests and student walk outs because they were frightened, and saw this, like many other people in our country, as a way to have their voices heard.

"Like many other schools around the country since the election, West High has become a microcosm of the United States itself, a place roiled by tension, divisions and mistrust. Students in many schools say supporters of Donald J. Trump have felt empowered to lash out at minorities, while outraged backers of Hillary Clinton have been spurred to organize and demonstrate. And teachers have been struggling to provide guidance even as they themselves are processing the election results."

But it wasn't just the minorities who were feeling scared.

"Even Trump supporters say they feel under siege. Two girls walked into the principal’s office after the election and told him that as conservatives, they did not feel safe walking through the halls, were receiving dirty looks and felt they were not “on an equal basis” to other students, the principal, Gregg Shoultz, said."

Students hear snippets. They hear what their parents have to say. They see what's on TV or what's on the internet. But many may not know how to process that information, or know how to sort out the media's wheat from the chaff. As teachers we should be showing them how to keep their eyes open, and how to seek out information and answers. We should be telling them that it's ok to have opinions, but it's not ok to be a bully. We can't just sweep this one under the rug. We need to talk to them.

I don't think I have all the right answers, and I don't think dealing with something like this in the classroom will ever be easy, but I do think as teachers it's important that we face social issues and talk about them with our students instead of ignoring them.

If you're interested in reading The New York Times article, I have linked it here.

KATE Conference 2016

Last weekend was the KATE Conference (or the Kansas Association of Teachers of English) in Wichita. I've known about it for a couple of months, because I was recommended to submit a presentation proposal. If you are a classmate or a colleague of mine, you probably know I like talking about graphic novels, and how they can be used in a classroom. I was told that this would be a good topic to talk about at this conference.

I was extremely nervous about the idea of presenting at a conference - this was something I had never done before, but it was certainly over a topic I talked about a lot. After some encouragement from friends, and a lot of proof reading, I decided to submit a proposal after all. The proposal was as follows:

            "As graphic novels become more and more popular, it is natural for some of our students to be drawn to them. Whenever I am with students in a school library, a handful of them always head straight for the shelves in which they are stacked. Students may love them so much because of their colorful pages, the range of topics they cover, or the ease with which you can get through a story. No matter the reason, it’s clear to me that some students would prefer reading graphic novels to any other kind of print media.

I have been interested in graphic novels myself for many years, so for me, this is where my passions meet. My goal as a teacher is to get books into the hands of children that they are excited about while also promoting their intake of good literature. With such insightful graphic novels such as Koko Be Good by Jen Wang or American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, I believe these two goals can be met at the same time.

If we take the opportunity to teach students how to read graphic novels with a literary eye, we can show them that the comics they love to read also contain a deeper well of knowledge and insight. Teaching graphic novels in classrooms would mean exposing students to texts that deal with cultural and societal issues while also having conversations about artist and author choices within these texts. These lessons would also involve a history of comic books and graphic novels, as well as a tutorial on how to read such forms of media. With such a range of genres and topics, we can use graphic novels to start many different kinds of conversations within a classroom as well as open the door for analysis of literature that may have before seemed overwhelming or uninteresting. If a student isn’t thrilled about reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville, using the graphic novel based on the same story as supplementary material may be the ticket to getting that student engaged."

A couple of weeks later I found out that my proposal was accepted. I was very excited. And very nervous.

It was wonderful getting to attend the conference. Everytime I am surrounded by teachers, it is always so rewarding. I meet people who are really passionate about their content, and really excited about the opportunities to help students. The conference started out with a presentation by author Bill Konigsberg. He is the author of The Porcupine of Truth, Openly Straight, and Out of the Pocket, and he just came out with Honestly Ben, the follow up to Openly Straight. His speech was entirely moving - there was a couple of times I found myself close to tears. He talked about growing up as a gay kid, who didn't feel like he fit in to the stereotype of being gay, and also didn't feel like he could be honest about his sexuality. He grew up liking sports, and according to the stereotypes, gay males didn't like sports. It was years later, when he was a writer for ESPN, that he came out as being gay - and he came out in a very public way. He wrote an article titled "Sports worls still a struggle for gays" in which he talks about how hard it is for athletes to be honest about their sexuality if it does not fit in with that would be considered the "norm". He also talks about how someones sexuality says nothing about how well they can play sports. He says he can relate to this struggle, because until then, he had also said nothing about his sexuality.

"I'm an honest man, I do not lie about it, yet ironically by not saying anything I sometimes feel dishonest. Basically, my choice is either to correct people, or simply say nothing. I've done the  latter. Until now."

The coolest thing about conferences like this one is that you learn so much more than about being and English Language Arts teacher. You also learn a lot of really valuable life lessons. I would say that getting to listen to Bill was my favorite part of the conference. He opened my eyes to the struggles our students could being going through silently. Everyone is trying to figure out how to be their authentic self, while not feeling like they are alone in this journey. He told us about how books can saves lives, and sometimes by getting the right books into the right students hand, we can show them that they are not the only ones like them. 

As for my presentation, it went extremely well. It was a small and comfortable setting. I got to blabber on about something I really love, and I saw the twinkle in a couple of other teachers eyes when I mentioned literature strategies that work with graphic novels. I hope to continue bringing my passion into being a teacher, and to always step outside my comfort zone. Because that's where the growth happens. 

Teacher Identity - Genre Reflection #1

The purpose of this genre reflection assignment was to reflect back on what our teaching experience has been like so far this semester in a way that especially resonated with us. This meant that we could write about it in whatever creative way we saw fit. As someone who is always trying to merge writing and visual creativity, I knew I wanted to do a type of illustration. Previously, it has been a goal of mine to create several self portraits that had the sole purpose of reflection, so this seemed like a good opportunity to create one. I will not go into much more explanation of the final product, though, as I feel like the best experience with art and literature is for the viewer to be able to take away their own interpretation. I will say that I'm excited about the direction this is going in, and I do not feel like this project is over. I would like to continue to refine this idea in the future.

Viewing It vs. Doing It - Online Reflection #2

This week I've been given the reigns in the classroom and told that I can teach whatever I would like. This is a lot of freedom to give someone who basically doesn't know what they're doing yet. (Ok, that's not true- but when faced with a project like this, it can seem that way.) I knew that I wanted to do something that tied in to what they were already learning, so that cut down my options. I didn't want to swoop in and teach something that I chose at random, then to just have the teacher resume the previously built on lessons and curriculum when my turn was up ("We now return to your regularly scheduled programming").

Brainstorming started after my last blog post. I'm working in a classroom where they read a lot of articles and take a lot of notes. Was there anything I saw missing? Were there other ways they could look at taking notes? So, this is what I decided to focus on: "Good Reading and Writing Habits". The aim of this lesson is that they can even use these skills in other classrooms, or even in their life.

In my last blog post I talked about walking around, while the teacher guided the class in their lesson, and encouraging students to implement good focus strategies. This has come in the form of me asking open ended questions that apply to what they were working on, or showing them good ways to jot down their ideas (or encourage them to write down anything at all). The easy thing to do from my perspective in the classroom is ask myself "What's working? What isn't? What would I do the same or change completely?". And I spend a lot of time inside and outside of the classroom answering these types of questions to myself. I think that I have the answers...

And then I get in front of the class and try to do it for myself.

There is definitely a difference between knowing what you should do, and doing what you should know. I can stand in the wings all day and think "Oh, I've studied this, I know how this should work", but getting on the stage and seeing all of the things you have to account for is a completely different story.

I've only been in front of the class for two days, but already, I've noticed several things:
1. It's easy to see the students who are engaging in the lesson, and speaking out, and even easier to overlook the ones who are not participating at all.
2. Just because a class is quiet does not mean they are paying attention or absorbing what you have to say.
3. Even if you feel like the lesson went well, that may not be the case from another perspective. Never stop trying to grow and improve. Never stop asking questions.
4. It's hard to think of everything when you are up there. It's easy to forget a point you meant to make, or to skip around the material on accident.
5. Student engagement doesn't always come in the form of them talking. Engaging in a lesson can also mean that they are writing when prompted, so you need to prompt them more to write (as some students don't feel comfortable speaking out).

But a similarly important realization:
6. It's ok to have fun. When the students can tell you enjoy what you are doing, they seem to start enjoying it as well.

The majority of the feedback I've gotten from my instructor so far is her asking me how I'm going to get a higher percentage of the classroom involved while I teach. The answer to this wasn't immediate apparent to me, so I set out to find someone who could give me some hints. Stacy Hurst has some really good tips here, in her post titled "Seven Ways to Increase Student Engagement in the Classroom". Some easy suggestions she has is to include movement throughout the lesson, or to give them 2 minutes to write down ideas for every 10 minutes of your teaching. She even gives you ways to recognize what a completely engaged classroom looks like.

The rest of this week I will be working on implementing some, if not all, of these strategies and see how they work out for me.

Today's Apathy - Online Reflection #1

"Many students don’t see education as a privilege. They see it as a product. And if they don’t like the salesperson, if they aren’t impressed with how it’s packaged, they aren’t buying. But our kids have to learn to be self-motivated because at some point in every person’s life, either at school or in a job or in a marriage, he or she will have to buck up and say, 'This is hard. This is boring. I don’t want to do this. But I’m doing it anyway. And I’ll do my best.'" -Laura Hanby, "How to fix the apathy problem in schools", The News & Observer, June 5, 2016


We've made it through two weeks already, the students and I. Now we're all getting to enjoy a much deserved (or at least we think so) 3 day weekend. The biggest thing I have struggled with this school year so far is being present, and I think a few students have been having the same problem. The class I work with is first thing in the morning, and we're all tired. I'm able to become engaged very quickly, though, having years of customer service under my belt, therefore the training to put on a brave and cheerful face even when I'm exhausted. My worry is, though, if we allow these student to be taciturn, and write it off as just them being tired, will it change throughout the year... or are we just communicating the wrong expectations? We all want to work in a classroom in which the students are engaged and excited about their learning. So, it's our jobs to make lessons that are exciting, diverse, effective, innovative, informative.... the list of adjectives goes on and on. But should this weight really just be on our shoulders? I of course do not have the answers to this yet, but now is a good time to start asking that question.


As education majors, we are taught many ways to shape and change our lessons so that they are accessible to each students' learning style. This is valuable information, as it is of course true that we all learn differently, and what we are taught as education majors has to do with communicating that learning to each kind of student. But just because we know how to teach, does not mean that our students know how to learn. So it does seem like some of the weight of the classroom experience is on the students' shoulders. This just means that we cannot do all of the work for them. That if something isn't getting through to a student, they may need to come up with a new approach, a new way of looking at the problem, or to seek out new resources... just like we have to as teachers. But it seems like less and less does society hold students to these standards. When a student is having trouble, it can be an easy out to just blame a teacher and say they are ineffective.


But to get back to the main point: sometimes it's hard to get students engaged, especially when it's first thing in the morning, on top of being the beginning of the year, when not every one knows each other yet (or you for that matter). As I start to design lessons and make my own efforts to get students fired up, I should use this time to advocate some good learning habits to the students. Right now I'm a bit of a bystander in the classroom, which, as I see it, is the perfect position in which to be that voice in the students' ear that guides them to be more and more independently motivated. I can give encouragements from those sidelines as the teacher is in front of the class doling out that useful learning.


A great article by Laura Hanby called "How to fix the apathy problem in schools" is what initially got me excited about this idea. She talks about how to start small when it comes to encouraging students to become more motivated in their classes. It's ok to start by only giving 100% in one class and by doing this through good note taking methods, organization, or by finding study buddies. These are all things we can easily guide students into doing. Then through these efforts, students may start having success in classes that they otherwise found boring or too hard. "Success breeds success, and success is an excellent motivator."


I highly recommend checking out her article here, it's a very good read.


As the year continues to go by, I'm going to make more of an effort to try self-motivation techniques with students, and promote these ideas as a regular topic of conversation. Then, hopefully, by the end of the year no one will have to be putting on any brave faces. I will report back here both successes and failures!


"Not only does success motivate, but it can also inspire, and here is where we move from sheer determination to passion – the true goal of education." -Laura Hanby, "How to fix the apathy problem in schools", The News & Observer, June 5, 2016

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article81668307.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article81668307.html#storylink=cpy

We All Struggle

"It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers." -Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

This is kind of my teaching "mantra", as it's something I really feel is important to think about within a classroom. As a teacher, I need to remember to not always give my students the easy way out. That sometimes struggling is ok. Sometimes struggling is important. And that sometimes, without struggle, there really is no learning. Our instinct, when we see students who are having trouble, is to give them the answer. The trick is to encourage them to not give up when they don't know something. I hope, more than anything, this year will help me learn how to keep students from giving up, and to show them ways they can be accountable for their own learning.

It's only day three of the semester, and day three of my pre-student teaching, but I already have a good idea of some things I need to work on and remember throughout my career:

• If you are going to ask them to do it, you should also do it. If I am going to ask my students to keep an organized binder and to write in their planners everyday, I should also have to do the same thing. If I forget something, I should also take their word for it that they forgot. We are all in this together.
• Good sleeping and eating habits will lead to good mental health. It's only day three, and I'm exhausted. But I've been chugging coffee, and getting only about 6 hours of sleep at night. Being my best within the classroom means trying to make healthy choices outside of it.
• Stay organized. I get a fresh start every year, and get to begin with a blank slate. Being organized, and planning out the days to the best of my ability means less time spent in front of students trying to figure stuff out, and more time for valuable learning.
• Be honest with the students and with your colleagues. We are not perfect. We are not teacher robots. Sometimes I will struggle, or need some time. Sometimes I will forget something, or not know an answer. Let them know. I do not need to pretend that I am perfect. The more honest I am with students, hopefully the more honest they will be with me.
• Seek out assistance and advice. It is okay to ask for help. A lot of the teachers around me will know how to handle something I am at a loss with. Maybe a fellow student teacher with have a different perspective on a problem I am having within my classroom. I am surrounded by great resources, and I just need to reach out and use them.

Hopefully this are all things that I can remember throughout the year and throughout my career. I'm positive this is a list I will keep adding to.