Constructing Kasun, Educator

My cooperating teacher (I guess the technical term is student teacher–but how dare I call her that if she’s already beginning to work with students who recognize her as teacher) arrived from a local university on Monday.  Somehow I was certain she was going to begin three weeks from now.  Sure enough, as a transplant from the world of banking, she had been precise and effective at communicating her start date; I had been the one who had the hit the snooze button one too many times, apparently.  This is the third day I’ve been working with her, and so far, so good.

I’ve found, however, that explaining my rationales for why I do things is a bit like unpacking a closet or a storage unit.  There’s just so much stuff!  In many ways, it’s like spring cleaning where you want to go through every single item at once.  I want to tell her everything.  Like why I don’t give many tests or quizzes and how I decided to become a teacher.  Why I stand in the doorway to greet each student as class starts.  I want to give her my full analysis of each student. But, time is linear, and I can only go piece by piece.
Exhibit A:  Dirty laundry. It’s enlightening to hear her observations about my classes.  Today I slammed through two activities in efforts to get some meaty stuff written by my students.  I want them to post it to the wiki soon (probably tomorrow) and also get some good writing samples for a book I can try to get them published in (the deadline is looming).  One of the writing assignments included writing a review (students could choose–a movie, videogame, book, etc.).  I gave them one example and no other models.  The kids really needed at least one more.  But, no, I was in a rush!  She pointed out that a couple students were stuck on what the purpose of a review even was! Gosh!  What to do?  Just suck it up, realize she is already observing my dirty laundry and admit to her that her observation is accurate and rethink the way I’m making compromises with my curriculum!

Exhibit B:  Cherished possessions.  My cooperating teacher and I have been discussing the writing I’ve been having students do.  I have begun to slowly uncover my philosophy of writing instruction to her.  Or not so slowly.  She knows that I believe students must have a real purpose for what they do in class.  There are few esoteric exercises in my room.  Instead, if we’re writing, we’re sending letters to Senators and Representatives.  We’re posting to the wiki.  We’re trying to get books or parts of books published.  If we’re reading, we’re reading the way those of us who love to read do… because we chose the book ourselves or had it recommended to us by someone who cares.  My beliefs about education continue to bind me to the practice, and I can’t think of anything more important that I can share with her.

Exhibit C:  Cobwebs.  Sometimes I have to think really hard to uncover the reasons for why I’m doing something.  There are bits of theory I have to reach deeply at that I might not have recently considered.   A student today was truly lost and couldn’t seem to put together the concept of a review even after getting it explained to her three different ways.  I fumbled through my knowledge of the student’s background (she recently came from an inner-city school in New York–her sister has an IEP–she seems to have processing issues).  I began to put together that this student might have learning differences.  Maybe it’s time to start implementing some differentiated instruction with her?  The cobwebs are still heavy on this case, but I can begin to clear them away by going for differentiation.

We have six and a half more weeks to finish this tour through my own personal storage unit of educational philosophy and practice.  It’s a lot of work, but it feels so good to be going through it all, bit by bit.  I’m uncovering/discovering things I wouldn’t have otherwise without her presence.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 6:34 pm and is filed under education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.