blog it up.

My methods instructor began our class on Tuesday with journal prompts. I needed to tae the quote below and explain what it had to do with teaching English; since I have been mulling over the purpose of teaching English as a high school subject I picked this prompt and the words overflowed:

“To speak of mere words is much like speaking of mere dynamite.”

Neither exists, mere words nor mere dynamite. (They could exist merely but they would not be worth much, if anything.) Dynamite is nothing except for its power, and the same goes with words. When we teach English, we teach students the power of words—their power to communicate, to bring forth emotion, to encourage, to wound, to inspire, to defeat, to manipulate, to relate to or with people, to connect, to ruin. As teachers, we do not merely teach words or the order of words or the interpretation of words, but how to use them to the benefit or harm of people, to the growth or atrophy of society.

Would kids be as disengaged as I have witnessed if this is what we communicated as the goal/philosophy/adventure/purpose of teaching and learning English?

why oh why?

I got myself to thinking during my prep hour...

Watching my teacher do her thing up front could easily get myself in a trap. She makes it look so easy, like I could just skip on up there, open my mouth and let good things pour out. And kids would ace their tests, pass their standardized exams, graduate, and go to Harvard. I know that is not the case though. My mentor takes time to prepare her lessons; she has the whole year planned out and is very organized. 

What guides her planning though? I know that Romulus is given curriculum guidelines and standards to meet due to being branded with "D" for their AYP. How does my mentor plan her lessons knowing her students must live up to state standards and that if they don't, Romulus will lose more money? What are her objectives as an English teacher?

My methods class shed some light on why I may be thinking the way I am...we took a test that determines the way we learn and I came out as an abstract random learner Oh how I love tests that tell me about myself! I say this sarcastically as well as literally because the outcome was actually right on...I think of things in terms of the whole. I need to know why I think English is an important subject for students to learn in order to teach on a daily basis. What is it that I want my students to leave my class with? What tools, what ideas, what passions will they need to take on the world that I can supply them with as an English teacher? 

When I know the answers to these questions (and I have a feeling they will evolve) I will better be able to lesson plan. One of my worse nightmares is that my teaching, my time, my work will be futile. I mean, I know that one of the reasons I wanted to be a teacher was and still is to pour into students' lives, to love them, believe in them, help them to see their value and worth but I could have done that as a youth pastor or as a social worker. Why do I think education is so important?

I would really love to read some of your thoughts on how this pertains to your subject matter. Why do you think it is important for your students to study language/math/social studies/science? What do you want to equip them with for their lives? What legacy do you want to leave as a teacher? Why did you choose education as a career?

Give it to me.