Week 4

Share 3 exact quotes that are meaningful to you (from across these two chapters), and explain why they matter to you.

"The way we "do school" often makes it easy to forget why teaching once seemed the best job in the world and makes it easy to lose sight of what we once hoped for."
I love this quote because at this point I can't wait to teach, I'm so excited for it and have so many hopes and desires of the teacher that I want to be, but that attitude can be quickly changed after the stress of the "job". The attitude we have of our job and of our students and the desire to change them and help them grow will determine how we "do school". I know that for me my job as an aide became much more meaningful to me and my desire to help the students grew dramatically when I learned to love each child and when I had gotten to know them and developed a relationship with them individually. We can have hopes and dreams of how we will "do school" now but we need to remember the most important element of the "job" is our students. As long as we remember that we will be able to fulfil our hopes and be great teachers.

"I respect who you are as well as who you can become."
This has become very important to me because I have learned a great lesson of this exact thing from one of my precious students. Last year I had a child who didn't speak english. The teacher did not take time to support, admire, or accept her culture. She wouldn't listen to her if she spoke in english, and she would sometimes jokingly pretend to speak spanish to her in a making fun kind of way. I watched as this child slowly stopped interacting with the teacher and starting interacting and respecting myself as well as the other aide who happened to speak spanish. As I tried to show her that I accepted her how she was and that I thought she could teach me as much as I could teach her, our relationship bloomed and she grew alot as a student. Our students need to know that we respect who they are and that we have hope and faith in who they can become.

"To provide opportunity is to help learner have a VOICE in what and how they learn and to find their own voice in what and how they learn and to find their own voice through what they study."
This quote stuck out to me alot because we had just discussed this topic of participatory teaching in our ESL class last week. I learned alot about the benefits of involving students in the process of deciding what they learn. They are able to create a voice when they are given the opportunity to participate in what and how they learn.

Week 3

Reflect on Sylvia Allan's presentation:

I was so excited to learn about specific examples and stories of how this commmunity is created in the classroom and its effects. It was such a learning expierence to see how it is used and created in the classroom and to see just how effective it can be done when it is done with correctly and with love. It was quite obvious to see the rewards of using morning meetings in your classroom, and I was also able to get many great ideas from Sylvia on how to be the most effective in the classroom. I loved how fun she was. I think it is important to be fun and be someone who recognizes his/her own mistakes.Students will grow trust with a person who possesses these qualities much quicker than those who don't posses them. I loved that she is able to incorporate so many subjects and content into such a small time amount and in such a setting as morning meetings. What a great way to teach content student's need while they are in such a "Safe, risk taking" environment. I really liked how she said the teacher needs to be involved in the morning meeting process, not behind her desk or doing other things to prepare for the day, because I firmly believe that the Teacher needs to become part of the classroom unity and community that is developed in these type of situations. I just can't say enough good things about what I have learned from Sylvia. I feel that moning meetings are very beneficial and rewarding for the teacher and student and their relationships.

Question week 2

Reflect on something from chapter 2:

"Come play with me," says the teacher. "Come do what I ask you to do." "I can't," says the student, "at least not until you connect with me. "
I expeirenced a situation that fits this quote perfectly. In the preschool I work at, I had a student who would not participate, or be willing to do the things asked. She didn't have behavior problems she just didn't speak the language and also needed to feel loved and trusted before she could take a risk in learning. I spent much time with her and soon created a trusting relationship with her. It was at that point that her learning took off. She was able to catch up and do all the things the other students could do and she was happy and participated much more. She needed to feel the connection with her teacher before she could feel safe enough to take risks and to learn. It was a great learning expierence for me in how much we can fix by creating a caring and trustworthy relationship with our students.

Question week 1B

"We are no longer teaching if what we teach is more important than who we teach or how we teach.” What does this mean to you?

This is such a great understanding of what makes a great teacher great. We aren't teaching to teach the curriculum. We are teaching to shape and change lives. I know atleast for me, I am not going into the teaching career because I love science or because I love english and want to teach these things. I am going into teaching because I love children and being able to help them grow. We have lost the sight of what makes teaching teaching if we are more focused on the content rather than the students and their individual needs. Teachers change lives by making the most important aspect of teaching that of their students.