I think that enthusiasm and passion are two qualities that make a great teacher. If you are able to spread your passion and enthusiasm in the classroom then you will be able to engage students and help them develop their own intellectual lives. In the beginning of chapter two in Ellin Oliver Keene's To Understand, she shows her passionate and enthusiastic side--this turned me on to Keene. The first chapter I was a little bit unsure of her character and I had a hard time connecting with her. However, immediately in chapter two, on page 20, when Keene was sharing her enthusiasm with her husband I knew that she has a true sense of passion for education.
Keene faced a predicament in which she had a hard time turning her students intellectual side on. Sometimes she would have brilliant conversations with her students, but other times it was like pulling teeth. I know that exact same feeling from my own personal experiences teaching. When your students are talking and are getting engaged and excited you leave school feeling like the queen or king of the world because you did something--you helped your students understand. However, there are days when you leave school feeling as though you could have done more or something different. One of Keene's solutions to this problem was to have high expectations everyday (Keene 21). I like this idea. If we don't expect our students to think outside the books or deeper about the curriculum, then of course they are not going to produce those amazing intellectual moments. We need to push and model our students in order to get to a higher intellectual thinking.
I really like the way Keene has set up her book. As she admitts, her book is designed to show teachers how we can get students to understand rather than tell educators how too (Keene 23). Each state, each school district, and each teacher run their classroom differentently. It would not be benificial for Keene to list step by step what to do, because that simply would not work for everyone. It is wise for Keene to leave it open ended because it allows each educator to adapt it to their own teaching style and curriculum.
As a first grade teacher, while I am reading Keene's ideas I am constantly thinking about how I could use her work in my classroom with my students. One thing that I am struggling with though is her idea of observable outcomes (Keene 26). I feel that this step is extremely difficult with first graders. First graders are not able to communicate a lot of reason. Right now I am teaching my students to reason. If they solve an addition problem I asked them how they solved it and I ask them to walk me through the steps. Half of the class can tell me the right answer, but they struggle with how they did it. As I read through all the outcomes of understanding I had a hard time seeing how my students would be able to develop though cognitive strategies. With that said, I am still holding high expectations like Keene says we should!
I completly agree with Keene in that we should "teach a few concepts of great import, teach them in depth over a long period of time, and apply them in a variety of texts and contexts" (Keene 31). While I agree with this and would love to see it done, I feel as though it is easier said then done. I dislike where our education has been going as of late and I believe that Keene's ideas are great for the ideal classroom. As much as I would love to do the things she describes it is very hard realistically. You have to cover so much material in such a sort time that you do not have time to teach things for a long period of time or just the most important concepts. State standards require so much and time is so limited.
No comments:
Post a Comment