To Understand--Chapter 4

I was amazed by the school that Ellin Oliver Keene described in Chapter 4, Charles Lake school.  I could not believe how the classroom operated and how the students responded.  The Charles Lake school that Keene studied is exactly how I would like to run my classroom someday and I really took to Keene's idea of "rigor, inquiry, and intimacy."  When I compare my first grade classroom right now to that of the classroom at Charles Lake I almost see it as a failure.  Of course this is my first year teaching and I learn something new every second of the day, but in comparison to Charles Lake I feel like I am letting myself and my students down.  I am very guilty of rushing through the day without pushing students thinking to the next level, which is something Keene says is a major no-no if you really want your students to understand (Keene 77).  I would love for my class, like the class Keene describes, to be able to come into the classroom and know exactly what to do without being told.  With my class right now I have to repeat the directions numerous times even though the routine is practically the same everyday.  Although I teach first grade, I believe that if I created a better classroom community right from the very first day I too would be able to achieve these things.  A classroom based on the principals of rigor, intimacy, and inquiry would work for children at all levels.  Not only do the students that Keene described come in and get right to work, it seemed as though they were all being intellectual challenged and were having fun.  I feel that I do not have high enough standards for my students sometimes and it really shows in the quality of their work.  It was really interesting to see how the teacher at Charles Lake dealt with the student who was an English language learner, Rita.  The teacher did not just seat with Rita and give her all the words she didn't know.  Instead the teacher challenged Rita and reminded her of the strategies to use when you come across a difficult word.  The teacher did not lower her expectations just because Rita was an English language learner.   In fact she almost had higher expectations for this student.

Keene points out in chapter 4 that teachers not only lower their expectation for some students, but in general we seem to lower our expectations for poverty stricken schools and students (Keene 80).  The lowering of expectation for schools in poverty is very eminent.  To often do we assume that just because a student comes from a lower income family or is being education at a lower income school they are not intelligent.  From my own personal experience the best school that I worked at was a school in which 70% of the families attending the school were living in poverty.  The third grade classroom that I was involved with followed very much the ideals of intimacy, rigor, and inquiry.  Hanging on the walls were pictures of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, not posters about punctuation or essay writing.  If anything our expectations should be higher for those in poverty because those are the people we need to help. 

At first I did not really grasp the quote that Keene uses in chapter 4, "As important as what is happening is what is not."  After pondering for a while, before reading, it eventually clicked and was then supported by the reading.  My track coach always told me "it is the silence between the notes that make the melody."  In other words time off from running is just as crucial as actually running.  This is actual the same as the quote Keene uses.  Sometimes rather then students doing worksheets, answering question, or doing projects students need to just sit back and think.  The times when I just shut everything else off and just think are the times when I am the most intellectual stimulated.  Today kids rarely every just sit back and relax in the silence.  In the background there is the sounds of the tv or buzzing in their ear they have there Ipod headphones.  Children and adults are to caught up to just shut off and think.  .