I went to see Bill Ayers speak at the Diversity Conference on Friday, February 23rd. One thing Bill said that has really stuck with me is "Teaching at its best allows humans to become more powerful." For me, that sums up exactly why I want to become a teacher. I want children to be able to feel like they have the ability to do something with their lives, to be something great. My ideal job would be a literacy teacher in first or second grade. Literacy is perhaps the most powerful tool in becoming what is considered "successful" in today's world.
At this point in our schooling, I think we all kind of take reading for granted. But if we really stop to think about it, would any of us be here right now if we were not literate? Not only do I want to give students the gift of reading, but I also want to help them to LOVE reading. Kids these days are so fixated on movies, TV shows, playstations, and ipods. To me, nothing is better then being so absorbed in a book that I have to finish reading it before I go to sleep. If I could instill even a bit of my passion for books into my students, I will consider myself a successful teacher.
Did any of you attend the conference? What are your thoughts?
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I attended the diversity conference but unfortunately I did not get to see Bill Ayers. I attended the last 2 sessions, one which was a series of skits performed by the Guerrilla Theatre and the other called Addressing Language Diversity in the Classroom. Dr. George Padavil talked about ELL's nd actors that hinder adjustment and factors that help them succeed. I agree with the fact that it is important that their peers are excepting of them, that their teachers recognize their needs and are sensitive to them and that the parents encourage them and have high expectations from them in order for them to succeed. Its unfortunate that a lot of English Language Learners don't get the help they need because they have limited access to schooling, that they are inappropriately placed, and that the school is insensitive to ELL's. As I stated the Guerilla Theatre performed a series of skits that touched on stereotypes, racism, sexual orientation, and gender. A few of their skits were create creative and as they states some would be serious and others humorous. For example, they performed a skit where one girl asked questions and you had to be "1 or the other", there was no gray area. So you were suppose to be either gay or straight, a male or female, and if you weren't white you were obviously black. It didn't matter if you were Latino, or mixed. It didn't matter if you were bisexual. And when it came to the male or female question, which was suppose to be an easy one, I guess you realize its not that easy of a question when you have people who are born male or female but get a sex change or you have someone is born with both reproductive organs. Basically it was all about categorizing which is what our society does to much. One skit I really enjoyed, was "If My Inside was my Outside" and they talked about how all these things that make us different wouldn't matter, such as race, gender, and a few other things. But the way they performed the skit was very creative and I loved it.
I got to see Bill Ayers at the conference. I was very pleased with his lecture. He had a great way of telling stories and relating it to points he wanted to make. I totally agree about passion of reading. Unfortunately, I think that it is partly the schools fault why no children have passion for reading any more. I hated reading in school, and I still do. Reading in school is usually for a grade and it is considered homework. I think it is important as a teacher to approach reading in a different way. Make it fun for students and to not focus on grades, but on learning something that they didn't already know.
I agree with you, Mary Ann. When I was in school, reading was never about choosing the types of books I was interested in. I read what was assigned to me, and did the homework that went along with it. The only way students were encouraged to read was through programs like Book-It. The more books you read, the more Pizza Hut pizzas you earned. There was actual an editorial about that in the Vidette today if anyone is interested. Anyway, I think it will be our job to encourage our students to read for intrinsic value, not always for extrinsic rewards.
Katie made a great point. I wish that when I was a child someone would have somehow helped me find a passion for reading. To this day I still don’t like to read even though I know there is so much information to be found in books. I really do think your ideas behind reading are great.
I also attended the diversity conference. Bill Ayers was great. Some of the points he made really stuck with me. I liked what he said about being a "know it all" teacher and that no matter how much experience you have in the career, it is ever changing and you will never know it all. You cant stand up there and think you know everything.
Another thing he brought up was how kids make us be better people. His example was when his son saw graffiti on the train and after Bill explained what it meant his son said, "well aren’t you going to cross it off?"
Bill also mentioned that as teachers we should find our passion and share it with the kids. And that we need to try to find the talent within our kids. No matter how much the curriculum forces us to teach to standards and tests, you will always be able to find some way to incorporate your values and passions into the classroom. (His example was social studies class because the topic is so broad.)
After hearing him Bill speak, one thing I know I will bring to my own classroom is asking the students parents to tell me what will help me teach there students. They know more than you know about their own child and I really think having that input would save a lot of time in getting to know your students.
Being literate is an important and necessary quality to have and I do agree that I would not be in college if I was illiterate. It would not be possible. However, my brother is in the United States Air Force and is taking college classes now. But he was illiterate until the beginning of his sixth grade year when he was placed with my parents. He was a poor quite kid that just slipped through the cracks. All it took was one teacher to really give him a chance and two dedicated parents but it does not always work out like that.
As for the last part of your post, I love that you said that you not only want to teach children how to read but how to love reading. That is great and you can teach my future children whenever you want. I never had someone who stressed the importance of reading when I was young until I already decided that I hated reading. Now I struggle with the mass amounts of reading, solely because I hate to do it. But, for all the children I baby-sit (everyday through high school) we read. I read to them, they read to each other and out loud to themselves. Reading is an important.
I had the opportunity to attend the diversity conference! First off, let me say that I was very impressed with Bill Ayers. I enjoyed his speech so much that I used part of his speech for a paper that I had written early the next week. Some of the key quotes that I really took out of the conference were....
"Don't say it's so simple, I have it all figure out. NO YOU DON'T!"
"Teaching makes you a better person than you really are."
"Just when you think you have everything figured out, the kids move on."
"Create an environment where your students show you their goodness."
"Teachers have a toxic habit of labeling their students by their deficits."
I hope those affect you as much as they affected me!
I would agree that “Teaching at its best allows humans to become more powerful.” This is a very significant statement. When I first read it, I initially thought about teaching for social change. In my social foundations of education course, a theorist proposed that education is always transformative because once one learns something new; it is difficult to accept things that they previously didn’t understand. Critical theorists suggest that education should encourage students to be “uncomfortable in a society that exploits workers, that demonizes people of color, that abuses women, that privileges the rich, that commits acts of imperialist aggression against other countries, that colonizes the spirit and that wrings the national soul clean of a collective social consciousness.”
Secondly, I admired your passion for reading and your commitment to helping students find that same passion. Somewhere along my academic path, I lost my passion for reading. As an assignment during my professional development coursework, I had to reflect on what may have caused this loss of interest. I consulted my cousin who I spent all of my childhood years with about why we do not like to read. She said “just like they say drugs aren’t cool; reading ain’t cool.” At first I laugh it off, but for some reason this comment stayed with me. I spent all my life in inner city Chicago in a predominantly African American neighborhood. I wonder was this a common perspective of children growing up in my area. I do not recall not reading because it was not cool. Sure, it was true that the majority of my friends never pleasure read either. I thought I did not enjoy reading because it took too long and it lacked the instant gratification that I was seeking. Or maybe I was just a product of my environment. I could have been transformed in the wrong direction. If my cousin was right and most of the children in my community felt this way, what is to be said for community of children who lack this essential strength or tool? How could children whose culture is characterized by struggles to become literate reduce reading to something that is just not cool? Students in urban areas like mine need to be uncomfortable with this reality if there is to ever be social change.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Diversity Education Conference
I also went to the Diversity Education Conference and thought that the keynote speaker, Bill Ayers, dicussed some very valuable topics for teachers. He believes that believing you know everything as a teacher can be very dangerous. I think this as well because we can learn from our students too. Ayers went on to explain that teachers are not the ultimate vessels of knowledge but that the best teaching involves a dialogue in which teacher and student learn together. I thought that it was interesting that he made the same observation that we did in class about Hollywood movies. These movies tend to follow the same pattern with one teacher that is the "savior" and has to sacrifice something for the good of their students. I think that this could discredit the students. I also agreed with Bill Ayers belief that their are negative effects of labeling students, such as "at risk." He mentions that labels should be resisted because it stifles the student's potential. I think that labels can also cause teachers to form judgements right away about what the students can and cannot do. There are some vaild arguments for why there is a need for labels but I just wonder if they do more harm then good. One thing that Bill Ayers spoke about that inspired me was that teachers should be passionate about something in their lives so their students can model after them.
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