So I have this one student who refuses to turn in work. He is in my AP Lang class, and he has expressed this anxiety of submitting anything in to me because "it's not perfect yet." And I tell him, it doesn't need to be, I just need to see that he's on the right track.
I've had this blog post partially composed for five days now, and I didn't want to click publish because I didn't have the time to make it perfect yet... Which brings me to my biggest strength as an educator: compassion. I don't mean that I feel bad about the amount of work assigned and I just let them slide by; it means that I totally get the struggle. This is difficult. I first thought about this idea of compassion when I was reading The Elements of Teaching by Banner and Cannon, and the chapter "Compassion" was mine to use to lead a class discussion. While the entire book covers other elements of teaching that are important (the other two elements that I think are my strengths are "Learning" and "Imagination") this chapter came with one very specific warning:
"Anyone contemplating teaching as a profession should consider compassion as a measure of suitability. The physical and emotional toll exacted by teaching will be too much for those lacking it... Those who experience difficulty in accepting the place of compassion in the classroom, who resist the idea of sympathetic emotions, or who prefer their working lives to be exclusively intellectual should avoid teaching altogether and probably consider devoting themselves to less demanding occupations, such as politics or crime" (89).
It is the only time in that book where they discuss any one element as vital - all of the others had ways to work on each element, but the element "compassion" was listed as a necessity already established in our personalities. This doesn't mean we dumb down anything out of pity; we don't change anything our students need, but we meet them where they are. We can acknowledge that the struggle is real, and help our students move from the struggle to work on that skill. The inability to do this (or the inability to see the value in compassion) is detrimental to our effectiveness as teachers.
And this blog post is far from perfect, or what I really wanted to say, but I'm going to click publish because I need to model this struggle for that one student.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Day Nine: Writing at last
My biggest teaching accomplishment that nobody knows about (until right now, before I say it, here on this blog) is that in the middle of September, after being three days behind, and after not writing for years, I am now caught up with the Reflective Teaching Blogging Challenge. This calls for celebration. First of all, I had forgotten how much I like typing out all of my thoughts for the wide world to see. Second, it's going to be interesting to see how I change this year. And third, did I mention it's the middle-ish of September? Seriously, this is an accomplishment.
I mentioned in my first blog post that this is one of ten blogs I had on here (I found a way to remove the blogs that I don't intend to use again, or that don't really serve any purpose anymore), but it had been almost five years since I had engaged in any sort of consistent blogging. Prior to that I had a blog, in some shape or form, for the previous... six years or so? And before that I wrote in notebooks, and more notebooks. Each notebook marking a time of writing - from my days when I would just write down what happened to me, to the notebook that starts with a page full of random words that I would then write about on the following pages. There is even a notebook where I began to edit and compile the best of these writings (I was already planning on having a "best of" book, apparently). Writing was a consistent part of my life, and then it wasn't anymore.
I had about five years of radio-silence between my thoughts and paper (or screen). Every once in awhile I'd start to write something, but it felt forced and awkward. I started to doubt whether my thoughts really belonged in that journal. I would get hung up on different notebooks - is that one too fancy? Why do I want that notebook? What if I want to draw on the outside? That color won't work. It's a spiral notebook, and I hate spiral notebooks. Are the pages too thin? I'm tired of writing on that kind of paper. What kind of pen should I use? That blog layout is not pretty, what if someone actually reads this? Wouldn't that be awful? What should the first post say? Should I write on that first page. or leave it blank for some brilliant title, yet to be discovered? And then I just wouldn't write because choosing a notebook or a blog or a topic was just too overwhelming, and there was just too much television to watch.
And then I started this up again, and things are coming out at least somewhat intelligently, and I'm not hung up on the blog layout, or my thoughts being brilliant. The way I'm hoping my students will write is something I'm finally modeling again, and that is something I'm happy about. I can tell them that I'm working on this too. I can show them that I have a place where I blurt out my thoughts (but in a way that supports good digital-citizenship) and that writing does not need to be perfect, or pretty, but that it does need to happen - even if it's been awhile.
_______________
A serendipitous reading:
After starting this blog and reflecting on my time not writing, I read this. It's a short piece on one writer's experience with not writing; suddenly I realized I was reading my own experience... It's interesting and worth a read, as are most things I've read on Opinionator.
I mentioned in my first blog post that this is one of ten blogs I had on here (I found a way to remove the blogs that I don't intend to use again, or that don't really serve any purpose anymore), but it had been almost five years since I had engaged in any sort of consistent blogging. Prior to that I had a blog, in some shape or form, for the previous... six years or so? And before that I wrote in notebooks, and more notebooks. Each notebook marking a time of writing - from my days when I would just write down what happened to me, to the notebook that starts with a page full of random words that I would then write about on the following pages. There is even a notebook where I began to edit and compile the best of these writings (I was already planning on having a "best of" book, apparently). Writing was a consistent part of my life, and then it wasn't anymore.
I had about five years of radio-silence between my thoughts and paper (or screen). Every once in awhile I'd start to write something, but it felt forced and awkward. I started to doubt whether my thoughts really belonged in that journal. I would get hung up on different notebooks - is that one too fancy? Why do I want that notebook? What if I want to draw on the outside? That color won't work. It's a spiral notebook, and I hate spiral notebooks. Are the pages too thin? I'm tired of writing on that kind of paper. What kind of pen should I use? That blog layout is not pretty, what if someone actually reads this? Wouldn't that be awful? What should the first post say? Should I write on that first page. or leave it blank for some brilliant title, yet to be discovered? And then I just wouldn't write because choosing a notebook or a blog or a topic was just too overwhelming, and there was just too much television to watch.
And then I started this up again, and things are coming out at least somewhat intelligently, and I'm not hung up on the blog layout, or my thoughts being brilliant. The way I'm hoping my students will write is something I'm finally modeling again, and that is something I'm happy about. I can tell them that I'm working on this too. I can show them that I have a place where I blurt out my thoughts (but in a way that supports good digital-citizenship) and that writing does not need to be perfect, or pretty, but that it does need to happen - even if it's been awhile.
_______________
A serendipitous reading:
After starting this blog and reflecting on my time not writing, I read this. It's a short piece on one writer's experience with not writing; suddenly I realized I was reading my own experience... It's interesting and worth a read, as are most things I've read on Opinionator.
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