My Role as a Teacher-to-be

Now that we are bringing together everything we have learned so far for our group teach, it is beginning to feel more like the real thing (I'm guessing!). As part of Group 3, the Dystopia Group, we do not yet have specifics planned out but we have an outline of what we want to do with the class and we are all pretty excited! I can't give too much away, but I believe it will turn out well. As far as the group itself goes, I think it is neat that we are all at different phases in our teaching, and I, being the youngest, definitely could learn a lot from these girls. We balance each other out because we all have something different to contribute at each meeting. We assigned tasks at the last meeting, so tomorrow we will go over what we have and try to plan everything out to more detail. I picked this group because I really like pieces of the sci-fi and dystopia genres. I am glad I went with this because I ended up picking a group based on my interests, not on who I thought would be in the group. It has worked out really well because we are focused on our work while I ended up making some new friends in the process.

On the other hand, we have some teachers that are coming in Wednesday for us to listen to, ask questions and get advice from. I really liked the teacher panel that Shannon organized last Spring semester, where each teacher talked about their different classroom experiences and included a segment entitled "10 Things I Wish I Knew About Teaching 10 Years Ago." I especially liked when the one teacher talked about how, on the first day of school, he would bring powertools into his classroom (this was usually for ninth graders I think). He would pick out one of the burly boys in the class and give him a hammer to try to get a screw into a two by four. When the boy couldn't do it, he would find the smallest girl in the class and give her a powerdrill so she could complete the task with no trouble. The message from this exercise?: Teachers have to give students the right tools to succeed, but then it is up to the student to use those tools. There was also a teacher who talked about her move from the high school to the middle school, and how refreshing it was because she felt liek she had fallen in a rut. She said not to be afraid to branch out if you ever feel like this. One teacher I observed with at Greencastle told me after she got her degree, she worked in another field for about 16 years before going back to teaching! So that was another good piece of advice to think about. Even though I wasn't able to stay for the whole presentation, it was reassuring to hear from experienced teachers about real problems and solutions that they dealt with. I took a lot away from that, so I'm hoping to do the same this time. I would like to hear about everything from cool activities in the classroom to their student teaching experiences to their opinions on censorship since that was a really hot topic we talked about. My list of questions will include ones like these:

What is one cool activity that you use in your classroom?

Do you teach classes that are diverse, or a part of a more specific population?

Do you ever teach controversial or banned books? How about books you don't enjoy to read?

How much instruction time do you devote to grammar and other writing skills?

If you could give one piece of advice to a future teacher, what would it be?

Etcetera, etcetera. These are adopted from our classroom discussions, my reader profile project and just my own uncertainties and misgivings about my future as a teacher. But I must admit I think that sometimes no matter how much advice you get, eventually we're all just going to have to take the plunge and go on the journey, which is the only way I can describe how I think teaching will be! I realize that it is a process of trial and error, and that it will become easier once I get some experience under my belt. Is there anything you guys are unsure about when you think of yourself as a teacher? What questions do you have for our visitors?

From Collins to Bowman... What Is our Future Outlook?

After reading The Hunger Games, I just have to say that I am excited to have this book included in my group teach! When I started to read about the point system used for the Hunger Games players, it really showed how much the concept was made to seem like a sporting event we would see on ESPN, showing player stats, sponsors, and the whole nine yards. I also thought it was really interesting how, in relation to the title of the book and the themes of food, food-getting and hunting, people’s eating habits seemed to demonstrate their rank. One example is when Katniss and Peeta are first on the train with Effie Trinket, and she compliments the two on their table manners, saying how barbaric the last two were at the table. Katniss then purposefully eats with her hands, wiping her hands on the tablecloth. She does this just to irritate Effie, using it as a tool to her advantage. We also see three characters, Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch, dunking their food when they are eating. Peeta first dunks his rolls in hot chocolate, which Katniss imitates, and Haymitch dunks his pork in wine. I thought, that is a lot of dunking! But I also realized those three are of the proletariat class, while Cinna, Portia and Effie are “Capitolists.” Maybe I’m reading a little much into the symbolism, but it really helped me to think about the related themes I named off earlier. Can you guys think of any other times when food is used symbolically in the novel?

Probably the most shocking moment for me was when the wolf “muttations” appeared and then Katniss finds out they are the dead tributes. I was wondering if they really brought back the players’ bodies or if they simply harvested their DNA to make these creations, but either way it was a pretty disturbing scene. As I said before in my last blog, I’m a sucker for a love story and The Hunger Games definitely delivered in that aspect, because the whole time I was wondering if she would end up with Gale or Peeta (or neither!). But even at the end, that wasn’t really answered. The ending in its entirety urges the reader on to the sequel. As I went with Katniss, on her journey, it was like I really shared her belief that once the Games were over, it would be a happy ending. But in the back of my mind, I knew this not to be true.
Would I teach Hunger Games in the classroom? Yes. It is a little violent maybe, but it removes the cursing that can become a deterrent as it is in some books I would want to potentially teach. I also like the fact that it is part of a series, because if the students liked it enough it would be possible to read the next two books in the trio. However, that might take up a significant part of the school year as the book was a tad lengthy.

As for the article I read “Is Stupid Making Us Google?” by James Bowman, and it had me thinking about this trend of educational apathy we were talking about in the last class with the references it made to “The Dumbest Generation.” Among other dilemmas he discusses, Bowman poses the question, Is it our generation’s fault, or are our mentors to blame? I thought, Is the blame on the rise of technology? The whole time I can’t help but find it ironic that I am reading this article online. While going through the article, I also related it to two other ideas. The whole time I was reading Hunger Games, I kept thinking about how so many of my generation wouldn’t be able to survive in such a dire situation. We are so focused on man’s own culture and creations that we have fallen mostly out of touch with the Earth. I actually have a somewhat decent about of friends who are more skilled in hunting, trapping and other outdoors skills than I am, but somehow I feel that this is the minority. I feel that not only are we not being taught to read in an educational sense, but we are also not pushed to learn everyday, common sense practices. The article also took my mind to what type of society we live in, which is a monochronic society, meaning time-oriented and progressive. Americans are expected to be on time to class, work, appointments, or wherever we go. Consequently, we expect to move along with our day in a timely manner, and this depends on all things from the services we receive to the daily traffic flow. I for one feel the constraints of time every day, as I go to school five days a week and work three. As I have to make enough time to do my reading for school, making time for leisurely reading is the last thing on my mind. At one point Bowman references “Nicholas Carr [who says ]that what we are witnessing is not just an educational breakdown but a deformation of the very idea of intelligence” (Bowman) I would agree with something along those lines, maybe more like that the value of intelligence and an educated mind seems to be deteriorating.