"If we are not able to be alone, we're only going to know how to be lonely."
http://vimeo.com/70534716
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Summer Time
This summer was one of the best in my short life. Not because the sun was brighter or ocean clearer; not because I went out more or because I found myself some summer lovin', but because I learned a lot. About myself. About my community. About my collegiate peers. About the world. About learning itself.
I've had this idea that I want to be a teacher for a while. I thought it might be smart to give it a shot. Might be smart to explore the possibility.
But rather than finding answers, I found an increasing number of questions (a number that keeps getting bigger the more I think about my experiences).
Here are a couple:
1. How can teachers develop a relationship of care with their students if they are supposed to maintain the existing power structures, if there are strict, uncrossable boundaries, if knowledge is supposed to be simultaneously transferred, discipline maintained, playing field leveled across the classroom... if no other relationship in the world can truly help mold this one?
2. What is social justice and what does it look like in a classroom? How does it apply to the response we must have when, say, three girls skip your class in the bathroom because they didn't do their homework?
3. Why are we certain that we have touched some students but felt that others were miles from reach? How do we reach them all? How do we not settle for a couple?
4. How do we mold ourselves to fit the needs of such diversity?
5. Where lies the balance between wanting a student to like you and wanting a student to learn from you?
6. What is the difference (where is the line) between being kind so as to not make a student shut down and never pay attention again and not pushing someone hard enough, to their full potential?
7. How do we change students' minds when they've led a life solely based on their parents' ignorance? How do we not insult who they are and where they come from if we think that what they think is stupid and hateful?
8. How do we try to understand our students without assuming we understand?
9. How can we have the lives of so many people in our hands and cause the least amount of damage, the most amount of change?
I at least found one answer. The answer...
Is teaching for me?
I've had this idea that I want to be a teacher for a while. I thought it might be smart to give it a shot. Might be smart to explore the possibility.
But rather than finding answers, I found an increasing number of questions (a number that keeps getting bigger the more I think about my experiences).
Here are a couple:
1. How can teachers develop a relationship of care with their students if they are supposed to maintain the existing power structures, if there are strict, uncrossable boundaries, if knowledge is supposed to be simultaneously transferred, discipline maintained, playing field leveled across the classroom... if no other relationship in the world can truly help mold this one?
2. What is social justice and what does it look like in a classroom? How does it apply to the response we must have when, say, three girls skip your class in the bathroom because they didn't do their homework?
3. Why are we certain that we have touched some students but felt that others were miles from reach? How do we reach them all? How do we not settle for a couple?
4. How do we mold ourselves to fit the needs of such diversity?
5. Where lies the balance between wanting a student to like you and wanting a student to learn from you?
6. What is the difference (where is the line) between being kind so as to not make a student shut down and never pay attention again and not pushing someone hard enough, to their full potential?
7. How do we change students' minds when they've led a life solely based on their parents' ignorance? How do we not insult who they are and where they come from if we think that what they think is stupid and hateful?
8. How do we try to understand our students without assuming we understand?
9. How can we have the lives of so many people in our hands and cause the least amount of damage, the most amount of change?
I at least found one answer. The answer...
Is teaching for me?
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