“There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.” - Michel Foucault
This quote certainly reflects my feelings about what I have learned during this course. The world of education is constantly changing and if we, as teachers, cannot adapt and change our thinking with it, we will not be as effective as we can be. Being able to take on other points of view to see the view from the other side is crucial for teachers, since we have so many different different views in each of our classrooms each year. If we continue to only see our own way of thinking as the right way of thinking and hold on to our biases and preconceived notions of race, class and gender, we will never achieve our goal of reaching every child.
One of the most important concepts that I took away from this course has to deal with the concept that our students don’t come to us as blank slates ready to be filled with information, as discussed in the Reading Lives chapters. Since the day they entered the world, every experience and interaction they’ve had has begun the process of shaping them as learners and it is crucial for me as a teacher to figure out how to use that to my advantage when teaching them instead of viewing it as a hinderance. Just as Laurie and Jake’s home lives influenced their outlooks on and the outcomes of learning, so will my future students. From this course, I now realize the high priority I must give to getting to know my students and their families both inside the classroom as well as out.
The concept of children having “hybrid” identities also opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas and notions about the two different lives that children lead both in and out of school. Delpit discusses the concept of “code switching” which I was aware of in the past, but had never been able to give a formal name. It made me think a lot deeper about how much children do switch “codes” between friends and adults, school and home, etc. Hicks spoke about “hybrid identities” that children develop to exist both inside the classroom and inside their homes. We saw how sometimes these identities need assistance from the teacher to help develop channels between the two, especially with Jake. If one of his first or second grade teachers had picked up on his love of NASCAR or his interest in construction/heating and air conditioning repair because of his father’s interest in it, and how much more he was engaged in learning when information was presented in those formats, he may have been much more attentive and successful in school. Once again, getting to know the whole student can make a huge difference in how we teach and the outcomes we achieve for them.
hybrid identity, code switching
I also learned a lot about what it’s like to grow up as a girl in the south. From reading about Hicks’ experiences as a young girl as well as others’ discussions in their posts, I gathered a lot of new information about southern culture that I didn’t possess before now. Growing up in upstate New York in a nonreligious family, I did not have nearly the experiences and I think learning this new information is helpful because although I’m sure things have changed some, the basic concepts are still the same and to understand that is just one step to further understand where my future students are coming from.
Giving work that has a purpose, for a real audience, is another concept that I took away from this class. Not that I didn’t know that was important before, but during this course I was really able to think deeper about exactly why it is that kids need to understand the purpose for what they are doing. Also, it’s not good enough to just tell them “you’ll need this later on in life.” A lot of students have to actually see the use for it or they will become disengaged. This was seen in Perry’s study, when Chol wanted to publish his autobiography in a magazine. If we as teachers can pick up on those kinds of things and find authentic, real, live audiences for our students’ work, we can give them a real purpose for doing the work, instead of just for a grade.
Though I have not had my own classroom yet, and cannot use the knowledge I’ve gained to reflect on past experiences outside of tutoring, I can certainly use it for my future classrooms. The tools I have gained from this class helped me to understand how truly important it is to get to know your students-the whole student, not just what you see in the classroom, but their families, values, cultures, pasts, presents and futures as well. As we can clearly see through the readings for this course, learning this information will help us greatly in the work to reach each and every student and help them succeed in school and in life.
Kim Strzelecki