“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
When I first read this quote, I thought of myself. Crazy as it may sound, this quote may have been written to apply to children, but then I thought no wait a minute it was written to be applied to learners, which would be me! But this is just my opinion and how I interpreted the quote. Every single human on the planet will grow up a certain way. The person that they become has a lot to do with how they have been sculpted. For instance, as young children you are molded by the environment you grow up in, the people you are around, and the experiences you have. For me, I grew up in a middle-class family with a nice house and all of the children went to college. My parents did not go to college but because of this they made sure we understood how important it was to attend college and to do our best in school! Once I started teaching after I graduated college, it was very hard for me to see that not all people are raised like this. I guess I have been a little naïve about things. I knew that the school I was teaching at would have a lot of “different” children there, or so that is what I was told, but I never thought about how they should be taught differently. I mean come on now – teaching every child differently – that is crazy?! This is the attitude that I had when I first started with this course. Little did I know that to be a good teacher and really get your students to succeed you must cater to THEIR needs! As I started my first year at Lincolnton Middle School, I definitely learned a lot by the kids that were in my room. I teach Special Education, so I did have the kids who struggled with reading and writing. I did have the kids who struggled with behavior. More of the boys more so than girls were labeled as having behavior problems. In fact I had several students who came to me in the seventh grade and did not know how to read. Wow – was I in for a wake-up call??
I would say that I am sort of a people person so I definitely took the time to get to know my kids. I’m sure it is much easier to get to know a small group of students in a class than it is to get to know thirty at a time. I learned some very interesting things and now that I have completed my second year of teaching I have learned even more. In my class I had those kids who thought school was dumb and did not want to be there. Well the problem is that they struggled with the task at hand. They struggled with reading so why wouldn’t they act out. It was easier for them to get into trouble than to get made fun of by peers for not being able to read as well. It was so easy to just write them off as behavior problems, but as I have now learned and am still learning that these kids are doing this for a reason. This goes back to the quote at the beginning of my post. For me to continue teaching and continue trying to improve on what I do with my kids in order to be a better teacher than I must learn to see things differently and think differently. Not all kids, if any, that were in my class come from a good family such as mine and have parents who support education and think it is very important to succeed in life. It took me only two years to figure this out and hopefully this will help me as I continue my teaching journey. In fact there were many times in my first year of teaching and even in my second that my kids would tell me something that went on at home the night before and I would seriously not believe them. In fact I would ask the guidance counselors about it and they would confirm that these things did go on. For instance my kids would come to school and say their parents fought them the night before, which of course I had to report. I had kids tell me so many other things that literally broke my heart, I felt, when I would come home at night and think about it. The point here is that every child that walks into my classroom is different. They have had different experiences in life and sometimes these experiences were not so pleasant for the child. By working at school where there were kids from low-income families and a lot of different ethnic groups, I have learned that I must view things in a different perspective. I must appreciate every student and appreciate what they bring into my classroom. I should have expectations for every students, but at the same time I must meet them halfway and give them expectations that are reasonable for them specifically. I also must make sure that I get to know each and every child that sits in my classroom and understand the type of discourse they live at home because I want them to connect with it as they walk into my classroom because this home discourse is what they are comfortable with and what they are used to. If NASCAR is what they are into then I will somehow find a way to connect to what I am teaching to this. If they like to fantasize then I will find fantasy books for them to read on their instructional level. I will try to make learning fun for them and the best thing about learning when it is fun is that the kids are learning and not even realizing it. Sometimes the word “learn” just makes the kids get a negative attitude, but a lot of this comes from their parents attitudes about school because I have learned in Dr. Gill’s class – if their parents did not like school and did not do well in school then their children are not going to like it either because they will feel the negative vibe their parents have about school if they don’t verbally tell them. It is important that the kids I teach appreciate and appreciate learning, but I will do my best as I continue teaching to get kids to feel this way!
Another thing I learned from this course and the most important thing for me is about how literacy is more than just reading and writing. In fact it is so much more than that! I never thought about this because whenever I would always hear the term “literate” I would always think of a book and being able to read and if you couldn’t read then you were illiterate. But I was wrong. In fact the question that I am struggling with is that is there really anyone out there who is illiterate? People have this term so confused because it is not just about reading and writing. After reading the article by Perry about the Sudanese refugees, I have learned that literacy goes a long way. People become literate from the minute they are born by hearing their parents talk to them. I think about my nephew that was just born last week and I think about how literate he will be within just a few months. My other nephew who just turned two can say words and talk to you and you can tell him to do something and he knows exactly what you mean, even though he is a little hard-headed and does not always do what you say, but I would consider Tucker literate. He cannot read a book, but he knows how to speak and he knows what you mean when you talk to him.
Another important thing I learned in this class was about the different discourses we live. For some students it is very challenging for them to code-switch from discourse to discourse, but they do this without even knowing it. A good example I saw from one of the previous readings was from the Delpit article when she was talking about her daughter Maya and the way she speaks differently when around her family then when she is at school around her friends. Maya lives a discourse as a daughter at home and then as a friend at school. As teachers we must understand that our students are living different courses as well as we are and must be aware of this and be aware of how to connect their discourses. This goes back to the quote from the beginning which talks about seeing different perspectives.
I have learned so many things from this course and I hope that all of this information will stick with me as I continue on my teaching journey so that I can improve as an educator and see my students that I teach succeed! I end my reflection with a quote that I thought was one of the most important quotes from the readings from this course.
“When students’ interests are addressed in school, they are more likely to connect with the school, with the teacher, with the academic knowledge, and with the school’s language form.” – Lisa Delpit from “No Kinda Sense”
Katy Dellinger