Kendra's+Page


 * Assignment 10: **(sorry for the lateness of this response)

Identity has so much more of an effect on what we do than I have taken the time to acknowledge. Background, the people around you, and life experiences all play a part in forming a person's identity. When approaching life situation, the identity of a person definitely plays a large role. Without identity, what are we really. So often people try to fit people into molds and into a cookie cutter, trying to change a person or push them to think more like themselves.

Preparing to enter the realm of teaching, thinking about the importance of identity almost scares me. Each individual is just that, an individual. I want to think that I will be one of the few teachers (from my experience there aren't many) that takes the fact that every person is an individual and then uses that to provide the best learning experience for everyone. One of my favorite ways to learn is through other people's experiences and trying to understand their point of view.

By accepting the Noyce scholarship, I know that my first classroom that I will be working in after college will have the ranking of high-needs. In most of these schools, there are many students who have come from a less than peachy background. Embracing the student’s identity is going to be key in working with them. The student’s in Danling Fu’s book had a more diverse background than most of the other students in the class; this effected their ability and drive for learning. In her book Fu recognized that it was important to allow students to embrace their identity and use that to grow and learn. So in my classroom, I want to find ways to use the student’s backgrounds and identities to help further their learning on a level that most people don’t take the time to seek out. I don’t really know how this is going to happen, but I would love to see it. The reason that this will be so important is because there is a chance that a lot of my students won’t have any focus on school due to their current living situation. In an ideal world, everyone’s lives would be great, people would care about each other, and people would strive to learn. With a lot of encouragement and help, as well as taking into account the students’ backgrounds, hopefully the students will begin to strive to learn more.

One of my biggest concerns with entering the teaching realm is that no matter how many ideas I have about creating a more effective classroom, I will eventually fall into what seems like the common teacher who goes through the motions mold. I only had a few teachers in high school how even remotely seemed to care, and that made school significantly harder. I know that there is only so much of a level of care that a teacher can have for a student, but I don’t want to just be another teacher that sees a new class and doesn’t recognize it as a new group of students that have a new collection of experiences to add to the learning in the classroom, like it seems many teachers do.

**Sam's Response**: Identity does play a huge role in people's lives and should definitely be considered as a teacher. I think it will be a great experience for you to work in a high-needs school. You'll learn a lot about identity in those children, and I don't think you should be worried. I'm sure you'll be very understanding with them and try to get to know them. Just by making yourself think about it, like you currently are will help you later when your teaching. I also have that fear of becoming like most of the teachers I had in high school, boring and going through the motions. I think that as long as we consciously make an effort to think about the needs of our students every day, we will be fine though. I'm sure our teachers in high school didn't have the same training that we are receiving.

Kendra, I couldn’t agree more that identity is something that teachers really need to pay attention to. This past week when observing for the Noyce program, watching the different ways my host teacher interacted with different students showed exactly that. She knew who they were, their backgrounds, whether they needed special attention during class, and whether or not she needs to be more lenient for their behavior issues. If she didn’t know these things, there would probably be at least one student that would blow up on her every day. This makes me definitely believe that you need to get to know your students and treat them as individuals. The more you do this, you will have a classroom that students might want to come to because it has a great atmosphere and is enjoyable for them to since they know you care about them.
 * Kevin's Response: **

Kendra, I definitely agree with what you are saying here. I also can see the fear you have about misjudging and identifying students because of where they've come from. But I don't think this is something you need to worry about, because you are so conscious about it. It is much easier to fall into that kind of behavior when you remain ignorant to it. It is really fantastic that you have had the opportunity to work with teachers and students because of the Noyce program. You are getting a very unique and important perspective into the teaching world that I believe will prevent you from being one of those teachers who falls into the slump. Since I've started taking my education classes, I have been shocked by the number of teachers I've had who go against so much of what we're learning. I've had some fantastic teachers, but I've also had teachers who I use as a model of how not to teach and how not to treat students and others. It's important that we take all of our experiences--good and bad--and learn from them. When you have truly learned something, you can apply it to your own life.
 * Sienna's Response:**

(Sienna, now I'm paranoid...okay, now I'm over it.) Let's remember what teachers' realities are like--then think about how you will efficiently make space in your teaching life to be **that** teacher who shows everyone, equally, that they are valuable humans. How do you do that? Not by hugging and throwing birthday parties, not just by knowing where they come from and what makes them tick, but mostly by staying on top of their learning--making learning the shared experience of the classroom. You send your students the message that you're in this together, learning about each other, about the world, and about the knowledge shared in math, science, history, and so on. We show that we care when we question our assumptions and without self-loathing, adjust those assumptions. We show that we care when we we demonstrate that we're "with it." We read widely (reading broadly construed), and bring interesting facts and ideas into the classroom, we seek out and benefit from professional development. And on and on. (on a side note, math teachers, like Kendra, have a certain advantage: they have some "language" and systems for gathering and analyzing information about kids: math, statistics. Kendra--I envy your skills, and know that you have the background knowledge to manage knowledge.)
 * Evie's Response:**

All in all, Kendra--I think you won't fall into the drudge mold as long as you continue to be enthusiastic. Notice when your heart sinks, and work on techniques for raising your vibe. Teachers really are under a heavy load of work, but those who love the content they work with, and who love kids, and who love learning new ways to teach, and who stay connected with supportive peers are happier in their work. The kids see it, and they respond.

For everyone: Keep thinking about why the Savang kids struggled. Was it their difference that was the cause of their struggle? How can that be true? Let's discuss this.



Final Reflection: Throughout this entire semester there have been a wide range of emotions that I had towards the class. I was excited for some of the projects, but there were other times when it just seemed like the things we were learning would not have any ability to help me in my math class that I will someday teach. Some of the different topics were interesting, but I couldn't see the relevance.

One of the major shifting points for my attitude was when I got to Saginaw for my observations over spring break. Getting to see how the teacher interacted and work together to try to become an IB school, it opened my eyes a little more to the importance of the topics we had been discussing in HU4150.

One of the most beneficial things from the class was learning how to work with a variety of learners that were not at the same literacy level. I hadn't really looked at that as a possible issue when I thought about teaching a math course since literacy doesn't always seem as important in math, even though it is.

It was also good to be able to go through the process of some of the projects. I learned a lot about creating lessons, observing a learner, and getting the opportunity to do longer presentations to become more comfortable with standing in the front of the room.

Some of the readings were really interesting to me, Fu's book was probably the most useful for me. I have worked with people with a language barrier before, but I haven't gotten to see their side of the whole process. So that was one of the more interesting and informative books that we read. The books with resources were nice, but I don't know how helpful they were in the long run. I only had a few occasions where I had the "huh, I never thought about that/never seen that before" moments. I mean they were informative, but I didn't always see it to be the most effective way to discuss and learn the subjects.

This class also taught me a lot about prioritizing my work. I had to balance all the projects, and that wasn't always the most easy task, but I did manage to make it work.