summer reading, part 2
1. Cinnamon Gardens (Shyam Selvadurai)
2. Freakonomics (Steven J. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner)
3. The Nazi Officer's Wife (Edith Hahn Beer & Susan Dworkin)
4. Rules of the Road (Joan Bauer)
5. Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
6. Death in the Andes (Mario Vargas Llosa)
7. The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other (Sara Lawrence Lightfoot)
8. Understanding Independent School Parents (Michael Thompson & Alison Fox Mazzola)
heh heh, more adult reading this time. :-)
#7 and #8 are my summer reading for work. They arrived in the mail yesterday, and i wolfed them down. I guess I'm more eager to go back to work than I thought. :-P
#8 was pretty useful--it perfectly captured independent school life and had some practical suggestions. #7 was a little too touchy-feely/melodramatic/pop-psychology for my taste, but it did get me thinking...
part of the reading was about how teachers and parents bring their own educational experiences/childhood dramas into the picture, and that it's important to acknowledge/understand that this is happening, but not to lose sight that you're supposed to be focusing on the KID. anyway, i started thinking about how my educational experiences have affected my teaching...
1. AS A KID: feeling like a brain in a jar/valuing the mind over all else --> AS A TEACHER: i try to teach in a way that involves emotions and actions as well as the mind, lots of hands on stuff, role playing, social skills, etc. i think education should be a holistic experience, not a purely intellectual one.
2. AS A KID: being highly competitive academically, feeling like i had to earn the respect of my peers/parents/self with my grades --> AS A TEACHER: stressing process over product, de-emphasizing grades, assessing using a portfolio of student work and reflection.
3. AS A KID: having a miserable time with affinity groups, wanting to be seen as "just a person", not as asian or female, etc. --> AS A TEACHER: oddly enough, i now run the 5th/6th grade diversity and students of color groups. i constantly think about how my gender/ethnicity/etc affects my experience at this school, and encourage my students to do the same. maybe it's a bigger deal here because independent schools are so, soooooo WHITE. (nothing against white people, just the facts.) and privileged.
4. AS A KID: subjected to old school discipline, taiwanese-immigrant-parent style (i.e. one spanking for every math problem i got wrong on my homework... i got pretty good at math pretty fast :-P)--> AS A TEACHER: creating a classroom where kids feel safe making mistakes, having very few "consequences" for screwing up--more emphasis on if the kid understands what s/he did wrong...
although i have to admit that i have a soft spot for old-school discipline. ;-) i think i'm one of the strictest teachers in the middle school right now. and i'm taking a kung fu class with a really strict sifu right now (we basically can only say "yes sir" or "no sir" in class, he makes us do knuckle push-ups if we're screwing up/slacking, etc). i totally love it. it's a perfect foil for the touchy-feely quaker school stuff i do all day.
5. AS A KID: being surrounded by books all the time. having a set of encyclopedias at home and reading it for fun. not getting an allowance, but being able to buy as many books as i want. --> AS A TEACHER: i'm still surrounded by books all the time, in my classroom and at home. :-) and if i ever have a kid, i'm totally getting a set of encyclopedias.
6. AS A KID: thinking that i could know everything there was to know in the world, that i could read every book ever written, etc --> AS A TEACHER: helping the kids to appreciate how infinitely complex the world is, and to be in awe of how much there is to know... but at the same time encouraging curiosity and giving them tools/strategies to help navigate/make sense of the world.
7. AS A KID: being really upset when a kid in my calculus class was killed by a group of honors students at another high school --> AS A TEACHER: trying to get my kids to think/talk about values, not just facts, with the assumption that an intellect without a conscience is dangerous.
blah blah blah. i could go on and on. i mean, of course everything that happened to you in the past affects who you are today. i guess it feels good to be able to articulate some of this, though. teachers don't always have the luxury of reflection time during the school year, so i guess it's a good idea for me to do this now.
2. Freakonomics (Steven J. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner)
3. The Nazi Officer's Wife (Edith Hahn Beer & Susan Dworkin)
4. Rules of the Road (Joan Bauer)
5. Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
6. Death in the Andes (Mario Vargas Llosa)
7. The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other (Sara Lawrence Lightfoot)
8. Understanding Independent School Parents (Michael Thompson & Alison Fox Mazzola)
heh heh, more adult reading this time. :-)
#7 and #8 are my summer reading for work. They arrived in the mail yesterday, and i wolfed them down. I guess I'm more eager to go back to work than I thought. :-P
#8 was pretty useful--it perfectly captured independent school life and had some practical suggestions. #7 was a little too touchy-feely/melodramatic/pop-psychology for my taste, but it did get me thinking...
part of the reading was about how teachers and parents bring their own educational experiences/childhood dramas into the picture, and that it's important to acknowledge/understand that this is happening, but not to lose sight that you're supposed to be focusing on the KID. anyway, i started thinking about how my educational experiences have affected my teaching...
1. AS A KID: feeling like a brain in a jar/valuing the mind over all else --> AS A TEACHER: i try to teach in a way that involves emotions and actions as well as the mind, lots of hands on stuff, role playing, social skills, etc. i think education should be a holistic experience, not a purely intellectual one.
2. AS A KID: being highly competitive academically, feeling like i had to earn the respect of my peers/parents/self with my grades --> AS A TEACHER: stressing process over product, de-emphasizing grades, assessing using a portfolio of student work and reflection.
3. AS A KID: having a miserable time with affinity groups, wanting to be seen as "just a person", not as asian or female, etc. --> AS A TEACHER: oddly enough, i now run the 5th/6th grade diversity and students of color groups. i constantly think about how my gender/ethnicity/etc affects my experience at this school, and encourage my students to do the same. maybe it's a bigger deal here because independent schools are so, soooooo WHITE. (nothing against white people, just the facts.) and privileged.
4. AS A KID: subjected to old school discipline, taiwanese-immigrant-parent style (i.e. one spanking for every math problem i got wrong on my homework... i got pretty good at math pretty fast :-P)--> AS A TEACHER: creating a classroom where kids feel safe making mistakes, having very few "consequences" for screwing up--more emphasis on if the kid understands what s/he did wrong...
although i have to admit that i have a soft spot for old-school discipline. ;-) i think i'm one of the strictest teachers in the middle school right now. and i'm taking a kung fu class with a really strict sifu right now (we basically can only say "yes sir" or "no sir" in class, he makes us do knuckle push-ups if we're screwing up/slacking, etc). i totally love it. it's a perfect foil for the touchy-feely quaker school stuff i do all day.
5. AS A KID: being surrounded by books all the time. having a set of encyclopedias at home and reading it for fun. not getting an allowance, but being able to buy as many books as i want. --> AS A TEACHER: i'm still surrounded by books all the time, in my classroom and at home. :-) and if i ever have a kid, i'm totally getting a set of encyclopedias.
6. AS A KID: thinking that i could know everything there was to know in the world, that i could read every book ever written, etc --> AS A TEACHER: helping the kids to appreciate how infinitely complex the world is, and to be in awe of how much there is to know... but at the same time encouraging curiosity and giving them tools/strategies to help navigate/make sense of the world.
7. AS A KID: being really upset when a kid in my calculus class was killed by a group of honors students at another high school --> AS A TEACHER: trying to get my kids to think/talk about values, not just facts, with the assumption that an intellect without a conscience is dangerous.
blah blah blah. i could go on and on. i mean, of course everything that happened to you in the past affects who you are today. i guess it feels good to be able to articulate some of this, though. teachers don't always have the luxury of reflection time during the school year, so i guess it's a good idea for me to do this now.