Advice From Strong & Subjects Matter

Many who read Strong’s Chapter 6 can quickly identify dull “busy work” as the reason for students’ lack of motivation. The picture Vader paints in the opening section clearly set the aforementioned scene (94-95). However, there is one sentence that I think was overshadowed by the overall portrait. On the first page Vader asserts that “By making students fearful of errors, both real and imagined, we reduce motivation” (94). Until recently I would do any school work despite the drudgery, but only so long as I received a good grade. Unlike the students primarily discussed by Strong, my lack of motivation stemmed form a fear of failure. Thinking back this attitude developed under the testing craze started under Bush. The school environment at the time sent messages to students that one grade was what mattered and not the overall picture. I learned to treat every test like this, which created a high anxiety to perform well. So I made sure to pick classes that I could get A’s in rather than be challenged. Clearly, I had the wrong attitude for any type of learning to occur. I am finding similar issues in today’s school too. For instance during a recent volunteer session that coached students on the how to pass Classical; entrance exam, I had to use half the session time to remind the eighth graders that a score does not define them. I had to do this at the start of every due to the negative vibes they were getting outside my class time with them. Their anxiety came on years before mine did, which is frightening given the negative results that can follow (below is a link to handle perfectionist).   

Luckily, the Strong reading displays important solutions to the problem of both kinds of “reduced motivation.”  To make work less dull a teacher can use assignments that encouraging creativity, like CRAFT. Strong gives a good argument for why this woks (97). However, on top of his reasons I also think CRAFT is particularly good for high school students because it allows them to pretend to be someone else. During adolescence, teenagers are trying to figure out who they are. Being in someone else’s shoes is a good way to for them to explore values and ideas that they can incorporate into their identity, which as we know anything that relates to a student’s life can raise to increased motivation. Furthermore, who you have the students writing about will make a huge difference. I never thought of the students acting as lawyers before the Supreme Court, but this could be an exciting task given how much is mentioned about the Courts as of late (100). Furthermore, it opens the students to a possible career choice, which some will be curious about as they are thinking of life after high school. Despite all the benefits of CRAFT, I never saw this used in my classes before or during any of my recent observations. I just have to wonder, why don’t teachers use this more?

CRAFT alone can’t increase motivation for failure avoidant student, but the teacher’s attitude toward grading can. Sarah, the math teacher who had the creative rubric, showed grading can be done in a manner that allows for her class to have a second change (101). Doing this puts the learning process first and the grades second because you aren’t putting so much pressure on one grade. I am not sure if I would suggest that everything handed in be allowed to a second chance because a teacher might not be able to grade that quickly. Plus, in the “real world” students will not always be given second chances. However for some of the bigger writing assignments that are new, I think it is something that should be used to ease student’s concerns. A teacher could maybe even work something into their testing system that could help a student’s overcome high text anxiety.  

The content of my reflection keeps straying back to high stakes testing and anxiety, but it’s an issue that will clearly affect all of us as new teachers. Fortunately, Strong isn’t the only author with ideas to help the student succeed. Previously, Subject Matters showed that there are different reading strategies that need to be taught in order for students to become better learners so that they could once more like learning (24-30). Daniels and Zemelman, also displayed that another way to make classwork more interesting was to substitute the reading for genres like nonfiction book rather than relying on the text book all the time (53). Chapter 3 went into great depth as to why teachers should supplement the text book (i.e. inaccuracies, difficulty level, poor design, etc.) (40-44). However, what I appreciated most from Subjects Matters was the section in Chapter 6 that explained how to use the text book so as to increase the student’s comprehension level. Let’s face it, we will all be using textbooks so we are going to need to know what to do with them. While all the activities seem useful, my favorite is the first one in which the teacher actually educates the pupils about the text book by having them explore the book and writing their findings in a graphic organizer (150-151). It is so simple, but could make a great difference in how the class paces their reading, organizes themselves for the test, and deciphers the text. Plus this fed back could even help me assign readings or classwork to the students now that I understand their frame of reference.

The advice from Subjects Matters will clearly have a large impact in my teaching as will Strong’s advice. I won’t say one is better than the other because the authors are both focused on different aspects of the learning (i.e. resources vs. assignments). What matter though, is that both resources and assignments need to be used so as to increase the student’s success, which is obviously the focus of each author and the reason I will heed aspects of their feedback.  

Link

1. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/shore/shore008.shtml

English Language Learners

Before I read the assigned content, I already knew that learning a second language is a challenge for students. During my secondary education, I couldn’t even master French after taking it for six consecutive years. So I could never understand how ELL’s would be expected to learn a language and their academic content. I realize ELL students are given more than the 45 minute class periods I had to learn French, but that is only for their first year or so. My observations at CF reinforce my belief. As I previously noted, one of the teacher’s is learning Spanish to communicate better with her students because the students have issues understanding English. A lack of clear communication between teacher and students means that some students aren’t retaining as much as they could. As such, I always thought the students should be able to have classes in their native language until they made a better transition into their second language so the process would better for them.

Now that I have read this brief I never realized just how daunting it is to learn another language. Under the section entitled, “Differentiate the content” the ELL brief clearly outlined what ELL students need to know and by the end of that section my mind was spinning (2). Grammar, academic content, social skills, and all the subsets of these categories must be accessed in order for the student to grow as a student. I have thought about teaching many of these concepts to ELL students, but never thought about everything they had to do all at once. Seeing it plainly on paper is what caused me to feel extra sympathy for these students. Even though I think ELL students clearly need more time and attention, I am now re-evaluating just how much of my time and attention they need. I have never really thought about teaching the “social” language because I don’t see that as my responsibility to ELL students. I view learning slang as something people pick up as cues from their peers. There is no doubt in my mind that the students need to learn these words. Without the everyday slang, it will be hard for any student to fit in with their peers. As we all know, lack of friend's has detrimental effects on the student’s mental and academic well-being. So I am wondering, how much time should the student be spending with their non-ELL peers? Or was my original idea of keeping them in a separate classroom actually the better option? Have a let my sympathies for these students result in an over analysis of a simple issue? I need more time to process this before venturing at some firm answers.

In regards to academic content, the ELL brief in conjunction with Subject Matters helped me resolve some issues I have with teaching ELL students my subject language. I especially became aware of just how hard it can be to communicate with ELL students, when I was asked to help out in the all ELL room at CF a few weeks ago. Since then I have been troubled with the task of how I can reach these students. While I am still not entirely clear how to help a pupil who speaks close to no English, I realized many of the suggestions for helping ELL learners are similar to reading strategies that are prescribed for every student.  For instance, Daniels and Zemelman discuss how “prior knowledge is the main determinant of comprehension” (25). While the brief also advised to keep student’s background knowledge in mind when “differentiate(ing) the content” (3). The brief also mentioned the need for “variety,” which is a concept Daniels and Zemelman explore throughout chapter 4: “Towards a Balanced Diet of Reading.” From this chapter, I think the idea of using shorter texts to introduce a concept is something that would definitely be applicable to ELLs (60). It gives content at a rate that is unlikely to overwhelm them so as not to distract from the main instructional point. It is important to realize this overlap when planning a lesson. During many of my daily plans I will try to differentiate texts for the ELLs. However, I am now more apt to use a strategy that benefits more than one group of students because I will want to reach as many students as I can in one lesson (see an idea of a technique I would use that helps ELL and another group of students below). I am sure there are other factors I will need to take into consideration when focusing on my ELL students, but understanding how to balance the needs of many puts me one step closer to better serving all my future students.

               

Image taken from: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/232850243204256989/

*Last semester one of my teachers would use flash cards as a means to learn new vocabulary and I found it incredibly helpful. It was a simple activity, but using just a few of the same flash cards throughout the semester highlighted the information he really wanted us to know. He didn’t have pictures on the cards, but I know many visual learners would appreciate the extra touch. Also, as the brief mentioned ELL students would like it too because it enable them to associate the word better. Thus, I have an easy method of furthering students vocab with a tool that helps a couple different kinds of learners.

I also want to point out that I realize Pinterest isn’t exactly the most academic of websites, but I like looking at some of the education ideas there because some teachers will post some pretty creative ideas. The guess who game with historical figures that is on Jenifer’s blog is actually something I saw on Pinterest first.

More Than the Textbook

The benefits of literary works as a resource is something I want to debate. Early on in chapter three, Daniels & Zemelman, state that a non-fiction story can “give more {than a textbook},to make the information readable and memorable” (53). From the excerpts of A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation, I can see how the authors can make the argument that the story was “readable.” It was in straightforward language that was more enticing than most school textbooks (51-53). However, I don’t think a story makes the facts any more memorable after just reading the information. I read the excerpts from A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation about E=MC2 Thursday before class. Five days later, I just remembered two guys went out skiing and made an important discovery related to the equation. The specific information that I was supposed to remember eludes me. What I think needs to occur is an assignment that makes the students properly think about the new material. As I learned in my CEP class, memory is the residue of thought. If the students read the book, but give it minimal attention, then it will not transfer over into long-term memory (which is what happened after I read the passage on the formula). Thus, reading is only half the battle. It is a hard part of the battle for some teachers who only use textbooks given how boring the material can be. However, once something is read from either source (text or non-text book) you still need to make the student think before any sort of learning occurs. 

To be clear, the importance of learning is a focal point of Subject Matters; however, the process appears different than the one outlined in UBD. Subjects Matters revolves around the reader’s engagement and ability to process the new material. Arguments like the one I refuted above occur because the author is preoccupied with changing the “reading diet” of students reading first and foremost (51). As stated above I already think there is more to the equation, but applying UBD adds more layers to the process. Rather than question the readability of a text, a person following UBD first need needs to ask if the material is in line with what we want to teach the students. Or question if there are better options. In USB the tools are still a significant part of teaching students, but not all resources are correct nor should all lessons be designed around the resources the teacher will use. As such, the UBD reading focused far less on resources and far more on the how to set goals (USB, Chapter One).  However, I like the idea of spending more time on the goals because such a line of thinking can lay a better defense for why a resource is used in a class.  Just saying “national standards” wants teacher’s to go in more depth or saying “readability” affects what the pupils potentially retains isn’t enough (53). Both of these arguments leaves open the possibility of wasting time. The only way to figure what should be used is starting out with the goal.

Despite questioning the resources Subjects Matters presents in a more critical manner due to UBD, Daniels & Zemelman were still able to teach me a valuable lesson about picking content. Paying attention to specific factors like “short v. long,” “primary v. secondary,” and “classic v. contemporary” all have a decisive impact on the student and their reading experience (58-61). All of these will affect me as a teacher too, yet the concept of “mirrors and windows” captured my attention the most (59). According to Daniels & Zemelman students need to be reading some text that are different from their experiences, beliefs, and overall character to fulfill the windows requirement of the concept. Logically, including mirrors means that students must read texts similar to them in some way so that they are engaged and validated as a student (59). Thinking this over, my reaction to USB approached a fine line. I wrote about how I enjoy teaching from WWI onwards specifically through the lens of the United States. I still hold that preference, but in teaching my subject I need to be very careful not to let my preference drive all the material I present. After mulling over my book choices, I realize I lean towards the mirror side of the equation. Such a revelation is probably a factor as to why I enjoy US history the most. Yet, my experience at TS and CF confirm that not all my students will be like me. So this means that I will need to do a better job incorporating variety into my class. The first place to start will be by expanding what I read. Yes, that means book suggestions are more than welcome! For I know a few good “widow” books, but not enough to be able to effectively choose resources when it comes time to under the UBD method of planning.

I included this picture because it kept popping in my head as I was writing the last paragraph. The overall commentary about differences is a bit sad, but the implications of Einstein’s general statement always inspires me to value the diversity of all students.

*Image copied from this blog: http://alyssiakajati.wordpress.com/

Reaction to UBD

As I was reading about understanding by design, the content made sense to me. A large reason is because my professors at RIC already introduced me to the idea without putting the formal name to the concept subtly being taught. For instance, during a reading about how different educational philosophers view education, my FNED professor made the point that we, as educators, need to be thinking about how to actively engage learners with the skills being taught so as to gain evidence of their understanding. Also, in my SED 406 class last semester the professor stressed that the goals should be one of the first items addressed when creating a lesson plan. In fact, the template he gave us for such an assignment had the goals put before the instructional part of the lesson plan. These are just a couple examples, but the first two stages of UBD (evidence and results) were regularly brought up in FNED and SED 406. Each time I agreed with the sound logic of these method because I want my students to learn well and not by accident as this author states on numerous occasions (The Big Ideas of UbD, 7). Despite this desire and slight familiarity, I still have issues conceptualizing this theory into the reality of a yearlong curriculum.  

One difficulty stems from the fact that I fell into the second "sin of typical unit planning" well before I reached section A of the assigned reading (8). Back in chapter one, the author gave a visual representation about how to prioritize the curriculum (10). At first, I thought “great this makes so much sense; of course I can easily do that.”  Then I thought about how much history content I have to also cover in a year and I became far less confident. During my recent observations at TS the teacher I was assigned to, who has been teaching for years, constantly struggled with staying on top of the required material. By the time I left, she was over 100 pages behind in the text book from where her administration wanted her to be. If an experienced educator still hasn’t figured out a good solution for this problem, how is a novice teacher expected to stay on task?

When I stop letting my anxiety take hold, I can see that the teacher I observed didn’t exactly follow the guidelines set forth regarding prioritizing information. To be fair, the teacher spent many days trying to increase the “enduring understanding” of her students by giving close readings and critical thinking assignments. However, there were plenty of other lessons she wasted covering topics outside the priority diagram outlined in Chapter one (please see page 10) just to appease administration. A prime example for this is when she spent two weeks on ancient Egypt and Mummies. I find this unnecessary because the political scientist in me thinks it is important to choice topics that allow the past lessons of history to be applied to the present. Try as I might, I can’t think of anything relevant about Ancient Egypt. I really just prefer spending the most amount of my time reading about WWI onward as those lessons have the most obvious impact on our current society (at least in terms of the United States, Africa and the Middle East are a different story). Yet, most people I talk to never reach these significant eras because the educators run out of time. This problem seems to be a curriculum planning error that would need to be resolved through a restructuring of each district’s History agenda. A few schools have done this by including current event electives, but not many. I just hope I am able to become part of the more progressive schools or help led a campaign to negotiate the curriculum with administration because I won’t be able to stand covering topics just to appease administration at the expense of significant lessons.

Keeping in line with my political science roots raised one last concern in regard to resources. Reviewing the nutrition lesson at the end of the first UBD chapter displayed how the teacher didn’t think his book was well equipped to use the entire time (17). I feel like a large portion of my assigned classroom book won’t cover what I want in regards to current event either. Now the author of Subjects Matter makes the point that a wide variety of generas be utilized, such as “newspapers, magazines, websites,” etc. (15). I will probably resort to these most often. However, I start to wonder how costly will my constant copying be. Should I just have students read everything online? Will that always be possible? Though most importantly, I wonder about what content I will provide my future pupils with to read.  This weekend, I came across a NPR blog about the plague and how its lessons could be applied to the Ebola outbreak (see below link). It was an interesting read and something I would like to incorporate into a class if I were forced to be teaching the plague like the teacher at TS, but then I would spend forever researching the perfect article to give my students. Maybe, with time, I will get better at choosing resources, but that is not the case at the moment. Yet, time in the teaching profession is an immensely valuable resource. So I can’t always squander it trying to find the absolute best lesson. So once again, I am left wondering how should I handle curriculum design and where do I compromise?

The best answer to my final question comes from the end of chapter one in Subjects Matter. Specifically when authors says that they hear everyone’s criticisms towards the new fast food unit and respond with the logic that, “we’re not saying…that this is where you begin” (14). In my head, I have these great lessons. However all great lessons, like the fast food unit, take time. I need to continue to move forward slowly and work past my anxiety in a progressive manner like I did in this blog. Furthermore, I need to pay close attention to the content of Subject Matters as the authors do promise that the pages after chapter one will “show how content teachers can take steps-carefully and thoughtfully toward more promising reading (15).” I hope they keep their promise!   

Link

1. http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/20/349271621/ebola-battlers-can-learn-from-venices-response-to-black-death

Chapter 1 & 2: Subjects Matter

                                                         

I appreciate that Daniels and Zemelan want “to see students overly worked up” about a subject as a result of their course reading (13).  Every teacher does. According to these authors, all educators need to focus on techniques that will increase comprehension rather than "decoding" or many students won't become passionate (22). There logic essentially states that since basic phonetic skills are completed in elementary school, high school teachers should move onto teaching the more challenging material that many pupils struggle with as decoding isn't really an issue at that stage of learning anymore (22). Wilhelm makes a similar point when explaining his choice for a teacher/learner centered approach to education as well, showing that Daniels and Zemelan’s notion has some support (39).

I might agree with all three authors, were it not for the illiteracy rate in the United States. According to a recent 2013 Huffington Post article, 21% of the adult population reads worse than a 5^th grader and 19% of graduating seniors can’t read at all (see below link). I feel like these student might have missed some of the basic decoding skills in their prior years that could have helped them read better. Another concern I have is for ESL learners. As my observations at CF show, there are students in mainstream classrooms who understand Spanish better than English. How would I best teach those student to read and keep up with my content? Daniels and Zemelman seemed to believe that students with phonetic issues already have resource teachers who will help them; implying that everything will be fine due to the special education department (22). However, if the aforementioned student is in my classroom, shouldn’t their reading problem be my concern too?

I suggest that lower skilled readers be taught in a manner that addresses both decoding and comprehension problems so as to maintain the high standards these authors advocate. For I feel giving an assignment geared to increasing comprehension won’t work unless the student can read English in the first place. As someone who was told early on in their school career that they can't hear phonetically, I take this issue very seriously because I know just how hard it is to read when sounds don't come together. Luckily this is a problem I overcame, but it still happens to me every now and again. A word I will use in everyday language will be printed on a page and I will be staring at it for 3 minutes trying to figure it out before the issue is clarified. When I was younger these reading blocks were more frequent so I found reading exhausting. I actually hated reading for quite some time because of just how bad I was at it. When I do start teaching, I hope my prior disdain of the subject is something I can advert my students from feeling. 

On a more positive note, I do agree with the fact that educators need to learn how to teach reading in a way that furthers critical thinking skills. For I now love reading because of how thought provoking some stories can be. Plus being able to think critically is just a good skill to have in general. Without this ability, people run the risk of making poor uninformed decisions that affect much of their life. I know before I was taught how to comprehend I couldn't make connections between what I read and what I learned. Meaning the reflective pieces we have to do right now to grow as an educator is something I couldn't sufficiently do before. Such reflective pieces is one of the most valuable aspect to learning, because otherwise how would a student really understand or remember what they learned? Therefore, these reasons make me think comprehension is something that teachers really need to focus on as well. 

Link

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_3880355.html

Literacy Profile: Ballroom Dance

I am very proud to say I am literate in ballroom dancing; though until recently, dancing wasn't something I boasted about to others. The reason becomes obvious when looking at my motive for doing ballroom. When I entered the URI Ballroom Dance Club my freshmen year, there wasn't much thought put into the decision. As a requirement for all incoming classes, URI makes students participate in at least one extracurricular activity. Since mock trial and parliamentary debate were unavailable, I really didn’t have a strong desire to be an active member of anything. I later asked my friends what they chose (there answer being ballroom) and I thought, “sounds as good as anything else. I am in.” So off I went for an hour long class Wednesday evening.

  

I admit, following the crowd was not a good reason to dance and it highly impacted how skilled I became as a dancer. Since I was forced to join an activity, I did the bear minimum.  Whereas, the more passionate people attended the club from 5-9 PM, during which time six dances and some technique was (and still is) covered. At technique classes more one on one time was offered and the teacher really discussed how to make the dance look good. Since, I opted out of that last hour I didn’t know how to follow my partner's lead correctly, count music, stay on beat, or how to position my body during the dance. I had a general understanding that I should be on the right of the leader, but that was only because my partner would push me over there every time.

The better dancers also made more of an effort outside of the classes. Be it by themselves, with a friend, or at a social dance they put in many practice hours on their own time. Then they would come back with questions that they would converse to the teacher about thereby increasing their “declarative and procedural knowledge” as Wilhelm would say (47). Without much practice, all I could do was follow the steps, but typically only when my teacher was saying what should be done next. I say typically, because I even struggled to follow the sequence of moves since I didn't know all of the names of the steps. The last day of class when there were numerous complex steps that built of the basic, I did horribly. Since I had a thin grasp of the dances foundation I couldn't keep up with what my teacher was saying much to my partner’s displeasure.   

Despite my low interest and lack of practice, I continued to attend dance intermittently and performed in a subpar manner until my senior year. That year many of the experienced dancers were no longer in the club and the leadership changed. Now I know I am most at fault for not growing as a dancer earlier, however, I didn't end up caring about the club to put any effort into the skill until the change in members occurred. Under the old group the club was unwelcoming to new comers. On my first day of class many of the participates were frustrated that new comers didn’t already know how to dance. Furthermore, the skilled members didn't make much of an effort to include beginners in their conversations during class either. Really, it is a wonder I even went back sometimes. Luckily I did, and the club changed around the time I did too. Simply put the new president and younger dancers started to be more sociable and were helpful to everyone. With more of a connection to the club, I started staying later, practicing with others outside class, and attending socials.  One of our teachers, who owns a professional dance studio, even offered us discounted class rates when it became apparent the club, myself included, didn’t want to stop dancing during the summer (See below link for studio information).

Aside from having an increased appreciation for a variety of music generas and a wide knowledge of ballroom, I have gained some practical skills that impact my life on a daily basis. For one, becoming involved in dance has made me more personable. In any dance situation you have to be in close proximity with your partner. Because I dance so often at socials and other events, I meet many new dancers constantly. To minimize the incredibly awkward feeling everyone has when being in close contact with a stranger, I have learned the art of small talk quite well. Not everyone is receptive to polite conversation nor are people more skilled than I nice about dancing with a person below their capabilities. Before that bothered me, but now I know to just brush it off and keep dancing. They are only a small thorn when it comes to the overall picture, which is an attitude I keep in mind for anything I try now. So I have also developed a pretty thick skin due to dance.

 The importance of “humane” practice for increasing engagement will also translate into my teaching (Wilhelm, 21). When Wilhelm described how to teach reading during chapter two his support for Vygotsky’s learning-centered teaching showed he thinks a large part of the equation falls on the teacher’s method (31-53). My ballroom teacher used this same method, but as my early experience showed that wasn't enough. What I needed was to have someone create a safe and welcoming environment for me, which could have simply been done by being caring and patient. This clearly relates to the classroom. Wilhelm once said in an aside such an environment can increase new interests (21). With the experience of a poor atmosphere still fresh in my memory, I think atmosphere is more than a footnote. That feeling still makes me go out of my way to be nicer to the freshmen when I dance at URI. The current President does the same too, which is great because membership retention has increased with the introduction of this new club culture. So hopefully like dance retention, I can increase student retention (i.e. interest) through the use of my “humane” ballroom practice.

Links

1. Studio Information: http://dancinfeelin.com/

2. Video of Most Recent URI Performance: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=920111361337853&set=o.2200019120&type=2&theater

*The people in the second video are the people I currently practice with. There technique is a bit better than mine, but I can typically keep up with them during lessons. 

                                             Professional Development

I attended the Rhode Island Writing Project’s annual spring conference on March 8, 2014 where I learned the value of the first person tense in a classroom and the benefit of creating a personal teaching manifesto.  

The keynote speaker, Thomas Newkrik, inspired me to think about using first person writing in my future classroom. Newkrik stated that narration is actually “at the heart of everything” including argumentative and informational writing, which is where the Common Core invests too much of its time. For Mr. Newkrik, narrative writing is the most interesting and engaging to readers because of the highly personal final product. As such, Mr. Newkrick believes that no one should “apologize” for writing in the first person. His words really stuck a chord with me because I was taught the opposite method. Starting in high school my teachers drilled into my mind that using the word “I” in a graded paper should never happen.  This concept carried over to my undergraduate courses as it was also improper to state your opinion in any history paper. After really mulling over Mr. Newkrick’s presentation, I think he made a semi valid point. First person writing has many merits. However, I also believe that a narrative can be different from argumentative writing. In fact, argumentative writing was the style I had to use when writing all of my history papers at URI. While my papers were typically advancing a point I believed in, my points sounded better when I had evidence from a credible source rather than my own musings. Therefore, first person narrative should be separated at certain times, which is why I will continue to teach my future students that formal historical assignments should include no direct evidence of bias. Unlike my past teachers I will allow my future pupils to freely advance their opinions regarding history through more informal writing projects, like reaction journals. The reason I will slightly modify the routine of my past teachers is because narration is engaging— not just to read like Mr. Newkrick mentioned, but also write. What someone believes in often interests them the most and when a student is interested they learn. Thus, Mr. Newkirck made me see that a mix of prompts encouraging the use of first person tense and ones that do not are both needed in a history classroom.

After the keynote speaker I was introduced to the idea of a teaching manifesto in a workshop entitled “overcoming novice teacher fails.” This particular part of the conference didn’t give me anything concrete to apply in a classroom. For instance, if I went to the session on digital media I would have come away with some digital media technology to incorporate into lessons. Instead this session made the participants focus on internalizing their teaching believes, which I think was in an effort to help give the members of this group a feeling of inspiration to look back on during a tough teaching day. The first step in the writing process was to first consider a series of questions about what I wanted out of my students, school, and self and to discuss this with a partner. Next the individuals running the session provided example manifestos that were all corny advertisements. Since my mind kept echoing the words and attitude of the previous ads, my manifesto turned out to be cheesy. Writing a horrible manifest was a refreshing task because it made me keep in mind the reasons I chose to teach and just reaffirm that even though I may get frustrated with requirements or be fearful of my first year, this career is what I want. I actually like the idea of keeping a written manifesto for me to glance at on days that will be challenging to remind myself of my goals. Therefore, I am going to write a whole new manifesto one day when my mind is more focused on writing a professional sounding piece, which (as mentioned later in class) will be something I need to do anyway because it will be useful for interviews. So even though I cannot use a manifesto with my students directly I can use a manifesto to keep myself positive when teaching my future class, thereby creating a better environment for the teenagers. Also, I might be able to use the manifesto to obtain a job as I now have some great questions to think about that every educator should be prepared to answer.   

Overall, the Rhode Island Writers Conference provided me with some good tools for the future. The key note speaker had some thought provoking insights that made me re-evaluate that type of writing assignments I will give my future students. In contrast, the novice teacher workshop provided me with a document that will act as a reminder to lend me strength and confidence during days in which I will need a boost to teach my best.