Saturday, October 15, 2011

wk3 reading- the art of possibility

Leading from Any Chair: I was really struck by this, because I feel as teachers we are supposed to do this every day. There's that old saying, to not be the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side? That's exactly what I thought of when I read this chapter. It's giving students more "power" in the classroom to learn. Once we do that, students will be more confident and might take more risks! I have a few tattoos that my students love to ask about, and one of them says "Believe" on my arm, so they always ask me what that means. I always tell them that everyone needs to believe in something, and even if you don't believe in anything, you need to especially believe in yourself. I think leading from any chair means that students need to believe in themselves to take charge in the classroom and in their lives!
I also love Rule Number 6! Speaking of my tattoos, I have another one on my ankle that says Live Laugh Love, and it's another one that my students ask about. This one is kind of self explanatory, and we see it all the time as it's a common expression, but do we really take that advice? Each day, do you make an effort to live, laugh AND love? Live and Love are the easier ones- everyone is already living (although I challenge you to take it to the next level and LIVE every day), and everyone loves something (their self, a family member, something else, hopefully!), but do we take a moment to LAUGH every day? Just remembering to never take life seriously (because we won't get out alive!) has saved me MANY a day when teaching in my school seemed impossible. Even this year, my classes are a little crazy (they gender-ized the freshman class, and I teach the majority of the GIRLS, so there's a-WHOLE-lot of attitude in my classroom on a daily basis), so just remembering Rule Number 6 makes me feel much better each day!

image obtained from creativecommons.org
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2 comments:

  1. KrisOctober 16, 2011 at 3:07 PM

    I think you touch on a great topic of everyone needing to believe in themselves. Such a thing can be difficult to do, especially if things don't seem to be going your way at the moment. You also picked up on my favorite part of the reading, Rule Number 6. Not taking things too seriously, and always making sure to laugh is pretty much a way of life for me. I definitely make sure to take things seriously when appropriate, but I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to lighten up some times.
    P.S. I can't believe the school you teach at split the classrooms by genders, that just seems like they're asking for trouble.

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  2. jbbOctober 19, 2011 at 10:12 AM

    It is so important to stay open and be able to make connections with our students where they're at. There's a funny poster company called the demotivators that rips on those inspirational posters we've all seen. The reason this comes to mind is that those who expect to be successful in the classroom without bringing themselves into their teaching are the kind of teachers who will soon be replaced by a robot (the demotivator version: http://www.despair.com/motivation.html). ;-)

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