Teaching Hope: Empowerment

I really enjoyed story 144. It’s great that this teacher was even allowed to take the students on such a unique field trip. By meeting with the mayor, the students were allowed to voice their concerns to a very real audience. They were very enthusiastic and stood strong in their beliefs. This is a great lesson for any middle school student. If you want something to change, you have to do something about it. Not every problem is going to fix itself. Making a “toast for change” showed the students that speaking up is the first step and getting someone (like the mayor) to listen is the next step. These kids are affected by so many different issues on a daily basis, that teachers may not even notice what’s happening. I really like how their experiences shine through the “toasts for change” being made.

Story 146 really made me happy. I love how determined Mike’s peers were when he decided he wanted to drop out of high school at the end of his sophomore year. Students and teachers alike were not willing to let him go. I would love to work in a school that’s really more like a community. I think it’s an important part of learning. It also must have planted a seed in Mike’s brain because even though he left for a little while, he was back before the school year had ended. I’m really glad the teacher never gave up on him and even graded his final paper. Overall, this story makes me think about how stressful life can get and how sometimes, it seems like it would be easier to just give up. Students are probably going to reach this point and as teachers, we need to know what to do when it happens.

Teaching Hope: Rejuvenation

Story 115 really had me thinking about the importance of communication. I love the idea of having students write to pen pals from another part of the country. It gives students a real audience and allows them to relate to other students their age who may struggling with similar problems. I love how excited the students got when they received a new letter. Getting students to truly care about something in school is critical in order for them to learn something. It’s awesome that the students even had the opportunity to visit the other schools. It was probably scary and intimidating for the students, but a very important experience to have. It gives them perspective they may not be familiar with, which allows them to be more accepting and open.

Story 118 reminded me of the time I worked in a second grade classroom at Mallett. Once a week, the second graders would pair up with kindergarten students and read to each other. I loved watching how excited they all were to see each other. It gave the second graders a chance to share what they had learned and gave the kindergarteners a chance to practice in front of a friendly audience. It’s a great program. The one talked about in the story goes a step further. It takes sixth graders from one school and pairs them with kindergarteners from a very different school. Not only are the students connecting with others different in age, but also different in experience, which is very beneficial to all involved.

I really liked how the teacher in 130 stood up for herself. It wasn’t fair of the department head to repeatedly assign her to teach a class on African American history just because she was African American. I’m glad she finally decided to do something about it and actually got the principal to listen. I’m sure that particular teacher is capable of teaching more than just African American history and it might actually be good for the other students to hear some new perspectives from a different teacher. I’m just glad the principal actually did something to help the teacher, because that may not always be the case in other schools.

Teaching Hope: Disillusionment

Story seventy-eight really got my attention. I can’t even imagine being in that teacher’s shoes. It isn’t fair when the room isn’t big enough to accommodate the number of students within it. The principal’s reaction to the teacher is the most disheartening part about this whole story. All he can do is mention the fact that the teacher cried. It doesn’t occur to him that he should probably do something to prevent something like this from happening again in the future. I wouldn’t feel comfortable working in a school with a principal who wasn’t willing to help out. It’s too bad the teacher in this story didn’t at least stand up for herself and ask him to make some changes. At the very least, I would have gotten a group of teachers together to go talk some sense into him.

I’m not sure how I feel about story eighty-two. It’s awful how they expect one teacher to watch twenty to thirty misbehaved students for such a long period of time. This teacher was right in saying, “Isn’t there a better way to do this?” (Gruwell, 186). What are the students going to learn by sitting in a room with other students like them? An effective punishment has to somehow be related to the crime being punished. Community service is one example of this. If a student defaces school property, have them clean it up. It isn’t fair to the teachers to make them watch all of the students at once. Discipline should be individualized, much like learning.

Story 107 really got to me. It’s scary that after everything that teacher had done for the school and her students, she was still let go. It seems like sometimes the firing has nothing to do with who you are as a teacher. It’s almost as if it is now a game of luck. It’s unfortunate, but administrators can only do so much with the funding they receive. I wonder if it also has something to do with how long a teacher has taught at the school. Would administrators be more likely to fire a teacher who has done a great job but only been there for one year over a veteran teacher that still refuses to update his or her practices? It just doesn’t seem right. Regardless, the teacher in this story was pretty naïve in thinking teaching was a safe profession. It is competitive and political. These things can’t be ignored.

Teaching Hope: Engagement

Story number forty-eight caught my attention by making me think about the line between wanting to get to know your students and knowing too much. The teacher in this particular story believed in the privacy of his students. If they didn’t want him to read a particular journal entry, he skipped right over it. When Alli asked him to read one of her entries, he was excited to finally know more about her. The entry only lead to more questions so the teacher continued to dig. This seemed to annoy the student a little, but I suppose she did bring it on herself. And eventually, she wanted the teacher to read the entire journal. This is where the red flags went up for me. Although this was a school journal, it is hard to say what a student might write about. If I were in this teacher’s shoes, I would probably be curious as well, but I think I would be more scared than anything. You never really know what you might find out about a student. I think the teacher puts it very well when he says, “I wished I hadn’t pressed to find out about Alli’s parents” (Gruwell, 112). I feel like this is the type of position I would find myself in if this were to happen to me. As much as it might hurt to learn about the struggles your students endure on a daily basis, I suppose it might be a good idea to know what’s going on, at least to a certain extent.

Story number fifty-six made me laugh out loud. The classroom is certainly not a place for politics of any kind, except maybe in a social studies class come November. When that particular girl brought up the question about gay marriage, I’m not sure what I would have done, but I’m not sure I liked the way this teacher approached the question. Turning it back on her, was his first mistake. She clearly had something to say about it, or she wouldn’t be bringing it up. Maybe he could have explained how class time shouldn’t be spent discussing politics. If there had been any questioning people in the room at the time, I can’t imagine how they must have felt once Natasha shared her mind. His second mistake came with making her name the Ten Commandments. She certainly deserved it, but it wasn’t a good idea to call out the student in front of the whole class like that. His overall message behind his technique was certainly interesting though. I agree that students should be able to back up what they believe instead of just repeating what someone else believes.

Teaching Hope: Challenges

The twenty-second story really spoke to me because I think it is important to remember that we, as teachers, were young once too and we may have experienced similar issues growing up. I think students forget this sometimes. I really liked how this teacher recognized the similarities she had with the student and was willing to embrace them. She was unsure how to do it at first, but she did eventually give in. The fact that the student was willing to share her journal with the teacher shows that the teacher somehow made a connection with the student. It’s hard to know what to do in situations like this because we aren’t specifically trained to do it, but sometimes just being there to listen is enough.

I’m not so sure how I feel about the twenty-sixth story. Though I agree it would be hard to report something that you are obligated to report even though the student makes you promise not to say anything, it is still your responsibility as a teacher. I’m really nervous that something like this might happen to me when I’m a teacher and I won’t have any idea what to do. I know it takes a lot of courage for a student to admit something like that to a teacher, and it would hurt them a lot to have a teacher report it. They may not realize it, but in most cases, it is what’s best for the student.

I have seen one common theme throughout a number of these stories: sharing something very personal with your students. I’m having a hard time agreeing with what some of those teachers did. Stories about rape, for example, don’t really seem appropriate for in the classroom. Although sometimes sharing a story may encourage students to share their own stories, I’m just not sure I would feel comfortable sharing something that personal in front of every student. Also, I’m not sure what the school would consider to be appropriate.

Teaching Hope: Anticipation

The second story stuck out to me because I definitely see myself as the teacher who would want to make sure everything is absolutely perfect for the first day of school. I’ve always been the type of person that wants to be ready to go from day one. There is nothing more comforting than everything being in its place. I also liked the part about starting with a clean slate. Sometimes halfway through a semester, I find myself wishing I had done things differently. This leads to me wanting to start off on the right foot for the following semester. I think it’s important to know that you really can start off with a clean slate. It may not always work out the way you would like, but it is good to know that it is possible.

The seventeenth story stuck out to me because I believe that it is important to inform students about things they will most likely experiment with anyway. There are a lot of people in the education field (sex-ed teachers and principals, especially) who don’t feel comfortable sharing certain facts about sex with students. Like I said, students will most likely experiment with sex regardless of what they are told in sex-ed class. But that’s not the scariest part. If they are not allowed to ask questions and only receive the information that the teacher feels comfortable providing, they may be misinformed or confused. I like the way the teacher in this story took control of the situation and answered the questions in a mature and helpful way. Although students will still be just as likely to experiment with sex, at least they go in knowing a lot more about it.

The eighteenth story jumped out at me because sometimes it is just as important for students to teach each other as it is for me to teach them. I like how this teacher allowed the other students to voice their opinions about stealing the book. They portrayed an important message about how one person’s actions can sometimes affect the entire group. This is a great lesson to teach students of all ages.