A Theoritical Observation
Education in the United States tends to be more aimed at a vocational purpose, even when that vocational purpose is more theoretical, except when that theoretical education track your own avoids practical knowledge, which is what a theoretical education is supposed to be.
most of the crucial, feeding, thoughtful, bombastic, stylizing, entertaining, job-sufficing and expanding pieces of practical information on the area of English Education in the secondary world I have come to accept that I will hastily (or, hopefully, please, at a pace) learn from my observation time in schools, student teaching, and my first year or so in the actual field. This is not to say that my graduate education is leaving me with no immediate, useful information in terms of actions to take in a classroom as a teacher, but that the research, thought, and scaffolding behind the reason I will take certain actions in my class room and certain others not is what I am learning.
This can, at times, be freeing. To learn that grammar and punctuation are not independent lessons, but freeing, creative concepts to be taught to students as they write, giving meaning, clarity, and a sharper edge to their writing, is liberating to me in terms of how I was taught these concepts and because I now am aware of the reasons I can share with my future students when they, innocent, wondering, and perhaps a bit fallen, ask me why they must learn these concepts after struggling with the comma in previous classes for so many years. The breathing, perspiring, living body of grammar will be laid out before them for what it is: a versatile, changing body of knowledge and tools that can be used as a tool for better writing, not as a punishment and prescriber of the stabbing, jagged red mark.
The opposite effect is also true. The dulling effect of hearing how certain activities must be instructed, instruction must be differentiated, writing must be taught for different audiences without being given any ideas that lead into generating creative and descriptive language in areas other than creative writing (the writing covered the least, it seems), how to improve and use literacy in different areas of life, art, media, etc., and so many other areas of the teaching world with often no concrete examples of how to accomplish these tasks or even how to plan for them, as excellent and liberating as they might be, can be so frustrating that I want to sleep until the end of the week.
The shining and lone thought that often aids in keeping this situation in a positive light, even helping me to look forward to this theoretical knowledge minus practice, is that this body of information, critical thought, and research will help me as a teacher evaluate what I am doing, how I am serving my students, and, not only that what I am doing is reaching my and my students's goals, but helping them become more responsible, educated, and well-rounded people.
The role of the English teacher often comes to mind in one or the other of two polar extremes. Either English is a strange, squiggling, sliding, seeping, squirrely subject that one just had to suffer through and please the teacher, or it is a class in which the students, with the teacher's help, learn how to express themselves, how to analyze the world around them, how to read for meaning and learn to be a better person from what they read, and so many more things that I could spend all night listening.
I want to be an English teacher because I had a teacher who taught me not to be ashamed or writing, reading, or using either to learn about the world or cast a critical eye to it, or learning the responsibilities and virtues of a good person, but to love these things and realize they were essential to me. It's exciting to think I could do that.
most of the crucial, feeding, thoughtful, bombastic, stylizing, entertaining, job-sufficing and expanding pieces of practical information on the area of English Education in the secondary world I have come to accept that I will hastily (or, hopefully, please, at a pace) learn from my observation time in schools, student teaching, and my first year or so in the actual field. This is not to say that my graduate education is leaving me with no immediate, useful information in terms of actions to take in a classroom as a teacher, but that the research, thought, and scaffolding behind the reason I will take certain actions in my class room and certain others not is what I am learning.
This can, at times, be freeing. To learn that grammar and punctuation are not independent lessons, but freeing, creative concepts to be taught to students as they write, giving meaning, clarity, and a sharper edge to their writing, is liberating to me in terms of how I was taught these concepts and because I now am aware of the reasons I can share with my future students when they, innocent, wondering, and perhaps a bit fallen, ask me why they must learn these concepts after struggling with the comma in previous classes for so many years. The breathing, perspiring, living body of grammar will be laid out before them for what it is: a versatile, changing body of knowledge and tools that can be used as a tool for better writing, not as a punishment and prescriber of the stabbing, jagged red mark.
The opposite effect is also true. The dulling effect of hearing how certain activities must be instructed, instruction must be differentiated, writing must be taught for different audiences without being given any ideas that lead into generating creative and descriptive language in areas other than creative writing (the writing covered the least, it seems), how to improve and use literacy in different areas of life, art, media, etc., and so many other areas of the teaching world with often no concrete examples of how to accomplish these tasks or even how to plan for them, as excellent and liberating as they might be, can be so frustrating that I want to sleep until the end of the week.
The shining and lone thought that often aids in keeping this situation in a positive light, even helping me to look forward to this theoretical knowledge minus practice, is that this body of information, critical thought, and research will help me as a teacher evaluate what I am doing, how I am serving my students, and, not only that what I am doing is reaching my and my students's goals, but helping them become more responsible, educated, and well-rounded people.
The role of the English teacher often comes to mind in one or the other of two polar extremes. Either English is a strange, squiggling, sliding, seeping, squirrely subject that one just had to suffer through and please the teacher, or it is a class in which the students, with the teacher's help, learn how to express themselves, how to analyze the world around them, how to read for meaning and learn to be a better person from what they read, and so many more things that I could spend all night listening.
I want to be an English teacher because I had a teacher who taught me not to be ashamed or writing, reading, or using either to learn about the world or cast a critical eye to it, or learning the responsibilities and virtues of a good person, but to love these things and realize they were essential to me. It's exciting to think I could do that.
Labels: college, education, english, graduate school, grammar, writing
posted by night-of-columbus at 10:58 PM
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