Invisible body of readers,
I must apologize for my lack of blogging. School has begun, and it is taking me by storm. That said, it's a really beautiful storm with lots of radiant, illuminating lightning and refreshing rain that tastes like discovery! I am learning so much, and my mind is truly blooming with all of this new knowledge.
A few things I've been a'pondering…
1) The politics in education - topics of charter schools, accountability, high stakes testing, and more. I'm just overwhelmed. I don't know how to sort out what's real and what's not. Before starting my program, I read Wendy Kopp (founder of TFA) and Deborah Kenny's books and was totally in favor of their ideologies toward education. I decided to check out Reign of Error, in which Diane Ravitch questions the privatization movement toward charter schools and the idea of "school choice." Actually, she questions pretty much all of the ideas I felt I was in favor of after reading Kopp and Kenny's books. She suggests that these ideas will benefit big money and that what we need is significant societal reform to tackle the real culprits, poverty and social inequity. My textbook has left me even more overwhelmed as I read about Social Reproduction theory, which suggests that schools actually promote educational inequity by
assuring that current class boundaries maintain intact. Woofta. I'm trying to let this all just sink in and not make any rash decisions on what I do or do not believe. That's hard for me to do. I want to know what I believe, so I can make informed decisions from those beliefs. I'm going to be reading Michelle Rhee's book Radical while finishing Reign of Error, so I'm sure my confusion will only surmount as I approach these two opposing perspectives at once.
2) Last night, I stayed up until 2:30am reading because I was completely RIVETED by my class reading assignment (see reference below to check out this fabulous reading - I believe it's taken from a textbook). Weird, right? It was on language in the classroom. The reading talked about how talking in the classroom revolves primarily around the teacher - 78% of class time on a given day is spent with either teacher talking or silent time - and his or her agenda. It made me question the way I speak with (and to) students and the purpose of my interactions with them. Are our interactions with students structured to coerce a specific answer out of them or to control student behavior? Or are they to facilitate genuine communication? I'd hope it's the second, but I don't think that is always the case. Further, the talking students are doing at school have very little in common with the talking they do at home and within their communities. There is a disconnect between their worlds of language, and this is a problem. What are we trying to teach students about the role of language??
Seriously, I could go on about a dozen more topics that are equally compelling to me, but I'd be here all night. I have some personal reading to go do. It's hard to make time for that with all of this beautiful class material, but I know how important independent reading is, so I'm intentionally making time for it. I'm big on Goodreads these days, and I've found it to be incredibly motivating. Check it out, and then pick up a book! :)
Keep those hearts and minds blooming,
Miss Elizabeth
Piper, T. (2007). Language & learning: The home & school years. Boston, MA; Pearson.
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