Discussion Circle Question

Chapter 10- Building a Teaching Community: About passion in the classroom


Main Ideas and Themes

Chapter 10 talks about how we as teachers need to make the classroom a stimulating and interesting place for children. They should want to learn and desire more of it. If the classroom is not fun and exciting then how can we expect children to learn and grow? In order for there to be learning, children need to actually want to be taught and listen to what is being taught to them. We as teachers need to bring our own passions with us and touch our students in our own ways.


Consistent/Inconsistent with Experiences as a Student/Novice/Teaching Associate

As a student, I have had many experiences with this quote from Chapter 10. My favorite teachers were the ones that gave something extra to our classrooms and made class interesting. In the second grade I had Mrs. Britain who was a wonderful teacher. She is the reason why I am going to be a teacher and hopefully one day I will be as great as she was. She came into our classroom every day with a smile on her face and ready to teach us everything we needed to know in a fun and fascinating way. She would always have exciting activities for us and if we were good we would get a sticker. Once we filled up our sheet we could choose from the treasure chest and get something fun out of it. I do not ever remember class being dull and I always was ready and excited to learn something. Another teacher who was passionate and made class appealing was my eighth grade history teacher Mr. Sir. He made learning history exciting and he knew everything and anything about American history. I loved coming to his class and learning something new about our history. I did great on his tests and never once dreaded coming to class. He loved what he did and that is how every teacher needs to be.

As a novice tutoring my student last year in TED 1312, I tried to always make my lessons fun and stimulating. I wanted to help my student learn while making it fun for him so he would actually want to learn what I was teaching him and remember what was being taught. I loved every day of tutoring and had a wonderful student. I tried my hardest to always entertain him and teach him exactly what he needed to know. I am ready for my future as a teacher and cannot wait to see what the future holds.


Consistent/Inconsistent with Teaching Beliefs and Practices

This quote is dead on with what I believe. I think that every teacher should love his or her job and be excited for each day that they teach their students. We should all bring something interesting to the table and create a fun learning experience for our children so that they will truly learn the material and want to learn more of it. Sadly, many teachers these days do not have the passion that is needed when teaching. It is a job that they come to and are just ready for a paycheck. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “The secret of success is to make your vocation your vacation.” I firmly agree with this. You should enjoy your so called “job” and make it a vacation in which you love coming to it. I am ready to become a great teacher and touch the minds of many children. I cannot wait to make teaching fun and interesting.


So What? Impact on Future Professional Development

Our future will be a sad place if our teachers are not passionate and love what they do. We need teachers who are going to entice our students and create a learning experience that is fresh and entertaining. Learning should be fun and once it is not then how can we expect our students to want to learn?

Ashley Jackson
3/14/10
TED 3380

Teaching to Transgress 5 4 3 2 1: Chapter 8-14

5- In chapters 8-14 of Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks talks a lot about treating everyone the same. There is tension between white and black women, black and white males, and also their languages. People think that they can speak freely when they really cannot. hooks wants educators to teach that people that are different are good and there is nothing wrong with not all being the same way. hooks also talks about how teachers need to combine theory with practice. The teacher and student needs to work together.

4- 1.) Page 113: “In a feminist classroom, especially a Women’s Studies course, the black student, who has had no previous background in feminist studies, usually finds that she or he is in a class that is predominantly white (often attended by a majority of outspoken young, white, radical feminists…”
2.) Page 122: “Black discourse on feminism was often confined to endless debates about whether or not black women should involve ourselves in “white feminist” movement.”
3.) Page 130: “To engage in dialogue is one of the simplest ways we can begin as teachers, scholars, and critical thinkers to cross boundaries, the barriers that may or may not be erected by race, gender, class, professional standing, and a host of other differences.”
4.) Page 167: “Like desire, language disrupts refuses to be contained within boundaries. It speaks itself against our will, in words and thoughts that intrude, even violate the most private spaces of mind and body.”

3- “The Burning of Paper Instead of Children” (page 167) - poem by Adrienne Rich
Feminist (page 125) - the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men
Transgress (page 207) - to go beyond the limits imposed

2 – Two connections I had with the text were that I agree with bell hooks when she says that everyone should be accepted and even though someone is different it does not mean that this is a bad thing. If everyone was the same our world would be a boring place where nothing interesting and exciting ever happened. Another connection I had with the text is that I agree with hooks when she says that teachers and students need to work together in order to make our education a better place of learning. In order to become better teachers we need to test and try out different theories and see what works.

1 – What are some different theories that could be practiced in the classroom?