The idea of perfection is so romanticized and valued
in today’s society that the implications preceding it are often forgotten. I am in no way implying I am perfect- I am
quite the opposite. I am clumsy, forgetful,
out of shape, lack self-discipline (which is why I’ve procrastinated to doing
this assignment on the day of at 9:25 am), and, probably the worst, not
creative. One could argue that in order
to be a good scientist, one needs to be extremely creative to deduct reasoning
and formulate experiments. I can do
those things when pressured, but they never come easily to me. The more positive traits I do have are willingness
and persistence. No matter how much I “suck”
at something, I always try really hard and work at it. I spend a lot of time and energy on my
homework assignments, I attempt doing physical activity every day, and I try to
be kind to everyone. I try so hard at
doing well in my current role, whether it be student, teacher, sister, or
daughter, that it usually strains me out or my anxiety symptoms, usually just
somatoformic disorders, kick in (funny that we covered this in class). There does a lie a sliver of hope for me, and
while I had known about it for quite some time, I was never able to put it into
words until Mr. Steven Kushner, during lecture on June 30, 2014, said it
himself, “You do not have to reinvent the wheel.” He was, of course, referring to the world of
academics and our role as teachers in that crazy, test-driven planet. These words, while I had always knew about
the context they’re defining, really put teaching intro perspective to me. In Kelly Gallagher’s book, Write Like This,
chapter one, he magnifies the importance of a teacher being the best writer in
the room and serving as an example to the students by not only modeling to them
writing, but doing think-alouds while writing.
This connects to my recent epiphany because it’s introduced to me the
idea that I don’t have to go scavenging for ideas on how to teach my students
to be better writers or spellers, I don’t need to spend money on dozens of
books or expensive computer software. I
am the resource. I’m a pretty darn good
one too. I like to believe I’m a
wonderful writer: I can argue well enough to make a lawyer sweat, I can control
my tone, captivate readers, and express myself.
Years of science classes have also made my writing clear, direct, and
precise. The vulnerability of my
weaknesses being display to my students is overcome by the benefit of them
seeing that everyone can struggle with writing, and that it’s a process. This echoes the idea that we need to be
writing as a process and not writing as a product. When I am modeling to my students, they will be
able to clearly hear and see how writing is a way of knowing and takes steps
forwards and backwards, and even retracing your steps. Besides using myself as a resource, I’ve also
learned that there are an infinite amount of lesson plans, activities, and
study guides on the internet that I can use at my disposal. As much as I want to help my kids and be a
great teacher, I don’t have to pull my hair out every night trying to invent
teaching techniques. I can just open up Google
Chrome and search for what I am looking for.
Quizlet is also a great resource that my students can navigate
themselves as a learning tool. And the
best part is, the information they need is probably already there and they won’t
have to take the time to enter it in themselves. Some of the websites I’ve discovered since my
epiphany, are Scholastic, Discovery Education, and The Teacher’s Corner, all of
which are linked here. There are also
other learning tools that exist, such as the vocabulary strategies contextual
redefinition, word slap, and Greek/Latin roots.
I can also use writing prompts, quick writes, admit slips, and RAFT
(Role/Audience/Form/Topic) to teach my students. Gallagher also stresses the idea of teaching
our students real-world writing purposes to prepare them better for their
careers (such as a police officer). He
expresses many different writing purposes, and as a teacher (not just a
scientist), I’ve realized that my own job requires I write well in regards to
all of the purposes he has outlined. (His
writing purposes are the following: express and reflection, inform and explain,
evaluate and judge, inquire and explore, analyze and interpret, take a stand
and propose a solution.) I can model
these examples to my students through the perspective of an educator, but I can
also pull examples from online of other professionals that have written in one
of the six ways Gallagher outlined. My
favorite activity is modeling these to my students over the same topic, and
then, through the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model, having my students
accomplish this eye-opening task themselves. While observing special education classes, I learned a sentence writing strategy that many of teachers used. It is called Sentence Pyramid and basically is used to model to students how to build a sentence and allows them to more easily formulate sentences. Not only is it a great modeling tool, but it is also a visual representation of sentence building. The teachers would model a sentence, and then help their students complete a triangle, and then allow the students to attempt one on their own. It has really helped the students in all the schools I've observed, and is definitely a tool I will use myself if I ever need to model sentence structure to a student.
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| (Teaching Ideas) |
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| (Memegenerator) |
Accepted Challenge didn't Reinvent the Wheel. | S.... (n.d.). memegenerator.net. Retrieved July 1, 2014, from http://memegenerator.net/instance/36953761
Free Teacher Resources.
(n.d.). Welcome to Discovery Education |.
Retrieved July 1, 2014, from http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/
Gallagher, K. (2011).
Moving to the Front Burner. Write like this: teaching real-world writing through modeling
& mentor texts ().
Portland, Me.: Stenhouse Publishers.
Special Needs - General Ideas and Resources. (n.d.). Special Needs - General Ideas and Resources. Retrieved July 1, 2014, from http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/more/specialneeds/contents.htm
Teacher Ideas, Teaching
Resources, and Lessons for PreK-12 Teachers | Scholastic.com. (n.d.). Scholastic
Teachers. Retrieved July 1, 2014, from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-resources
Teacher Resources and
Classroom Management. (n.d.). Teacher Resources. Retrieved July 1,
2014, from http://www.theteacherscorner.net/teacher-resources/
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