Valentine’s explanation for why she enjoys teaching African Americans made me consider the difficulties I have been having in my classroom. Valentine believes she can relate to her students and knows how they live and learn. Although there are certainly many similarities between my students and myself, there is an apparent difference between us. I grew up in a white suburban area, attending predominately white schools. The students I teach are African Americans living in the city. I do feel separated from them sometimes, as I cannot relate to experiences or beliefs they may have. I may look at something my students say or do and think of it as a sign of needing help. I often have to take a step back and make sure that I am not just seeing a cultural difference. Although this may get easier with more experience teaching in an urban school, there is no way to completely fill the gap between my students and myself.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Dreamkeepers Chapters 3 & 4
I actually started to laugh out loud while reading a quotation from Devereaux on page 42. She describes the condition of her desk and how it gets that way. I was just pointing out to my coworker yesterday that I am embarrassed about the corner I call my work area. When I try and describe my job to other people they have a hard time understanding that I don’t sit at my desk, I can’t check my email or phone and I barely have time to breathe. Throughout the day I feel so involved in my lessons and spend every moment I am not teaching the whole class walking around helping students. I was laughing because I say “put it on my desk” several times throughout the day. When I finally have a moment to sit at about 4:15pm I have piles to take care of before I can even reach my computer. I often feel that the job requires a lot of paperwork without being given the time to complete the paperwork. Now there is not only paperwork but electronic work as well. The number of emails that pile up throughout the day takes about an hour just to sort through and reply. I then still have phone calls to return. As Devereaux mentions, I often feel that my job working with people, often turns into working with paper.
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LeeAnn, First, I love your sentiment about the desk being covered with papers because mine is the same way! I too feel like there is no time to really do anything about them and when there finally is that moment, it is late into the evening and the custodians are coming through to kick me out of the building! One question that I have for you (or anyone) - how would you feel about an assistant? Do you think that would help with some of the work load or do you think that this would create too many hands in the pot? In my experience, teachers are autonomous and, personally, I prefer to be on my own, even with all the paperwork and other stuff that I alone get stuck with.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your second section: I too feel the same way often with some of my students. I often wonder how I will truly relate to students who are so different than me and also if they can relate to me at all. I have found that while we may have so many differences, there is usually at least one thing we have in common and that is what I latch onto. At my new school, I have a student who I was having a difficult time forming a relationship with. I found out that he is a baseball fan, as am I, and have used this small bit of knowledge for nearly everything with him. My attempts to reach him otherwise were not going so well. This one small commonality has maybe not made us relate to one another but we have been able to form a relationship. So I guess my new question and thought is, which is more important to being able to teach African American students (or any student who is different than you or me) - being able to relate and put yourself in their shoes, or finding a way to simply have a relationship? I am finding that I am more of the relationship type of teacher because, as you and I know, being able to relate to some of our students is somethig that may never really come to be.