What makes us better educators? When we are better educators the students are better learners.

      It seems that all of the chapters and articles that we have been reading this summer have come down to this blog post.  In order for our students to become highly literate, we need to foster a better understanding of what we all teach. We need to teach critical thinking in everything that we teach to the kids.   We can’t be afraid to add in lessons or tweak our lessons that are already in place to include a little bit of everything.  This in itself seems like a huge undertaking. However, if you want to be an effective teacher, you need to have empathy towards all content areas.  One needs to take the time to incorporate subjects into their content area so that the students understand that they are learning things for a reason and that all subjects are as important as each other. 

          In Chapter 18, Richard Allington mentions, “these effective teachers were able to foster the sorts of proficiencies that enable students to engage in civil discourse with others who hold a different perspective” (p. 282).  I take this as a chance to model the behaviors that I want my students to be engaged in.  I want them to see that I can talk about Unit Price a certain way and maybe that the way that I teach it, makes them understand it a little better or clearer. Or if the students see me teaching this topic a certain way, I usually get students who will mention, “Hey, in Math she also adds on _________.” I love to see what they go back and tell their teachers after lessons that I have added in other courses/content areas.  I usually get an email or a person stops by and says, “I can’t believe that you do that in here, it really made the kids understand that they will use this in real life.”  When we utilize the other content areas in our classes it helps give validity to what we do.

              

       In Moses’ article about “Algebra and Civil Rights?” he talks about the importance of mathematical literacy, and this made clear sense because, “sixty percent of new jobs will require skills possessed by only 22 percent of the young people entering the job market now” (p.8).  He touched upon the fact that more people will need mathematical literacy due to the fact that technology is everywhere. In order to be technologically proficient, you need to have mathematical skills.  We saw this in the video that was shown about where the college students held up signs stating facts about their lives and computer usage. I had a very wise student in my Affective Ed class tell my group that “technology was created to improve communication, but in a sense it is killing the interpersonal communication that used to exist.”  This proves that it is so important for the students to be subjected to different ways of teaching some of the same skills, this way they do not lose touch with humanity.  To have them only use a computer all day, will make them forget what it is like to be face to face with another human being. They need to have variety in their day with maximizing their interests. 

                In Linda Leif’s “Commonsense Matters”, she brings up how important it is to write, and to practice writing.  I love how she explains that “writing lets us think of things we didn’t know we knew until we began writing” (p. 191).  How can they do this only in Language Arts or in English class?  They need to write in all of their classes so that they can learn from what they are writing. If they never get a chance to go through the writing process in a different content area, then how will they know that they have learned something?  It should not just be about what they get on a test score, or that they passed the test. It should be about that satisfaction of knowing that they had a point of view and used it in Math, or Science, or in Family and Consumer Science.  I think that by using the writing skills they get in English and having to use those skills to think outside the box in other courses, it does exactly what it should, it makes them learn their English skills a little better because they are practicing them more.  They are able to apply them to different situations and they learn from those skills of application.

                In Chapter 15, Wilhelm and Smith allude to the fact that, “many groups and commentators have indicated that student motivation is the primary challenge facing teachers” (p. 233).  Motivation comes in many packages. Through our readings we have learned that we need to take what motivates each student and use that for them to become more literate and this literacy isn’t only in reading and writing. We have to take the time to motivate our students to think. We need to give them opportunities to take their knowledge and apply it to different situations. When they see that their interests are important across the board in all subject matter, then we can foster an environment in which the students feel safe to explore things that they may not already know. We teach them to take a chance, and most importantly we teach them that they are important. 

                A great activity that Wilhelm and Smith talk about it is “inquiry units” (p. 235).  This is a skill that can help utilize their knowledge about many facets of a topic. This is a valuable skill to be used in multiple areas.  We are slowly learning about how to question our students, and to utilize the essential question.  It takes time to get used to using this questioning skill because we as teachers have to let the students answer the question based upon their knowledge, there is no one way to answer something. If a student can pull things from their lives and use that to answer these questions, then we have made them into critical thinkers. We let them put things that they have lived with or learned and make sense of them in their own words. We give validity to their knowledge. This is so important in making them really understand what they are being taught.  This in a sense is what I spoke about in the opening of this blog, that this course has really lead us to this conclusion. That we must draw out what the students can learn and will learn by the ways that we view them and teach them. Until educators understand that no two students think alike or learn alike we will never obtain mastery in any subject matter.  We need to embrace who the students are, and where they are from, in order to teach them lifelong skills and to get them to be critical thinkers