Reader Reflection

Over the years I have learned to come to enjoy reading more than I used to. When I was younger and in school I never enjoyed reading because I felt that it was forced upon me. I can remember especially in high school I never wanted to read because I was told I had to. Even if I did like the material I was never fully involved in it or engaged enough and always wanted to just finish the book to get it over with. I realize now that this was immature of me to act in this way as I was only hurting myself by not reading the material.

It is normal to not love everything you read in school, especially in older years like high school and college when a lot of it is based on text books and lengthy articles. I still find some books that I have to read now for school may not be exactly what interests me, but since I am older now I can appreciate reading more as I like to learn new things and want to further my education.

I enjoy reading biographies about others lives and find it more captivating when a book is a true story or based on a true story. Reading is something that is so important from the time you are young and all through your life. I think it is necessary to get children today to really appreciate reading and get them to realize that it is a skill they will need and should value for the rest of their lives. Instead of constantly reinforcing that you have to read this book, as a teacher I want to get my students to want to read the book and be able to discuss it with me. I really like the idea of casual book talk as we use in our Perspectives class as it seems to stem a lot of different points from people and gets a great discussion going among the class.

Creating community in a classroom is not an easy job as the Story Walking Trees has showed me. All students have different backgrounds, socioeconomic status's, beliefs, family values, learning styles, interests, hobbies, and personalities. The schools that Ralph Fletcher worked in were very diverse which made it more difficult sometimes to create a community in the classroom. I feel that in order to create a community among your classroom you need to keep a positive attitude and have faith in your students. A teacher should also not want students to be all the same and as they should embrace and learn from their differences. The one thing that Ralph Fletcher does in the book is that he is constantly trying to motivate his students by getting them excited about the writing process and letting them know they are free to write about what they want. In doing this, the class begins to form a common bond with one another by sharing their stories and learning they may even have similarities with each other. Ralph's students are enjoying this writing process and wanting to learn which is also creating a community in itself. The children begin to work together and from relationships by their writing and sharing of stories. If a teacher can get the class interested as a whole in a certain topic this is the first step in building a community among the classroom.

What can we learn from children?

As teachers we can learn many lessons from children each day. It can be something like connecting or learning something with a child through their writing as Ralph Fletcher does in the book Walking trees. I felt that he learned so much about himself through his students just by listening to their stories and letting them express their feelings on paper. I think that many of the other classroom teachers he describes in his book severely underestimate their students especially since many are from low socioeconomic backgrounds or come from poverty stricken areas. It is these teachers who can inhibit the growth and development of children because they refuse to actually take a step back and be open to learning from their students. In my own personal life I have actually learned more effective ways of teaching just by listening to my students needs and taking into consideration their feelings, concerns, and interests. Every generation of children is different from the next and futher still so is every school , classroom, and each individual child. I do not think anyone learns in exactly the same way as they next person which is why teachers need to be open and willing to learn from their students. We as teachers can better modify our own methods of effective teaching stategies based on students needs as opposed to our own.
We can also learn to not judge a student before we really know them. It is very easy to pick out a student and immediately make assumptions about them according preconceived notions. This is only negative for the students development because by doing so the teacher immediately puts a label on this student. This seemed to be the case many times in the classrooms that Ralph Flecther taught in. A teacher would label a student as incapable or incompetent and that child would only suffer because they wouldn't be receiving the right amount of attention needed to be successful. It was sad reading about some of the things that went on among the schools in New York that Fletcher was involved in. Some students would seem to be crying out for help as he noticed through some of their writings and it was just overlooked until he started taking notice. Society complains that test scores are not high enough and education needs to be reformed, but I really feel that it all starts in the classroom with the teacher and the students. It is the students that are being ignored that eventually get left behind or worse just skip through the system and graduate highschool with having never really learned anything. I think if we can open our minds and really listen to our students and help them as best we can, than the future of educating our youth starts to look a lot brighter.

reflection on expanding knowledge

Expanding my knowelege on other racial/ethnic groups is something that I have not really done until very recently in my life. Growing up in a middle class, white neighborhood is pretty much all I was exposed to. After this I went off to a private college where it was pretty much the same type of environment. My working experience has also been very excluded in terms of children have worked with. It was not until I was able to do the observations at the schools that I really got a chance to work with children of different cultures/racial backgrounds. It was an eye opening experience for me to get a chance to observe children of all different races, listen to them, and also learn from them. I realize that in order to be a fully developed teacher that you should let down you guard and be able to cross different boundaries and be open to teaching students different from youself. I think this really makes you a well rounded teacher because it will help you to be able relate to other students. Even if you cannot exactly relate to the students, working with them will atleast give you an open mind and a better understanding of their different lifestyles and cultures. I have learned from my observations in some of the school districts that is can be more of a challenge teaching students who are opposite from what you may be comfortable with or used to. For example, I personally think teaching children who are in urban cities and come from poverty may be more challenging as opposed to working in a private middle class school, but who is to say that one is really better than the other? Since I feel it would be challenging experience I think by involving myself in this environment would help me be able to expand my knowledge about different groups of students even though it may not be easy. Every teacher has different backgrounds, feelings, and interests about their teaching career and I personally think if you can expand your horizons and be able to work with any type of student that is the key to being a great teacher.