September 17th

September 17th

Five Things I've learned in my life:

1. Everyone has the potential to learn, though not everyone learns in the same way.
         When I was in first grade I had to be taken out for extra help in reading and writing.  I left my traditional classroom once a day to go for one on one help. I remember finding it easier to concentrate and read without other students waiting on me to hurry up and finish.  I was calmer and it was fun in that little classroom.  I did this every day until I took my placement test at the end of the year.  When I received my scores everyone was astonished, I went from below proficient at the beginning of the year to advanced proficient at the end.  Now I am a literature and education major.  From this I learned that it wasn't that I was stupid (which is how I felt) but that I did not learn the way that I was being taught.  You cannot expect one style of teaching to fit each and every student.  As a teacher learn to teach in more than just one way, learn to ask for others to show you their teaching styles.  As a student learn to realize you are not dumb for not understanding you simply learn in a different way than others.

2. Learning doesn't end nor begin at the classroom door (you can learn from just about anything, anywhere)
          Growing up my mom always wanted us to learn, to think.  If we wanted something she would ask why do we want it and do we think we deserve it.  If we were going somewhere knew would research it before hand (something I still do).  She encouraged us to always ask questions especially when we were confused and not to take things at face value.  We would go to all different historical places or nature parks, learning as much as we could and imagining life there.  These things made me more well rounded and helped me to understand the world better.  In my opinion, what's the point of knowledge if the outside world remains dark and incomprehensible?  Knowing your reading, writing, and arithmetic is all fine and dandy but your whole life is not defined by one school room and the test that in it.  As a teacher I will always bring outside things into my lessons, be it new forms of creativity or simply outside the classroom knowledge.  As a student I always wanted to connect all my different knowledge together and form connections to things that seemed at odds with each other.  Maybe that's why my favorite thing to study and research is comparative literature, where I get to make my own comparisons.

3. Everyone has their own version of reality
           Growing up it took me a while to understand why things that upset me didn't upset everyone and why things that didn't upset me upset others.  It was hard to empathize with people when I thought that everyone's home lives were the same as mine.  Even my sister and I see the world very differently from one another.  A person's reality is created by their past and the theories that they have created to survive their own life.  To a person who has always moved around a lot people are disposable and replaceable to them, that is their reality.  To a child that has been abused, a hit is what is to be expected after a verbal disagreement.  To them in their reality that is just a fact.  These different realities will transfer over into the classroom, especially an English class where I will be asking for opinions or personal connections for the readings.  As a teacher I must be understand of everyone's personal realities and how they translate over into the classroom.  It's part of my job to help broaden their realities and make them see others.  Reality is subjective to the eyes that behold it, hopefully I will help others see that as well.

4. There is nothing that a good laugh, a good cry, or good food cannot fix.
             This one is simple.  Sometimes all people need in life is a little break from it all, to be able to climb back into bed and begin the day again.  Though we are not all so lucky as to have a midday nap there are other ways to restart and recharge.  Personally when I am truly upset about something and do not want to talk about it, I call my friend who can make me laugh even when all I want to do is cry.  After talking to him I am always ready to start again.  When my sister is upset I always bake for her, well make the dough anyway.  We sit and eat my uncooked dough and watch the Office, sometimes she tells me what's up, other times we just laugh at the characters.  Being able to take a break from it all and just decompress is something that needs to be remembered as a teacher, who is going to learn anything if they are trapped in their own mind?

5. If you think you've hit bottom smile, you can only go up from there.  
           People seem to fear starting over.  They see it as a failure and want nothing more than to give up.  To me it is a fresh start with a better starting point.  You have just learned one way that something does not work.  Take that knowledge, learn from it (why didn't it work?), and try again.