The Power of True Cliches

I'm sorry I underestimated Nick Sparks. Why do people rebuff the cliche - as M said, there's still truth in them sometimes and isn't that powerful? Sparks uses a metaphor in Best of Me, of an otter trapped in a cage. A socialite's daughter feels trapped by the life forced on her in a way. Trapped in a cage is old and tired language. Yet it aptly describes so much such as:

- doctors stuck in the requirements of rigorous training structures

- administrators, teachers, and students trapped in education's disorganized traditions 

- anyone who is victims of inequality and discrimination

- everyone who inherits the ways of doing and thinking that don't work anymore 

We want control but sometimes the invisible cages confine our autonomy. Thinking outside the box is a rarity that must be fought hard for. It may be cliche but we're all in this together.

For now, though, here is a cold hard truth as tragic as the majority of the English curriculum texts: I live in a cage. You live in a cage. 

*another realization: the best writing and most motivated reading comes from real experience. I want to finish Best of Me to know how/if she gets out of her cage because I want to escape mine. I should ask the students what books or stories do you connect with and why? Ex: I connected with Henrietta Lacks because I have also felt afraid of things I don't understand. And frustrated when others won't tell me the answers. Or I can ask, what makes you interested in reading something? What are some of your favorite books and stories?

The child is father to the man.

Like doctors secondary teachers care for others long after prevention of the ailment is possible.

By ailment I mean non-ideal parts of their childhoods. 

I should have students speculate as much as possible about book characters' upbringing. Science agrees these are formative years, fears and insecurities are cemented like the woman who discovered infant-mom bonding.

And realize their own upbringings.

The trouble with love...

... (Romantic love) Is it's not explicitly taught. Or realistically portrayed. Or coherently historicized. And the formula - who I so regretfully don't know to attribute to - of friendship + sex - has been obscured, made too complicated. Love is friendship first and foremost and if you know how to be a friend then you are ready for romantic love.

Teaching Philosophy

The field of education is wrought with cliche and none of them belong in a truly effective philosophy of teaching, many would say. Phrases like "no child left behind", "closing the achievement gap", "21st century learners", "productive and self-controlled citizens", "college-ready independent thinkers". But like overused trite words, education jargon is not in itself meaningless. It is the context that surrounds them that undermines their power.

So in my philosophy I'll use the ideas behind the catch-phrases with different terminology and description.

John Nash famously had schizophrenia and has said that sanity is a form of conformity and insanity is escape: and when free from precedent and tradition, one can have groundbreaking insight. We don't want kids to become trailblazers by refusing to hear others' ideas and be a completely fresh page. After all, background knowledge is integral to building new knowledge, including creative ideas. Creativity however certainly should be sheltered from suppressing structures and impositions.

To view creativity more positively I'll turn to Dan Pink, who found that people are driven to produce when they have autonomy, competence and self-confidence. It is about teaching kids what their niche is. Students must be encouraged and always reflect on what they like to do - we must ask and make them evaluate their feelings toward something. School must teach them about themselves and not just content. Students must do the heavy lifting. It is not just ok to be yourself but you MUST be yourself- the world depends on it

But to gain background knowledge, such knowledge must be made accessible, no matter what level of difficulty. Knowledge-acquisition must be made memorable by drawing on the psychological findings about the memory: it must be meaningful, purposeful, relevant (from Why Kids Don't Like School). It must be presented dynamically, using all communication mediums, including visuals, gestures, repetition, story, song, mneumonics, humor, coming from students (esl class). There's that Einstein quote and research - you learn better by showing than telling and doing than showing. Get the students to move. Above all, know your students and how to make them interested because telling really is more time-efficient...

Is it too arrogant to want my own pithy Gettysburg Address, an education manifesto?

I want to write non-fiction and later when I am ready some fiction.

And we are teacher-facilitators and teacher-designers, never spoon feeders or artificial problem-creators (http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/changing-role-of-the-teacher/)
Passion-based projects http://www.teachthought.com/learning/25-ways-to-promote-passion-based-learning-in-your-classroom/

Daniel Pink, John Nash, Jacob (boy genius), equality/diversity benefits all

The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world.

Toni Collette

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

Sun Tzu

Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken - Oscar Wilde

Mr. Barthes: he really exists

First let me start with a review of reviews of British filmmaker Tony Kaye's Detachment (click here to watch it free with an Amazon Prime account). I've noticed tropes of movie reviews: a tendency to be very specific about some aspects and very general about others.  The NPR review noted the chalkboard scribbles between each scene but stated that the main character, Henry Barthes, is Christlike, unrealistically perfect among imperfection. However, I remember moments when he was rude, broken down, vulnerable, and selfish. Just because he was Adrien Brody and dressed well, does not mean he was not realistic.

Another trope of the reviews is being critical.  Psych studies have shown that people who criticize are seen as smarter. However, Gretchen Rubin (author of The Happiness Project and Happier at Home) has convinced me that being positive is underrated: "It is easy to be heavy, hard to be light." She also says when you frame something negatively you will find evidence to support it, as the reviewers somewhat sloppily do. When you frame something positively, you can also see it that way (Happier at Home, p. 75). So in that vein, I'll start with the common ground that Hollywood filmmakers and educators likely share:

1.) Improvement is needed in education. Heightened public awareness of the problems can lead to action toward a solution.
2.) There are a variety of causes of educational problems, and home lives of students and staff are a major cause.

The second point is why I am amazed that critics were annoyed that Detachment blamed parents as a cause. The movie's writer, Carl Lund, was a former public school teacher. Isn't he a good authority? The movie even focuses more on the home lives of the teachers - which are alternately abusive, lonely, and unsupportive. The staff seem to find support in one another, however.  Better staff and parent support is a possible solution for the first point - that improvement of schools is needed.

Reviewers also thought that the movie was exaggeratedly bleak - disillusioned staff, detached teachers, suicidal teens. I agree that if we are to heighten awareness of problems, they should be accurately portrayed. And overplaying the issue could lead to overwhelming the public into inaction. But the movie doesn't overplay the level of students aggression, staff instability, and parental neglect in many schools. I've never worked in schools that are quite as desolate but some of my teacher peers have. And in every school, there are students whose lives could be the subject of a cinematic drama. To say it is unrealistic is to dismiss the bleak reality of some actual students.

Furthermore, I think the response to the trauma in the movie was both inspiring and useful. Henry Barthes walks into a room, and with what one critic called his compassionate detachment but which I'll less confusingly call his respect-gaining calm, proceeds to engage the students. I've found that being calm really can be the key to great teaching - your mood affects the kids and staying calm helps you think clearly and be present with the kids. He even formatively assesses their knowledge with a writing assignment - Write what someone would say about you at your funeral. What a great, personalized, provocative and creative assignment. I might even use it!  I also liked his advice to a self-loathing girl: "Stick it out. It will be okay" and "People who make fun of you just lack self-consciousness. There will always be those people." These are wise words and I am convinced that curriculum-wise, more emphasis should be put on teaching self-consciousness and metacognition rather than covering content. Sadly his wise words aren't enough to prevent tragedy, which is another truth of education: You can't save every child.

The reviewers also seemed the miss the probably intentional connection between Henry and Roland Barthes, the French linguist and literary theorist.  Henry states that literature allows him to imagine other possibilities in a world of suffering and manipulation; it helps him think for himself. What a brilliant and motivational reason for teaching English -  the movie proves the fact that good teachers have personal relationships with their content area and are knowledgable.

The only unrealistic part of the movie was the fact that the movie didn't show Barthes lesson-planning - which is integral to remaining calm! A movie that shows the power of empathetic (Barthes himself had the mother of all bad home lives), calm teaching with scenes of lesson-planning would be the perfect educational film. Detachment comes closer than reviewers think to being a helpful message about the education system.

Gooooooooooooooals

In the game of teaching, does this matter more?

or this?

Or this?

I watched a World Cup game yesterday. I can't tell you who any of the teams in the above pictures are. But I certainly noticed what scenes made up most of the programming. It wasn't the scenes of winning - those came at the end.  No, the small advances, the blocks that prevented the other team from scoring, and the fans' reactions made up the bulk of the camera shots. There were also many shots of injuries on the field and quick recoveries. The analogy is that this blog will have its share of conflicts and resolutions, tangents, indulgences and drama. It will probably often be the recipient of stress release. And spectators, I need your feedback, in the comments.

In short (and many posts will be short and simple, a key principle to excellent teaching), this is my journal of moving onward - sometimes I'll stumble, under and overestimate, miscommunicate, miscalculate, hyperventilate, erupt, and neglect - but I'll be moving nevertheless. It is how I'll become a teacher.

--

...slightly longer introduction, if this is still interesting to you:

Just like teaching, it's ideal to start off with what I want to accomplish in this endeavor. Well, I want to keep notes - some more cohesive than others - of my first year of teaching, beginning now, the summer before AUGUST 25 (the first first day of school).

On this blog, I want the reader to:
-be interested. and keep reading.
-to assume some parts of the blog are just for me, and not try to decipher or care about everything I write. Usually the stuff with pictures are for you :)
-re-live yet read more than just narratives of my experience: synthesis, artistry, prose, fantastical ideas and proposals

I plan to reflect. Boring? But as an English teacher, I must discover how reflection is useful for the writer by doing it myself. I want to reflect on my plans for the kids and how they actually played out in order to figure out what I learned [teacher mode]. I will also reflect on the institution of teaching [teacher educator mode]. I hope the reader will enjoy both.

My grandest objective is to grow - in real life and right before your very eyes on this blog. Growth is, after all, happiness, and the reason that is hard to recognize is because growth doesn't always feel good.  The thrill is the journey, chase, and climb - NOT being at the summit, finish line, goal (Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project).  Don't get me wrong - I think there will be victories and concrete milestones. But I'll continue past them, a brief hiatus, a touchdown in a loooong football game filled with yards gained and lost (yup, a sports analogy. Please don't think I know anything about sports. The analogy was adapted from Matthew Johnson's Finding Success the First Year).  But maybe this blog will actually help me notice, track, and celebrate growth as I stumble, under and overestimate, miscalculate, hyperventilate, erupt, and neglect this year.

One more note. I read other teacher blogs, since the cliché advice is to keep a log of your first year teaching. I read mostly the ones that have the blogspot address I wanted (teacherdiary, iwillcontinue, firstyearteacher, teacherblog). Many seemed to have the spirit of a student forced to do what he/she should: a passable attempt, but really not intrinsically motivated, and ultimately abandoned. So a simple goal is to just keep doing it, get something down, even one sentence, and make it meaningful and authentic (Rubin again, her one-sentence diary).  A simple goal - such goals really are the secret to teaching - is to go onward, teach. (yeah this is the blog URL I finally settled on that was unclaimed. Somewhat unoriginal, but so are most students' titles. I'll talk more about the importance of inhabiting their shoes).

Thanks for reading through this first, semi-experienced post. If you liked it, you'll like the rest, and it'll only get better as I warm up my blog-writing skills. Stay tuned :)