{"id":93,"date":"2016-01-21T05:05:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T05:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/?p=93"},"modified":"2016-01-22T15:20:26","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T15:20:26","slug":"sharing-and-reflection-on-what-is-worth-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/2016\/01\/21\/sharing-and-reflection-on-what-is-worth-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing and Reflection on “What is Worth Teaching”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>Just a few more sleeps until\u00a0our third face to face for cohort 21 and I’m so excited! This meetup is always a thrilling one for me as the people around me begin to share and develop\u00a0their professional goals and dreams. Pretty exciting stuff, huh? \u00a0I get to spend a day listening to others\u00a0declare how they want to effect\u00a0change in their classroom. Or their school. Or maybe the world! Some will share that\u00a0they are grappling with a really tough question with seemingly few answers. \u00a0Yet. \u00a0Others will decide to\u00a0try something new. Really new. \u00a0(And maybe really scary.) \u00a0All of this is happening in just two short days! And I’m lucky enough to get a front row seat! \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With all of this potential awaiting to be released, I thought I would use the remainder of this post to consider some big questions I’ve been grappling with as of late. I recently read an article by Dr. Spencer Kagan\u00a0entitled “What is Worth Teaching?”<\/a>\u00a0 for my writing specialist course. \u00a0The article begins by asking the astronomically large question: “What do we most want to give our students?” As we approach Cohort 21 eve (it’s a thing, isn’t it?), so many of us will be developing ways and plans to answer that very question!<\/strong>\u00a0 What do we want to leave our students with? When considering that question, \u00a0I am reminded of an action plan last year that explored bringing more joy into schools. Others considered how music can change our learning. \u00a0In my own\u00a0attempt to answer that question, I spent last year reflecting on happiness and what makes us happy.<\/p>\n

As a Senior English teacher , I’m up to my eyeballs in grading, marks, looming deadline and such. \u00a0This article was fortuitous in that respect…as I mark essays, assignments, writing portfolios and the like, Dr. Kagan\u2019s article reminds me that there is more to my teaching, my students, and their journey than simply the grade at the bottom of a rubric. What do I want my students to take away from their time with me? \u00a0From their high school English classes? \u00a0From their writing? \u00a0From their academic career? Kagan offered five ways to “burn brighter fires” in our students. \u00a0We need to fan the fires of Truth. Beauty. Empathy. Innovation and Excellence. \u00a0I thought I would reflect on the three that most resonate with me.<\/p>\n

Truth: <\/b>When considering the notion of truth as it pertains to the English classroom, I hope that we are creating students who are seeking to ask questions, to seek truths in the texts we study and in the very words others write, and finally our own words. In recent years, our English dept has come to acknowledge that we may not be\u00a0sending students off to universities in the humanities. Long are the days of English majors leaving our hallowed halls, full of the canon and ready to face university. \u00a0With the rare exception, our students are going into business, law, medicine or science. \u00a0As someone who so deeply believes in the value of the humanities to teach what it means to be human, to make connection, and to seek the truth, I still feel comforted that the English classroom has a place in \u201ctruth seeking\u201d. \u00a0In terms of writing, so many of our\u00a0assignments seek to answer this question: \u201cWhat does the author say about how the world works?\u201d \u00a0By asking that simple question, we begin to ask how the world works, our place in it, and the universal truths of life. \u00a0That feels like a pretty daunting and awesome task for us all. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Empathy: <\/b>Kagan points out that empathy is so closely linked with truth as it is \u201cseeking the truth about another.\u201d By the nature of what we do in English, I think empathy is built into so much of our courses and conversations. \u00a0We read and write to know we are not alone. When we read of Scout and \u201cwalking in the shoes of another\u201d, we are emphasizing with Tom and Boo. When King Lear\u2019s heart is \u201cbroken into a thousand shards\u201d over his wicked and ungrateful daughters , we can\u2019t help but feel his pain. \u00a0As I reread the article, I was struck by how fundamental empathy is. It is the foundation of \u201chuman relations: caring, kindness, charity, cooperation\u2026.\u201d and so many other qualities that will make our students empathize with others. When considering how to bring more of this into my class, I loved the suggestion Kagan offers of the paraphrase passport. How often do our students (and teachers?) listen with just enough focus on how we will respond? \u00a0This activity suggests that during a class discussion, \u00a0you must paraphrase the person who went before you in order to continue to conversation. \u00a0I can only imagine how much better we would all become at really listening to each other, with that strategy!<\/span>
\nExcellence: <\/b>This is something both teacher and student must purposefully seek. \u00a0The section that most resonated with me was driving for excellence as well as self acceptance. \u00a0Without those paradoxical forces, \u201cwe would beat ourselves over the head in an attempt for excellence and yet [we] will never be good enough.\u201d \u00a0Ultimately, this feels like the most crucial of all lessons. How can we work to our fullest potential? \u00a0How can we know we have done the very best we can, and that our best is good enough? \u00a0That is the crux of what we want our students to grapple with as learners, and as humans. \u00a0In terms of writing, I think collaboration and feedback build excellence as well as empathy and self acceptance. \u00a0These skills are not simply adopted but need to be modelled, practiced and celebrated when done really well!<\/span><\/p>\n

My action plan still remains the same, but with a renewed sense of why I’m here as an educator.<\/p>\n

With gratitude for the journey,<\/p>\n

Danielle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a few more sleeps until\u00a0our third face to face for cohort 21 and I’m so excited! This meetup is always a thrilling one for me as the people around me begin to share and develop\u00a0their professional goals and dreams. Pretty exciting stuff, huh? \u00a0I get to spend a day listening to others\u00a0declare how they … Continue reading “Sharing and Reflection on “What is Worth Teaching””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-century-learner","category-growth-mindset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/danielleganley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}