Teaching, Living, and Learning

Thursday, January 31, 2008

ONE YEAR WITH AN ENGLISH TEACHER

Day 88, Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Today I discovered two new ways of teaching -- or at least ways I hadn't considered in many years. First, instead of sitting or standing at my place on the circle and conducting the business of the class mostly from there, I roamed around the circle, sometimes stopping in one place for a few moments before moving on. Among other benefits, this gave me many different views of the group. Obviously (why didn't I think of this before?), if I'm always at the same place on the circle, I'm going to miss seeing some of the kids straight-on -- miss seeing their expressions clearly, their postures, their whole demeanor. By walking around the circle, I was able to see the students from different perspectives. It was a refreshing and instructive change. I also discovered that I could effectively teach from the middle of the circle. In one 8th grade class, I stood in the middle for a few minutes, turning here and there to talk to individuals or listen to their comments. It got me up closer to some of the kids so I could really give them my full attention.

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I found this quote (below) in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's describing Fanny Price's home at Mansfield, but the words exactly remind me of the atmosphere I try to maintain in my classroom:
" ... no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt bursts, no tread of violence, was ever heard; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness; everybody had their due importance; everybody's feelings were consulted."

...........

The following quote is from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I would like my classroom to be like Dr. Strong's school:

"Dr. Strong's was an excellent school...It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honor and good faith of the [students], and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of these qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a share in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity."

If I replaced "agent" with "teacher", this passage from a short story might, I hope, describe me in my classroom:
"The agent spent his days in following what seemed to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen pleasure."
-- from "The Gray Mills of Farley" by Sarah Orne Jewett