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final reflection

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WHO I WAS Student teaching was probably the most stressful event of my life. Not moving from Rhode Island, a state with a population of 1 million-plus, to South Dakota, where cows outnumber people . Not navigating my way through college courses AGAIN, after a five-year gap of unfulfilled, stale dreams at the family business. Teaching.  This past spring, when I entered the classroom in the Providence school where I would be teaching a senior section of British literature, I did not know what I was getting into. Sure, I knew the bones of teaching -- the stuff gleaned from classes over the past two years in RIC’s MAT program. I had read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein before, and I had almost-kind of finished 1984 when I was a senior in high school. I knew that social justice would have to be “factored in” when it came to designing my lessons, units, questions… I had the formula, right? But what I didn’t know, is how physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted I wa
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pecha kucha

Check out my Pecha Kucha here
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turkle and wesch

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"When students recognize their own importance in helping to shape the future of this increasingly global, interconnected society, the significance problem fades away," writes Michael Wesch in his article "Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance." When we step away from the retelling of a narrative (but adding new pieces here and there, as time will permit), and invite students -- and by extension, people -- into the "conversation," (to borrow a word from Sherry Turkle )... that's when, and where, dialogue and change, begin.  After reading both the perspectives of Wesch and Turkle, I do not find they are at odds with each other, but rather, addressing the same issue with different terminology and phrasing. When Turkle says we "have sacrificed conversation for mere connection," Wesch says the need for significance is driving students to that very connection -- a connection that he sees falling flat in his classroom enviro
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text overview link

Check out my text overview over here !
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rearranging the toy aisle

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Thinking about how we could reimagine children's toys started out rough. At first, we thought about just flipping toys to be more gender neutral or oppositional (i.e., a pink Optimus Prime) but realized very quickly that wasn't going to be enough for the activity. Then we thought about how we could literally take toys apart -- in speech (what does this toy mean/symbolize? What constructs is it composed of?) and physically (Optimus Prime could ride a flying unicorn maybe). That was almost too complicated to do in the short amount of time we had. So, instead we decided to approach the infamous gendered toy aisle by redesigning by category. The end result was a play on the store Target, "Bullseye," a store "where gender is bull!" and toys are arranged by broader categories, not by gender. I think it's important to recognize and understand it shouldn't have to be an either/or situation when we go toy shopping. Children's passions, interests,
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padlet

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The digital tool I decided to write about is Padlet , which, according to their website, is "the easiest way to create and collaborate in the world."  In essence, Padlet is an online virtual bulletin board that allows you to display information, visually and/or with words, for any subject. In some ways its versatility reminds me of how Tumblr was popular years ago -- you can upload pictures, link in videos and music, and even use it to casually blog short responses if you want. In the classroom, you can use it create more dynamic lessons and assignments that invite students to participate in a community versus just individually. Here's one example of a Padlet that displays ways you can use it in class. Logging into and creating a Padlet account is simple. You can use either your Google account or Microsoft account to set it up. While the free version only allows you to create three boards, the paid "Pro" version is $8.25 a month if you choo
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storytelling as resistance

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An image from Coffey's intro lesson with 12th graders "I wanted [students] to understand that everything we read, watch, or hear is a construct with underlying power dynamics [...] I wanted them to think about what happens when you are a people who do not control your own story, and how that changes when you take up the responsibility, as writers, to honor the legacies of struggle and resistance in your community" (Coffey 301). The article I chose to review and read from Rethinking Popular Culture and Media was Jerica Coffey's "Storytelling as Resistance." In it, Coffey describes how she encouraged her students through a unit on "writing the untold histories of our community" (300) to unpack and combat the myths surrounding their neighborhood of Watts, CA by inviting community members 30+ years of age to share their histories. Combining their study of a nonfiction text, Random Family , and their practice of nonfiction narrative writing,
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