Junior High Observation 2

Observations today:

General observations 

- I liked that all of the computers were on one side of the classroom, with tables on the other side. 

- sooo many phones and head phones out. Jr high has changed since I was there

Observations from talking to Mr. Alder

- You still have to be a jack of all trades, pick which areas you want to emphasize in because you can't be an expert in all of them.

- don't reinvent the wheel, utilize your resources. 

- There is no fair way around it. A lot of grading is subjective. 

Reflection 4.

Today was my first experience in observing a junior high classroom. All of the things I had expected to see were there. Students, computers, machines, inspirational quotes on the walls, smart phones out on desks, enthusiasm for learning, etc. Just as I imagined, I really enjoyed being there, mingling with the kids as they went about their work. There was one thing though, that really caught me off guard.
It happened while I was assisting a group. James, one of the students, made some racist, off-hand comment about Mexicans. At first, I wasn't sure that I had caught the comment in context, so I didn't say anything... But as the next moments went by, and the comments persisted, I realized that my ears had not deceived me, and that his comments were actually really hurtful, especially considering that one of his group members was half Mexican. I forgot about this part of junior high.
I've reflected on this moment over and over the entire day. I've replayed what was said, by all of the kids in the group, what I said to try to stand up for the little 1/2 Mexican boy, what I didn't say, what I should have said. When I am a teacher, I will have a zero tolerance policy for racist comments and all other types of put downs. Now, in this situation, the teacher didn't know what happened, and I'm not assuming things about him, but in my classroom, from day one it will be known that my classroom is a place of respect for all people.
This is not the lesson I expected to get from my observation today, but its what happened, and I'm stickin to it!

Relfection 3

Teaching has always attracted me as a career. Growing up, I was blessed many times to have teachers who were absolutely outstanding. You know the type that push you, validate you, and make you feel empowered? Well, they were littered throughout my school experience. Their influence played a large roll in many of the decisions I made as a youth, and I am grateful for their examples.

People often ask me why I want to teach junior high specifically, and that is a valid question. Here is the answer: The students are impressionable, and I know, given the chance, I could leave a good impression.

I could site a lot of different experiences, and reasons to illustrate this, but here is what it comes down to. Junior high is an extremely important time when it comes to decision making. If I were to look back at all of my friends and the paths they chose for their lives, almost every time, I can pin point when they began that road to junior high.

That statement is true of my friends who turned to substance abuse, to the guy covered in tattoos, to my friends who had babies out of wedlock, and to my stalwart friends  all equally.  I'm not saying that people can't or won't change, or that everyone decides their lives in junior high, but most everyone I knew, including myself did.

Throw important life decisions in with acne, sports practice, bubbling hormones, family or societal problems,  mountains of homework, peer pressure, drugs, and more hormonal imbalances and what do you get? Chaos.

Talk about the key time to have the greatest impact! Good, moral teachers are crucial to every stage, but especially in junior high, and I want to be there to help with it all.

Reflection 2

Capture: Last week, when we received our first teaching assignments, I immediately got right to work. The following Tuesday seemed like a decade away as I finalized my plans, and I couldn't wait to blow my first assignment out of the water.  Verdict: Tuesday came, and lets just say, my lesson wasn't the hit I had hoped for.

Analyze: A few things stuck out to me in this process.

1.  Prepare, prepare, prepare! I should know this about myself by now, if I don't feel 100% ready before I present something, I usually get nervous and flop on my face. For some reason, I was under the impression that I had out grown this tendency, but Tuesday assured me that my weakness is alive and well.  Sure, I had spent a while on my lesson the week before, and then briefly went through it the night before, but given my track record, I should have known that if I was to really do a good job, I should have simply just put in more time and rehearsed it several more times.  Now, I recognize that there were some good points, but overall, the lesson had way more potential than I let it achieve.

2. Usually, when I find myself in these situations, I enter whirl pool of self pity and anger. Why didn't I prepare more? I feel like an idiot. I hate not being good at anything. I'm usually so comfortable in front of people, what's wrong with me? Why do I always feel like I'm at the bottom of the class?  Reading this, I know it sounds incredibly stupid, and as I type this, I realize that kind of attitude is unwarranted and just plain ridiculous. However, it is the reality most times when I come out of a situation feeling less than competent.  Here's what surprised me Tuesday though: As I sat down after my lesson, I knew that I really hadn't done a great job, or even a good job, and watching some of the other students do so so well usually would have discouraged me further..... I sat in my seat and waited for the feelings of idiocy to settle in... This is the weird thing though, they didn't come! In fact, the longer I sat there, the more motivated I felt. I watched person after person nail the assignment, and I thought to myself, I can see myself doing that. You know, of all the aspects of this major, I feel like my most potential is in my teaching abilities. I know what to do better for next time. 

Critique/Action: As dumb as it may sound, this experience reassured me of the good things to come. At least the mistakes I made in my teaching are fixable. My "action" this time is to take feedback I was given (proximity, more interaction with the students, show why your topic is important, etc) and apply it to my next teaching opportunity. I'm actually kind of excited.

Reflection 1

Capture:  This week in class, the ideology was presented that if a kid doesn't like broccoli, the solution isn't to give the kid more broccoli, or get mad at the kid for not eating the broccoli, but simply to disguise the broccoli.

Dip it in cheese, pour vinegar over it, serve it in a casserole. Simply change the context. Over time, the child will likely acquire a liking for broccoli without realizing changing process he is experiencing.

Analyze: This same philosophy can be applied to a class room. I can't count the number of times I personally have exclaimed "ewwww" when introduced to intimidating subject matter. Many times I have sat on the edge of my seat, ready to declare mutiny if the new concepts weren't presented clearly. Such was the case with Algebra and Chemistry. In those instances, I was being fed straight broccloli. And I detested every painful second.

Vastly different from my experiences with Algebra and Chemistry was my experience with reading. As a child I resisted reading quite defiantly. Reading was difficult. Reading was boring. Reading was something I could learn to do when I was older. Reading was my broccoli.

Enter in my cheese, my first grade teacher, Mrs. Walton.

Mrs. Walton must have sensed apprehension on the part of the entire class, for she made it her personal mission to instill a love of reading within us. For example, each student had a personal copy of the book, "My Father's Dragon." This small chapter book recounts the story of a young boy who goes on many unlikely adventures. Mrs. Walton used the excitement of these adventures to disguise the fact that page by page, we were learning how to read.

For instance, at one point in the book, the main character has to cross a crocodile-infested river. He searches through his backpack and discovers several lollipops and rubber bands. Using those tools, he attaches a lollipop to the tail of each crocodile. While the crocodiles are busy licking the lollipops attached to the tails of those beside them, the boy simply walks on top of their backs across the river.

We could have just read this humorous experience and called it a day. However, Mrs. Walton's dedication to really disguise our learning process ran deeper than just reading the words. To bring the story to life, she had each of us lie in a line across the classroom floor and attach a lollipop to the shoes of the neighbor directly in front of us. We stayed there, on our bellies, licking each other's lollipops for a quite a while as she read aloud to us.

Experiences like this changed what I had originally thought about reading. No longer was it just difficult, boring, and needless, but it was an adventure, escape, and enjoyable past time. With my personal broccoli adequately disguised, I never looked back.

Critique/Action: As I pursue my teaching career, I hope I will be one to not just encourage facts and deadlines, but one who will be able to instill a passion for learning. I think disguising my "broccoli with cheese" will have less to do with subject matter, and more to do with the environment. For example, I want my classroom to have engaging lesson plans, an "you can ask any question" kind of mindset, and curriculum that challenges students without making them feel incompetent.

On Finding Understanding

I received an unexpected text from my 15 year old sister a couple Fridays ago. It read:

"Are we supposed to wait until after high school to have a boyfriend?"

Uhhh.... I wasn't sure exactly how to answer this one.

Here's the deal: Emily had spent the week at EFY (a youth church camp). While there, one of the speakers led a pretty in depth discussion on dating. In the LDS church, we have been given a lot of standards and guidelines when it comes to teen dating.  These standards are given to us by modern prophets, and are published in a booklet called, "For the Strength of Youth."  The speaker my sister heard at EFY understood these standards differently than she had, causing her to feel a little bit conflicted.



Seeing that this conversation was not one that could be properly texted, we agreed to meet during her free time.


I wasn't sure what I expected this conversation to be, but what actually happened has kept me thinking for days. Emily led out with a firm,"I want to follow the prophet" kind of attitude. Her idea was not to push the boundaries of the church, but rather to correctly understand the principles in that pamphlet, so that when she began dating, she would be in line with what the prophets have said.

We surprisingly never nailed down the specifics of what was or wasn't appropriate when it came to teenage dating. Most of our conversation was spent discussing how she should go about researching this topic. We talked a great deal about study, prayer, and attitude. In the end, her mindset was the same as in the beginning, "I want to follow the prophet."

"Don't take lightly the feeling you get of love for the prophet of God. Wherever I go in the church, who ever the prophet is at the time, the members will ask, 'When you get back to church headquarters, will you please tell the prophet how much we love him?' That is far more than hero worship or the feelings we sometimes have of admiring heroic figures. It is a gift from God. With it, you receive more easily the gift of confirming revelation when he speaks in his office as the Lord's prophet. The love you feel is the love the Lord has for whoever is His spokesman." -Henry B. Eyring (Continuing Revelation, Oct 2014.)

Emily's trust in these men comes from a witness borne of the Spirit that they are representatives of Jesus Christ. I can tell that she feels that. And that's why I think her attitude was one of seeking understanding instead of defiance.

Her unwavering trust in these men of God strengthened my own conviction.

Later that day, I would go home, get on Facebook, and see the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage.

The more I reflected on this experience, the more it struck me what had really happened with Emily that day.

Emily had set herself on a path of dedication to God. When I was fifteen, the topic of dating was extremely important to me, as it is to her now. And there are a lot of details that people have varying opinions on. I remember also being thoroughly confused.

Emily's choice to clear her confusion by researching the words of prophets through study and prayer is going to benefit her for the rest of her life.... Because, one day, the topics of discussion are going to be ones of a much grander scale. When faced with controversy in the future, the opinions will be more fierce, and the consequences more far-reaching.

When I got home Friday and scrolled through my Facebook feed, I read article after article, each posted by someone I care about. Some felt that legalizing gay-marriage was a great step forward for our nation, while others felt devastated, disgusted, and threatened. As rainbow-stripped profile pictures and "straight-pride" posts littered my wall, I found peace as I looked to the men I sustain as prophets.

The leaders of the church released this official statement that Friday:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acknowledges that following today's ruling by the Supreme Court, same-sex marriages are now legal in the United States. The Court's decision does not alter the Lord's doctrine that marriage is a union between a man and a woman ordained by God. While showing respect for those who think differently, the Church will continue to teach and promote marriage between a man and a woman as a central part of our doctrine and practice."

Trust.

As I read these words, I was reminded how much I trust the men I sustain as prophets. And peace. I felt that too.

These themes of seeking clarity and understanding seem to be reoccurring ones as of late, and I assume that pattern will only continue. The legalization of same-sex marriage is not going be the last controversial issue that we face. I am grateful, however, for the opportunity it has given me to research the words of those I sustain as prophets, pray for clarity, and finally trust in the Savior.

And so, by the end of this, the issues of teen-dating and same-sex marriage didn't seem so different to me after all. The particulars, of course, are different, but the path of finding peace and understanding was the exact same.

Both required research, prayer and trust.

So that's my take-away.



As a side note, of the articles I read, this is the one that proved most enlightening:   http://www.millennialmormons.com/your-choice-supporting-gay-marriage-or-supporting-gay-members/

#sharegoodness

Earlier today I was watching a video of some country stars singing "Silent Night." It was a beautiful rendition, but by the third verse I found myself critiquing nearly every thing the artists did. "She has too much twang here,"  "She should have let the other artist hit the high notes," "You know, I never really did like so-and-so very much anyways." By the end of the verse the realization hit me like a ton of bricks.
"Do you think HE cares?"
If the Savior were listening to these three women, would He care that one of their dresses was a bit drab? Would He care that the artists took a little liberty with the melody? Would He care if the harmony was predictable? No. No, I don't think He would.
 I think, if He were in the audience that night, or if He were the one on the other side of my laptop, He mostly would have just been really grateful. He would have been really grateful that in the world of fame, fortune, and beauty, there were still these three women who really believed in Him, and despite the negative influences around them, loved Him enough  that they wanted to use their careers to spread His message of peace and joy. He would have listened to that harmony, grateful that these women understood what He meant when He asked us to magnify our talents. As He watched the audience, He would be able to tell the moment that the Spirit had delivered the quiet assurance that this Christmas message was true. He would have already thought of all the times the video could potentially be posted online, and the influence it could have in that sphere.
And then the fourth verse started. Now, my pride having gone down quite a ways, I better appreciated the last verse. I was grateful to these women, and the way they had invited the Christmas Spirit into my morning. And so I give kudos to them. Way to #sharegoodness.

http://faithtap.com/2154/clarkson-yearwood-and-mcentire-sing-silent-night/

picture from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/281052832969678520/