Serendipitaz's blog

SOMETHING TAKES CONTROL OF ME

colors spin around

pick me up

and take me

down a rabbit hole

BAM

silence breaks into pieces

and stabs my ears

MY BRAIN FLIES OUT OF MY HEAD

During one of discussions last week, we talked about how teachers often get frustrated with their students when they aren't doing they things they are asked to do. We also talked about students who are demotivated, not unmotivated, but demotivated from school work because they are struggling to connect. Thus, the challenge that I would like to focus on is how does learning happen when there are so many other situations that the learner faces outside of the class. Here, the learner is both the teacher and the students. 

Teachers and students are both people and sometimes when our basic needs aren't met we tend to feel frustrated about other things that we think we can control. For example, in our small group discussions we talked about how teachers have no bathroom or snack breaks. Even the students have a bathroom visit limit and a restriction from eating in class. As we all know, these are some basic calls to nature that we all must abide by to be healthy. Yet, students and teachers are often shackled down from these needs. Without energy from the food, our inhibitions go down and we can't learn. So, is there really a point even to be in class if no one can focus? Without our inhiitions, we get frustrated easily and channel anger towards those who aren't even part of the situation. As outsiders, we can judge and say that the angry person is incensitive, but how will that solve that fact there's something else in the lives of the students and teacher that requires more immediate attention?

In the beginning of class, the students did their Do Now and studied their vocab words for the quiz. The teacher asked me to pull individuals who struggled to finish his/her homework-- reading and giving meaning to poems in a pre-made packet -- during the quiz time. I knew from the get go, I didn’t want to give the answers to the students right away if they got confused. As a student, I have always benefited from my mentors questioning me in order to help me figure out the answer on my own. The goals of the exercises in the packet were to help the students build their vocab and the ability to interpret stories and poems. Most importantly, the goal was to prepare these ELL students for the benchmark exam.

For the Literacy definition paper, I had no idea what to write about. I remember last week, when I was contemplating on what to write about, all I did was compile a bunch of defintions of the word literacy. I read and re-read the prompt, but still couldn't figure out what I wanted to write about. I kept nibbling on the prompt and writing down different strategies that could help me answer the prompt. But, nothing was speaking to me. I was thinking, "how the hell am I going to fill eight pages?" I was very flustered, but not about this upcoming paper. It was about something that happened to me earlier that day when I went to my placement for the first time. Being a student a Bryn Mawr, I have had the privilage of interacting with my professors as my comrades. Part of the reason to why I felt this strong friendship with them was the fact that I call most of them by their first names. When I was at my placement, I had this strange feeling when the students HAD to call me by my surname. It was a strange feeling. It was as though whenever they needed help from me, they were calling someone else. After venting about this new found persona with a friend, I now have a better idea of what my paper of literacy will be about. I hope to focus on the power dynamics created in the classroom based on the language used.  I am not sure if I specifically want to stick titles and what they imply about the education system...but, that's where I see my mind wandering.

Yellow,
a color I despised since childhood.
I never understood why it was so loud.
I never liked how it would hurt my sleepy eyes
or how it made me nauseous.
I just never liked yellow!