11-17 Reading

I really liked everything in the MCM about the content-based instruction and using literature as content. I mean, honestly, lit was one of my college majors, how can I not like the possibility? It was also interesting that the author referred to one of my favourite Saroyan's stories.

Unfortunately, I can't say that I agree with everything in the peanut butter book, although it's great that Brown states what I have been advocating for - teachers need to be trained on emergency behaviour/improvisation planning skills. When I was trained to work as a camp counselor we went through and enacted all possible scenarios - a kid hurting themselves, someone getting lost or drowning, a fire starting, Apocalypse been moved to the current day. Since we knew what to do in a number of weird situations they did not catch us off-guard (except for the Apocalypse one that never happened).

On page 244 Brown says "Let your body posture exhibit an air of confidence". It's a fine goal, of course, but it is so strategical, that it reminds me of an old joke about mice and a wise owl. The mice came to the owl for advice, since they were harassed by cats. The owl thought for a while and said: "Turn into hedgehogs, then the cats will leave you alone". The mice protested that they did not know how to do so, and the owl said "That's a matter of tactics and I am more into strategy". So, my question is HOW do you let your body posture exhibit an air of confidence? I have no idea what my posture exhibits.

As for midstream changes - I am all for these. If the students are interested in something and want to talk about that or if a new topic arises, it should be addressed. Teachable moment, right? besides, lesson plan to me is more of a guideline and tentative list of things I would like to do, rather than a fixed list of goals to be achieved no matter what.

Using English only in class can and will be a problem. I taught in classrooms with approximately 10 different first languages, none of which I speak. The first day of class I would do a very animated presentation of how impolite it is to speak a language someone does not know in their presence and on how upset I will be if I can't follow what's happening in the class. On average I had to repeat this a couple of times/semester, but in one group it did not work. So, when I was tired of hearing constant Spanish chatter I gave my English Only speech again and followed it by the directions to the next activity, given in Russian. It worked.

I honestly hate disciplining students and try to avoid it at all costs (teaching adults is a strategy to go by here), but if I have to my main instruments are The Look and Humor. If students are talking in class I usually offer to stop the class for a couple of minutes so that they can solve their urgent problems (I mean, no one would ever dare to disrupt my class for anything other than urgent, right?), because I am fine, I know the stuff.

Cheating is always a problem, but my position is that by cheating a student harms him/herself first and foremost. I gave this example in my CASAS presentation - if they cheat on the test, they end up in a higher level class, and then come complaining that they can't cope. Well, I feel for them, but whose fault is that? I totally agree with what Brown says about lowering the pressure on students. If my salary depends on their scores, it's my problem.

Teaching style is something you develop and work on. My style depends a lot on the group I am working with and how comfortable I am in their presence. I like to make a lot of jokes and use myself as a joke constantly (not hard to do, truth be told), because I believe that laughter (as all emotions) helps you remember something better.