Around, Here

I do not remember the last time I have read something as moving and as powerful as the introduction to Tom Rademacher's book. If you think I'm being dramatic, I'm not. Day after day we have slogged through countless theoretical readings from the aforementioned "white-haired dudes with PhDs" with seemingly no end in sight. These readings, while informative and certainly telling of a dedication to betterment of the educational environment, have oftentimes seemed disconnected from any practical application. I have written about this phenomenon before, specifically in my final for CI 5441 (which I incidentally did not do too well on) - I can have all the theory I want shoved down my gullet, but at the end of the day it is my lived experiences and my human to human interactions that are going to define me in the classroom. Tom is right here - students aren't gonna care if I'm super articulate and effective teaching them about the intricacies of Shakespearian ...

For my first entry here this semester I wanted to write a bit about the piece that stuck out the most to me, which was the Heffernan & Lewison piece regarding Culturally Relevant Writing. Over the course of our, well, courses last semester we talked extensively about Critical Literacy and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and for whatever reason it did not even cross my mind to think that these same concepts could be applied to teaching writing and composition. The examples shown in the article showed just how powerful this exercise could be, and how this practice goes hand in hand with critical literacy. It is asked in the beginning of the article: “Could critical literacy practices shake up the writer’s workshop?” The answer, as it seems that they have found out, is absolutely. These practices can serve as an extension of critical literacy exercises, or even as a precursor to critical literacy itself. As illustrated in the article, going through the necessary steps that the teach...

[My original teaching/educational philosophy draft from EDHD 5300 can be found here .] Within the above document we can see the beginnings of my educational philosophy take place. This assignment largely had me extrapolate some aspects of my K-12 academic career for my own analysis with my current lens and perspective. As I move forward in my teacher prep program I have come to the understanding that my teaching philosophy absolutely has to be grounded in theory. Period. It is one thing for me to have these grandiose ideas of being a fun, engaging, and inclusive teacher, but if these ideas are not clearly grounded in theory then the points may as well be moot. It is the theory that is the foundation of our desires to be the optimal teacher(s). Keeping this in mind, I realize that my teaching philosophy must include this in order to articulate my opinions regarding classroom assessment, technology integration, lesson differentiation, and classroom ecology. Of course, with assessment...

The podcast I looked at is from a series called Overdue, and this particular episode talks about the book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. This is, more or less, a children's novel that I read when I was about ten years old. The book outlines the story of Milo, a boy who goes through this magical gate (which is the Tollbooth, for all intents and purposes) and embarks on an adventure like no other. The book is rife with wordplay and fun life lessons that are worked into the plot of the story - The Phantom Tollbooth was one of my favorites growing up and I was happy to find a podcast that talked about the book. As for the podcast itself, finding Overdue came on a bit of a stroke of luck. While I was looking for a podcast to listen to for this assignment I just went to one of the home pages on Spotify and this pod was one of the first that came up. I had never heard of it, and the concept sounded interesting. Basically what Overdue does is take a book that the two hosts ha...

If I were to pick out a passage from these two readings that resonated with me, I would likely start with the one that reads as follows: “One likely reason for the paucity of critical material on this large and compelling subject is that, in matters of race, silence and evasion have historically ruled literary discourse.” This passage comes after the author talks about the “ideals” that are typically expressed within classic American literature, a genre that is dominated by white male authors. Specifically, this chapter talks about the omission of African literature and ideals from the common American culture and focus - these perspectives have been silenced and evaded. This, while perhaps common knowledge for those of us who have been extensively studying educational theory for the past six months straight, is important to reiterate as we work towards creating an inclusive and diverse multimodal curriculum for our students moving forward. We must talk about these values and many of t...

Bell Hooks describes critical fiction as sort of a continually evolving and diverse concept, explaining it as a form of literature that "enriches resistance struggles" and "speaks about the way individuals in repressive, dehumanizing situations use imagination to sustain life and maintain critical awareness." These works go against the grain of what white educators believe literature should traditionally be like, and there are many more of these works of critical fiction that are becoming ever more present in classrooms today. Well, at least, they SHOULD be more common in classrooms. The first text that came to mind for me upon reading this PDF as an example of critical fiction is The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp. This was a book that I read during my undergrad during a World Indigenous Lit & Film course and I absolutely fell in love with it. This story is told from the perspective of Larry, a member of the Dogrib tribe, as he works through his high-sch...

While my multimodal self portrait was not entirely finished by the time I presented, I was able to articulate a detailed outline of my idea (podcast format with music playing in the background from bands I have played in) and the content that I am going to include. In doing so I was able to confirm some of my fears about my content being too long - it is rather easy for me to ramble and go off on a tangent about my life story. However, after listening to the works by Morgan and Jordan I was able to whittle my ideas down to those that I believe to be the most important regarding my identity. Aside from the most blatant aspect of myself regarding my status as a typical white dude from a small town, I thought it would be pertinent to focus on the role music and being a musician has had in shaping my life, as well as my broad range of hobbies and interests that I feel will help me relate to students down the road. As I said, it is easy for me to ramble about my life experiences - the ch...