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Middle school is the prime time where students are learning more about themselves and others. According to Erikson, my 8th-grade students are in the Identity versus Role Confusion stage. Are there opportunities for self-expression? I don’t really see it in the structure of the class, but there are individual instances where I can clearly see what’s important for a student. For example, there is a student in the 1st hour who LOVES to draw. When I grade the warm-ups of the previous week, I can clearly see which one is hers. Also, she has all kinds of markers and pens stationed around her. Adding on, I can assume that she likes to listen to music because she usually has a pair of headphones around her neck. Can she express herself in class? Only if it’s the right time. I am glad that she has an activity that she can enjoy but it has gotten in the way of her writing down notes or working on the worksheets during class. Also, I can see some instances of her isolating herself whenever she puts her headphones on (then again, I only see her in this class, so I don’t know if she has any friends in her other classes).
Even though classes are very structured, there are moments where Ms. Hebs would ask the students for input that isn’t related to schoolwork. On Fridays, she asks her students what their plans for the weekend are and on Mondays, she asks what they did over the weekend (I have participated in this as well). From this, I’ve learned who likes hunting and who likes horror movies. During these moments, I have also learned more about Ms. Hebs herself (for example, she grew up learning how to use a bow). On Fridays, Ms. Hebs has Music (Disco?) Fridays where she plays music between classes so that her students walk into class with music playing. This past week, she had forgotten about it (I reminded her about it) and she asked me for recommendations. Not knowing what kinds of music were popular these days, I had no idea what to tell her. She then asked Malcolm (a student who requested to be called that) for recommendations. Malcolm likes rock so Ms. Hebs ended up playing “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. Through these moments, Ms. Hebs is encouraging her students to talk about themselves and learn about their classmates.
In Marcia’s extension of Erikson’s theory, I would classify myself as currently being in Moratorium. I am a junior at a liberal arts college who likes to participate in all types of activities and I never have time. Last year, I took Intro to Educational Studies and never considered the minor, yet this term I decided to gun for the minor by taking two Educational Studies classes (and they’re both in the same room!). As a junior, now I am thinking about life after Carleton: I wasn’t considering grade school, yet my mother encourages me to pursue it; one of my best friends wants to be roommates after Carleton, so she keeps asking me what places around the US I would like to live; I want to continue learning Japanese, so I am considering doing the JET program; I currently have an application running with Google and Amazon in hopes of getting an internship… just to name a few things on my mind. To sum up everything, I am currently in a what-am-I-gonna-do-with-my-life crisis. The future is uncertain and I have no idea how my next summer and life after Carleton would look like. That’s why I like my tutoring position. I know for sure how to do algebra and with math, there is (mostly) an end to the problem.
Example Worksheet (done by me)
I know that I am living in the now, but as I think about what classes I want to take next term, what my plans are for winter break, I think about all the possibilities that are available to me. I need to make a decision at some point, but that’s something that future me will figure out.
Since classes were typical this past week, I don’t have any “special” observations, but something I have noticed is that Ms. Hebs gives her students candy when their birthday is happening soon (or has already happened). Even though this wasn’t a whole class celebration, I think it’s nice that she appreciates her students’ birthdays, even if it’s just a little bit. Another thing that I’ve noticed is that Ms. Hebs tells her first-hour class that they are her “guinea pigs” which I think is pretty funny. They are kinda “experimental” in the sense that if certain things work in the first hour, she would proceed to do it again for the rest of her students. I wonder how the students feel about this. Do they like it? Or does it make Ms. Hebs seem unprepared to them?
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I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree with you that in general there aren’t many spaces or times where students have the freedom to express themselves but I think in a way the music recommendations is a good one. Music is a huge way of expressing one’s mood, identity, etc, however, I can also see someone shying away from it for the fear that others might not like their suggestions. I appreciate Ms. Hebs making the effort to allow students to show off their personalities. I am wondering if Ms. Hebs also creates an atmosphere of creativity and expression within her classroom through decorations or classroom setup.
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