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Hi, Logan!
This is such a lovely program that your teacher runs. I remember similar experiences in elementary school, where our teachers would bring us to the school library and set us loose to read and check out books. Now armed with my Ed Psych glossary, I can retrospectively understand just how critical that trust and independence between teacher and student really is. To be entrusted with school property, as well as given resources to explore and enjoy is so helpful to fostering identity development, I believe. That your teacher actively encourages their interests, wherever they lie, is also so great; to be praised for your interests — which directly feed into your passions and identity — is so validating as a student and a child. I’m glad you had such a great term!
Hi, Renee!
As an observer in an English class, it was super cool to hear how the gender diversity of the STEM courses exceeded your expectations. Even in my experiences going to a well-funded high school which put a lot of stock into its student diversity across many criteria, female-identifying students in upper level science courses were still markedly uncommon. However, I think that we have had similar experiences in our observed classrooms with racial diversity; my largely-white English class also has a small group of Hispanic students who seem a bit shut out from the wider social web of the classroom — both in academic discussions and when mingling with each other. The example of your neurodivergent student’s experience from the Pygmalian effect is also a bit heartbreaking. This student seems set up to fail, despite her actual ability and wishes to interact with other students; I think this shows the fine line between accommodation and accidental exclusion or othering, and just how important it is for the school to actually provide a place where such a student could comfortably voice their opinions to be listened to.
Hi, Chisom!
Despite the differences between algebra and English, your class seems remarkably like mine. My teacher, Jaclyn, has to fight to get students to ask her questions, and she uses motivational strategies like praise in an attempt to elicit the desire to continue learning. To me, this constant struggle seemed so demoralizing in the moment, but we are at a point in the term where the students seem to have opened up more and more. However, possibly the biggest similarity between Ms. Hebs and Jaclyn is the way that they both feature worksheets so heavily in their class time. I also believe that this style works most of the time, as it gives the students a tactile way to stay grounded and engage with the material. Now, I want to keep my eyes open for the way that learning objectives change from worksheet to worksheet, and see if there are objectives that they are limited in.
I love the video you posted, Isaac! I think it does a great job of showing how the students’ learning is almost self-motivated, where the activity itself is the reward. I went to a school that seems similar to Prairie Creek, and remember being so excited to learn because everything was so hands-on. I think that your teacher is also doing a great job in not just having students do activities that they are familiar with, but is taking them into their ZPDs with skills that they need to develop, such as dexterity. through the nettle braiding. Motivating students with fun activities while challenging them in the process seems like a wonderful way to introduce students to industry vs. inferiority, and making them feel capable enough to face their crises.
Knowing how hard it is for my class to be motivated into engagement, I think it’s great that your teacher is so enthusiastic! I think that I am also experiencing a very similar situation with dry (but insightful) course material that students don’t want to use the energy to engage with, or simply don’t feel up to the task. I think that your teacher’s over-exuberance is sweet, and that the way she handled the more domineering student was well done. It’s great that she adapted the lesson to a level that students could better engage with; even if they still relied on the confidence of their peers to inform their decisions; I think that it gave them some more room to understand the topic, which is the foundation to produce one’s own “wonderful ideas” and start questioning their identity in society.
I remember thinking that the RACE format seemed repetitive and a bit depressing too — until during a small group discussion in Ed Psych, we came to the conclusion that, like our readings said, you need to have a grasp on the fundamentals of writing before you’re able to synthesize wonderful ideas and break those rules! Also, when assisting a student by reading her writing back to her, I also had a similar experience as you did. A lot of the help she needed was mostly grammatical and regarded the flow of the writing — something I don’t think is intuitive to her at her age. I felt a little bit helpless, because crossing the boundary between productive MKO and changing so many things without properly explaining due to time constraints was challenging. However, one of the things that she obviously needed most was encouragement, so I tried to split the difference between the two and let her know she did a good job.
I am observing a lot of the hesitance to engage in the lesson with my own 9th grade class, though their subject is English. The similarities between my experience and yours in chemistry has helped me to understand that classes are all designed to teach abstract and critical thinking, even if they are in wildly different subjects. My teacher, Jaclyn makes diagrams of the story and breakdowns of narrative elements for students to engage with, in much the same way that your chemistry teacher demonstrates his lessons physically. This breakdown of seemingly arbitrary elements so that students can digest them individually and learn by piecing them together (whether it’s the stages of making a solution, the way that theme and character interact, etc.) is the vehicle of shepherding students more firmly in their formal operational stages. Though I remember being a student their age and thinking that algebra and chemistry equations were totally irrelevant to any life I’d live, it’s easier to see now that their applications help immensely as productive exercises in abstract thinking, even if their lessons don’t immediately seem practical.
