I REALLY jive with Mary Cowhey. I was nodding my head and writing "YES!" in the margin for a lot of her anecdotes and ideas. When she says "I began to take an activist approach to curriculum, always looking for opportunities to make connections, to broaden and deepen, to increase authenticity, build a bridge, and bring it to life with a visitor, a field trip, or correspondence" (Cowhey, 2006, p.61). I absolutely agree and have been doing many of these for some time (not to pat myself on the back or anything.) For instance, my kids are in active correspondence with Chinese pen pals, as well as versed in writing letters to ask questions to community members. After seeing the play version of our class read-aloud, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, the kids chose to write to the theatre company about their impressions and questions. My next step lies in building a deeper community resource network and putting community members to work. Maybe I am self conscious and imaging this for no reason, but part of me feels guilty asking more of the parent body. They already pay a tuition for their kid to go to our school, I feel sheepish asking them to contribute more of their money/time/resources. I also really like when she says "Every time I admitted I couldn't answer a question, a new learning opportunity arose. I saw that when I modeled critical thinking and intellectually curious behavior, children imitated these habits of mind" (Cohey, 2006, p.61). This definitely resonates with other readings about inquiry based learning and is a quote to remember for the Position Statements of the future!
Another place where I felt like Cowhey was speaking my mind was when she says "When I first started teaching, things were often this rough around the edges. The curriculum framework connection wasn't always crystal clear in my mind. It is often a more instinctual feeling -- that 'some good could come of this' -- rather than a sophisticated rationale" (Cowhey, 2006, p.65). I feel that early in my career and even now, some of my best teaching moments come from the unplanned riffing off of the instant experiences. All in all, I really love her ideas and want to do more community outreach, but some of these things just aren't practical for all groups of kids. Like taking the city bus to a destination (76), which could easily turn into a management fiasco and cause unnecessary stress for some kids. Maybe there would be a way to "scaffold" this experience by letting some students meet us at our destination and take a car? Another aspect I still have questions about is some of the almost too-perfect exchanges she reports her students having. The story about Fatima almost made me misty eyed (64). It's almost saccharine with Carmen patting her hand at the end saying "You're safe now"... Do real kids really talk like that? Did these picture perfect teaching moments really happen???
I'm very excited about getting more energized with our community resources. I think I made a good step in that direction by having home visits with over half of my students and their families. It was wonderful getting to see the flavor of all of these different homes, and helped me see these people on a new level.
I really liked Cowhey's discussion of the ways she's facilitated conversation about today's issues of equity and fairness, including gay rights. She says "When it comes to discussing gay marriage in second grade, these are the questions that matter most: Is it fair to exclude some families from the right to marry? Who made that rule (and how is it changing)?" (Cowhey, 2006, p.175). These are conversations that I yearn to have with my students and find so relevant to our discussions on civil rights and power and critical questioning. It feels almost absurd to not talk about the obvious comparative issue in today's society. One thing I lack in my classroom community is direct access to kids with these alternative family makeups, so the conversation does not begin in this natural way. That's one reason chapter 11 was so useful. I really related to "sometimes those risks can cause controversy. Sometimes I make mistakes" (Cowhey, 2006, p.194), from a personal experience where my passion to talk about important issues caused me to inadvertently stray into controversy.
I wish I had read this chapter on home visits before I made my home visits last week, but I could still relate with a lot of what Cowhey said, such as not going in with an agenda, something I also made a point to do. Everything she writes about the possibilities of hooking in volunteers from the community is very exciting to me. She describes the type of community I would love to build!
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