Critical Workshop Construction ~ Post 6!

"Describe your experience in developing a PD Workshop related to developing critical reflection in your workshop participants"

I'll openly admit it: I really enjoyed the workshop assignment, and I'm looking forward to getting to work with it again. For once, it was really nice to have a class which allowed us to actually MAKE something, instead of simply make the same old boring, "we all know where this is going" essay. Actually being able to think like an educator and put my knowledge into some form of legitimate practice was fantastic, and something I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to do.

With that said, actually working critical reflection into the workshop was easy for me, because the bulk of my workshop was focused on having the participants become aware of their personal assumptions, and addressing them. The difficulty came in figuring out which activities I could use that would be effective for adult learners (as has been my struggle throughout the course - I'm a student of standard youth education). Adjusting to this served to be a challenge for me, as most of my normal resources which I normally rely on for my education assignments focus on students exclusively at the junior/ intermediate level; I needed to expand my search. 

Expanding my knowledge and resource base was something I took great pleasure in. My awareness of my own shortcomings as an adult educator allowed me to see that I needed new resources; finding them was both interesting and overwhelming. There are so many different resources online, on dozens of websites, all focused on teaching critical ideals in an adult education setting. Ultimately. my decision as to which ones I took into the workshop were ones which I felt flowed well together: a solid icebreaker activity, a good thinking activity, and a concluding activity, followed by a discussion of what had been covered. I find that within a workshop context, a natural and effective flow between the lessons is something that is as important as the lessons themselves. Building off of the activity before it can make an already good activity better. In this case, I believed I achieved that. My lessons regarding assumption making and critical thinking built off of each other effectively, and made for an effective workshop.

I'm looking forward to getting to expand on the work I've already done. My grade was good, but it wasn't where I wanted it to be. I genuinely believe I can work what I've already created into a legitimate and effective workshop, and that is exactly what I plan to do. Critical reflection is such an important skill to teach learners of all ages, and I'm really looking forward to refining my method of teaching it within the context of my workshop.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers!

Considering Critical Distance ~ Post 5!

     Generally speaking, I feel as though critical distance is something I have a fairly good grasp on. It feels very similar to critical reflection, which is something I am extremely comfortable doing. As such, I don't think I learned anything particularly "new" coming out of this weeks readings. More or less, I simply had what I was already aware of reinforced and further contextualized.

     For me as an educator though, critical distance is always something I'm aware of, though I don't believe I use it as effectively as I could. In the past, I've had a bit of a penchant for wanting to be the student favorite. Everyone had that one student teacher they really liked growing up; I always want to be that guy. In all honesty, its worked rather well for me. I've always managed to effectively build up a rapport with most of my students. A lot of this came from my utilization of critical distance. I would often deliberately try and view myself from the perspective of my students and do things that I gathered would make them appreciate me more as an authority figure; whether it be making a joke in a strenuous situation or something similar to that. While this worked most times, it often lead to issues I've made note of in weeks prior when educators try and be friends with their students: it can create a lack of respect. Often in these classes the students would get so used to me being friendly with them or making jokes, they wouldn't take me seriously when I asked them to do something, or they would simply make jokes at me expecting me to play along.

     I think scenarios such as this speak to the double edged sword that using critical distance can be. On one hand, it was effective in making students enjoy my presence in the classroom. On the other, it worked against my authority and respect in said classroom. Critical distance is a great thing, when you use it effectively. Had I spent my time trying to look less at how my students view me as a person and more how they viewed me as an educator, I could have done much more to help them while still maintaining a level of respect. It is this notion of looking through the students eyes (as in Brookfield's chapter this week) that's gotten me in trouble in the past, yet all I need to due is tweak my theory in using it (similar to what Hooks argued) in order to use it effectively. There has to be a balance, and in order to get that balance going forward I think I need to change the reasons I want students to like me. Instead of them liking me for being the goofy, joker of a student teacher, I want them to like me for being the useful, friendly student teacher who could tell when they needed help and could give it before they asked for it. To this, I need to reevaluate how I use critical distance.

Thanks for reading, cheers!
- Ken 

Thematic Commonality Thus Far ~ Post 4!

In order to better condense and organize my thoughts regarding the readings and content of this course so far, I want to break my blog down into two keywords that I believe have been integral: community and introspection. 

     I'm using community as a blanket statement to cover a lot of aspects we've looked at, particularly culture, power dynamics and interactions with students within the classroom. There are so many different opinions and ideas that focus on the classroom and the community at large, it can be overwhelming and difficult to come up with your own philosophy on the subject. A classroom should feel like a community. Particularly focusing on what we've learned this week, community-style classrooms have numerous learning benefits for both the students and teachers. Students have a much greater engagement in their own learning; it gives them a much greater access to resources than they would normally have in that they can discuss and work with their peers.

     This also speaks to the idea of power dynamics within the class. While I believe the classroom setting should involve a community dynamic, I also believe that the teacher needs to represent a figure who commands authority. Authority and power is something we have explored in depth, and I maintain my notion that teachers need to be assertive in their authority (but not aggressively so). It ties into the notions we have looked at before regarding teachers having a 'friendship' with their students. While this has benefits, it often results in too casual a relationship with the teacher, and can create a power vacuum in which no one really listens to anyone. Personally, I believe the relationship needs to be 50/50 at the most. While you should try and be friendly with your students and make them comfortable with you, they need to be aware that you are a figure of authority to be respected.

     Introspection is the other key word I think represents this course so far, and it represents the idea of knowing yourself. I've already touched in this lightly, in that I know what I believe the power dynamic in a classroom should be. Expanding on introspection, it largely encompasses the ideas of knowing what you believe about the classroom and knowing what you believe a classroom should look like. Ultimately, there is no definitive best way to teach. There is simply a best way for you, and it is important you stay true to this. Ultimately, teaching students in a way which makes you uncomfortable is going to make them uncomfortable. Students, regardless of age, are more than capable of reading you and drawing conclusions. If you don't believe in how you are teaching, why should they? This is why I believe introspection is so important, because in order to teach you need to know who you are as a teacher.

     This is further reinforced by our discussions surrounding reflection. Being able to look back on your teaching practice (and life experience in general) in tremendously important to improving your capability as a teacher. Be able to look at your lessons objectively: why did this work? Why didn't it? Look at it from your students perspective. Know what assumptions you go into the classroom with. Address them! Examining yourself is one of the most surefire ways to improve your classroom practice, and this course has helped to reassert that notion in my mind so far.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers!

An Update Serving Two Purposes ~ Post 3!

This post is going to serve two purposes: address the session 3 journal prompt, as well as address a question we were meant to answer in the forums but I somehow managed to miss. So I'll get started with that!

What are the consequences of DELIBERATELY preventing or not preventing a nasty experience from unfolding in a learning environment?

     This question seemed obvious to me at first. "Of course we should always prevent nasty experiences! What kind of person would deliberately allow something to happen to one of their students!?" Yet as I thought on it more, I realized what exactly that entails. Ultimately, failure is one of the cornerstones of effective learning. Nothing teaches a student whats right more than them experiencing whats wrong. By allowing negative instances to occur, I would be enabling the learner an opportunity to reflect on the incident. Questioning how it happened, why it happened, and what could have been done to prevent it would be of a much greater benefit to them as learners than my simple intervention to ensure the incident never took place at all. As an educator, I would prefer to think of myself as a facilitator than an outright teacher at times. If by allowing a nasty incident to befall a student would facilitate their own development as learners, I cannot see why I would not allow it to occur.
     This is, of course, assuming the incident is within reason. The term "nasty" is fairly general, and my response takes it to mean the failing of an assignment, or doing an activity incorrectly; academic forms of "nasty". In the event of more stereotypical nasty behavior (such as physical altercations, verbal abuse, etc.) I feel I would be obligated as an educator and as an individual with some semblance of authority to intervene. Negative experiences are ones of learning, to be certain. However, I cannot justify something morally wrong affecting a student and not allowing myself to intervene in order to help them learn something from it.

What are the common thoughts and ideas you notice among all of the postings (within the "Learning and Change" section of the Session 3 Forum)

     The most prominent theme I noticed within this weeks forum posts is regarding the importance of critical reflection (and critical agency in turn). Reflection is something I believe most educators are familiar with. In order to progress as a teacher (as well as a learner) it is immensely important to be able to look back on your experiences and use them to grow. Reflection allows us to expand our boundaries and leave our comfort zones, actions which are necessary for growth as educators.
     Regarding powers structures, I saw a mix of ideas as I went through the posts, many of which were similar to my own ideas. One of the ideas I saw which I most liked was this notion of "teacher as friend" which was brought up in the post by Haylee Drew, something I believe she was entirely correct about. I had a teacher in high school who was far more interested in being my friend than being my teacher. While this made her class one which I very much looked forward to, I eventually stopped viewing her as a teacher, and in all honesty stopped learning. I couldn't take her telling me what to do seriously, assignments seemed like a waste of my time, etc. It simply reinforces the idea that even though it is important for to have a rapport with our students, we need them to respect us as authority figures in order for learning to occur. As Haylee reiterated, a 50/50 split of friendliness and authority may be an effective compromise in order to make your students respect your word, as well as have them enjoy being in your presence. 

     Another important aspect I noted in many of my fellow students posts regarded the importance of examining how our students will see us. Caitlinn Mccman summarized my personal feelings pretty well: "Being from a white middle class background I was never really exposed to being at the disadvantage". This is something I am entirely aware of, and somewhat paranoid about, as I have said in other posts. I want my students to be able to feel comfortable and relatable to be, but I am also aware of how difficult that can be for someone of my background. How my students see me is immensely important to me, as I believe respect is necessary for an effective classroom environment. Being able to reflect on their experiences, as well as my own, is what I believe could be the key to making this happen.