2016 KATE Conference

On Thursday and Friday of this week I attended the Kansas Association of Teachers of English (KATE) Conference in Wichita. As excited as I was in the weeks leading up to it, the conference still managed to exceed my expectations. The mutual goal of educating and supporting young people served as the uniting bond, strengthened by a high level of professionalism. These, along with the warmth and openness of all present proved a refreshing tonic after months of slogging through the current social and political climate. This is what people can achieve when they set aside their differences and work together.

One big surprise of the weekend for me was how much I got out of the first keynote address. I have never read any of Bill Konigsburg’s books and doubted if I ever would. There are so many books and just so little time. From what I had heard about this author and his books, I didn’t think this keynote would benefit me much. Dear reader, it is a foolish and dangerous notion to judge that another person has nothing to contribute to your life. Such thinking goes against my core beliefs, yet I sometimes catch myself heading down that treacherous path, and I am thankful for the warning signs and reminders that put me back on track.

During his keynote address, Mr. Konigsburg spoke very honestly about the emotional turmoil he experienced while grappling with his identity as a young gay man. It takes a lot of guts to share such a personal story with a room full of strangers, and I am grateful for his willingness to do so. Although these are experiences I do not share, this perspective increases my ability to empathize with others who may be going through similar trials, and it informs my words and actions so that they can be imbued with greater kindness, gentleness, and care.

Toward the end of his keynote speech, Mr. Konigsburg said something that particularly struck me. He said that someday he hopes to meet a teacher who is “a Christian, a pro-lifer, and who believes being gay is a sin” and that this teacher will save just one kid who is going through what he did by showing that they care. I had hoped that I would have the opportunity to talk with Mr. Konigsburg later in the day and thank him personally for his speech and especially for saying this one thing, but I didn’t see him when there wasn’t a crowd around him. The description may not fit me precisely, but it’s close enough, and I am certain there are quite a few more Christian teachers and student teachers who feel the same way. It is possible to love and support people individually without agreeing with them on everything.  I think the world has forgotten that. It’s time we remembered.

There are so many more things I learned this week. I am still trying to digest it all. Several of the breakout sessions as well as the Thursday lunch keynote speech and the Friday lunch panel dealt with diversity and inclusiveness. All of these fit very well with my own presentation on teaching social justice, and several others offered ideas I would like to incorporate into my teaching on this theme. Kevin Rabas’ Thursday presentation on ekphrastic poetry, poetry in response to art, gave me a specific way to use the art I had been thinking of pairing with some of the written texts I’m considering, and I added this idea to my own presentation on Friday.

Above all, the collegiality at this conference made it such a wonderful experience and really helped build my vision for teaching as a member of this community of teachers and also for working within our individual schools and communities. I am truly blessed to be part of such an amazing group of student teachers who add such depth and richness to my life and my understanding of it. The opportunity to glean from the experience of seasoned teachers already in the field has been priceless, too. My biggest take away from the conference was that together, with love, we can do great things.

Incorporating Art Into a Unit on Social Justice

Below is a list of artworks, artists, and links to include in a unit on social justice. I'd love to add your recommendations to the list!

·      Photography of Dorothea Lange – Depression Era, poverty, migrant workers, Japanese internment camps

·      Guernica – Pablo Picasso (protest against bombing of a village in Spain)

·      The Third of May 1808 and The Disasters of War series – Francisco de Goya

·      The Raft of the Medusa – Theodore Géricault

·      The Uprising – Diego Rivera

·      Self Portrait Along the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States – Frida Kahlo

·      The Prison Courtyard – Vincent van Gogh

·      The Problem We All Live With and Southern Justice – Norman Rockwell

·      Roger Shimomura – works on racism, Japanese internment, identity, culture

·      Liberty Leading the People – Eugene Delacroix

·      Flower Sellers of London and London – Gustave Doré

·      Art of Käthe Kollwitz

·      http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1678584_1477732,00.html

·      http://digitalsynopsis.com/inspiration/36-thought-provoking-paintings-pawel-kuczynski/

·      http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/banksy%E2%80%99s-10-most-powerful-works-social-commentary

·      https://nladesignvisual.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/willie-bester-1956/

·      http://www.boredpanda.com/powerful-social-advertisements/

·      http://www.boredpanda.com/collage-art-social-issues-joe-webb/

·      https://amandalouisesummerscales.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/artists-research/ (domestic violence)

·      Nicolas Lampert, A People's Art History of the United States: 250 Years of Activist Art and Artists Working in Social Justice Movements (New York, The New Press, 2013)

·      http://www.nicolaslampert.org/ - Pages on community art, art activism, art focused on social justice and ecology

·      http://urfaim.blogspot.com/2009/06/peoples-media-case-study-on-art-of.html (The art of Emory Douglas for the Black Panther Party)

·      https://www.pinterest.com/explore/political-art/

·      http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/

Poems About Social Justice/Social Issues

I will continue adding to this list as I find new poems. Please leave any recommendations you have in the comments below so I can add them.

·      Langston Hughes

o   “Harlem” (“Dream Deferred”) – “I, Too” – “Let America Be America Again” - “The Weary Blues” – “Theme for English B” – “Madam and the Charity Child” – “Mother to Son” – “Out of Work” – “The Ballad of the Landlord”

·      Countee Cullen

o   “Incident” – “Thoughts in a Zoo” – “Tableau” – “I Have a Rendezvous With Life” – “Uncle Jim” – “Saturday’s Child”

·      Maya Angelou

o   “Still I Rise” – “In All Ways a Woman” – “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” – “On the Pulse of the Morning”

·      Paul Laurence Dunbar

o   “We Wear the Mask” – “Sympathy”

·      Alfred, Lord Tennyson

o   “The Charge of the Light Brigade”

·      Rudyard Kipling

o   “The Last of the Light Brigade” – “Justice”

·      William Blake

o   “The Chimney Sweeper” (from Songs of Innocence) – “The Chimney Sweeper” (from Songs of Experience)

·      Jacqueline Woodson – various poems from Brown Girl Dreaming

·      Robert Frost

o   “Mending Wall”

·      Yusef Komunyakaa

o   “Ghazal, After Ferguson”

·      Ailish Hopper

o   “Did It Ever Occur to You That Maybe You’re Falling in Love?”

·      Tony Hoagland

o   “America

·      Chase Twichell

o   “Corporate Geese” – “Negligent Worldicide”

·      Robinson Jeffers

o   “The Answer” – “The Purse-Seine”

·      Richard Michelson

o   “Counting to Six Million”

·      Nikki Giovanni

o   “The Song of the Feet”

·       

While You Were Sleeping (Creative Reflection #1)

While You Were Sleeping,

We discussed the novel:

Broad themes, finer points,

Literary devices,

Plot structure,

Character analysis,

The author’s redress of the

“Manic Pixie Dream Girl” trope,

And the dark side of

Young adult lit.

We left the classroom

Went Looking for Alaska,

Wandered the Labyrinth,

Sought a Great Perhaps,

Spoke of life and death and

The depression that can

Swallow the one to

Spit it out as the other.

When still you did not stir

For that oh-so salacious scene

The “good” stuff they say teens want—

“Raw, honest, real,”

I leaned in and listened

To hear you breathe.

A slim, glistening thread

Coupling lip to desk

Quivered and broke as you

Sleepily sighed,

Stopping me short

Of checking your pulse.

And then the bell sounded,

Instantly sending you upright

And out the door,

As if you had never

Suffered an English-induced

Coma,

As if you had never been

Engaged.

Who Are You? I Really Wanna Know.

With the first month of school behind us, I’ve begun to settle into my school placement. I have memorized the names of all the students in the two classes I’m observing as well as a few in the classes before and after, but I occasionally check the seating chart just to be sure. During my second week I called a student by the wrong name, and I don’t want to make that mistake again. On the seating chart I’ve also written the pronunciation of names that are less familiar to me along with the preferred names of some students. The names and titles we use hold special significance; they identify us as separate and distinct individuals as well as members of families or other groups, and they represent who we are to other people.

One of the most basic human desires is to know and to be known. This is the basis of all our relationships. It’s how we build trust and friendship and love. Taking the time to learn students’ names or the names they prefer to be called is a first step in developing a relationship with them and letting them know that I respect and care about them as individuals. This in turn helps students to feel secure in their developing sense of self.

Learning names and addressing students by them is the first step toward knowing who they are, but there is so much more to learn so that I can successfully individualize instruction to maximize learning for all students. In Teaching English by Design, Peter Smagorinsky recommends using writing assignments and questionnaires as inventories of students’ interests, knowledge, skills, experiences, and goals in order to tailor instruction for both individuals and groups (113).

My mentor teacher conducts just such an inventory at the start of the year via a short unit that also encourages the students to engage in self-reflection and assessment. Students begin by reading Who Moved My Cheese for Teens by Dr. Spencer Johnson (original version PDF here), a fable about motivation and how to handle changes. Next they take a Meyers Briggs type personality test and a learning styles quiz. At the end of the unit students write an essay explaining what they learned about themselves from these three sources, and this essay serves as an inventory of their writing skills. Information gathered from this unit combined with the info graphics students created to introduce themselves during the first week of class provide a rough sketch of who these students are as individuals and what needs they have.

 This is a good starting point for designing curriculum and tailoring lessons, but great educators teach people rather than content. Our students are not flat characters in the story of their own lives, nor should they be in ours. As I explained to the juniors last week in a lesson on character analysis, round characters are like both onions and ogres; they have layers. Our students, too, are deep, multi-layered, complex, and unique. Each deserves to be fully rounded, a star player in our classrooms as well as outside of them. 

Do you see your students as round characters like Shrek or flat like Gingy?

To me, the best stories are those that have the greatest number of interesting characters for the plot to revolve around. How blessed I am to add 57 fully rounded, multilayered characters to my life story this semester! I must admit, however, that I’m also grateful not to have the 121 more I will have next semester just yet. I need time to learn how to peel back those layers and to keep track of all of the characters before the plot thickens!

One thing I have started that should prove helpful in getting to know students is making notes each day in my planner. In the school agenda that my mentor teacher gave me, I write a brief outline of the lesson and activities for each day along with notes about issues that arise with individual students or questions I have about how to better help them. These notes serve as a reminder of things I may want to research at home like strategies for working with ESL students or situations I want to pray about. To ensure the privacy of students, I use first name initials only and keep notes that will jog my memory rather than giving a full description. Since I often write as a way of working through problems, I may reflect in a private journal at home, adding more detail and questions in order to help me chart patterns and progress and brainstorm new ways of handling situations. Whether students struggle with the material being taught, the skills required, or with behavior and attitude, this type of reflection that considers the whole person helps me look past how the problem presents itself in the moment, which can assist me in getting to the heart of the matter and working toward more lasting results.

Rather than writing only about problems students are having, I try to make note of their strengths and interests and to engage them in conversation about these when appropriate. I use the time before the bell rings at the start of class or after they have put their laptops away before dismissal to chat with students using their own discussions, a book they have with them, a band T-shirt, or other clues as a way into conversation with them. Already I have recommendations for several books, and I've listened to all of the favorite songs listed on the junior class info graphics. Knowing who these students are connects me with them personally, and it also helps me to connect them with the skills and material they need to learn. Beyond that, I find that knowing these students and engaging in an interchange of ideas with them enriches my life as much as I hope it does theirs.
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Johnson, Spencer. Who Moved My Cheese? for Teens: An A-mazing Way to Change and 

     Win! New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2002. Print.

Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry out 

     Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.