Bobbijo definitely made an impact on me when she talked about connecting her lessons with something in life. This makes teaching REAL - something that we forget about with everything else that we are required to do.
My other thought deals with the shifting of the thinking. Every single professional development, workshop, conference, etc. that I have attended over the past four or five years has focused on meeting the standards. The AWP is definitely a shift in this thinking and I'm the first to admit that this is a hard shift for me. I still say the standards are important, but thinking creatively through them and how to reach them is a key to making them work. Deep thoughts...
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I agree that the standards are important, but there are so many times when I feel overwhelmed by them. The more I am here, the more I feel like I have been paralyzed by the standards, not allowing for discussion and thought because of the "what's next" attitude they represent. Many teachers (myself included) complain that students can't think on their own...so much feels spoon-fed. Of course my epiphany is that they aren't thinking because we aren't teaching them to!
ReplyDeleteRobin, this is deep but true. We go to these workshops and become more paralyzed. Now with this project our eyes are becoming more open to how our writing can help us learn. Will we be able to do this come fall? We should email each other and see around Christmas. :)
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