It's true, I definitely do. You know when you first meet someone and you are talking with them and it's like they must have been inside your head at some point because the things they are saying are literally your "things"? I know right? Weird. Well, that's what it's like for me and Bill.
Yes, I am aware that it is very early in our budding relationship and what I am feeling may simply be an infatuation and in the end I could wind up getting hurt, but as with most endeavors of the heart, I think it is a risk worth taking. Maybe you would understand better if I explained just why I have such feelings for Mr. Ayers.
I have been constructing my thoughts on who I want to be as an educator and how I want to teach for many years. I have come up with 3 major themes: 1) Love your kids, 2) Know yourself and 3) Know your kids. My struggle has been turning these "foundations" into practical theories that I could use in the teaching profession. The ideas were there, I just lacked the words and experience to voice them. Imagine my surprise when William Ayers seemingly reached into my soul, plucked out my deeply rooted tenets and then proceeded to flesh them out for me. "Here" he said with a roguish smile, "Let me give you a hand with that." I must admit, it was a little awkward, as all first conversations with someone you like are, but I couldn't help but feeling as if, "he gets me." Not to mention he gives eloquent voice to concepts for which I have been unable to find the right words. Does anyone else feel like this? Does William "speak" to anyone else in the same way? (It's okay if he does, were aren't an exclusive item....yet....don't you ruin this for me!)
One of his Teaching Myths struck me as particularly profound and since we never got to it in our class discussion, I thought I would touch briefly on it here. Myth 10: A good teacher knows what is going on in the classroom. At first it makes no sense to me. One would think a good teacher is omniscient, or at least trying to be. Then I realized his whole point was about seeing from another's perspective, the "using a different lens" theory we were discussing last Monday. But not simply another lens from your kit as in re-examining your perspective, but literally looking at it from another's point of view. Your lesson means one thing to you, but what is it from your kids perspective? One lesson becomes thirty lessons. It can fail or succeed based on the successful meshing of those views. As Bill so deliciously puts it: "Classrooms are yeasty places, where an entire group comes together and creates a distinctive and dynamic culture; sometimes things bubble and rise; sometimes they are punched down or killed off." How on earth I can learn to create an engaging, active classroom in which I can pull together so many different perspectives seems a bewildering task. So I ask this for us all to think about: With all these vastly different organic compounds in this "yeast", how can we as teachers make sure this Bread rises?
I love Ayers as well, after reading the first chapter, I could not put it down. And I continue to pick up the book each week and want to reread the chapters again. I think it is going to be the hardest task for us to create an active and engaging classroom environment where all student't opinions and thoughts are valued. But I think we are in the best position to be those role models and care about our students to make them feel as if they are engaged in their education. We are going to be give the tools in this program and it our job to use them in our creative ways. Each week, I learn so much from each of our classmates and we are going to continue to learn from one another.
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