So here is my last practicum 1 post.
I got a package from the TDSB Professional Library with resource materials on how to teach Maus.
And in it, there was a note entitled: Rationale for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
It reads:
Dear Teacher:
I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:
Gas chambers built by LEARNED engineers. Children poisoned by EDUCATED physicians. Infants killed by TRAINED nurses. Women and babies shot and burned by HIGH SCHOOL and COLLEGE graduates.
So I am suspicios of education.
My request is: Help you students become more human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, and writing, and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane.
Haim Ginott
That same day, a student came up to me and personally thanked me for sharing the story of my grandparents with her.
So I guess despite how uncomfortable this has been for me, it's been ok.
Blogs I commented on: Patrick Shannon, Laura Argiropolos, Jasmine Toews, Kevin Hewitt, Vivian Thomas
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
Short stories from this week.
So I went to Parent-Teacher interviews yesterday, and some of the stories just broke my heart.
One mother was telling me that her son had gotten so excited about history and was going home to her and talking about all the different concentration camps and some movie that he had watched (i.e. my all about me presentation). And then she told me that the subject matter was so painful for him that he went home and cried.
This is what I was afraid of. Hurting sensitive souls. And of course everybody says to me that it's good for him, that he's just sensitive anyways. I would argue that most of the kids in my homeroom are sensitive; that's why they have learning blocks. And if I bombard them with traumatic information, I can be the person who provides them with more. I have to ask myself the question: what is the fundemental purpose behind education? Is it to develop academic skills so that these students are well-developed brains. I think most people would argue that yes, to some degree, that's what education is. But I am not so sure anymore. What about the idea that we want to grow these young humans into well-adjusted, happy, joyful, trusting, authoritative human beings. Is the teaching of the Holocaust at all something that contributes to this objective. I am not entirely convinced anymore that the teaching of many world histories is contributive of happy, healthy human beings. In some ways so radical, I really am questioning what education means to me, or at least what part that I want to play in it.
I know at least that I got through to these kids. They have softened in front of my eyes. They have exposed themselves and brought extremely beautiful and sensitive reflection to the table. But I am not really sure that I am happy with what I've done here.
Another story that touched me this week was another mother at parent-teacher interviews. Her son has severe ADD. And with me, she shared personal and really sad stories of the amount of anxiety her son was going through in attempts of completing his assignment. Their job was to write anthropomorphic short stories. This student just got so lost in the detail that he couldn't remember what he was doing anymore; he reminded me of a younger me. A me that would get so anxious trying to complete assignments because I would be constantly hitting walls and breaks in my brain. I would watch myself be unable to complete tasks that I knew other people could complete. I would watch myself conceptually understand what to do and physically be unable to complete the task. So this woman was grasping at seams. She was looking for resources, and I could smell it on her because I recognized it in myself. So I gave her one contact name; the first person that I had worked with. She's gentle, and knowing, and calming, and comes across as a person that you want to grow yourself into. And she hugged me. A complete stranger hugged me and said, 'We've been looking for answers to this for so long, and I didn't think that I'd find it here at parent-teacher interview night.'
One mother was telling me that her son had gotten so excited about history and was going home to her and talking about all the different concentration camps and some movie that he had watched (i.e. my all about me presentation). And then she told me that the subject matter was so painful for him that he went home and cried.
This is what I was afraid of. Hurting sensitive souls. And of course everybody says to me that it's good for him, that he's just sensitive anyways. I would argue that most of the kids in my homeroom are sensitive; that's why they have learning blocks. And if I bombard them with traumatic information, I can be the person who provides them with more. I have to ask myself the question: what is the fundemental purpose behind education? Is it to develop academic skills so that these students are well-developed brains. I think most people would argue that yes, to some degree, that's what education is. But I am not so sure anymore. What about the idea that we want to grow these young humans into well-adjusted, happy, joyful, trusting, authoritative human beings. Is the teaching of the Holocaust at all something that contributes to this objective. I am not entirely convinced anymore that the teaching of many world histories is contributive of happy, healthy human beings. In some ways so radical, I really am questioning what education means to me, or at least what part that I want to play in it.
I know at least that I got through to these kids. They have softened in front of my eyes. They have exposed themselves and brought extremely beautiful and sensitive reflection to the table. But I am not really sure that I am happy with what I've done here.
Another story that touched me this week was another mother at parent-teacher interviews. Her son has severe ADD. And with me, she shared personal and really sad stories of the amount of anxiety her son was going through in attempts of completing his assignment. Their job was to write anthropomorphic short stories. This student just got so lost in the detail that he couldn't remember what he was doing anymore; he reminded me of a younger me. A me that would get so anxious trying to complete assignments because I would be constantly hitting walls and breaks in my brain. I would watch myself be unable to complete tasks that I knew other people could complete. I would watch myself conceptually understand what to do and physically be unable to complete the task. So this woman was grasping at seams. She was looking for resources, and I could smell it on her because I recognized it in myself. So I gave her one contact name; the first person that I had worked with. She's gentle, and knowing, and calming, and comes across as a person that you want to grow yourself into. And she hugged me. A complete stranger hugged me and said, 'We've been looking for answers to this for so long, and I didn't think that I'd find it here at parent-teacher interview night.'
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
The Things I've Learned
So here are some things that I have learned about teaching J/I.
1. The Minds-On must be teacher-centred, or you will lose control of your class. Group work is by nature an energy generator, and as a teacher of pubescent kids, you need to focus them and reign them in before you let them lose into activity land.
2. High-level conceptually-based discussion must be teacher-centered. Students will not get it otherwise.
3. Activities are successful when students have very clear criteria and a very narrow objective and scope.
4. I can teach Holocaust history and well, but it burns me out like a mother......
The rewards of my week.
So I did my All-about-me on my grandmother's experience in the Holocaust. This is the feedback that I got.
When I told them our Holocaust unit was over, the students responded awwwwwwwww.
When I gave them a choice of doing poetry or the graphic novel Maus for our second two weeks, citing Holocaust burn-out - the Students voted Maus. They wanted more Holocaust.
When I suggested to the students that we stop reading for the day, they said aaaawww.
When they showed up for history class, they said, can we read Maus during history class.
When I asked the students if they wanted to take turns reading Maus, they said, No, we love it they way you read it.
And when I had the students to RRR's for my All About Me, they were so beautiful they made me cry.
One girl - you know the tough one with all the attitude wrote that she didn't know Ms. Michaels was Jewish and that her family went through so much. She has been a softy ever since. Another student said that he learned about how much a family can care about one another from the all about me.
I have handed them all back except one so I can remember the details, but here is what one student wrote. He's one of the cool kids in the class...
' I can relate to Ms. Michaels's story becayse my parents had a love story like Ms. Michaels's grandparents story. Ms. Michaels's story was amazing. I liked how she made sure she included every detail. I also liked how she explained every thing and made sure we knew it. I thought at the part when she said her grandparents went in the gas chambers, I thought they were gonna die. But when they didn't they were very lucky.' :)
There be a lot of hearts up in this club. :D
1. The Minds-On must be teacher-centred, or you will lose control of your class. Group work is by nature an energy generator, and as a teacher of pubescent kids, you need to focus them and reign them in before you let them lose into activity land.
2. High-level conceptually-based discussion must be teacher-centered. Students will not get it otherwise.
3. Activities are successful when students have very clear criteria and a very narrow objective and scope.
4. I can teach Holocaust history and well, but it burns me out like a mother......
The rewards of my week.
So I did my All-about-me on my grandmother's experience in the Holocaust. This is the feedback that I got.
When I told them our Holocaust unit was over, the students responded awwwwwwwww.
When I gave them a choice of doing poetry or the graphic novel Maus for our second two weeks, citing Holocaust burn-out - the Students voted Maus. They wanted more Holocaust.
When I suggested to the students that we stop reading for the day, they said aaaawww.
When they showed up for history class, they said, can we read Maus during history class.
When I asked the students if they wanted to take turns reading Maus, they said, No, we love it they way you read it.
And when I had the students to RRR's for my All About Me, they were so beautiful they made me cry.
One girl - you know the tough one with all the attitude wrote that she didn't know Ms. Michaels was Jewish and that her family went through so much. She has been a softy ever since. Another student said that he learned about how much a family can care about one another from the all about me.
I have handed them all back except one so I can remember the details, but here is what one student wrote. He's one of the cool kids in the class...
' I can relate to Ms. Michaels's story becayse my parents had a love story like Ms. Michaels's grandparents story. Ms. Michaels's story was amazing. I liked how she made sure she included every detail. I also liked how she explained every thing and made sure we knew it. I thought at the part when she said her grandparents went in the gas chambers, I thought they were gonna die. But when they didn't they were very lucky.' :)
There be a lot of hearts up in this club. :D
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Week 2 Complete.
OK. So I have officially taught a unit on the Holocaust. And omg was it difficult, and actually pretty successful. I actually think I effectively communicated information to these students in an analytical way and so that they absorbed the information and started thinking about historical questions - such as How do beliefs change over time?
What was really challenging about the unit was making it activity-based. My second lesson was more successful in this regard as we did some primary source work and did a modelling activity. But overall I am finding that it is difficult to keep the level of the discussion high when I give it over to the kids. They lose focus fast. And they really need teacher-centered discussion to keep the level of engagement high.
I have been planning to do a novel study on Maus for the second two weeks in language, but frankly I am feeling kind of burnt out from all this Holocaust stuff. I would really like to put it aside and make it a bit lighter in my classroom. Though I'm not sure what to do next, and I have to get some reading in for the kids.
That's all for now....
What was really challenging about the unit was making it activity-based. My second lesson was more successful in this regard as we did some primary source work and did a modelling activity. But overall I am finding that it is difficult to keep the level of the discussion high when I give it over to the kids. They lose focus fast. And they really need teacher-centered discussion to keep the level of engagement high.
I have been planning to do a novel study on Maus for the second two weeks in language, but frankly I am feeling kind of burnt out from all this Holocaust stuff. I would really like to put it aside and make it a bit lighter in my classroom. Though I'm not sure what to do next, and I have to get some reading in for the kids.
That's all for now....
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Teaching Holocaust History
It's Sunday morning, and we're starting our practicums tomorrow. I'm teaching at Jesse Ketchum. I'm sitting at my computer right now trying to pop out 4 lessons plans on Holocaust history for Holocaust Awareness week. So I've drafted some notes. And now I'm having a moral breakdown. I how do I teach the Holocaust to students without scarring them. My intention as a teacher is to be a person who is life affirming, some who brings the students joy, someone who models connection with oneself and how to live in a state of joy. And yet, I mulling over notes of Dr. Mengele -who conducted medical experiments in Auschiwitz-Birkanau and medically stitched twins together to make Siamese babies - back to their original state! The teaching of this history seems counter to everything that I stand for as a person and as a teacher in my present life. I don't know how to reconcile these two conflicting energies. I am questioning whether I want to teach history at all. In history, we spend lots of time studying pain, wars, genocides, assimilation policies - there is nothing here that teaches students to be life affirming individuals. And the crazy thing is that my background is Jewish, and I have a history degree. This should be cake. The thing is when I was a kid and learning about the Holocaust, I was living disconnected from my body and my heart. I was checked out as a human being. I didn't feel. The information of the Holocaust washed over my head as if it were simply an intellectual discourse. But now that I have returned to my body, this energy just feels deadening. I do want to teach the children critical thinking skills and to sharpen their minds - but I am not sure that dwelling on death energy is the way to do so. I have this memory of an ex-boyfriend telling me that learning of the Holocaust was one of the biggest heartbreaks in his life. It was in line with his first girlfriend. He was in grade 2 at the time. Granted, I will be teaching grade 7s and 8s - a five year age gap. But I don't know how to teach this, while still giving them kindness. Help please.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
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