Let's talk about Palmer

Let's talk about Palmer. Palmer's book, The Courage to Teach, was another book that we've read this semester that I really identify with. The blue in me loves Palmer's attention to the importance of emotions and the overall well being of a teacher. I've got to admit that I also love how straightforward Palmer is. I don't have to do mental gymnastics to try to figure out what Palmer is trying to teach me. Instead, I can focus on the simple pearls of wisdom that he shares.

One of these pearls that Palmer offers is the idea of connectedness as one of the qualities that is important for teachers to have. He writes, "[teachers] are able to weave a complex web of connectedness among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves" (Palmer, 1998, pg. 11). I really identify with this quote because this is my goal for my students as well. The hashtag I've chosen to focus on for my blog posts, #expandingnewhorizons, is all about students learning how to think more deeply about the world around them and their place in it. To me, a vital part of this process is helping students to see the connections between what they're learning in class, experiences they've had in their personal lives, and larger social events/issues.  Hopefully, if I've done my job well over the course of the semester, this will enable students to make those connections for themselves.

I actually think that my class's discussion of rhetoric earlier this month is a good example of how they're learning to do this. We talked about rhetoric and what it was, and then we spent the majority of one class period looking up examples that the students provided of different rhetorical artifacts and then analyzing them together as a class. My students selected a variety of texts, most of which I had never seen before, from a TV segment about cat-callers to a commercial about school shootings. As we talked together about what message each artifact was conveying and how it was being conveyed, I could see them understanding how rhetoric applied to these larger-world examples. Additionally, the fact that my students were selecting the artifacts themselves allowed for the connection to their personal lives.

I feel the need to add a disclaimer saying that not all of my classes go so well. But this class was able to make connections between rhetoric, their personal experiences, and larger social issues. For me, my goal is to try to frame my other classes in such a way that my students can have similar experiences with other topics. In my opinion, Palmer is spot on. As my students learn to make connections for themselves, they are able to think in deeper ways about subjects that they may have taken for granted up to this point. And once they've learned that skill, they will be prepared to expand their horizons on their own after they've finished their formal education.