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One of the reasons I love studying communication is because we are always encouraged to address the difficult questions and dig a little deeper. I believe that in a lot of classrooms, no matter the subject, if a sensitive topic comes up, most instructors would avoid it and direct discussion back to subject matter. This being said, I also believe that these questions are less likely to come up in subjects such as math or science where classes are focused on content that is based on facts and numerical data. This might just be my personal opinion, but how boring would learning be if we never went below the surface?

Like every other subject, communication has its basics and fundamentals. People work the same way. People have their surface level selves in which you would base initial perceptions off of. However, we all know there's more to people than what we see on the surface. Communication studies encourages learners to always ask "why?" and talk about the sensitive topics.

I want my students to be able to ask difficult questions because I don't think they have a lot of other opportunities to do so, at least at school. However, to be able to address these topics in a productive way, that requires a lot of maturity and respect in the classroom. Well, yesterday I told my students to open to page 69 in their books and I quickly learned that we might not be there yet.

via GIPHY

It's pretty simple actually. I think there are a lot of kids who would rather not risk looking stupid than dig a little deeper and uncover some real knowledge. So how can we, as educators, fix this problem? I think this is the not so simple part. We can't force our students to dig deeper and ask difficult questions. For the most part, we are leading classrooms filled with first year students who have never met each other before this class and most likely have no relationship outside of the classroom. However,I think that having built a solid foundation in the classroom and having established some good relationships, we can pave the way for discussion about sensitive topics. If we ourselves go beyond the content matter and ask questions that require a little more thinking and reflection, and ones that kids might be afraid to answer, they will eventually learn the benefits.

I love talking about the tough stuff. My only hope is that my students reciprocate those feelings so that we can have meaningful discussion that really breaks the surface level and forces everyone to dig a little deeper. My philosophy for this particular concept would be something along the lines of, "grow up, get over yourself, and don't be afraid to ask the difficult questions... knowledge and discovery are cool, SO DIG PEOPLE, DIG!" And, as always... #keeponkeepinon

Hey Palmer, Am I Caring Too Much?

Happy November everyone! As many of you know (or anyone that reads my blog posts), my first semester as a graduate student and teacher has been pretty chaotic. Although I would love to pound away on my keyboard about all the frustrations caused by my students, I want to focus on something that I found not only relevant to this blog, but relevant to my own life...and maybe yours.

All semester, I have had trouble with one of my sections being disengaged, every friggin’ day. I have tried every pedagogical tactic Dr. Karen Anderson-Lain has taught us (pair and share, small group work, cold-calling, warm-calling, strictly lecturing them, threatening their grades, offering moral support, activities out the wazoo, ending class early if they participated...the list goes on). However, nothing has worked. Everyday after I teach that specific section, I am exhausted and completely overworked from exerting so much love into 30 people that wouldn’t reciprocate anything back.

I had a fellow TA come and sit in on my class just for fun and to help me assess what was going on with my classroom. Her class that she normally teaches was cancelled so we thought it would be a cool opportunity to compare and contrast our teaching styles. Long story short, our fellow TA was appalled by the behavior my students. In fact, she said their behavior was horrible. They were silent, completely “zombied-out”, and not engaged whatsoever. She assured me it was undeniable that my students liked and respected me, they had no interest in anything I was trying to teach them. Nonetheless, I was still deeply offended and hurt. More so, I was salty as heck that I cared this much about my students.

Do y’all remember during orientation week when we took the read the Top 5 Strengths Finder by Don Clifton and took the extensive quiz that told us what our 5 strengths were? To refresh your memory, there are 4 possible domain strengths you can get which include executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Normally, people end up with a few or even a couple different domain strengths. Well, I vividly remember getting the results and actually laughing at how accurate they were:

1. Positivity
2. Woo (Winning Others Over)
3. Adaptability
4. Empathy
5. Communication

All 5, are relationship building strengths. All 5 y’all. Yikes. No wonder I’ve been crying over my students’ acceptance all semester long. However, I couldn’t help but to be reminded of a quote I highlighted in our dear ol’ bell hook’s text. She says,  “Profound commitment to engaged pedagogy is taxing to the spirit.” This statement made me realize that caring for your students is a part of teaching and sometimes it’s going to hurt. Although I may want to retreat from caring for my students because it’s less painful than letting them pull at the strings of my heart, it is not natural for me and I should not force myself to act anything but my authentic self..right, Palmer?

Passion is what drives us to do great things in life. In sports, passion is the fuel in which ignites players to unite, overcome their fears, and achieve their goals. Teaching with care for our students is an aspect of education that we should view as a top priority in order for our students to achieve their dreams...even if we have to smother them with love at times.

#Pedagoalie

Let's Talk

It's been 10 weeks since I been teaching and something I have noticed is that each class is different. Sometimes we wonder how can one class be great and yet another be so different? I know I ask myself this all the time. 

Moreover, I observe and listen to my students discussion in all of my three classes and one thing I have noticed is that they all have different levels of discussion. Class A goes in depth in during discussion which causes the students to think and discuss furthermore while adding their style i.e. humor, sass etc. Class B has the same intensity but its the same people participating all the time or goes a little bit off topic. Lastly, Class C has very minimal discussion the students are quiet and very few participate. I have tried asking followup questions to the whole class in general but they often seemed to group think or not respond at all.

Recently, I read Palmer book and one quote that stood out to me was, " It is our commitment to the conversation itself, our willingness to put forward our observations and interpretations for testing by the community and to return the favor to others." This quote made me think of my students in each of my classrooms. How can I play that into action? What changes can be made? These are the questions I'm currently asking myself, since I would want for my Class B and C to be as Class A in their discussion because I believe that everyone has a different opinion/perspective on subjects. Therefore, the conversations in class can be interesting and full of richness. No to mentioned, the benefit the students can get from their classmates, they will gaining knowledge and hopefully understand the subject better.

None the less, I am still thinking of a process or possible solutions I can experiment, in the hopes to have a slight improvement from students participating during class discussion. 

#WhatAmIDoing 

Oppression & Stress

Throughout the semester, I have noticed particular students opening up more. For instance, one student (Garret) has substantially opened up more since the semester started. He has asked more questions, I can feel he is comfortable, and he really feels like he is a part of the class. Like anyone, however, Garret has been oppressed. Across Garrett's Online Activities, Garrett talked about how he was bullied earlier within his academic life. Garret's experiences with bullying is one reason that he, usually, does not speak in his classes. 

After our pedagogy class discussed the oppress-oppressor relationship, i found that this model really explains Garret's, and other student's, predicaments. At some point, an individual or group of individuals dehumanized Garrett. This caused Garrett to start to shut down. However, that changed as he started coming to my comm 1010 class. I always allowed him to ask any question, regardless of the repetitive nature. I always allowed him to say what he wanted to say without any backlash. One of the ways that I got Garrett to start speaking out was through critical thinking excersises. 

For instance, various days I ask students to dig deeper about why a problem might arise. There was a conversation during the conflict week where someone brought up bullying. As Garrett started to talk about the issue, he talked about his experiences with bullying. Resultantly, other peers and students began to give him tips and advice. Through the process of peer and pedagogue liberation, Garret started the transformation process. 

I often think back to my hashtag, #SoMuchStuffSoMuchStress. Although this may apply to us as teachers and graduate students, I have to remind myself that it applies to students like Garret. Like his peers, Garret has a million things going on in his life: school, family, work, and so on. The least that I can do as an instructor is provide him, and his peers, with a safe and comfortable classroom. Through critical thinking and problem poising education, I can offer my class that comfortable and safe environment. 

I think that this meme accurately reflects the above. Not only is the semester stressful for the students, but it is also stressful for the instructors as well. #SoMuchStuffSoMuchStress

Does Heartwork Count as Exercise?

Phew, I'm tired! I've been exercising this young heart of mine in the classroom...maybe too much.

Is there such a thing as too much though? Don't we all just care about our students and want them to succeed in our classes? Not according to Fish we don't, but to me we do.

I believe in the idea of Palmer's "heartwork" and I believe that for students to succeed in my class, they need to know that I care about their work ethic and that I want to see them succeed. But there comes a time when that mentality may be too smothering. For example, in the beginning of the semester, I was extremely strict about my students being on their phones. Afterall, they were watching sports, playing games, and who knows what else. I wanted them to focus and be engaged in my class so I snapped. To be exact I said, "If I see one more person on their phone, I am kicking you out of my class" in the scariest mom voice I could impersonate. They all quickly put their phones away in shock.

The ambiance in my room and the days that followed carried distance. They were not engaged, they did not care about the material. I felt like a monster. The heartwork that I was trying to possess ended up being me smothering their freedom. So I took a different approach. I told them that if they wanted to be on their phones then by all means but they were prohibited from asking me questions because they did not take the liberty to put their phones away and listen.

Guess what happened...they started to pay attention. I hardly have a phone problem now.

The moral of the story here is that maybe we shouldn't over exercise our hearts into policing our students. It is important to care about them and want them to do well but our "heartwork" should not turn into "heart overexertion". If they want to learn, they will, if they want to be there, they will be. The best that we can do is to engage with them and try to be as connected as we possibly can. 

#pedamorgie #heartwork

I Would Like to Make a Withdrawal

I always ask my students a question on their roll sheet. The questions are meant to be fun. I usually ask them about their favorites or ask them light questions about their lives. The other day I asked my second class what they wanted the question of the day to be. One of my students jokingly responded that I should already have the questions prepared. I responded I was trying to give them agency in their learning. Several students then commented I should just come to the class and give them information while they sat there. I went into full-scale pedagogical scholar mode and said, "actually that's called the banking model of education and Paulo Freier in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed strongly advocates against it." They laughed and we moved on. The exchange was light-hearted, but I knew my students really did feel that way about their responsibility as learners.

bell hooks also agrees with Freier that the banking model does not promote student engagement. I was especially interested in hooks' take on engagement. She does not judge engagement solely on how interested the students are in the material. Instead, hooks comments engaged pedagogy empowers both the students and instructors, accounts for the well-being of both the mind and body, and encourages genuine dialogue. Dang. That’s a lot to ask. It would be much easier to just speed through some PowerPoint slides and send them on their way. But I never once imagined teaching would be easy. If I was only interested in easy I would not be a graduate student (let's be real). Freire and hooks both believe educators have the potential to help students grow as people. To support this process, I have begun to give my students more leadership roles in the classroom. I now ask for volunteers to write things down on the board or ask a volunteer to lead discussions. It has honestly been a slow and painful process. My students are not accustomed to this type of learning. However, I am encouraged by the subtle changes in their engagement. I hope at least of few of my students will leave my class as more active and passionate participants in their own learning

#hookedonlearning #reengage

Cool costume bro... Now take it off!

Happy Halloween everyone! I'll see you all on fry street...(Yeah right, rough drafts are kicking my tush! The turn up is at Club Willis this weekend... HMU).

With Halloween right around the corner, lately there has been off-topic discussions amoungst students in our classrooms regarding how each student might celebrate the holiday. Discussions include what costume they are going to wear, where the pre-game party is, where the party is, where the after party is, where the after after party is, and whataburger, wafflehouse, or ihop after. There is one student in particular who has been ready for Halloween ever since he stepped foot in my class. He wears his costume every single day and it pisses me off.

On days that the student decides to show up to class, he is often late, he always sits in the back of the classroom, and is either asleep, on his phone, or is reading his fraternity manual; never, is he engaged. In fact sometimes he distracts other students. This student makes teaching this class a living Hell, he is a demon if not Satan. Education scholar, Palmer (1998/2007) describes students like mine, "Student(s) from Hell". Like Palmer I too am guilty of becoming totally obsessed with this student partly because I have a soft spot for Greek students. A soft spot because I was one of them when I was an undergraduate. I feel like Greek students have a special opportunity to be one step ahead of the game after graduating. Greek life students have various resources that are accessible to them through an affiliation of a successful and supportive community; an opportunity that most students don't have. So why squander it in the classroom? Brotherhood/Sisterhood is about making each other better, yet it frustrates me that this student refuses to take his education seriously.

I find myself strategically finding ways through class prep to get him engaged and focused. In a way, one can say my lesson plans are often centered around him. Everyday after class I am re-evaluating how the class went due to his participation. If one method worked, it meant that the student from hell was engaged, and I often stuck with that method(There literally has been two classes where he was fully engaged). The days that some teaching methods were ineffective, according to his engagement, I would switch it up(I do this quite often). I feel as though, if he is not paying attention, neither is the rest of class. I feel as though if the student from hell likes the activity, so does the rest of the class. I know this to be NOT true!

But, every class period I find myself concerned for his attendance; part of me wants him to miss days so I may take off points, you know teach him a lesson; and part of me really wants his attitude to completely change because I want to see young Greek men break the stereotype and negative ideologies assigned to them; I want him to change because his attitude sucks. I get it, some people are not interested in Communication Studies. I get it, some people are in college for other reasons beyond education. I find myself constantly repeating in my mind as if the student from hell could hear my thoughts "I get it, but for now, could you not.".

I don't necessarily think that my heart is wrong for being invested in students and being upset that individual continues to choose to be excluded in the class community. However, my mind is not in the right place. When I focus on the "Student from hell" other students suffer. I tend to exclude students from the community because I am concerned with one learning style, one method of engagement, and one desirable interest regarding success. And although my students might never read this blog, I want to apologize to them. It's not fair that I let him get under my skin, it's not fair that I have 'come to Jesus' moments for the class because of him, and it's not fair that I let my passion for his success hinder my passion for other student's success. I'm sorry. I understand that I need to get back to focusing on the bigger picture.

                                                       #studentfromhell