The End Has Come - WRAP UP POST

Raise your hand if you didn't realize the end of the semester is right around the corner. Thanksgiving is next week and in 2 weeks it will be December. YAY! Christmas! 🎅🎄

So, we are so close to finishing our 1st semester (for some 2nd) of Grad school. We did it, y'all! AND we did it while teaching 90 students. Ah! It feels great doesn't it? It does, except for the part when you add in those 90 students freaking out about final projects and final grades #DebbieDowner. Read your syllabus you mofos! ALL the info is there! My gosh. It's like I'm working at a daycare again. It is not hard people, I have given you all the info you need and repeated myself billions of times. Don't get me wrong, I have LOVED teaching MOST of these kids but damn.

Anyway, that was probably my last little rant. This semester has definitely been a learning experience. I have had to learn how to manage my time a little better, how to take time for myself, how to be a bit more patient, and how even when things get hectic, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Throughout the semester we have learned about several pedagogical theories and how to apply them. There are so many and I think that each and everyone is useful in some way. We may not agree with some of them but even then, we can use the ones we don't like and learn from them as a reminder of what not to do. Honestly, I think that my favorite is pedagogy of the oppressed. I never really thought about myself as being oppressed scholastically or oppressed in a learning environment, in general. Being a minority and a woman, I will always know that I am oppressed in some sort of way #HoustonWeHaveAProblem. After this course, I know that even the smallest thing can help me to free myself from those who are my oppressors. I also learned that not only can I work towards my own personal freedom, but also that I can learn with others while simultaneously trying to help them realize their oppression. In society, we must all work together to free ourselves from the mythical norm. We can't continue living in the cycle of oppression. I think that we, as instructors can achieve this goal.We need to move forward, not backward if we want to be free.

As instructors, we have the duty and the ability to stop the vicious cycle of oppression. How can we do this? By taking everything we have learned not only in this course but also through our environments, and then passing on this knowledge to our students. The oppression cycle only keeps going if people like us allow it to continue. I know that us being here, in this graduate program, gives us the necessary tools to make a change. We all have a little bit of magic inside of us. It is time to take some of that magic and use it to transform the world. It starts with one. 

With this I leave you, use your powers (Knowledge is power) for the good of humanity.
Who doesn't want world peace?
I leave you with some wise nonverbals from none other than one of my faves...Ross Gellar.

Just kidding, I love you all! Mari Out💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 (One heart for each of you)
-M.A.

Ignorance is blis...I guess

So as most of you guys, I did the privilege walk this week. What can I say? This experience was really eye opening. I started off the week by showing my students 2 small clips of the movie crash (one of my all-time faves). I can't even begin to explain how shocked I was when only 3 of my students knew about this movie. *Sighs* #Oldpeopleproblems. Anyway, we had a small discussion after the clips; I am sad to say that SOME students mentioned that they didn't believe racism was still a thing. Are you serious? I mean, are you living under a rock? It is all around us. You are oppressed & you don't even know it. *Woosah*

I suppose the fact that they don't know they're oppressed should allow me to cut them some slack. Not much, but some. After all, they live in a society that implements the abject script method into pretty much everything in the media, politics, etc. It is not their fault that they have been conditioned to think a certain way due to their environment. I just wish that they cared enough to learn why it is important to change their way of thinking, or at least to keep an open-mind. I thought these specific students' minds would change a bit after the privilege walk and I don't know if it was because it was early or not, but the activity didn't seem to phase them #HoustonWeHaveAProblem. At least it's just a few of them.

I wish there was more that I could do in order to educate them, sadly, after 3 weeks, they're leaving the nest. My poor babies, alone in this world to figure shit out on their own. It is CRITICAL that they change their way of thinking 😁, or else this world is going to eat them alive #DebbieDowner. 

Oh well. I tried. I really did. I feel like throughout this course, I have done my part to inject bits and pieces of De La Mare's Critical Communication Pedagogy teaching methods in order to put thoughts into my students' heads. Thoughts about changing their way of thinking, keeping an open mind, being accepting of others, and listening to what people have to say. I did the Service-learning project (which allowed them to gain a meaningful experience by helping those in need), we did a lot of audience analysis before the projects began in order to get them better acquainted with each other as well as their organization, they are doing their "final speech" in forms of presenting the outcome of their semester-long service learning activity while simultaneously educating the audience, and finally, we will conduct the debriefing portion with mini-discussions after each presentation and also through their peer evals and individual/group documentation. I think we all have done a lot in order to help our students become less oppressed but there is only so much we can do. The best we can hope for is that this class helps our students out in at least a small portion of their understanding of the world. After all, change is incremental, it won't happen in just one semester. It will take some time. In some, more than others but at least we have the satisfaction in knowing we did our best.

-M.A.

Goals Are Not Deserved, Goals Are Made

Coaching sports at a smaller university can be tricky for three reasons:

1) You will have some athletes there, sometimes from other teams, playing for the scholarship only.

2) Many of these athletes are true freshman, meaning you get to be the coach they have right out of high school.

3) Regardless if they enjoy your coaching or not, many of them will not put in the work if they don’t have to.

Teaching an intro course can be tricky for three reasons:

1) You will have some students there, typically not from that major, taking the course to “get it out of the way”.

2) Many of these students are true freshman, meaning you get to be the teacher they have right of high school.

3) Regardless if they enjoy the class or not, many of them will not put in the work if they don’t have to.

See what I did there?

Lately, I’ve been noticing some resistance to learning more material. Since REVEL is out of the picture (thank the Lord), there really is not pressure put on our 1010 students to learn new material. They could use this time to prepare for the test, but why would they do that when they can cram the night before? It’s okay, we’ve all been there.

One of my sections really values learning material, but they don’t read. Therefore, the activities are not as plentiful or rewarding for them. So, before the beginning of my lecture this week, I told them
how important it is they read and listed all the reasons why. I continued to get blank stares so I blatantly asked them why most of them aren’t reading in which one of my students replied, “Chelsea, with all due respect, we all have better things to do from other classes that actually have points associated with them.” (As Kevin Howard would say, “The blatant disrespect!”) So, I told the class I understood, encouraged them to read for our next class period, and moved on.

I could not stop thinking about this conversation, so I did something crazy.

In my classes, I rely heavily on discussion with a liiiiittle bit of lecture. I honestly try to make activities short so we can have more time to talk about them. This same section seems to not really enjoy that I don’t just lecture them. So, I took some of Kahl’s thoughts and taught my class a little bit about why I do things the way that I do.

I introduced them to the Banking Model of Education, lectured about Paulo Freire, and finished with explaining how I respect them SO much that I don’t want to use the hegemonic system in my classroom (believing they know nothing, that I know everything and do all the thinking, that I am forcing my thoughts onto them). This was a great transition into our activity regarding hegemony for Language, Power, and Culture week.

I saw an intense mood shift in the room once I was finished with the short lecture. My typically disengaged class was all-of-a-sudden perked up out of their seats and some were even nodding and smiling. One student even said, “Thank you for not thinking we’re stupid.” We finished class after our Privilege Walk activity (that they all enthusiastically participated in) and even though I accidentally went over by 3 minutes, no one stopped me or started packing up their stuff.

When you’re playing sports, there are times where you’re going to question what your coach is doing. They may make you run laps all practice and you may even become frustrated that there is no immediate reward. It is not until the end of the season that you realize all of those laps you ran helped you become a better athlete, a better player, and a better person. The same philosophy can be used with teaching, but may be times in the semester where you will need to explain to your students the method to their madness to avoid leaving them in the dark, build trust, and push them to achieve the goals.

#Pedagoalie

It's Hard to Hold A Candle In The Cold November Rain

WARNING: Venting Post Ahead

Like Kevin, I question whomever titled October as "Hell Month" for us graduate TA's because for me, November takes the cake as the most hectic. With 1010 papers to grade, 2140 debates to create and present, plus my own graduate student responsibilities... I. AM. DROWNING. In all honesty, I hit a point on Thursday of last week where my motivation depleted drastically and immediately. Seriously all of it gone - *poof*. 

 

I feel like my motivation is a candle that I am diligently trying to keep lit in the cold November rain, with the November rain being all my responsibilities. Like the Guns N' Roses song goes: "You're not the only one". I know most of you resonate with my feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed out - so much so, that I feel we have forgotten what my hashtag (#dontpanic) is about. 

Panicking about completing upcoming assignment? About keeping up with grading? About why your students appear brain-dead? About talking through abject scripts? About better infiltrating pop culture into the classroom? I hate to give the answer that always makes people feeling this way upset, but...: #DONTPANIC. Although we all feel like we are sitting in a room on fire... 

 

...that doesn't have to serve as a disadvantage for us all! We are all in the same boat, and although we cannot expect those around us to "carry" us, we can use one another to work smarter - not harder. Instead of panicking about how to grade that assignment, what pop culture reference to use, or switching up your pedagogical technique, reach out to a co-worker to talk through whatever you're panicking. Instead of exerting all of our energy into panicking, perhaps we should be using it into crafting the most successful experience out students can get. 

As the semester comes to a close, we as pedagogy members need to re-direct our panics and instead try to put that energy into a hopefully beneficial outcome for our students. We should avoid wasting time worrying, panicking, and pondering these worries and instead use that time to better set our students up for success. We have to follow Emily and my's advice - #keeponkeepinon and #dontpanic.

Critical Pedagogy, not Critical Pedagogy

Student: *raises hand

Me: "Yes student?"

Student: "Something racists, sexist, ablest, homophobic, or otherwise problematic"

Me: "No that is wrong. You are stupid for thinking that. Moving on"

The above example is not critical pedagogy. The above example is just critical. My students would not learn if I only told them they were wrong. As an instructor, I need to redirect my students in a way they can hear, and then give them solid evidence as to why their views are problematic. I also need to keep in mind they most likely grew up with these ideal and they may be confronting these issues for the first time.

            Fassett and Warren also comment critical pedagogy is more than simply criticism. They comment, "we went after other scholars as though we were killing snakes… a more finely worded equivalent of 'you know what's wrong with you?' It's much easier to deconstruct than to build, to criticize without a hopeful and generous sense of possibility" (p. 35). Fassett and Warren express the belief that non-constructive critiques result from not listening.

            As instructors, our duty is to listen to our students, not shut them down. We need to encourage and help our students grow in their understanding. To create understanding with not for them. Fassett and Warrant comment, "if we displace collaboration in favor of 'being right' or showing other how they are irretrievably wrong, we encourage violence" (p. 36). To only criticize is not critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy is reflexive, based in logic and understanding, and it produces hope. We must first seek to understanding our students and then seek to help them grow.

#reengage 

I need to vent!

Okay... (inhales & and exhales)
Ready? (I hope so!)
Get set. (Brace yourselves)
RANT!

Everything is due!! Whoever said that October is 'Hell Month' needs to reevaluate. Papers on papers! Don't forget that students' papers are due as well, on the 12th. My reaction paper is going to look something like ...................... (This). I am running out of funds to print papers for readings, assignments, reviews, and evaluations. While scratching my beard this morning a gray hair fell on my paper while taking notes and conducting thoughts to write on my final paper. Why do I wake up at six A.M. oh yeah because I need to chase this paper. What will I do after Grad school? I don't know. Hopefully make paper. speaking of paper, rent is due. I don't think I have enough paper. I'm all out of paper plates and I am too busy to stop and wash dishes. If I seriously have to read another paper I think I'll jump off a sidewalk. Oh no!!! I forgot how to make a paper airplane (crumbles up the feeble attempt of the airplane and gets prepared to throw it in Jaime's trash can). Actually, I think I'll just crumble up 5 pieces of paper, pretend like it's basketball, and shot them into Jaime's trash can to relieve myself from some of the stress. (crumbles paper one) Let it rain! (crumbles paper two) Drop that ass! (crumbles paper three) Splash! (crumbles paper three) Expecto Patronum! (crumbles paper four) Expelliarmus! (crumbles paper five) Kobe!! Fuck! I should have said Kawhi, his shooting percentage looks better on paper. My Jaimie would be proud, I made all five papers! Why is her recycling bin always filled with papers?

This week I was observed. The lecture was over the performance chapter. I think that this chapter does a good job condensing performance, however, the activities focus on story telling. I go a bit further and hop on my soapbox and passionately rant about how performance is fluid; the intersection of advocacy, ethics, vulnerability, and intercultural texts; performance, like literature, does something in the world; a device in which we use to come to knowing and convey meaning; and restored behavior; constructs and shapes reality. After class, my colleague condemned me for speaking to my class in such vocabulary and did not like that I named drop theorists grad students learn about. My colleague expressed that everyone does not know this vocabulary and although I am passionate, undergrads are "probably not going to get it like you and I, so stay away from that". I respectfully and whole heartily disagree!

I hate observations for this exact reason. Observations are so one sided and unfair. Observations make me question if my teaching practices are good, but based on what? One perspective. That one person comes into the classroom one time out of the entire semester and critiques the way you run your classroom and vocabulary you use with them. I saw this observation as nothing but a compare and contrast to what my colleague does in their class.

Since when do we limit our students? Why are assuming that students are not capable of obtaining higher knowledge? Do you think undergrads are stupid? Did it ever occur that there has been other days we have talked about important theorists in my class that contribute to our field beyond revel? If knowledge is power I am going to go above and beyond to not only do my job but I want to co-create knowledge. I do not address my students as undergrads, they are young people that are placed in a position to LEARN! Just like Graduate students. So, no, I don't mind sharing WITH them what I learn in grad classes. They are interested and engaged, why restrict them to what is only on revel and blackboard? I do not share everything with them, however, when they do ask me what I am learning I share it with them and together we connect course concepts. Students should not be looked down upon because you think you know a lot more than they do. That's conventional and hegemonic.I hold my students at a higher level, something that my colleague would have known if attended more than one day. I have a more productive question: When are we going stop acting like our students don't have brain capacity and When are we going to start treating them like abled learners? If the word can't implies limit then I can continue to believe that my students are capable of learning beyond limits. If I want to become a great teacher I not only have to understand that I need to push myself beyond doing my job as teacher but, I must push my students beyond their jobs of  learning out of a text book.

#Thosewhocan #Donewithranting #Jaymehatesme

If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going

During high school, I went through the most difficult time in my life. From my sophomore year, up until my graduation, I seriously hated everything and everyone. I was always grateful for my friends being there for me during this time, but what really sticks out to me are the relationships I formed with some of my teachers. I really valued these relationships because these teachers didn’t have to do what they did for me. They continuously went out of their way to make sure I was doing okay and offer their guidance. Had it not been for these relationships, I'm not sure I would have been able to make it through as productively.

via GIPHY

In the classroom, there are two different roles being played. There is one teacher, and many students. Of course, the people playing these roles also play others, but they aren’t necessarily present in the classroom. Teachers don’t need to know their students in other roles that they play, simply because it's not in their job description. However, the ones that beg to differ are the ones that really make a difference.

One of the reasons in which I was most excited to teach was because I wanted to be able to offer that same type of guidance to others that I had received in the past. People are always going through something, and sometimes they just need someone to listen to them. I think that if students want to be able to be open with their teachers, they should. I have had a few of my students confide in my about very personal situations, and I am grateful that they trust me enough to do so. It helps me understand them in their roles outside of being student, which makes me feel like I am doing my job.

Parker Palmer says that a good teacher is authentic and lets their identity come through in the classroom. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I want to be that teacher that my kids can open up to, not just throw a bunch of excuses and short answers at. I’ve learned that students going through rough patches will bounce back stronger if they are open with their teachers, and they receive openness in return. I am glad I had the guidance I did in high school and that I was able to keep going. I am especially glad that I now can and do the same for my students should they find themselves in similar situations so that they too can keep going.

#keeponkeepinon