Camille T. Dungy

On Thursday, November 18th, Camille T. Dungy visited my Intro to Creative Writing class. Dungy is a poet and editor, and one of our textbooks in that class was edited by her and also contains two of her poems. Dungy's presentation was very captivating, simply because she exuded confidence and you could tell she was passionate about what she does. The hour and a half of class was mostly spent with the students asking her questions. Dungy did not know beforehand what our questions would be, but she always provided clear, concise answers. She never had to stop and think about what she was going to say, yet she always seemed to know right away exactly the best and most concise way to answer the question. Now, she may not have been feeling this way herself, but I think the reason her answers seemed so good was that she approached each answer with confidence. Although Camille T. Dungy is an editor and a writer, I think her strategy in answering questions can definitely be applied to teachers as well. If teachers approach each question with confidence, students will be engaged and trust that the teacher really knows what they are talking about. Another thing I noticed about Camille T. Dungy's presentation, was her obvious love for writing. She was not overly enthusiastic and energetic, but she had a very pleasant, happy disposition whenever it came to talking about writing. The smile on her face was very genuine, and you could tell that she enjoyed being in our classroom answering questions about writing, because she truly was passionate about writing. Seeing her passion for writing, I was much more interested in what she had to say and her presentation kept me captivated for the entire hour and a half. I think as teachers, we also need to show the same level of passion about our work. If students can tell that we really are passionate about our jobs and that we genuinely want to be there, they will be more engaged and will begin to enjoy school more themselves.

Collaborativeness

I think collaborativeness is an important disposition to understand because this is a disposition that is not only important to have as future teachers, but also as students and as people in general. I think a highly effective team is one that works together. There may be one person who seems to lead the group more, but that shouldn't mean that this one person ends up doing all the work. I think the only way a team can be effective is if everyone puts in their ideas and they are able to discuss as a group which ideas work best to make a decision all together. This is sometimes much easier said than done. In working in many different "teams", whether it be in class, music ensembles or sports, I've learned that you will come across people with very different ideas from your own. Being an effective team, means being able to discuss your different opinions and come up with an idea that pleases everyone in the group. I think collaboration is different from group work or cooperative learning, because in collaboration, you really working together AND learning together. Group work often ends up being a situation where one person does all the work, or everyone does the same amount of work but it is just split up and not decided together. To me, group work is almost like individual work that happens to be presented in a group. Collaboration, on the other hand, depends entirely on working together. Cooperative learning, is good, yet there is no collaboration involved unless there is discussion between the learners. Collaboration is something I've had to work on as a student, and I know it will continue to be an important disposition to have in my life, as a teacher and as an adult in general.

Intro to Astronomy Lecture

I have had the opportunity to attend many Intro to Astronomy lectures throughout the semester, since I am in the Intro to Astronomy course. Science has always been a more difficult subject for me to grasp throughout my education, and because of this it has always been my least favorite subject. Astronomy is the discussion of the entire universe and how it works. It is a very broad subject with many difficult concepts. However, from the first day of class onwards, I have discovered that Dr. Wilkerson does an excellent job lecturing about such a large amount of information to a large number of students. The energy and excitement he displays towards the subject of Astronomy automatically makes the students interested in what he is talking about. He doesn't drone on and on, listing facts and equations, however, he talks about the main points in interesting ways, and often tells interesting side stories that relate to what we're learning. I think his passion and enthusiasm for Astronomy and science in general, makes the class want to learn more. We can tell he is excited, so that in turn makes us excited. Another thing he does, both in lecture and lab, that I think is an excellent sign of good teaching, is that he answers our questions with other questions. In that way, he isn't just providing us with a straightforward answer, but teaching us how use our knowledge of what we know to answer our own questions. Astronomy has been so far, the most challenging class I've taken at Luther, but because of Dr. Wilkerson's enthusiastic teaching style, it has become one of my favorite classes.

Efficacy

I believe that self-awareness, confidence, persistence, work ethic and belief in one's ability are all essential qualities in becoming and effective teacher. To be effective, a teacher must be self-aware in that they must understand their strengths and weaknesses. There is no way a teacher can improve on their teaching skills, unless they know what they do well and what they need improving on. I believe confidence and persistence go hand in hand when it comes to efficacy. Teachers will undoubtedly face many challenges in the classroom, and these challenges will only be overcome if the teacher is confident and persistent. If its a case of classroom management, and the students are misbehaving, they are more likely to stop their bad behavior if the teacher seems confident. If the teacher is unsure of what they are telling the children, and the are not confident in their opinions, the children will not develop respect for the teacher and they may remain unruly throughout the rest of the year. Teachers must also be persistent, in that they should never give up. If a teacher gives up, that sends the students the message that they too, should give up. Teachers need to be good role models in persistence. If a teacher is persistent in their teaching, students will in turn be persistent when it comes to difficulties in learning. Work ethic and belief in one's ability are very similar to persistence and confidence. Teachers have to face obstacles with the belief that they can be overcome, and then they have to work hard until the obstacles are overcome. I feel like these attributes are developed as a teacher gets more experience and begins to understand themself as a teacher. For new teachers, and students learning to become teachers, acquiring these attributes is more difficult. But I believe that by working together with other people, and especially by solving problems in groups, future teachers can develop self-awareness, confidence, persistence, work ethic and belief in one's ability.

Inventiveness

I think inventiveness and creativity are some of the most important things children should learn in order to be successful later in life. While some children are more creative or imaginative than others, all children have some sort of creativity. If you give kids a blank piece of paper they will all create something completely different and unique. Just because a kid is not the greatest artist does not mean that they aren't creative. I think to encourage creativity in schools, we first of all need to have music and art programs where kids can express themselves. Not every single kid is gifted at art or music, but many many children have the ability to use art or music as a creative outlet. We also need to encourage more free thinking in the classroom. Children should be able to decide what they want to do for a project, or how they want to go about finding an answer. These too, are ways of expressing creativity. I think if we gave kids one day out of each month to work on their own project, and they had complete freedom to choose the subject and the way they wanted to present the project, this would be a perfect way to encourage and teach creativity. No matter what the quality of the end product, it would be important to reward kids for giving it their best effort. Although the 21st century is the age of technology, I still think creativity plays a vital role in anyone's life. Most jobs will require you to figure out a solution to a problem on your own. That requires creativity and imagination. Adults also may use creativity later in life as a stress-reliever. For instance, they may use music or dance or art to relieve the stresses in their lives. Overall, I think creativity is a vital thing to include in the classroom because it will be essential later in life.

Reflectiveness

I think of reflectiveness as looking back on your work and seeing how far you've come, in addition to setting more goals for the future. I think this has become difficult for teachers and students because in the culture of America today, we are so busy and we live so much in the moment. Teachers and students are so focused on getting the tasks of present day done, that they don't have time to reflect on their past work. I think reflection is very important for teachers and students alike. It is important for us to look back and see how far we've come because in that way, we can really acknowledge that we've learned and grown as people. By reflecting, we can see what we are capable of, and set realistic goals for the future. I think learning looks different for each individual student. Learning should be more about how much a student has improved from his previous work, than how he or she compares to his or her classmates. For that reason, reflectiveness shows students and teachers how much they have learned. I think to reflect most effectively, you need time. It doesn't matter if it is in the morning or the afternoon or the evening, you just need to cut out some time from your busy life to sit down and look back at everything you have done. I think this time could be set aside in a classroom maybe one day at the end of every quarter. This would give the students a chance to stop worrying about their homework that's due that day, and just consider everything they have done leading up to that day. This would also give the teacher an opportunity to ask his or her students how he or she has improved as a teacher over the given time. Then students and teachers alike can figure out what it is they need to keep improving on. I think reflectiveness improves the quality of learning in the long run.

Passion

My sophomore year in high school I took A.P. U.S. History, otherwise known as APUSH. It was my first A.P. class and I was mostly taking it because I had heard it was a good thing to do to get future college credit. My interest in U.S. History greatly increased from the beginning of sophomore year to the end of sophomore year. This was due to my teacher, Mrs. Clark. From the beginning we could all tell that Mrs. Clark was passionate about history. When she talked about any of the subjects her eyes would light up and you could tell she was generally interested in what she was talking about. She really knew how to get our attention and make us involved and interested in what we were learning. I don't think this would've been possible without her passion for the subject. One requirement for the class was that we visited several places of historical significance, take a picture there and write about a paragraph about what we had learned. At the beginning of the year, I thought this would be a boring task and was not looking forward to going to historical places. Mrs. Clark changed that. She shared with us stories from the places she had been, and because we could see how passionate she was about visiting these places it made us want to have similar experiences. One thing I got involved in during my sophomore year was a film festival at the historical society. I probably wouldn't have been as enthusiastic about that project without Mrs. Clark's passion. This project was not a required project for school. I just did it for fun. My dad and I made a documentary about my grandma's life and we ended up winning an award for "Best Collaborative Effort". I will always be glad I got to do that project with my dad. By the end of sophomore year, I was sad to be done with APUSH. I had started out the year taking the class because of a requirement and an interest in getting college credit, but I ended up loving what I had learned in that class. This was all due to Mrs. Clark's passion for U.S. History.

Autheticity

I think it is very important for teachers to be authentic. Students will be able to respect their teacher more if they can tell the teacher is being genuine with them. Teachers should be able to be their true selves in front of the kids and not put on an act. I think if a teacher is in an overly cheery mood all the time and stands in front of the class with a smile plastered on their face the entire day, the kids can tell that the teacher isn't being real with them. If teachers try and act happy all the time it is most likely because they truly aren't happy and kids can see that. By getting involved with what their teaching and truly getting excited ab0ut it, teachers can prove to their students that they are authentic and that they truly enjoy their job. It's okay for students to see teachers in a mood other than happy. If something sad happened in their family, a teacher can explain to students that something bad happened and they aren't in the happiest of moods. By letting a little of their true emotions out, teachers can see more like real people to their students. While it is important for teachers to show students who they truly are and to be authentic with them, there are some limits. For example, it would be acceptable for a teacher to tell their students that they are looking forward to the next week because they are going on vacation with their family. This shows the student that the teacher is a real person who has a life outside of the classroom just like they do. However, it would be inappropriate to share too much of their personal life or to give too much detail. For example, if a teacher is feeling depressed because their sister just went back to rehab for being an alcoholic, it would not be appropriate to share the details with their students. If students ask, it is okay for teachers to share with students things like their religious and political views only when they make sure their students understand that this is an opinion . It is never okay for teachers to try and convince students to believe what they believe. Overall, I think the most important thing is that students can tell that their teacher generally cares about their job and about them. If students get the vibe that the teacher doesn't want to be there, then they won't want to be there either. A teacher who shows authenticity and shows that they like their job will make their students enjoy school more.

Compassion

Mr. Wigley was not only passionate about music, he was passionate about teaching. Through these passions, we as his students felt real compassion. I first met Mr. Wigley when auditioning for the fall musical, Grease, as a sophomore. He was very genuine when he complimented me on my singing, so genuine in fact, that it made me want to join choir. That's how I really got to know him. My junior year, I got into a select 17 person jazz choir which Mr. Wigley directed. We had a lot of gigs and performances outside of school, so we got to know each other very well. Mr. Wigley always showed love and compassion to us and made us feel like family. He and his wife would have all 17 of us over for dinner, and one of these nights happened to fall on my birthday. I felt so loved and felt so much compassion from Mr. Wigley, his wife and the rest of my group that it turned out to be one of my favorite birthdays ever. Throughout my time as his student, Mr. Wigley always showed compassion towards me and my fellow students, but the one time I remember it most clearly was at the end of my senior year. My fellow jazz choir members and I had arranged a piece to sing for Mr. Wigley at the end of Cabaret. Cabaret was a dinner show we put on as a group at the end of every year, and the last show was always bittersweet. Once we had surprised Mr. Wigley and finished our song for him, he took the microphone to start speaking. It took him a few minutes to even be able to talk through his tears. "I don't even need to tell you how wonderful your kids are," he said to the audience, "because they've just shown it right here." Hearing the pure emotion in his voice and how much we truly had moved him, showed me just how much compassion he felt towards us as students. Now & Then, which was the name of our jazz choir, turned out to be my favorite part of high school. All of my fondest memories come from being in that group. And I know that without Mr. Wigley's compassion it wouldn't have been the same. His compassion took us from being a choir to being a family. His compassion made me look forward to going to class everyday, and now whenever I think back to him and that group I can't help but smile. I hope someday I can be a teacher who gives that much love and compassion to their students.

Respect

Respect is one of the most important dispositions to have in a classroom, and it should be installed within the first few days of class. Without respect, it would be no easy task to manage a classroom full of children. Respect is also essential for the teacher's and the students' happiness. Students must have respect for their teachers, and almost just as importantly, teachers must have respect for their students. Through mutual respect teachers and students can enjoy each others company which makes for a better learning environment. Before installing respect in one's classroom, one must fully understand what respect in a classroom is. For some teachers, respect has always been about installing fear in their students. They believe that if a student fears disciplinary consequences given by the teacher then they will respect and obey the teacher. While this may work in some cases, it is most definitely NOT a healthy kind of respect. Students should look up to their teachers and strive to be a better student because they care about their teachers' opinions. Teachers should be role models for the student. They should be someone their students like and want to be like. Teachers should be kind and encouraging always, they should never single out a student or criticize them and they should work hard to find the special gifts that each child has. At the same time, they should be firm and discipline their students when it is necessary, but never be too harsh in their discipline. If a child is doing something wrong, and by wrong I do not mean solving a math problem wrong or spelling a word wrong, but if they are being unkind to other students or being rude in class it should not be overlooked. The teacher should give the child a warning or talk to them one on one to try and solve the problem calmly and kindly. If a teacher does all of these things, they should gain respect from their students. Teachers also need to give their students respect, and by speaking kindly with them, complimenting their good work and helping them improve on poor work without criticizing they would be giving the students the respect they deserve. A classroom with mutual respect between teachers and students is a better learning and working environment for everyone.