Blog #6

In the first article, Beyond Tolerance, my eyes were opened to some points that the author made but I also questioned some practices used by the author as well. I liked the fact that education to her meant “learning to live in a world community, about communicating and questioning and listening” (Cook 19). I think that having this philosophy towards education would really help her have an effective classroom in which students gain a lot of useful knowledge.

I loved how she kept the course unpredictable! I think that by doing this, students become excited to come to class everyday and it offers a lot of variety, which would make students want to actually learn. “I designed the course like a journey, complete with passports and entry visas to various destinations” (Cook 20). This idea really stood out to me. I really enjoyed how she made her teaching hands-on and really got the students involved. I would love to create my classroom in this way because I think that not only is it more fun, but that students learn a lot more information as well. I was very interested in the opportunities that the teacher gave the students for critical thinking as well. Once again, she used a variety of activities which is very important. By using journals, having discussions about what they thought about the material being studied, and by critically analyzing photographs, I think students learned a lot about one topic in many different ways. Often times, they probably did not even realize that they were learning! She even pointed out that from doing these types of activities, “they finally started making the connection” (Cook 20), which is what, should ultimately happen. I also thought it was neat that she shared her own thoughts from her personal journal. That shows students that you are just as interested in the material and find it useful, which is portraying a positive role model. I also enjoyed the fact that she allowed students to design their own homework, as long as it fit the geographical region they were studying. I think that this is a wonderful idea. It still holds students accountable for doing work, but gives them a choice of what work is done so that they will be more motivated.

I questioned the author’s idea about discussing religion in the classroom however. I feel like this would cause a lot of controversy and that it would be better to leave it out. She goes on to explain how things began to get personal when students tried to distinguish between religion and culture and how they went on trips to visit places, like a mosque. I think that trips and similar events are great ways to reinforce concepts that you are teaching about, but I don’t think that using them for a unit on religion is a great idea. I think that by getting personal with students on such a controversial subject can be a danger and can lead to students feeling different and uncomfortable even though you are trying to teach about openness. I don’t think that I would test this in my own personal classroom.

I didn’t think that I would learn much from the second article since it dealt with a Coast Guard Academy classroom, however I learned some more important tips about taking risks and what to do to help create a successful atmosphere in the classroom. I liked how the author reflected on how she should have allowed her student to experience discomfort and explained how some discomfort is needed for learning and how you should move through the feeling, instead of around it. I thought that this was great advice and it dealt a lot with what we discussed in class. In class, we talked about how sometimes a student can learn more by being pushed outside of their comfort zone and I think that from this article, I learned even more about the importance of this.

Also, I learned the importance of risks, conflicts, and challenges in the classroom. Before reading this, I would have thought that only risks and challenges would be of importance in the classroom. I liked how she explained how Galloway “challenged them to attune their thinking and writing styles through self-evaluation” (Wink 85). I think that encouraging students to reflect back on their work and challenge their ideas is very important in the learning process and can teach them valuable skills that extend beyond the school environment. The quote “My risk gave way to their greater risk” (Wink 87) also stood out to me. I think that as a teacher, you must model risk-taking to students so that they learn to do this as well. Along the lines of conflict, “we must be willing to call on students to find their voices and to engage in “creative conflict”…because conflict is required to correct our biases and prejudices…” (Wink 89). I found this quote interesting because I never really had thought about conflict being an important part to the classroom, but I realized that this does help give students a voice which is important.

Lastly, I really liked how the author talked about the idea of bringing place to students by “relaying our feelings and thoughts from travel journals while we show photographs and memorabilia and encourage students to draw from their own travels” (Wink 86). This emphasizes the importance of connections to students and benefits both visual and auditory learners. By incorporating this into the classroom, it can help create a more welcoming and friendly environment among peers as well, since many connections will be shared.

These articles can relate to The Book Thief. I think that many of the methods used in the article could be used along with this novel as well since it deals with the Holocaust. Perhaps having student’s journal and analyze photos from this time could be used. Also, maybe a creative writing assignment could be used, in which students must create their own book and then exchange their stories with one another so that they can gain a perspective of each other, such as the main character, Death, does with Liesel’s story.