Teaching Experience

            I was really afraid to go into a high school classroom to teach and discuss topics that are very important to me with a group of unknown teenagers. Teenagers are at an age where they are figuring out who they trust and don’t trust, who they will listen to, and how to judge what they are being told. As an outsider coming into an established class with an established rapport between the teachers and students, it’s difficult to stand up and demand their listening ear when I feel I have no right to. I remember being in high school and how I felt about outsiders like that. Occasionally it would go over well, but that was often because the person had really good people skills, or they were obviously an expert who knew everything about the topic she or he talked about. I don’t have these skills or that wealth of knowledge yet, so I did the best I could.

            Chris Workman and I did the best we could, and if I’m being less critical of myself, we did a pretty good job. We tried really hard to get them to interact and talk; we wanted to hear what they had to say. As the lesson went on, we heard more from them and that was really comforting. The problem at the beginning was that I asked the wrong question. I’m coming from the mindset of a college student. When we discuss personal matters in class it is often stuff in the past, maybe even from high school days. Regardless, when we talk about life it’s a bit ambiguous as to when it happened. In high school it’s happening here and now, and if they talk about it everyone in class will hear; this can give other students ammunition to use against the student who spoke. Anyway, I didn’t think about this. It was difficult to get in a high school mindset, and I didn’t give myself enough time. So, asking them the question, “When was a time when someone judged you incorrectly?” was asking for too much trust, it was too personal, and it was too soon. It’s possible to create a trusting atmosphere and slowly move to questions like that, but I asked it very early on in the lesson.

            One thing that I thought went really well was the assignment we had them do. We asked them to write a journal entry about someone they cared about (we were going to ask them to write about themselves, but we realized that not all young people are kind to themselves), but this entry had to be in the perspective of a villain. The villain could be a nameless antagonist, someone they knew, or a fictional character like Megamind or the Joker. With this activity we wanted them to think about another’s perspective. Villains are not normally thought about; they just exist to be stopped because they are evil. In reality there are few if any humans who are actually pure evil. Another thing we wanted them to notice was how they were kind to the one they cared about. Even though they were trying to be someone else, a villain, they couldn’t help but have a bias towards kindness. With this noticed, we asked the class to research before they create caricatures of people. They are much more likely to be charitable to a character the more they know about his or her race, religion, and up-bringing than if they know nothing. It’s easy to dehumanize someone you don’t know.

            One kid was willing to share his story about Snape, but most of them were hesitant to put themselves out there. It wasn’t ideal, but from looking from afar it seemed that many wrote a lot. I was really glad to have them write a story. When planning the lesson we weren’t sure at first what to have them do, but we knew we wanted them to create something – it is the second half of literacy. We knew we wouldn’t have much technology so we decided to stick with a medium we knew they would have: pencil and paper. I believe this was the correct decision and the best activity we could have them do.

One last note about something I would change. We didn’t use media examples because we want to have more of a discussion with the class, but the discussion didn’t go as well as planned. Next time I would use more pictures or YouTube clips to discuss what I’m talking about. Young people like visuals, and I should have realized that. It could have added interest and depth into our discussion. Talking about films and other extraneous examples would probably be easier to discuss than their own lives.

It was really enjoyable to try to utilize my own teaching philosophy, though it is much easier to write than to enact in a classroom. I enjoy hearing and learning from students, bringing up topics that are important to me, and having them create something by themselves. I have a lot to learn, but there is definitely ways to do it that are better than the banking method. Students are not empty, and we mustn’t treat them as if they are.