Assignment 5: Community Experience

Community Experience

For my community experience I went observed the regular Saturday drug court. I learned that it was a weekly or biweekly occurrence only after a little while observing. The judge clearly knew most of the offenders already; in fact, he knew them by name and their situations very well. There was one point where the judge was asking an offender about the proper place for him to live once released from the facility he was staying at, and immediately rejected the idea that he go live with his wife again, saying, “We know how that turns out for you.” There was only person that the judge didn’t know (in fact, I noticed him looking inquiringly me at several times, as if aware I didn’t belong), and that was only because it was the man’s first time at drug court.

In a way it wasn’t surprising that the judge seemed curious about me, though, because I could tell as soon as I walked in that I was going to stick out. Most of the people ordered to show up to the court brought friends with them. They all looked pretty unkempt as if they didn’t shower often and hadn’t brushed or combed their hair that day at all. Many people had hair died in crazy colors (which I just have to say I would absolutely do if I wasn’t a BYU student) and the hairstyles were not conservative. Their clothes were often dirty and worn. So when I walked in with my very conservative hairstyle, new clothes (I was very aware of how bright white my shirt was), well-rested appearance, and not a single piercing, I very clearly didn’t fit in.

It took me a while to get absorbed into the conversations the judge was having with each offender as they were called up. In fact, that very structure was surprising to me, because I’ve never been to a court before, I don’t think, nor have I ever watched a TV program like Law and Order. So I’ve only rarely seen court scenes depicted in media and am pretty unsure of what they’re like. So when the court just consisted of the judge reading updates about each offender’s progress in the rehabilitation program and how well they’d completed / adhered to his rulings from the previous session, I was very surprised. I was a little surprised at the judge’s tone of voice, too. I was happy he was so kind to the offenders, but he seemed to be talking to them with just a hint of the voice you use when you talk to a child. But I actually came to understand after a little while. There was a fairly open dialogue between the judge and each person when they took the stand (enough so that I could tell he was good at cutting them off when they’d get on rants about how motivated they were to change—presumably actions speak louder than words, particularly when you've seen the same words not come to fruition many, many times). As I listened to each person speak when they got up, I was amazed at how slow, slurred, and simple their speech was. I could tell that for many of the people, drugs had probably permanently affected their brain. It really brought home to me the severity of what these people had been engaged in and what kind of sheltered life I’ve led that I don’t even know how to identify the smell of marijuana, let alone ever had close friends or relatives involved with drugs.

I’m really glad I went and observed the court. I’ve always felt very disconnected from criminal experiences and drug use because of my upbringing and limited media exposure, but I really want to be able to understand those things. And I know that the area I’ll be teaching in in Houston will feature a lot of those lifestyles. My students’ families, friends, and even some of my students themselves will personally deal with those issues, so I need to learn more about them now (and be able to identify if one of my students is even high…).

Assignment 4: Personal Cultural Artifacts

 1. Bookshelves in my bedroom. I began receiving books as presents from the time I was in 1st grade. My mother read books to my siblings and I every night until I was probably 12 and I stopped listening, and even then she'd still read to us on long car trips.

2. Piano room at home. Part of my culture is enough comfort with my family that I can sing and play music at any time and it doesn't annoy anyone. Furthermore, I grew up listening to music with primarily piano or orchestral scores-- there isn't a guitar or drum set to be seen in the house. This image represents the culture of my musical taste and ability my family's music focus gave me to learn to be a musician.

3. In my home, the pantry is fair game. It is always full of food. My culture has been that there will always be food to eat when I want it and I don't need to limit myself or wait for family mealtimes if I want to eat. A culture of ease towards food.

4. My mother keeps these folders on the wall in the mudroom. She puts mail for each child or important documents in here. This is a great example of the culture of organization that pervades my home. For us it is a given that things are always clean and put in their place. If there isn't a place for something, you make one, like these folders. 

5. In our house, we lock the bathroom door when we're using it. Privacy is a part of our bathroom culture, but not our bedroom culture-- we do not lock our bedroom doors ever. Even after I turned 18 it was a rule I just continued to keep. Mom can pop in to vacuum any time she likes even if I'm not home and I don't feel my privacy has been violated. But the best way to signal to someone that the bathroom is in use is to lock the door (although we do always turn out the light when we leave a room-- culture of saving energy). This was an uncomfortable realization for me when an aunt and uncle's family stayed with us for a month and I walked in on people several times.

6. We also always sit down when we use the restroom in my home-- man or woman, it doesn't matter. It's cleaner and less noisy. And when we are finished, we always shut the very top lid, too. This unique cultural difference means I don't get along very well with male roommates.

7. General cleanliness is part of American culture. You're taught to wash your hands after using the restroom. But there are plenty of people who don't do it. Not in my culture. I was raised to be a germaphobe, haha, so not washing is never ever an option! Sometimes I just need to go wash my hands even if I haven't been to the restroom-- usually after coming home from a public place (like campus).

8. Part of my culture is that I have my own bedroom. This wasn't the case while growing up in a very small house with plenty of siblings. But when I was 12 we moved, and so during my adolescence I became used to being alone in my room. This culture is very strange in, say, certain classes in China where the students go to boarding school and might even share a room with their parents their whole life.

9. Landline (but we have cell phones, as well). Part of my culture is the expectation of being available. If I don't text people back relatively quickly, they get impatient. If I were to leave my cell phone at home, say, and only respond to texts in the evening when getting home from my obligations, my friends would annoyed! But I often do just leave my phone sitting in my room when studying in the study so that I can be free of it. So my culture of 'being available' is less complete than most Americans.

10. This picture represents the culture of values in my family. Not only do we have a distinct set of frequently-reinforced religious / moral values, but we also consciously value value. Get it? We have a culture of daily trying to develop Christlike attributes, which shows itself in my Mom posting inspirational sayings like this on the pantry door. The saying rotates every month. We look at it often, think about it, and it influences how we live. So it is also a cyclical cultural feature, coming back to influence our culture because of how prevalent we make it.

11. We always have fresh fruit available, but have very little unhealthy food around the house. The is a part of our culture that's difficult for some people when they stay with us for extended periods. They're apt to say, "There's nothing to eat here ever..." Yet for me, having to cook something if I want to eat or eating fresh fruit when I'm hungry is very normal.

12. My family culture includes expectations that when we have a family meal, everyone is involved in either cooking or cleaning. We had a special family breakfast together for President's Day, and since I didn't cook or prepare, I washed the dishes. What's more, our culture is to wash the dishes immediately after dirtying them. Often the person cooking leaves no dishes to be washed except those the food is being served in.

13. Formal culture dictates couches as the place where Americans sit, but in my family, despite having really comfortable couches, when we gather in the family room or just sit there reading / on the computer, you'll generally find most of us sitting on the floor leaning against the foot of the couch. We usually put a pillow behind our back, and I always have a pillow on my lap, too, and sometimes on my feet (when it's cold) when I'm relaxing in the living room. This is my family's informal norm as opposed to a formal norm.

14. A unique formal norm to our family, however, is that no one uses the table without a placemat or putting a tablecloth on it. Because it's a wooden table that we don't want scratched, you'll often find us throwing down a cloth placemat or pulling out a tablecloth to put on the table before we use it, even just for a bowl of cereal.

15. Another part of our culture is that shoes are always removed when you get into the house. If you enter from the garage, they're left in the mudroom. But one person is generally only supposed to have one pair of shoes in the mudroom so it isn't too cluttered. So we usually keep only a convenient pair of shoes in the mudroom if we need to run quickly outside for something and carry any other shoes we wear back to our bedroom rather than walking there to remove them.

16. Another value that is part of my culture, reflected here, is preparedness. We keep a year's storage in a cold storage room in the basement (that this is even a room still part of our architectural culture is significant), and this food, unlike the pantry food, is not to be taken freely. 

17. Here is a great example of a culture of tensions between my, my father, and my mom. My dad is from a family who loves to hunt, and part of his culture is keeping trophies mounted on the walls. My mom's culture is that rustic, violent decor like that is unseemly. So they've compromised and my dad gets to put his trophies only in the basement recreation room. As a vegetarian, these things are offensive to me and my culture of passivity, so I include this photo as part of a room that I rarely visit, because I don't feel comfortable because of how it is decorated.

18. Americans generally value fitness and exercise, at least visually if not themselves taking part in it. But isn't it interesting that that culture isn't put on display. These workout machines aren't put in our living room upstairs where everyone who comes into the house can see them. Rather, we put them in a room guests are unlikely to see and where we can exercise privately. Some people work out in public or outside, but I grew up working out only in private, never at gyms (like I talked about last time), so this picture reflects that part of my culture.

19. Growing up we always used these... poofs to wash our bodies when showering. It wasn't strange to me. I figured everyone did. You put bodywash on the poof or on a loofa and use it to get clean. When I first moved away after high school and as a missionary, I realized that this is something many other men don't do! I was stunned that they thought they were cleaning themselves by just using a bar of soap and their hands to shower! How does that remove any dead skin?! They were just as surprised that I would use something that is cultural construed as more feminine to bathe.

20. These pictures of artwork in my bedroom represent more of my value culture, namely that religious art should be a part of our lives to remind us of God. 

21. Finally, this picture represents one of my most prized cultural aspects: a bed is to be made when you wake up. I always keep my room very clean, and a room can be otherwise tidy, but if the bed is not made up, it will never look really clean. So when I wake up every morning, I immediately make my bed before praying. This morning routine displays the values of orderliness and spirituality that are essential to me.

I really enjoy these assignments because they help me be more humble about my success in school growing up. I can see how many things about my culture enabled me to do well in school. It wasn't all just about my natural intelligence or capacity. My family prized reading, being orderly, quiet (that's hard to show in pictures, but the only sounds ever in my home are if someone is practicing the piano or voice techniques), obedient, normal Mormon religious values, and healthy living, eating, and sleeping patterns that made school the sort of thing that would naturally be easier for me than for a child with a culture that was very different from what is found at school. My cultural and social capital, as bestowed on me by my culture, are as much part of me being 'smart' as actually having a good brain!

Assignment 3: Being the "Other"

It was difficult for me to think of a place where I'd really feel truly uncomfortable without having to go a long ways away, but thankfully the idea of going to the gym was included in the assignment description! I have never been to a gym since I had a weights section of my 9th grade P.E. class, and that (just like all other P.E. classes) was a little traumatizing for me, so the gym seemed the perfect choice. I certainly approached the assignment with enough consternation to illustrate to myself just how other I was going to be.

I don't have classes until 1 pm every day, and so I planned to go to the gym in the morning on Wednesday. But I couldn't bring myself to go do something difficult like that. So I pushed it off. And pushed it off. And pushed it off. Finally, Saturday morning rolled around and it was the last real day I would have to go. Just the thought of being the other, knowing I would be the other, stressed me out!

I took a long time obsessing over what I'd wear. I only own one really ratty old pair of sport shorts that I wear as pajamas, and I felt really uncomfortable wearing them in public. But I always think of gym-goers as having a very specific uniform, and if I come in looking really different, I was sure they'd recognize me right away as someone who didn't belong. So I tried to do the 'look': athletic shoes, tall black socks, shorts (I wore a pair of summer, not-sport-shorts that I own), and a black T-shirt. I didn't own a shirt with some school or athletic logo or that was made of some workout-convenient fabric, however, so I knew I wasn't fully fitting the bill.

I had never been in the Smith Field-house before, and it took me a while to find the gym inside the building, all the while, I noticed that even the smell of the place made me uncomfortable and withdrawn. I am actually fairly naturally gifted at athletics-- when I have a kind person to help teach me and I'm actually interested in learning, I can do well at any sport. But I've never had any interest in learning sports besides tennis and volleyball, and so my poor performance led to a lot of embarrassment on my part in P.E. classes and neighborhood games growing up. So even the smell of athletics, which I've associated so long with embarrassing situations, makes me tense. The mixture of sweat, deodorant, and something else indefinable... not the smell of the locker room, but the smell of a gymnasium... it made me feel other before I was even at the place itself!

When I finally arrived, the person at the counter where you have to swipe your BYU I.D. card was an unsmiling, athletic guy. I was sure he was judging me for being a first timer because I didn't know where or how to swipe my I.D. So being other made me feel paranoid. The gym was unfortunately packed, not just with machines, which lined every wall and filled the center of the room, but with people. As I walked in, it seemed like every single treadmill along the long wall to my right was taken by some extremely fit person, all of whom were surely staring at me. I looked in vain for some corner place where I could sit and 'stretch' out of sight in order to get accustomed to the room. Finding none, I found the best place I could between two machines nearly at the edge, away from the gaze of most of the cardio crazies, and began stretching. But soon enough it was time to try the machines.

I was sure I was doing something wrong. First of all, I felt ridiculous as I walked around the whole circuit of the weight machines. They all looked so ridiculously convoluted. How on earth am I supposed to fit my body into that? What does it do? What do I push? Pull? There were instructions on each machine, so eventually, when none of them looked immediately forthcoming, I starting reading the instructions on the machine farthest away from the treadmills (the benches for the bench press were right next to me, but luckily weren't as full as the cardio section, and the people working out there were naturally looking skyward, not at me). After reading, I tried out the machine and managed to figure it out fairly easily, which was nice.

I proceeded to try out each machine, but after a while, I ran into other people using them as well. "What was the protocol for waiting for a machine?" I wondered. "That guy's been standing by mine for 30 second on his phone. Does that mean I'm taking too long? Where am I supposed to stand and which direction should I look if I want to queue for this next machine? I don't want this girl to feel like I'm rushing her..." Not knowing the protocol made me feel very other and even more nervous.

I even ran into a couple of people I knew. Luckily, they were nice guys and seemed a little uncomfortable there themselves. If I'd run into someone obviously gym savvy, I don't know if I would have tried to hide or been brave enough to ask her / him for advice!

I noticed that no one was talking at all, and my interpretation was that people were very focused, and wouldn't appreciate being distracted. It made me feel like tiptoeing around. And that in spite of the music being played, which (though not really loud) was of this indescribable mixture of genres. I can say that I would never have voluntarily listened to a single song being played, however, and that made me feel not just uncomfortable, but a little irritable, too, that I had to do this hard / strange thing while listening to terrible music. What, the jocks don't like Lady Gaga?

In conclusion, I realized through this experience, that though I have trained myself out of feeling uncomfortable as the other in most situations, there are yet some very specific instances when I feel other because past experiences I've had dispose me towards insecurity. I responded to this by withdrawing, being more shy and timid, and feeling a lot of anxiety. I can vividly imagine that students undergoing this kind of experience at school would have a really hard time of it! If even the thought of school, the smell of school, the sight of school gives them anxiety and makes them feel a little nauseated?! I will have to put in an awful lot of effort into making my classroom safe and my teaching accessible for every student if that is the level of discomfort some feel.

Note: It felt wrong to take any photos while in the gym because no matter where I turned there would have been someone else in the picture, and no one wants their picture taken while working out, right? Oh, wait, that's wrong. I think gym selfies are a thing for athletic people. So I made do with taking a selfie (also a new thing for me) of my workout outfit before heading off to the gym. I've also added a picture below from the BYU website describing the gym so you can get an idea for how it looks.

Assignment 2: Cultural Snapshot

1. Uniball Pen Commercial

2. Frame from 'Jessica Jones' comic series

3. Still from 'Luther,' a BBC Crime Drama 

4. Or this article from Fortune magazine.

5. A hugely popular Drake music video.

6. Still from 'The Hateful Eight,' a critically well-received 2015 film

7. And even this initially deceptive article from NPR.

Discussion

I chose to examine how African American men are portrayed in hegemonic American culture. The messages sent by the media about what an African American man is / should be like are even more consistent and narrow than for American white men. The image of an African American man is one that is highly gender socialized-- typical ideals of masculinity abound and include a muscled figure, gruff demeanor, warlike / aggressive tendencies, uneducated or urban speech patterns, highly sexualized interest in women with large bottoms and breasts, and susceptibility to racist treatment to law enforcement (implying, depending on interpretation, history of contempt for the law making such racism justified).

Examine the artifacts above, which I believe represent America's 'single story' of African American men extremely well. The only activity not traditionally solely restricted to men which they participate in is music. The style of music associated with the group however, is notably associated with masculinity in our society: music with sexual themes, rap, etc. There is mostly one body type presented in the examples above, as well, not just with reference to their figure, but also the skin tone. There is a huge range of hues that is classified as African American, but when the media needs a stock black man to fill a diversity need, why is the jump automatically of one of the darker shades? Furthermore, only one of the figures above is presented as educated or intelligent. One is actually in prison, but several of the others seem to intimate or actual commit actions that would merit prison time. None of the above artifacts make it clear that plenty of the African American male population could actually be lighter-skinned, gentle, skinny, effeminate, notably law-abiding or supportive, or brilliantly intelligent.

The impact these kinds of messages will have on my students is clear. It will form both expectations of African American young men themselves as well as their peers.  Their peers might continue to supportive the invisible and visible structures of racism still built into our society by believing and expecting such children to become men like they believe to become the norm. Role-fulfillment in this way might not turn my African American male students into Frankenstein's monster, but it will limit their choices or cause them pain if they don't fill the role prescribed for them. And that's the hurt that I see most clearly caused by this story-- that those African American young men who I teach that might otherwise go on to be doctors and engineers and teachers and artists and dancers and chefs and stay-at-home dads won't be able to fulfill their dream or I-never-realized-it-was-my-dream, but will try so hard to fit themselves into the mold set for them that it will cause them stress, depression, and despondency / lack of fulfillment. These feelings can crop up very early in life (I know from personal experience), so I need to be prepared to help my students examine this representation of the media. It's important for teachers to do this, after all, because that is the only way such hegemony can be recognized and overcome! Awareness of cultural hegemony enables the fight against it.

Assignment 1: Imagined Classroom

I. Five Images

1. 

A clean look is important both to me and for my students, psychologically. I really dislike the kinds of decorations most teachers feel the need to put up in their classrooms, and they are often distracting. I selected this image not only for the white theme and orderly arrangement, however, but also for greenery, which is important in making an otherwise austere space feel homier without distracting. 

(See footnotes for sources)

2.

This is a  second example of a classroom in which the desks are arranged in straight lines that only face the white board / projector area. The desks are not placed into small tables of two or three, but are isolated, and there is also space that I could (and will) at any point during the lesson walk to stand immediately next to any desk in the classroom. Any accessory areas, such as the bookshelves, reading nook, organizational cabinets, and teachers desk discussed below would ideally only be to the rear of all of the desks. Also note how much more greenery there is in this space! Even better. I also like that one entire wall is windows, which I would like in my classroom. Natural light is so much more relaxing and conducive to learning than artificial cave lighting.

 3.
As a future history teacher, books are important to have in my classroom (historical fiction, and creative non-fiction histories, I mean). What's more, visual artifacts are a fascinating way to get a glimpse into other cultures and times. I love to travel and collect interesting relics from my journeys, and I look forward to having bookshelves in the back of the classroom where they won't distract where I can mix books and interesting cultural pieces to catch my students' interests.

4.

One reason I so  dislike classroom decoration is because it is so unattractive  I have studied interior design, and one important thing about design is that attractively designed spaces uplift the minds and hearts of those who occupy them. Obviously the government can't lavish funds on spaces occupied by children and teenagers in order to make them impeccably designed, but I will have my hand in making my classroom as attractively designed as possible. I prefer a midcentury modern look for classroom ideas due to its clean lines and balance of formal and comfortable evocations.  Next to the bookshelves in the back of the classroom I would like to have a small reading nook with hopefully two chairs similar to the one shown above, with a standing invitation for students to spend breaks or lunch periods reading there if they'd like.

5.

One pet peeve I have in classrooms is when the organizational elements don't appear... organized. Now, I recognize that trying to collect work from hundreds of teenagers is not likely to result in a constantly pristine space. But when you have experience organizing, you learn the kinds of things that ought to be kept out of sight and those that should be kept easily accessible in order to encourage putting things away where they belong or hiding messy areas. I selected this image because of how orderly it is (though I don't like the cheesy posters or background wallpaper), as well as because I would like the false wood, probably vinyl cabinetry here in my classroom if I got to choose because it is both orderly, but paired with a light color scheme in the walls, wouldn't be stifling. If the walls were a darker color, however, I'd prefer lighter cabinets. There just has to be a balance .

II. Classroom Surrounding

     I think most people with an understanding of design would understand why people naturally gravitate to more modern building designs as appealing, and I certainly would prefer to work in a school built recently because psychological design considerations are taken into account. The room would have a light, preferably creme or white color scheme on the ceiling and walls, with darker flooring, preferably industrial style carpet to reduce the cool feeling. I would prefer darker wood styles if cabinetry is vinyl wood. Otherwise plain white cabinets are ideal. A lot of plants along the windows, a clearly defined teacher's desk area within view of the door, a reading nook right nearby (the chairs of which would double as an area for visitors, students, parents, etc. to sit when I'm at my desk). Bookshelves along the back walls with books about history that would actually be more interesting to them. A projector screen at the front of the classroom as well as whiteboards, not blackboards, preferably the kind that slide around and can cover certain portions of the board if I'd like. The projector will be used almost every single lesson for multimedia, and the whiteboard will be the location of the day's lesson plans, starter activities, and assignment due dates.

III. Students
     
     Since I plan to teach in Houston, I am excited about having a wide variety of students in my classroom! I have only ever been in fairly homogeneous classrooms of either all caucasian Mormons (who may nevertheless differ in other ways) or Chinese children. I hope my classrooms in the future will have black, Latino, Middle Eastern, Indian, white, staunch republican, Communist, atheist, evangelical Christian, Muslim, poor, rich, straight, trans, and every other kind of student one might find in a very diverse big city school! It will add such richness! There will be students with behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, ADHD, Autism. They'll like sports and drama and doodling and reading fantasy and spending time with their friends or not even know what they like. But most of all I imagine how we'll all be safe. Every single one of us will need to talk sometimes, and we'll all take time to listen and learn from each other. During lessons they'll be contemplating, analyzing, disagreeing, crying, laughing, learning! I want to engage them in some wonderful way at every point of every lesson.

IV. Policies
     Classroom rules will be simple. I will establish a consistent class routine from the first day of class: opener activity, class discussion, lecture, multimedia examples, group discussion, personal reflection. Students will come into the classroom and are expected to quietly work on their opener activity. Then when I start the class I can start with an explosion of energy, but energy that is focused on me and on learning, energy I am in control of. One student at a time may use the hall pass, without restrictions on its use unless I notice abuse. I will treat the students like young adults, giving them both a lot of freedom, but correspondingly high expectations for swift and complete compliance when I give instructions. The main rule in the classroom is safety-- physical, emotional, mental safety. No bullying of any kind will be tolerated. Food is allowed. Discipline will be administered privately unless the problem is urgent. Understanding and a positive relationship between me and rule breakers and parents / administration will hopefully facilitate a feeling of working together towards mutual goals. Homework will generally only consist of reading the historical textbook, with one book report, a couple of short analyses about primary sources of various kinds, and a large project to show how their empathy for the world has changed through learning history.

V. Lessons

     Lessons will focus a lot on essential questions (questions without definite answers that challenge our perceptions of the world and seem controversial or confusing). Students will be exposed to historical facts once through their textbook reading, which functions as a preview. They'll have to identify some of those facts and predict big themes they signal with a reading write up due every day. Then they'll be re-exposed to those facts within the context of our unit and year-long themes as we discuss in class and as I lecture. Finally, at the end of class periods they'll do small assessments that force them to recall those facts themselves and practice the skills of analysis and out-of-the-box thinking we work on all year. We'll learn world history together, diving into other places, cultures, and ways of looking at ourselves and the world and what we have always believed is true, is history. I chose world history because deep moral questions and personal growth are so easily facilitated by the study of success and failure through time. I will teach it as a contemplative, discussion-based field. Each lesson the students should gain knowledge of specific historical facts, improve skills of empathetic understanding and using evidence to support claims, and feel changed as people to be better in some way. 

VI. Teacher Time 

     During the lesson I'll be sitting up at the front on one of those taller chairs (it has to have a back), but I'll certainly be jumping down to walk around the classroom to stand right next to students, right things excitedly on the board, or stand in the back so as not to block the view of various media that will be shown on the projector! I'll be watching not just the bright or outspoken kids, but the shy ones to know when the right time to get them involved is, the unruly ones to understand how to help them behave better (identify antecedents of poor behavior), the struggling ones to note when they start to get confused. I'll be trying to calm the students who want to talk every time, trying to excite the students who are too cool for school, and, of course, mentally assessing my own teaching skills in order to improve. Was that a really good question? Did I give them enough time to think just then? How can I explain this topic better next time? Et cetera.

VII. Student Time

     During the lesson, I want my students wide-eyed as they learn astonishing, terrible, wonderful, unbelievably exciting things. I want them teary-eyed as they learn about how real people have and do live and realize what they have in their lives. I want their eyes blazing as they experience righteous anger at injustice and shallow indignation as their untried opinions are challenged. I want them with brows furrowed over reflective eyes as they consider a view of the truth they'd never have thought of before or as they struggle to understand what could possibly be significant about the source in front of them. I want them bright-eyed as they shrewdly assess propaganda, historical photographs, modern documentaries, and other engaging sources. And I sometimes I want to see them tired-eyed after I know I've pushed them hard at writing or proving their improved skills on writing and test days. During the lesson they're listening, speaking, writing, reading, thinking, feeling, smelling, tasting, singing, dancing, growing, loving, learning.

VIII. Assessment

     Students will show they've learned facts through some multiple choice questions on some tests, probably. They'll show they've gained skills by writing analyses of primary sources and distilling a unit's worth of discussion about themes into treatises about when war is justified, how we decide who to trust, or what the role of government is. They'll demonstrate their changed hearts by choosing a project, a way to most honestly express to me, their classmates, their parents, and themselves how world history has brought into their own small world a host of new emotions, experiences, and cares. I will discern that learning by watching their faces carefully as I speak, letting each of them talk and write frequently, and by writing tests that are not biased but are creative, insightful, and challenging.



Isn't idealism an important and exciting exercise?! :0)

Image Sources

1. http://www.grit.com/farm-and-garden/green-classrooms.aspx

2. http://www.davisdesign.com/images/portfolio/learning/Northeast/NE6.jpg

3. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/343821752775751317/

4. http://www.dwell.com/rooms-we-love/article/dreamy-reading-nooks-made-modernists#1

5. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2011/09/organization-why-you-will-have-more-time-year