An Apple A Day Keeps The Passive Learner Away!

These are pictures of an apple. In the picture below, I was attempting to slice it, and clearly... I am not the next Rachel Ray. However, the point is not how this apple looks deformed but instead, it is the bigger picture of why I have an apple in my hand during an English 110 class.

My teacher walked around the classroom and let every student pick out an apple of their choice, from a selection she had. Once we had all chosen, we were to analyze that apple, get to know it, draw pictures of it if we wanted to, and write descriptions of it. We were to write down physical, textural, and even taste observations (umm...sound familiar? sketchbook deja vu, anyone?? Let me tell you, It was sooo weird because that very day, about an hour earlier, in your class we turned in a sketchbook assignment!) After that, we were supposed to write a letter to either Shakespeare or Emily Dickenson, about how they should come back from the dead in order to eat this apple. We were supposed to sort of write a sales pitch in a sense. It was so weird!

I wrote my letter to Emily Dickenson and ended up (I confess) having a lot of fun with it. It seemed like such a ridiculous and silly assignment from afar, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it. After we were given a couple of minutes to write, my teacher told us to choose a few lines that were our favorite, and we were to go around the class and every person was going to share theirs, one right after another. Her intention was to have a class poem put together. Before we started, she said "Apples by English 110", and every student shared their lines. It was really really awesome to hear how everyone else had essentially the same subject matter to write about, and yet none of us had even remotely the same lines when we shared.

I feel like a lot of the ingredients in this class lesson connected back to Eds 150. For one thing, it was totally active learning. Oh my goodness yes. Also, the task was very out-of-the-ordinary, strange, abstract, and it required a lot of pushing. We were to take something "normal", "common" and typical, and let it evolve into something so inspirational as poetry that would summon a dead poet out of their grave. I also notice the element of audience. We were required to share with the entire class-it wasn't on volunteer basis. We ALL did it. In that sense, when our teacher told us that and told us to choose lines to read, I think all the students really chose the ones they were most proud of, (or maybe some people even scribbled down some better ones right then last minute!). From now on, when I confront an apple, I don't think I will look at it the same. I think that's what education is all about-spotlighting the common and proving that it is extraordinary.

As a teacher, I will hardly be rich. Instead of going to the store at the drop of a hat whenever I need some resource for something. Maybe God (or the president?) knew what he was doing to make the system the way it is so that teachers would not make abundant amounts of money because since they don't, they are required to be innovative. This is a skill that extends far outside of materials shopping. In a classroom, a good teacher needs to be innovative, creative, flexible, and able to use ANYTHING to teach. (I MUST go to Berea-this philosophy totally harmonizes with sustainability/recycling. :p).

I also like the role our Eng 110 teacher played in this. She was simply the facilitator; the apple hander-outer, the "start" whistle-blower. She informed us of our assignment, but after that, was "hands off". We were independent and in a way, inquirying into how we would accomplish this vaguely explained, and surely never encountered before task. I'm so glad we were. We were nudged a little, and elbowed into taking a risk, leaping and seeing what would happen. I want to be a teacher that challenges students to stretch, to think in ways and create things they would never do on their own time, at home, with their friends, etc. I want my students to be proud to show me, show the world, and show themselves what they can come up with if they put their energy (and mind) to it. I want them to see their potential as well as I will.

HORSEplaying In The Classroom?!

Before.......................................................................................................................After


In these pictures, my English class is galloping. Yep, that's right. You read me correctly. They/we galloped. A guest speaker, or another professor or someone came to talk to our class about Shakespeare and as a result, iambic pentameter. What better of a way to get college students enthusiastic about, and aware of the rhythm of a sonnet than to stomp it out in front of their peers, right? Well, maybe. At first it was very awkward and childish-seeming and I did not want to touch it with a ten foot pole. No one in our class was volunteering except one person that somehow had no problem with galloping alone in front of the class (see below). As for the rest of the class, they were maintaining their comfortability standing on the sidelines (see above left). Not for long! Then however, our teacher somewhat forcibly involved us by saying that everyone had to take a turn. As two halves of a class, we took shifts. One time, half the class would be reading a sonnet in unison, emphasizing the meter, while the other half was galloping the beats at the same time. Then we switched. Everyone had a chance to be embarassed (or humored)! (see above left).


I realized that it is okay to look silly in front of my classmates, for the sake of learning. I also learned that I can do something that seems like it will make a complete fool of myself, but really it could turn out being fun. I also learned that when several people do something humiliating together and at the same time, it makes the experience a whole lot more endurable. Also, I realized that I learned more about iambic pentameter (whether I wanted to or not) by doing that seemingly stupid activity than I would have by reading a definition of it in a dictionary, or even listening to a teacher explain it. There is something about self-participation that makes a subject more captivating.

This situation can be applied to Understanding Content because it is content OF A DIFFERENT CLASS (happy now, Bobby? :). It is an example of a different course besides Eds 150, reiterating the things we learn about in Eds 150. From this galloping day, I connected it back to previous lessons from Eds, and saw that it affirmed how teaching active lessons yields more effective, memorable effects when a student is learning. This day in my English class was like a deja vu of the day we got in groups with classmates and made a common list of traits from our most memorable learning experience. Active learning was in all of our experiences, and agreed upon in all of the groups. This guest speaker guy must have sat in on that Eds class or something, because he definitely used active learning on us!

I can use this experience as a teacher because I need to remember that often times, in order to strike a student's interest, I need to be interested also. It makes it a whole lot easier for them (and a whole lot less hypocritical for me) for me to join in the activity as much as possible.
I should meet them where they are. If they have to look and act like fools, then so should I! I also want to be sure I realize that EVERYTHING can be creatively taught. Even something as bland and textbook-bound as iambic pentameter, can be brought to life and made fun. I want to try to be aware of creative techniques for teaching my students. I want to get them all involved instead of asking for volunteers or pinpointing one brave soul every time.

I'm Content with this class's Content

This is a picture of me involved in the balls and ramps activity. We were given instruction to build a ramp that went up at least three inches, and down at least three inches (not right after each other), and to have a ball go on it, and roll exactly 6 feet after completing the course.
While this learning experience was multi-purposeful and covered many of the goals' objectives, I found it to be drilling in an idea we had read and discussed in class a couple of days prior. I thought this activity was a huge example of constructivism. Before we started the activity we were to write down what we knew about balls and ramps. In this way, we were stating our prior knowledge, perhaps based on earlier teaching we had absorbed (aka physics class), or even past experiences and personal witnessing. Then once we had those ideas down, we were to "have at it". We had free range of different types of balls (golf, foam, steel) as well as cardboard box pieces, PVC pipes, and wooden blocks. In the beginning, my group was struggling to apply the objective information we had written on our slates, to this active learning, "hands on" situation we were in. Some things we thought would work did not; so consequently we were editing and adapting our theories and knowledge about balls and ramps as we went along.
This is totally constructivism. We learned about this in our reading, making it Understanding Content (in this class). It is the idea that when new information is offered, an individal appraises it and either rejects it, sticking with their old knowledge; or they save it so that it cooperates and harmonizes with their prior convictions; or finally, they let the new information completely override their earlier thoughts. Experiencing this personally let me realize that it is a very good method to use in the classroom because it humbles a child, without embarassing them in front of the class when they get something "wrong". They find it for themselves, and correct it for themselves. In order for my group to "succeed" (or be the closest group in our class to success), we had to leave behind some of our old thinking. It was hard, but necessary and in the end, good. Even though I read the online article about constructivism, and we talked about it in class, it was very helpful to see a real-life example and scenario (that I was in, no less) of it, to understand it even more fully.

I will demonstrate that I have general knowledge and an in-depth understanding of content I'm responsible for in this class, Eds 150.