ManleyLaura

Tremmel is deep. I guess I didn't really realize how much until I got done reading this section. I don't know if I really like it. It makes it hard to just sit down and akim through it to get an assignment done. I alsyas catch myself gazing into space thinking read hard about what I just read and then I get funny looks in the union. But I suppose that's not a very unusual thing so...

I notices that there were a lot of qutoes that I am defiantly writing down. The first that caught my ete was on the first page. "Withous survival nothing follows." As simple as this thought is, it is completely captivating. If you cannot survive then that is it...you are dinished, done, kapoot. Nothing will follow. And while this prospect is scary I like to think of it as if it were bouldering. Bouldering is a rockwall technique where a climber, instead of going from bottom to top, goes from side to side. There are many differnt forms and levels of bouldering, and many think that it would just be, not only a waste of time, but pointless it is invigorating and challenging, much like teaching and survival in general. One step, as in climbing, can send you flying off the wall. However, survival is more like bouldering than climbing in the sense that if you fall off the wall while climbing you are caught about a foot later by the safety rope and person at the bottom belaying you. Bouldering, there are no ropes, no harnesses, only a spotter, and sometimes not even that. And spotters are there to "guide" you down, not catch you. Imagine bouldering (teaching) at 30 feet (student teaching). One slip and you may be able to catch yourself, but if you fall off the wall (fail at discipline, fail at teaching) you're eitehr seriously hurt, or possibly dead. Survival, to survive is to stay alive, withous survival nothing follows.

This was the first chapter that I laughed out loud. If you get to know me, I like to laugh. I like to have fun. I like to make others happy, thereby making myself happy. So, that being said I am not a serious person in most matters, and while I often try to take on too much all at once, I had no idea what Tremmel was talking about when he was talking about people getting sick and neglecting friends and relationships. I was lost until I read the following passage, "thos of you who are reading this and do not know what I am talking about, get up off the couch, throw your TV out the window, quit procrastinating, and get to work!" I cracke up. And while my TV still sits on my shlef, it definately put into perspctive whta I am doing in my life now and in the future, with my education and life in general.

However, my favorite part, by far was when he talked about "high-impact" detentions. I can seriously see myself adopting his method and putting it into action once more. I think that many students would pot out of making trouble if they knew they were in for a "highly intellectual, deep and motivational talk with me after school instead of regular old detention. It would also let me get to know students that mornally aren't that open in class, the troublemakers. There could be invaluable things that you learn in one-on-one with students that would never come up in class. To me, that would be the movst beneficial part of the detention.

I guess I'm just waiting for what Tremmel is going to throw in next. At this point little would surprise me with this guy, and I can't wait.

The Last and Final Ponderings of Tremmel...

In this chapter I read and read and read…and I didn’t really get anywhere. It’s like I said before, you can’t just skim through this. But right now that is a terrible thing. With exactly 43 pages for Ed Psych to read, and a report on a battle in the civil war due tomorrow, reading precisely 39 pages of Tremmel was going to kill me. So, I sat down, read a little, drank the drink of the Gods (Mt. Dew for those who haven’t had Coach Jahner), and proceeded to pop a no-doz. By the end I was skipping what Tremmel was writing and went straight to the people. If I got lost I would read the paragraph before their stuff and read it all again.

This may seem like a horrible way to treat Tremmel, what with everything that we’ve been through with him, but I think that he’d understand. I feel like I’m starting to think like Tremmel and while on some level that sort of scares me, on another I’m exhilarated and thrilled. I think that he would be proud. So, when I was reading about his analyzing and prophecies of these other teachers, I felt like he was just reiterating what I already knew. At this point I’m praying that that is a good thing.

Ever so often I go on a highlighting frenzy. This was definitely one of those nights. My civil war papers are practically all pink and don’t even get me started on Ed phsych…I think we all know that feeling…but with Tremmel I was always leery of highlighting. I would do a sentence here or there, but not too much. It was like it was the Bible for teachers, and it would be sacrilegious to desecrate the good book. But this chapter, for all I didn’t read it, I was highlighting like mad. It was like the book of Revelations (which is entirely highlighted in my Bible, by the way).

“There are times when we become stuck, lost, or confused. There are times when we have just had it, cannot take it anymore, or do not know how we are going to go on.” “Stamina, passion, liking young people.” “Always in the end there waits a beginning.” “…Forced marches are death marches.” “It is in the darkness that the key shines the brightest.” “If you can’t laugh you can’t teach.” And my favorite, “True love is like ghosts; many have heard of them but few have seen them.” Are you guys writing this stuff down? These things are going to litter my room on little scraps of paper until I finally put them into my quote book…and then they will gradually make there way to brightly colored pieces of paper with borders that hang on my walls when I get a classroom of my own. I even added my own to the mix…”Without the dark of the tunnel we would not see the light at the end.”

So now that I’m rockin’ and rollin’ I feel like I just can’t stop. Tremmel has infiltrated my mind, my entire being. I found myself telling my mother all these Zen-type things and I could see her shaking her head, even though I couldn’t really see her. And then she did this little sigh and said, “you know Laura, I just don’t know about you sometimes, and most of the time I have no idea what you’re talking about, but at least you’re passionate about it.” At least I have that part of Isabelle’s thoughts down. Now for the stamina…that just may take a few more no-doz…or perhaps I should just buy a coffee machine…

So, as I finish my wonderful adventure with Tremmel, I think to myself what a bittersweet thing it is. On one hand, no matter how you cut and dice it, this is still a textbook and one less required reading to get through on my busy nights. But on the other hand, this “textbook” completely opened thoughts, feelings, and emotions I didn’t even know existed. And for that, I guess I’m really happy. This is probably one textbook I will not sell back. _____________________________________________________________

Essay Two...and the beat goes on...

Essay Two

Laura Manley Response Journals

I was reading about response journals. I really want to do something of this sort when I am teaching. Les Parsons did present a different side of response journals though. He said that response journals should be changing and therefore the way they’re taught and the things that students do in them should be changing as well. Response journals are no longer a diary, according to Parsons. They should be a response to the things done in class, or questions and such. I think this is a good way to get student feedback and know what kids are thinking about the things that are being taught.

Parsons did say though, that the diary form of a journal was “dead” and should not be used in the classroom. I disagree with this. There are schools (mine included) that largely ignored the journals, in any form. And I think that students could largely benefit from both of these. I know myself, when we finally did do a journal as a diary, loved it. It allowed me to talk about whatever I wanted and I got credit for it. My teacher allowed us to write stories, diary entries, cartoons, practically anything, so long as we were writing. It was a way to get our juices flowing and to prepare us for the English aspect of that part of the day. It really worked.

I do realize though, that not every school is like mine. I think that it should be gauged what to do in the classroom because, like we’ve mentioned, classes are not all the same.

Parsons also talked about reading aloud. I think this is a good idea but I am leery as well. A lot of students are not at the same reading level and I know that for the kids that are not at that high of a level, it really benefits them to read aloud but it is also scary, and could perhaps turn a child off to reading. I don’t think that it benefits the students at a higher level. I know I read at a faster pace and I would always read ahead in the stories, and then not pay attention when I was finished. It was frustrating because I just wanted to be done in my time. And while this is a selfish perspective, kids are selfish. I know that I want to read aloud to my classrooms, though. I hope that I can figure out what I want to do with everyone else also.

There was also talk of student/teacher conferences. I guess I always thought about them as a bad thing, but Parsons turned my perspective and I found that I really like this idea. Just sitting down and talking with the student about their work and such. And he laid it all out on the table saying why you did them, how to do them and that you have to set a time limit. I may stray a little from this but the concept has definitely stuck.

There were a lot of examples of papers from kids, evaluations, almost anything in this book. I liked that there were. A lot of books that I’ve read about teaching don’t give the examples. And while you may not use the specific example it is still there for a guideline, and that is good, especially for student and first-year teachers.

This book really helped open my eyes to a new aspect of teaching really. It was good to get a look at something different and open my mind to it. I know I’ll be using these techniques a lot in my classroom. In fact, I have to read it again and take notes this time, just so I know I won’t forget.