We're almost done.

Hey all,

Hope all is well. I thought this week I would explore myself as a teacher. I met with my professor last week and we discussed my unit and my work over the last four or so months. After this meeting, I carefully considered the type of person I am and the kind of teacher I am becoming.

Over the last few weeks, Chris and I have been working through our ideas and units together. I don't want to speak for Chris, but I think that we have both have learned quite a bit about ourselves. We have been able to discuss what assignments we favor, the way we like to teach, and the texts that we can use to work with one another. I have always known that I wasn't really a lecture-based teacher; mostly because I always found those classes really hard to follow and stay engaged in. Over the course of this semester, this view of myself has really been strengthened. I would much prefer my students create a portfolio of work over the semester and us work through things together. I thoroughly enjoy and believe that students benefit from having discussions and by working in small groups in order to pull their full potential from one another.

I truly believe that when students engage in thoughtful discussion with one another, they can learn a lot about themselves and the topics in question. I believe that teachers constantly learn from their students and they evolve this way. This only goes to show that they are not the all-knowledgeable presence in the classroom. I do believe that because teachers constantly work towards mastering their craft (rather, maybe I should say that teachers should do this), they should serve as sort of mediators in the learning process. We, as future or current educators, should help students discover what they are to learn rather than simply conveying a message to them. Yes, teachers should lecture on material they feel students should know the basics of, but students should be able to discover the meaning behind this knowledge. This creates a really meaningful experience for students and allows pride in the subject to be strengthened.

These ideals of education have really been strengthened these last few weeks. In the end, I feel that the assignments students complete shows a lot about what they have learned in the classroom, whether it be from me or from their peers and selves. Does anyone else think that this type of teaching is really important, or am I crazy for dreaming of this idealistic classroom? I know that from here, I will only evolve as a teacher from my experiences and conversations, just as I have been developing as a pre-service teacher. I'm really curious to know if anyone else out there dreams of this and really wants this to happen.

The exciting news I mentioned in my last blog post:
Last year, I worked on a project with a few others that some of you may know: Brian Charest, Lauren Bell, and Veronica Parker. We have been asked to go to Georgia next year and speak during a the JoLLE 2014 Conference. The project we created and have been working on is called Chicago Teachers: Inside Out. If anyone wants to hear more details about our project, or how to get involved, please ask! I'm really proud of this opportunity and would love to talk about it!

Have a nice day, everyone!
Alexandra K. Wiesyk