I know that many of my experiences may be similar to yours out there (you know who you are).
In the MAT program, for the most part, we are being taught very progressive ideas where we, as teachers, work to foster an environment where every student can learn what he or she is genuinely interested in. Through supporting and encouraging personal interests to promote learning we also strive to prepare our students to function in society as literate adults who can listen, speak, read, and write effectively (hopefully in many medias). So, I would say that the majority of our classes endorse a Constructivist classroom learning environment.
When I first entered a classroom, as an observer, I discovered that I was entering a different world that what I was expecting or preparing to enter. My first observation was definitely a 'teacher-centric' universe. The teacher I was observing taught 11th grade honors and AP English courses. She taught them...and they listened. There was no room or time for discovery or personal interest because the teacher was very focused on the tests that each student would be taking (either Regents or AP). Many days were literally spent doing old exams. Many assignments were old essay questions from said exams. Not only was there little discussion, there was no room for revision or growth. Everything was a one-time, here's your grade, now let's move onto the next question type of assignment. When classroom discussion did occur, it was incredibly structured, and I could tell that these incredibly intelligent students had learned how to play the game. They had the right answers and never pushed the boundaries of what a text could mean or what they felt about the text.
This teacher was in fact the teacher who taught me for 11th grade honors English and AP English the next year. I did well in the class, since I too was a student who knew how to play the game. Incredibly, it was the texts that we diligently read in AP English that I believe directed my life path of wanting to be an English teacher. Looking back after observing her teaching style, I am surprised that I do not shrink away from literature but in fact love and embrace it. I guess it goes to show that if you love something, you will love it no matter how it is packaged and delivered.
In the MAT program, for the most part, we are being taught very progressive ideas where we, as teachers, work to foster an environment where every student can learn what he or she is genuinely interested in. Through supporting and encouraging personal interests to promote learning we also strive to prepare our students to function in society as literate adults who can listen, speak, read, and write effectively (hopefully in many medias). So, I would say that the majority of our classes endorse a Constructivist classroom learning environment.
When I first entered a classroom, as an observer, I discovered that I was entering a different world that what I was expecting or preparing to enter. My first observation was definitely a 'teacher-centric' universe. The teacher I was observing taught 11th grade honors and AP English courses. She taught them...and they listened. There was no room or time for discovery or personal interest because the teacher was very focused on the tests that each student would be taking (either Regents or AP). Many days were literally spent doing old exams. Many assignments were old essay questions from said exams. Not only was there little discussion, there was no room for revision or growth. Everything was a one-time, here's your grade, now let's move onto the next question type of assignment. When classroom discussion did occur, it was incredibly structured, and I could tell that these incredibly intelligent students had learned how to play the game. They had the right answers and never pushed the boundaries of what a text could mean or what they felt about the text.
This teacher was in fact the teacher who taught me for 11th grade honors English and AP English the next year. I did well in the class, since I too was a student who knew how to play the game. Incredibly, it was the texts that we diligently read in AP English that I believe directed my life path of wanting to be an English teacher. Looking back after observing her teaching style, I am surprised that I do not shrink away from literature but in fact love and embrace it. I guess it goes to show that if you love something, you will love it no matter how it is packaged and delivered.
Now, onto my next placement. Last semester, I observed a teacher who graduated from Cortland with her MAT but for K-6. She was teaching 7th grade (how does that work with NCLB supposedly working so hard to ensure that each teacher is certified to teach the grade level and subject they are teaching?). Again, in this classroom, I saw little of what we were learning here in our program. Grammar-a-Day exercises were done to 'teach' grammar (literally correcting ONE grammatically incorrect sentence a day, completely going against everything we learned in Masselink's class). Few students, during my 50 hours, seemed to make any progress in this arena. The majority of the time I listened to the students stumble through Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. They did no reading at home...everything was read in class. This was so interactive that my host teacher even had time to knit while they read! I am sure this was because, like me, she was bored out of her mind after hearing the same scenes read that we had already heard three times before in the first three classes. If she was bored, how could she think that the students were not bored also? I cannot even begin to address how awful it is to read an entire text aloud in class. Time could be spent so much more wisely - possibly incorporating technology and personal interest/abilities, i.e. Shade's approach to Hamlet.
To her support, when I first began observing in her class she was finishing a unit on YA lit about the Revolutionary War and the culminating project for the unit was to create an iMovie. Sadly, it was little more than synopsis and a little author bio. The kids were able to add a little touch of themselves to what would have normally been a quite boring task. They loved it and were so proud to share their productions (reinforcing the need for an authentic audience). Thought this as the only example of technology being incorporated, at least she tried.
So after encountering these two environments and teaching styles that contrasted so greatly, I was naturally torn, and confused...and depressed. How was I going to negotiate what I thought English was supposed to be and what it appears, was the status quo? I am still working on this. How to you know what you can 'get away' with and what may cause too many waves? During my best, most confident moments, I know that all this requires is being able to prove the worth of what I am doing. And hopefully others will follow suit.
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