12/3-The end!

            I think this week’s readings were a great way to end the semester, and bring everything back full circle.  I honestly do not think that teaching for social responsibility, awareness, and change is something I’ll have a problem with because it encompasses everything that makes me want to teach. I can’t imagine my classroom not having a strong focus on analyzing and critiquing our social world, because that is so much of what I do on a daily basis. I’m always having the conversations I would want to have in my classrooms with friends, family, and my peers, so I don’t think It’s something I will be able to escape. Even if this research and discourse did not exist, I’d still be the same teacher, and if I couldn’t expose my students to these types of questions and issues then I’d have no interest in the field.

  Nonetheless, I’ve always feared that my students will be too engrossed in those issues and I’d fail them along away on content. But if my classes were to completely rely on social awareness and questioning our society would that be a negative thing? I don’t know. I’m sure I could find ways to integrate everything I think is important for them to learn. Nonetheless, I don’t think it’s necessary for me to have all of those answers right now, because what’s reassuring to me about the Bomer and Bomer piece is that they stress continuously having to learn from your teaching and making it better.

I think the Freire piece is kind of harsh, but in the end the message is important, and especially important for me.  I want to make sure that I’m not “depositing” information into my students because I do have a strong opinion on social problems and I want to make sure that I’m not teaching to my agenda, whether my thinking is “progressive” or not. I think the significance lies in the students being able to form their own opinions and judgments based on their experiences and their interpretation of our social world.

Overall, I have learned a lot this semester. I feel like I have a better sense of who I want to be as a teacher. Whereas before I saw my ideas as completely deviant and rebellious, our conversations and readings have completely legitimized the visions I have for my classroom and I cannot wait to continue to learn and grow as an educator.