Presence

The theme for semester 4 is presence. To me, presence is building and maintaining relationships and having your work serve a purpose. Whenever I plan a lesson, I make sure it will benefit my students in an academic or social way. One way my students will know the purpose of the lesson is by stating the learning objective in student friendly language. Students respond to lessons better when they know the overall outcome.

This theme is appropriate for semester 4 because as a student and teacher I am constantly reflecting on relationships and my lessons in my classroom. At my new teacher workshop meeting, the superintendent talked about making a positive presence in the community. Since Monticello is a small community, everyone talks. We were "warned" to always be seen in a positive light because you never know who is watching you.

Circles of Self Reflection

At my last master's weekend, I was asked to write down five words that defined me. I chose future wife, friend, sister, teacher, and student. Choosing the words was not that difficult of a task, but the steps yet to come were challenging. We were then asked to "get rid" of two words. I chose to get rid of student and friend. I had ranked these relationships less important than the other ones. Then we were asked to get rid of one more. I got rid of sister. The words I was left with was future wife and teacher. These two things are what I identify myself with. When I was asked to get rid of one more card and have one word to identify myself with, I chose to keep future wife and get rid of teacher. I felt that teaching is important, but there needs to be a work/life balance. I chose to keep Dominic, my future husband, since he helps me with every other aspect in my life.

I think if I had my students complete this activity, they would struggle, or choose superficial things to identify themselves with. Kids change who they are friends with all the time. I also feel that students, depending on their age, would value non-human relationships more than human relationships. I can see many students choosing to keep sports, video games, music, etc. over family members and friends. I think this activity would be useful when students are mature and can deeply understand the overall objective of the lesson.

Since I am starting at a new school this year, I know a lot of my "free time" will be spent staying late at school or bringing work home. I need to remember that there needs to be a balance in my work/home life balance.