I chewed on my pencil as I pondered and reflected on the methods and strategies that I was going to try and use to teach the kids I was going to see. I wonder now, as I did then, how much of teaching is actual strategies? How much of teaching deals with a particular method that can be hammered into the heads of education students around the world? The simple and innocent child is so complex, so incredible, so "fearfully and wonderfully made..." Is there The Way? During the years that I played basketball I followed a program that increased my vertical jump. In this program (which TOTALLY worked by the way. I personally recommend AirAlert to all you basketball players out there) the makers included a short pamphlet which gave pointers to help players overcome fear and ultimately get in "The Zone." Everyone knows what "The Zone" is. Its that moment when there is no fear, no regret, no pain, no feeling. Its when you're so completely focused on one burning thought within your mind that nothing else matters except that you do your duty in the most powerful and perfect way possible. This program compared "The Zone" to riding a bike. You don't know when you start to ride a bike. You fall a couple times, but after a little while you start pedaling and...off you go! You don't think about how much pressure you put on each pedal, how much to turn the handlebars on the bike, you just..ride. Taoist philosophy calls this Wei wu wei, or action without action. Don't focus so much on how you're going to do it as much as just..doing it. This allegedly enables us to perform to a much higher level then if we were focused on the A, B, and C aspects of our action.What if teaching was like this? What if I focused much less on how much I was going to say, suggest, draw up on a chalkboard and just focused on looking at the child and responding to his or her needs? Would that actually help my instruction? Would that really help the kids that I tutored learn the material in a sensical way? ...was I actually thinking this as I hit my head after the bus jostled over a pothole?
Oops. Almost missed the last stop. I rubbed my bumped head and gathered my books together. We jumped off the bus and I inhaled a deep breath of the city smell. The copper red sewer, the fatty smell coming from the fast food restaurant a block away, the mulch of a small playground close nearby. All this had a calming effect somehow on my mind. Somehow I was smiling again. It was as if I had stepped up and stepped out from the hectic life of college and was actually ready to try to make a difference in some children's lives. A chance to do something that I knew I loved: help the kids that need it. Waving to the kids that shouted my name as I opened the already familiar chain-link fence, I run up the steps and into the school.
--------------------------------------------------
"Kevin, Kevin, Kevin!! I'm so happy to see you!" Jose was beaming all over his round face as he sprinted to where I was browsing in the computer lab. "I was here 30 minutes ago and you weren't here, but I had to go eat and then I decided to see if you were here and now I'm back!" Exhilerated now that he had disclosed this vital bit of information, Jose collapsed into the chair next to me and breathed a sigh of contentment. I grinned at his exhuberance at seeing me while laughing at the fact that he actually remembered me. I whacked him with the bunch of papers I was organizing for school and asked him how he and his family was doing. One important thing before we continue forward. The wild thing with kids, especially younger kids, is that if you give them an inch they'll go an extra twenty miles. It was only after we finished talking about his long-lost and very distant relative who looked like Jacob Black from Twilight that I got a word in edgewise and told him that we should make our way to the lounge so we could complete his homework. Almost as if a load of bricks hit him, Jose jumped as if stung from his trembling swivel chair and propelled himself to his backpack before rushing to the hallway. I, while I wondered where kids got this energy, followed unprotestingly. As he and I walked to the tutors lounge, a couple kids called out my name and gave me a hearty handshake (complete with the corny modifications that I had installed). Well for pete's sake! It seems like I actually have implanted my ridiculous self in the minds of these younguns. I guess I must be doing something right. How about that?
Jose and I parked ourselves in the teacher lounge and he brought out some math and reading sheets. I had had a long and tiring day and the lazy part of me protested asked me what the heck I was doing breaking out work sheets at this truly unreasonable time of day. However I quickly quashed that thought when I reminded myself how lucky I was to really be there. We humans have the tendency to overreact when it comes to doing something difficult, but I was not going to let that happen then. Planting myself next to Jose I eventually detached the reading sheet that he was waving under my nose. Hmmm..compare and contrast, huh? I remember something like this from my younger years. Procedures and methods rushed to my head as I tried to identify traits and aspects in Jose and calculate out my plan of attack. Napoleon himself couldn't have been more thorough in all his genius assaults. 1. Identify the student. Does Child #1 have awareness of current culture and social status? 2. Identify learning procedures. Which box of learning style does Child #1 fit in? 3. Identify the method. On which concept of the compare/contrast tool should I lecture good ole Child #1 first?
For the next 20 minutes my teaching went something like this:
Me: So, Jose, how does Wally seem like Mr. Rodgers? As in How Does He COMPARE to Mr. Rodgers?
Jose: SO KEVIN!! You going to do some magic tricks for me?
Me: No, no, no, thats not the time, Jose, we can't do magic..CONTRASTLY...(is that even a word?) we can talk about the COMPARE/CONTRAST concept.
Jose: ..there was my cousin..I need to talk to her about something..
Me: How about not, buddy? Going to talk with your cousin can't COMPARE with the interesting concepts I'm teaching right now!
Jose: But I can't because you need to show me your magic..can you change my hair into pizza?
..but I digress. At one point I looked over at Anne who was also having trouble with the kid she was helping. There had to be some other way. I absent-mindedly flipped through my notebook and came across my notes for Wei wu wei. Hmm..I thought. Was I going at this all wrong? Maybe all I had to do was let go of this for a second. I set down the worn-down pencil that I was getting ready to shatter with my face and turned to Jose who was thumbing idly through a large book. Suddenly, as I looked at Jose with all his energy, I knew what needed to be done. I jumped to my feet and let out a shout that made everyone in the room jump. "Jose!" I smiled "What do you like better pizza or tacos?" Jose laughed and answered. "Tacos cause they're better!" I grinned. "Tacos or tomales?" Jose bounced up and down with excitement. "TOMALES! My tia makes the BEST tomales!" Matching his every bounce and shout I replied. "And what if your tia made her tomales for a party at your block and they had rollercoasters!?" Jose was really excited now as he went on about what he would do for his block party. I then described a block party that I would make and the next thing I knew we were discussing the compare/contrast concept that applied in the case of our block parties. Before I knew it Jose was leading the discussion and we somehow motored right through the reading and math sheets and were running upstairs to meet his teacher and get more work to sift through. The time rocketed by and I helped several more children with their homework. But through it all, whether it be as I got the shy smile of a 12 year old as he finally figured out a concept or when I was bludgeoned by the books of a 7 year old girl as she insisted on setting up a booth for her studies, I did my best to let the young ones run the discussion, run the learning process. The children, for all their lack of developed potential, know their interests, and when they feel that they are contributing to the learning process they automatically put more stock in it.
----------------------------------------
Anne and I were walking back to the bus and Anne was exultant as she said how wonderful she felt after coming back from a service learning day like this. I heartily agreed with her, but as she spoke I couldn't get my thoughts from going back to what I had tried. I couldn't put my finger on it then, or for a couple days after, but when I look at what happened now, I think I know what I can take from this. As a Catholic, I hear and use the phrase "let go and let God" quite often. It calls for just the simple and wonderful faith and belief that God will do what is best. To a certain degree the same can apply in teaching. When focusing on the single objective stratagy in the way I did, I could not account for the complexity of Jose. While these methods and guidelines are a good rubrik for the educating teacher to know, it cannot be the overall guiding principle. Teachers and tutors, based on what I saw then, need to have a little bit of good old-fashioned faith and belief in the child. We all remember being children, and we all remember what it was like when someone truly believed in us and what that did to inspire and encourage us to reach for something big. It is this childlike faith and encouragement that keeps a child from giving up and helps him following a path even if they don't know what or where it is exactly taking them. It is this childlike strength that can even give us supposedly mature adults an inspiration. The children give us courage. Courage to help us to continue on..courage to help us study for that midterm and fight even past...
In my education class we talked about how the teacher has to believe in the child. I agree whole-heartedly with this idea and want to build on that by adding that a teacher has to have some faith to supplement that belief. Its impossible to really believe in a child unless we have the faith that they can succeed and move forward. It is the belief and faith that the teacher provides that gives the child a belief and faith in him or herself that is truly neccessary in order to step out and forward. It is this faith that helps a child learn to walk. And, in a way, it help us in learning to walk as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment