On Apr 4, 2006, at 8:59 PM, Norman Boyer wrote:
Hi, Angelo,
Take a look at Erin Conlon’s second “Becoming a Teacher of Reading and Lit” blogs. . . .
Norm
Erin–In the matter of https://bonadonna.org/~conlon/trl/trl_blog_reflection2.html, I have smiled to recall a reading life never lived, but similarly lived. I have seen images of myself as a child sitting in my mother’s lap and of myself as a parent holding my young sons and daughters at bedtime. And what I felt in both instances, and everything in between, in that long evolution between stages, has all come back to me and reminded me of what I needed to remember. I have learned how, once again, books connect and extend us–but not in that order, for first they extend, as they take us out into the wide world of adventure and magic and conflict and love and happy and sad endings, and we are marvelously changed, only to find, the next day that someone else had the very same experience, and we can talk about it and laugh and cry again, but this time with someone else, with whom we begin planning our next adventures. I have become astounded at the ironies of summaries, which compress and delete, but also lead on and expand, and involve me in a whole world of process and thought and new activity. I have been inspired by the gentle beauty and vitality of “reflection,” which can play like a movie in my mind, full of life and character and shared things, rather than sit there as part of an educator’s jargon. I have taken hope in a student’s evolution into teacher, only possible when the student really, really, works at it, really, really cares, and really, really transcends the dictates of all those assignments. And finally, I have been heartened to receive a colleague’s email full of quiet pride and admiration.
Thanks for starting my day with a smile, Erin! :) –Angelo
NOTE: For those lacking the password to Erin’s blog, here is the text (March 8, 2006):
| TRL becoming a teacher of reading and literature blog 2 I began thinking about my journey from a student to becoming a teacher of reading. What has this journey entailed? When I was a baby in my mother’s arms, I said goodnight to the moon and learned how to love and give from a tree. I grew up and ate green eggs and ham, and explored the unknown with a curious monkey named George. I visited many friends in the woods including Hansel and Gretel, the seven dwarfs, and even a group of bears named Berenstain. I learned where the sidewalk ends and what it was like to have a younger brother named Fudge. I explored new places with the BFG, learned in inside outs of a chocolate factory with a boy named Charlie, and a young girl named Matilda encouraged my love of books. I saw how scary the world could be by the goosebumps on my arm. I even questioned where God was with Margaret. I babysat with a club of girls and went to sweet valley high with a set of twins. Ann Frank and a boy named Pony taught me how to be brave. I learned about love in Verona, Holden showed me how to look at the world, and Hester showed me the darker side of human nature. A group of little women showed me individuality, Lenny and George taught me true friendship, and Boo Radley taught me equality. I have grown up since all of this I have looked at the beauty and love in the world with Keats and Shelley, and seen its injustices with Blake. I have traveled on the road with a man named Jack and have learned for who the bell tolls. I have fallen in love with the Darcy’s of the world and my eyes have watched for god with Janie. I have a favorite book, Beloved, and a favorite poem, She Walks in Beauty. I have grown with all of these rich characters and places in my life. I have discovered that through this journey of moving beyond student to teacher I would like to do for my students what has been done for me. I want them to be able to look back in amazement at all of the places they have been through these stories. At the beginning of this class, I hadn’t really reflected on what and how I would teach. I have since revisited many of the cherished stories that I read when I was a younger student and saw with new eyes what these stories really did. When I was a child, I didn’t know I was exploring all things unknown with a monkey named George. All I knew was that it was funny and a good story. I didn’t realize the dangers that lie in the woods were taught to me by a lost brother and sister or a girl on her way to see grandma, but I did. It’s only now that see that Ann Frank and Pony Boy taught me bravery and Lenny and George taught me friendship, but they did. And how is it that I came to understand these themes? Why it’s so obvious but its was my teachers. I knew them all along but sometimes we need that little push to vocalize it. When I look through these books now all of the themes jump out at me and I cant stop myself from thinking about I would help my students to understand them. I think that it is one of the most important steps we can take towards becoming teachers of reading and literature. We are now able to see books with the eyes of a teacher as well as a student’s. Because we will always be students and will always take new journeys with the stories we read, its in understanding the difference between the two is what is going to make us great teachers. |