I was a little disappointed by how this book starts out. I judged this book by its cover and was expecting it to be a little more, well, edgy. Jimmy Santiago Baca's stories start in part 2 of the book, and I'm looking forward to getting there as I've read A Place to Stand and found it mesmerizing. But this first half is looking to be a little humdrum. Sure, there's some good concepts but the introduction doesn't even mention how the information will be presented and it all seems to be in a random order.
Chapter 1 was Community and Trust, both important concepts. I totally agree that a sense of community is greatly beneficial in a classroom. And a student who trusts their teacher and trusts that they are genuinely invested in teaching them is going to feel much more motivated. While reading this chapter I kept thinking about my first grade classroom and imagining how it was to feel connected to every person there, especially my teacher. Comfort in the classroom is paramount and all teachers should know that exploring ways to create a comfortable, all-inclusive community is integral to successfully inspiring students to learn. How can we do it though? The book mentions that Jimmy's stories later on will help us with that. I guess I'll wait and see. Here's some thoughtful examples for community-building tactics listed right at the end of the chapter:
-Post a calendar and write each studen'ts birthday on the appropriate date
-Celebrate positive events and achievements
-Have a digital camera handy to capture moments that define community
I sure wish I could have come up with such potent ideas.
Chapter 2 was titled engagement and motivation. I wasn't surprised to read that students that are engaged and motivated tend to be better learners. I figured that out myself, I think I was probably about six when I made that discovery. How can we engage the students better? Jimmy's stories later on will help out with that. So why am I reading this? The chapters bold subtitles did inspire some thoughts on worthy subjects including Expectations, Immersion, Responsibility and Approximation. One of the most important things that was more firmly anchored in my brainf after reading was insuring that students are comfortable expressing their thoughts without feeling whether they are right or wrong. This goes back to the sense of community. Students absolutely need to feel comfortable and included in the classroom, they need to feel as though they have value and potential. Jimmy's stories have more on that later, but before that I'm going to read Chapters 3 and 4, Challenge and Self-Efficacy and Collaboration and Group-work.
hahaha, your post made me laugh. I can hear the sarcasm in your voice, mostly because I also found a lot of his suggestions to be a bit obvious. The more I think about it though, as obvious as they are, so many teachers do not actually do these things. I think we can all agree that community in the classroom will cause students to feel personally responsible for the success of the class and I think this is what Jimmy is getting at. I think the things that build community will largely vary depending on the district, but those core examples he provided are a good place to start. I also was expecting this book to be edgy, so I hope you're right about Part 2. Do you have any more ideas on creating community that you might see happening in your own classroom? I would love to hear them!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, as obvious as they are they are still relevant. I usually try to keep sarcasm out of my posts, I think I was just in a grumpy mood that day. There's definitely some good information in these first two chapters. Hmmm... maybe having students post on a blog of some sort together would be a good start to building community? I swear, I don't know where I get these great ideas!
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