Week 5 T2P

Today was an useful exercise in putting T2P into T2P. It's starting to come together and I'm beginning to understand how to incorporate what I know about how I learn and, in today's case, how I think to my pedagogy.

If I can have a structure at my ready that helps me define, analyze, synthesize and examine issues that might arise in my classroom, then I will be better prepared to come up with solutions that promote the general well-being of my students and are congruent with my beliefs and values. Designing a blueprint not only provides me with a starting point and sequence of steps, it prevents hasty, emotional laden reactions that often cause more damage than good. Good intentions are not enough...there is too much at stake.

So I need a plan. I want to be a teacher that cares, of course. I already care about my students and I haven't met them yet. I know I will be taking them home with me each night, carrying their stories, their pains, their triumphs. I will want to protect and provide for them all. But am I truly caring? I agree what Nell Noddings says about relational caring: the student must know that they are cared for. How will my students know that they are cared for? When problems arise and conflict present themselves, will I find solutions that let my students know I care? If I think about our hypothetical teachers Erik and Frank, I believe they cared, they mulled over the last class, they ruminated over failed classroom situations yet did their solutions fell short of their expectations. There were many reasons but the one that jumps out at me was that their students did not know they were cared for.

In my heuristic, I want to make certain that throughout all the steps I take to gather data, examine the data and come up with solutions, my students know they are cared for. That means being honest about examining my personal biases, positive and negative, and checking those that interfere with an objective, fair assessment. That means talking honestly and openly with my students, inviting dialog, encouraging trust between myself and them, and between each other. It means valuing input from other colleagues and asking for guidance when needed. It means participating with my students as much as possible so I cam model for them what it looks like when my process cares about them.

I liked today's heuristic activity because it provided structure, something a "big picture gal" like myself often needs. However, I know there won't always be a clear cut solution that promotes and protects the well-being of all my students. I think Freire and Duncan-Andrade would concur that if my students know they are cared for, then they will trust me to resolve conflicts justly and, in turn, look for just resolutions in their own lives.