Creative Connector
Page 60-61: Greg Michie's describes his experience in graduate school!:
I started out reading this chapter and realized how much this sounded like our lives and the lives of other in our graduate courses! He mentions that there is a range of people in his classes: from recently graduated undergrad students like myself, to veterans who have been teaching for years. As I read this, I was getting a sense of how he felt in a few of his courses, I do feel like I am getting a lot of information out of them that could help me in the classroom, and for Mr. Michie, he is currently in the classroom so he feels that these classes absolutely help me and he applys what he is learning in graduate courses to his classroom. I was also wondering how in the world he survived a year of graduate school and working full time at the same time!!
Page 61-62: When Greg first discovers The House on Mango Street:
I loved this book!! I remember reading it in middle school I believe and remembered having a very difficult time with the language in it, but at the same time, I enjoyed all of the fascinating stories! I loved that Mr. Michie decided to replace this book with the traditional Basal Readers so that his students will be able to connect with the literature based on their own personal experiences. I feel that this is extremely important for students to find connections and interests in what they read and they even help Mr. Michie with some of the complicated "slang". Sometimes, we have to throw those Basal's out the window when we want to create something magical between the students and the literature they read!
Page 68: The Mango Girls continue to meet with Mr. Michie:
Even though the project is done, the girls continue to meet with Mr. Michie before school just to talk and hang out for fun. This is what teaching is all about in my opinion. Forming those bonds with students through a special project that means something to the teacher and students where they can bond and keep that bond going long after it's complete. That group of girls were changed after that simple extra project before school and Mr. Michie was changed as well getting to know them for the people they were. This is a strong belief of mine as a teacher and one of the special things about teaching that made me want to become one!
Essence Extractor:
In teaching, a day's work may not be seen daily, however it's what's seen twenty years later that truly matters.
Rigorous Researcher:
For my "rigorous researching" on this weeks Chapter 4, I decided to research other activities, besides Mr. Michie's reading group, that our own classrooms could participate in using the story The House in Mango Street. Here are a few great links on reading and writing units with the book:
http://urbandreams.ousd.k12.ca.us/lessonplans/mango_street2/index.htm
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/cisneros.html
http://www.masconomet.org/teachers/trevenen/mango.html
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/reading/activity/5952.html
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/SSLAUnderstandCultureDifferencesWHouseOnMangoSt1112.htm
http://www.enotes.com/house-on-mango-street-lesson
These sites provide some great ideas on how to incorporate this amazing story into your classrooms! It's also a great way to introduce the topic of diversity:)
HOLLER IF YOU HEAR ME By Gregory Michie Weaving back and forth between Michie's awakening as a teacher and the first-person stories of his students, this highly acclaimed book paints an intimate and compassionate portrait of teaching and learning in urban America. While the popular notion of what it's like to teach in city schools is dominated by horror stories and hero tales, Michie and his students reside somewhere in between these extremes - "between the miracles and the metal detectors."
Rachel, I loved your comment on the "simple before school activity" that turned into so much more. I think its these extra moments that really can affect our students. Where as a teacher we get to show them that we're human too, and can relate to them on a stronger level than just the classroom. I remember the club advisors, the directors, the leaders the coaches... more than any other teachers. I am always the person to sign up for tons of activities - I'm hoping just to do one my first year teaching so i don't go crazy with all of the extras, but I do want to be part of the school community beyond just in the classroom. We'll see when we get there!
ReplyDeleteI really like the activities for The House on Mango Street on the Teacher Vision website. It offers a ton of different options for that book.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie