Thinking about Teaching

I read "Our Practice, Our Selves" earlier today. I find P. L. Thomas's ideas about cell phone and computer policies, late work, and developing relationships with students resonating with me as a fellow college instructor. Finding that balance between demanding rigor and realizing that life sometimes interferes with our best intentions (as teachers and as students) is difficult and demanding and sometimes nerve-wracking. Thinking about Pierre Bourdieu's ideas of habitus, I wonder if my time as a junior high teacher has been so embedded in me that it is hard for me to trust myself with a looser classroom structure. At the same time, I have complete confidence that the adult learners are fully capable of handling that looseness if I could just turn the reins over to them more.

Thomas's post is especially timely as I am also reading Maryellen Weimer's book Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. I want to teach differently and reach my students differently, but I struggle to figure out how to make what I do more accessible to students. The first couple of weeks are the worst as we are figuring each other out--students are trying to figure out what I want, and I'm trying to figure out what they can realistically handle, how hard and fast can I push them to try new ways of thinking and writing. This first month has a steep learning curve for all of us. At the same time, these weeks are the best because they are so full of promise. We haven't had enough assignments for students or me to create preconceptions about what specific students can or can't do yet.

Thomas's ideas are ones that I would like to discuss with my students. The first week of class would be most ideal for those discussions. Is it a stereotype of classrooms, though, to think that we can only have those discussions about what it means to learn, how to handle distractions, and what late work means to me and to students at the beginning of the semester? In some ways, shouldn't we have a discussion about those once we all have figured out what this class could be?