Week 3 response to Alx

Alx's original posting:
The Zanders are AWESOME!

This book is amazing! I love the simplicities of weaving and working around and through human nature. One take away is the idea of “conducting from any chair”. Next year, I am reworking my curriculum to include an active presence of my senior Practicum students. This year I set the bait. I already know who my Practicum kids are and took all of them aside and explained that over the summer, I wanted each of them to think about an area of Graphic Design and Illustration and the Print Imaging / Printing Center that they would like to become a Subject Matter Expert (SME). When we come to that area in the Advanced class, the SME will conduct that class as a Silent Conductor. This will accomplish two things: 1. Give them a sense of ownership in the Print Imaging / Print Center. 2. Give them a deeper understanding of what it is like to conduct a training session.

I am also going to introduce Rule #6 as a diffuser not just for my students but they will be able to invoke Rule #6 on me as well. Part of my personal goal(s) is self -understanding. I try very hard to NOT take myself to seriously when interacting with my students. Sometimes, things escalate. By giving my students the capability of telling me “Ms. E. Rule #6”, it will do a couple of things. It will give my students some needed control over a portion of their lives and keep their learning environment, at least in my classroom, a safe zone. And it gives them the ability to remind me that I am not omni-important.

I love the idea of Cosmic Laughter! We have a choice in life. We can either accept the way things currently look OR we can look beyond it and find the good in the situation. Being a teacher in a Title 1 school, I do this each and everyday. I look past the “gangbanger” attitude and find the real person behind it. Once I’m there, awesome things happen.

My response:
Alx,
I love the way that you have already planned out how to implement what the authors are teaching us. I love that fact that you are going to use Rule #6 on your students, but also allow them to use it on you. It takes great risk to try that, and I am planning on using that as well. I know if I were a teen again, I would want to take your class just because you sound like a really cool teacher. :)