Reflections from the Start of RB Training

Since I missed training dates of September 27th, 28th, 29th and October 3rd, what I will reflect on for those dates is what I get from reading the other Reading Buddies' blogs. There are links to each on the right.

September 26th
I have so much to say, like always, but this Reading Buddies training is teaching me to think of learning as "teaching as listening, learning as telling" as opposed to"teaching as telling, learning as listening." I read this quote about student-centered pedagogy in a book by Nancy Jennings called Interpreting Policy in Real Classrooms that I read for Tom Sobol's class Curriculum. http://academic.bowdoin.edu/faculty/N/njenning/

September 27th
I know that I learned through phonics. I guess I find phonics to be very logical and that is what I am good at. Reflecting on that, there are many different types of learning styles and I have to be mindful, not to think that everybody learns the way I learn. People also seem to learn about other people by introducing each other. I wish that I had been there for that. I am just getting to know people. I feel a little shut out. This might be a similar feeling to what a new student feels, who is struggling to read. He/she may feel shut out of the discussion. We have to put ourselves into the "shoes" of the students that we work with. I saw that one person made a very good point on their blog about making reading meaningful to each child individually. I just also found out that there is a girl, Becky, in the Reading Buddy group that is in Educational Leadership. http://www.beckyreadingbuddy.blogspot.com. Maybe she will know the answer to my question. How can we exhibit strategic leadership of the type of learning that goes on in the classroom, if we have no idea of how learning happens on a daily basis within schools? I am starting to "get it", so I think I will go back and read Shark Attack to see how rich with content it is.

September 28th
Dr. Rosa http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news/article.htm?id=2460&tid=dr494 and Dr. Peverlyhttp://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=stp4 talked about reading and working in a culturally diverse setting and how your presence comes across to these kids. Many of the teachers in our urban schools, who are having difficulty, probably don't do this. I also found out that I am not an "outcast" in the sense that I am not the only one in the group, who does not have teaching experience. http://eduequity.blogspot.com/ It seems like these professors also stressed that we need to look at our views and attitudes and recognize how they shape our actions and our words.

September 29th
Many people seem to feel like this workshop on child abuse was hard, tough for them to process. Maybe it is that I grew up with a father, who was a psychiatrist, and a mother, who was a nurse and social worker, that I find this stuff easy to deal with and talk through. Personally, I think a root cause of this is that American society is too sexually repressive in the public domain. My own experience is that child/sexual abuse can have some of the most harmful and long-lasting effects on a person's mental health. I read in another person's blog that this presenter may have came with a biases of "good" children are. http://biancasbloggin.blogspot.com/ The presenter also seem to have stereotyped how "certain" people raise their children the "wrong" way. Actually, I just looked at a few more blogs and there seems to be a misunderstanding on some of what the speaker said. The speaker, Marceline Watler, works at ACS. http://www.nyc.gov/html/acs/html/home/home.shtml

October 3rd
They went over more on how to present a book to a child. I need to start checking out children's books from the library. I think I am going to catch up by going over what I missed with an I like Detian. http://dwreadingbuddyjournal.blogspot.com/