Chapters 3&4

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       The concept that I enjoyed the most in these chapters was "mirrors and windows."   The fact that students should be able to see themselves represented throughout the classroom.  The students must know that everything about them is an important part of the classroom community, so even though the book stresses that a students heritage must be represented, I also say that should see different genders, sexuality, socioeconomic statuses, ages, etc.  As far as the "window" part of this concept goes, I think that it is necessary for everyone to see different people in the society being represented.  This helps to create acceptance between different people in the community.  By demonstrating how important the different types of people are to the society.  This will help to work towards a world without racism, ableism, and other forms of discrimination.  There are many things that we can include in our classrooms to show them that everyone is a valuable member in the community. Again this is will take time, but I truly believe that it will be worth the time.
        As we keep reading these chapters the thing that always seem to be the overall concept is being intentional, and within that, each chapter discusses different things that we need to be intentional.  Teaching is not something that you can thrown together if you want to make sure that you teach the lessons that you intend to teach.  It can't be thrown if you want to do it correctly, and if you aren't going to do it correctly, what is the point in doing it?

UBD Reading

     I am excited for backwards design.  I think this style of teaching really fosters intentionality, and as you know from my previous posts, I love intentionality.  This style of teaching demands thoughtful preparation.  It incorporates what we have read in the book so far because it requires us to not follow the textbook's structure, but to go along the path that you find to be best, and to use the textbook only as a support.  In my experience, the students can tell when a teacher is teaching to the textbook, and they get frustrated by that.  It is nice for the students to see a teacher who takes their own path.  The students can feel that there is preparation behind what they are being taught, and they appreciate the lesson more.

     Not only with the benefits that it brings to the students, it helps the teacher to be prepared.  When you have put as much thought behind the lesson as it takes for backward design demands, there is nothing to worry about.  You don't have to worry about fears of not being familiar enough with the material because you had to get familiar with it to plan out the unit successfully.  You also have all the activities planned out for the unit and the materials have been gathered for your lessons.  When you teach in a way that makes the lessons personal and intentional, a lot of the stress can be eliminated because of how much thought has been put into what is being taught.  Therefore, this style of teaching is a win for both the teacher and the students.


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Chapters 1 & 2

     When I was reading this, I had a lot of different emotions.  At first I was really excited because it was awesome to see students getting passionate about what they are being taught.  Then I got nervous about how to be able to incorporate this.  I grew up in the Coventry school system (www.coventryschools.net) and the only time I can really think of the teachers working together was in middle school.  Even then, it was rare to have projects that were connected between classes.  And the way that my high school was set up, would make this really difficult.  We were all separated by our level and any student could have any combination of classes and teachers, so in order for the students to be able to have multidisciplinary projects would be for the whole school to coordinate together.  Which I also tough because it is a huge school.
     I agree that this type of focused reading is much better for keeping the students captivated than the textbooks.  When I was in high school I was told to read the textbook in my math classes but I never did.  Math is not a passion for me, it is something that comes easily to me and it is a skill that I chose to teach through.  I believe that the textbooks should be there to provide extra support if needed, but it should not be relied on to teach the subject.  It will take some out of the box thinking to find students things to read that will keep them interested, but I know I can figure it out.