Burke Reading

I have to say first, that I really enjoyed reading the sections that I chose. Burke’s words were so encouraging and yet showed that teachers do have flaws and do sometimes fail. He did not make everything seem perfect, but he showed me that our profession is worthwhile and that we will make a difference in the lives of the students we teach. With all the pressures we have been feeling as graduation approaches and we are trying to find jobs, these letters encouraged me to keep going and to know that I will make it.

Managing a class of 35

I have had classes where every seat in the room is filled. It can be very overwhelming to see a room that full and realize that you have to somehow get and keep all those students’ attention. I enjoyed this section because I related to it especially when Burke said that when students are talking and are not engaged we take it personally because our lessons are a part of us and we see it as the students rejecting us. I need to not take things like that so personally. I also liked his advice about getting to know the students because that is part of my philosophy of teaching. He said we sometimes need to realize there are many other reasons why students may not be engaged in the classroom. Burke also said to take students aside and I have noticed this works as well because you can address the issue with them personally and find out what is going on that may be causing the disruptive behavior. There was a lot of good advice that I took from this section.

Handling Pressure

I am clearly a “wait to the last minute” person. I am used to working under pressure, even though I usually hate doing it. I did not think this section gave a whole lot advice about handling pressure, but more of how to get to know students more again. I wanted tips on how to deal with the anxiety we feels as teachers, but did not really get that. I did like how Burke said to accept anxiety and fear because it is what makes us work harder. That is very true. I tend to try even harder when I fear I am going to fail and then surprise myself when I do really well. It is a good feeling when you have been so scared and then end up doing an excellent job. So I suppose there is not much advice to give for this, we just have to ride with it and accept that anxiety and fear come with the territory.

Challenging all students and meeting their challenges.

I could immediately relate when Burke started talking about that class after lunch and having to compete for their attention. My class that came in after lunch was the smallest, but yet the rowdiest because they were sliding into the end of the day and had just received more energy from food. My host teacher and I used to joke that schools should not feed kids because they get too hyper! However, Burke was also right when he said you bond more with this class because of everything you go through together, you develop a stronger respect for each other. He also highlighted the need for confidence, without which it is hard to survive. We need to be confident as teachers that we can teach and that we can reflect and learn from our mistakes. We have to be confident that we can continue growing as educators. I also enjoyed where Burke said we have to come in everyday committed to work, but to not let the students determine our success. If there is the one students that you cannot get to work, just keep trying, but do not let them limit you. Come in everyday prepared to help them and never give up. Burke really gave a lot of positive advice in this section and it is one that I think I will read over when I have that troubled kid in my classroom because it gave me a lot of hope and made me realize that we can never give up on a kid no matter how much they want to give up on themselves.

Approaches to teaching writing

I wanted to learn how to teach writing, and to see if Burke agreed with my philosophy on how to teach writing, which is to incorporate it into the lesson each day. In ways he did agree with that, but in others he did not. However, I did not always agree with him either. He says that brevity is the key to precision, I disagree. I spent a whole semester trying to teach my students how to add detail into their writing, so that it was not so brief. I do not want them always to get directly to the point. I want them to use different literary elements to get there. I did agree though that students should be given some choice of what they write about because that will make them more inclined to write and to make their writing more interesting.

Engaging students and competing for their attention

Competing for your students’ attention can be very hard. It seems like they are more concerned about lunch and the weekend than what is going on in class. However, Burke makes a good point when he says that we are not competing against them, but against ourselves. We are competing to improve everyday and every class period. We want each class period to go better than the last and each day than the previous. We want room for improvement and room to learn. I read this section looking for advice on how to get students’ attention, but I realized that Burke is right. We are not competing against our students. We have to learn how to manage our class and how to improve our skills each day. We need to know that we can be less than perfect, so we have room to grow.

Managing your time

Time management is not my strong suit, so I figured this section was helpful. It did not tell me too much that I do not already know. I know I need to plan ahead and be organized. Organization is also not my strong suit, but I do take my career seriously so I tend to be more organized there. The best advice Burke gave here was to not only plan ahead and remember what is important, but to think about interruptions. We have to allot time for interruptions and be prepared to deal with them. I also like how he said that we do not want our students’ success to be on accident. We do not want to just “make it” through the year. I want to be able to take credit for my students’ success and not look back and not realize how the students got where they are. I hope I can achieve this and that I do learn how to manage my time as best as possible.