Читать книгу Educational Foundations - Alan S. Canestrari - Страница 17

It was the end of August, and Ashley Murphy was headed back to Horace Mann Elementary School for the first time since finishing the fifth grade more than 10 years ago. She was thrilled to be returning as a teacher to the very school where she had so many fond memories as a student. To think that she would be shoulder to shoulder with some of her former teachers and that now they would be her colleagues!

Driving up to the old brick building brought back a flood of memories: the smell of chalk dust; the neat rows of desks; Steven Parker teasing her in the third grade about her braces; and the stern and aloof principal, Mr. Dabrowski, walking into the cafeteria and immediately causing a hush to fall over the crowd of excited children’s voices. Ashley couldn’t wait to reunite with her old teachers, the women whose guidance and inspiration were instrumental in her decision to teach. They will be so proud of me, she thought, to see how I have changed, how I have matured.

Ashley was excited too about sharing what she had learned in her teacher education program. And even though the principal had called this end-of-summer orientation meeting simply to introduce the new staff and to acquaint everyone with some new districtwide policies, Ashley came prepared with reams of beautifully prepared lessons and activities she would use to kick off the first few weeks of the year with her class of second graders. She couldn’t wait to show her new colleagues what she had brought with her.

Imagine Ashley’s despair then when Nancy Rush, her former second-grade teacher, asked Ashley how she knew her carefully prepared lessons would be appropriate for the students who would soon stream into her classroom.

“But I don’t understand,” Ashley said. “I’ve worked very hard on these lessons, and each of them reflects what my professors told us about the importance of inquiry learning and engaging students in hands-on activities.”

“Well,” Nancy began, “how can you plan a series of lessons when you have not considered the most important question: Who are your students? Do you think they will look and act like your friends and you did when you were in second grade? Will they come from backgrounds similar to your own? Will they all speak English as a first language? Might they have disabilities or other challenges that affect their learning? Who are your students?”

Why is this such an important question? How do race, ethnicity, special needs, and sexuality, for example, affect the teaching and learning cycle?