Building our stories...

Chapter one of Nakkula and Toshalis, "The Construction of Adolescence," speaks about something that I think happens all the time in the classroom. There is a often a disconnect that happens between student behavior and a teacher's reaction to that behavior. Often if a student is acting out in class the immediate reaction is to just correct the behavior and move on. Very little time is spent thinking about the reasoning behind the students behavior, unless it persists over and over. The reflection of the student's behavior, for me, comes after the student has long left my class for the day. This happened to me just yesterday. K walked into homeroom with a look on his face that I could tell it was going to be a rough day for him. I asked him what was wrong and got no response. I figured that maybe he was just tired. I had K for class three periods later and he was in the same mood. I again asked K what was wrong, and got no response, so I let him be. K left my class, and I began to wonder what I could have done differently. He was never disrespectful to and he never acted out in class that day, but I knew there was a different layer to his attitude for the day. So I thought about it for the rest of the day and decided I was going to try with K again right after school. I asked him to come into my room and I shut the door, we sat at my table and I asked him what was going on. K started to tell me about his weekend and how his mom and his girlfriend had a fight Friday at the football game. Then how that escalated to his girlfriend's mom getting involved in an argument with his mom as well. And ultimately it ended with K's mom telling him that he had to chose between his mom and his girlfriend. K has spoken  in class about how much his girlfriend means to him and about the amount of time that he spends with her and her family. He has also spoken about his rocky relationship with his mom. I asked a few questions, but mostly I just listened. K just needed someone to sit and listen so that he could talk it out. While K's behavior was not aggressive like Antwon's, I still believe that he was "testing the nature and boundaries of their relationships and the learning environments in which these relationships are created"(p.3). I think that maybe K was testing how I would react to his attitude all day to see if he could get some light shined on him. This was not because he wanted to be the center of attention, but just because he needed someone to talk to and maybe wasn't sure how to ask yet.
Nakkula and Toshalis write about "authoring our lives" and how "we do not construct our life stories on our own. We are, rather, in a constant state of cocreating who we are with the people with whom we are in closest connection and within those contexts that hold the most meaning for our day-to-day existence"(p.6). I think that if this is the approach that I take to all interactions that I have with my students that on even on the days that I am tired and not feeling well I will approach them in a different way. I feel that there is a great deal of responsibility on the part of teachers when they view themselves as authors in a students life. If we think about the amount of time that we spend with students on a weekly basis, the 'writing' that we do with them takes up probably more time than most others they come in contact with. For some, even their parents. It reminds me of that 'classic view' of learning that we talked about in class last week. It also reminds me that we never know when students are learning from us. Nakkula writes on page 8, "should we as educators think of our work with youth in more relational terms?" This makes me think of the 'hidden curriculum' that happens in all schools and in all classrooms. I would argue that in many cases the hidden curriculum is more important than the set curriculum. The hidden curriculum are the skills and characteristics that students learn and transfer to their life outside the classroom.
On page 8 Nakkula also says, " they must share how they themselves think about or make sense of this content." Nakkula is of course referring to how teachers learn the material that they are teaching. When I am presenting information to my students I often tell them how I make sense of it. To be honest, saying out loud helps me to learn it over and over again, which I think is great and really works for me. I can also honestly say that I do not think I learned very much in my own high school experience. My teachers gave us loads of information and never asked us to do anything with it except spit it back to them on a test. I was good at memorizing, so I did well in classes, but once I gave an answer on a test and handed it in the majority of the information was gone. It wasn't until I was asked to apply the information to something that I feel that I really learned anything. Vygotsky's ZPD aligns directly with the idea of creating disequilibrium in students. If they are content all the time they are less likely to soak up any new information.
Nakkula writes on page 14, "by engaging with their students, educators ingest the nutrients for their own professional growth and, in turn, their own personal gratification." I feel that I am a more effective teacher because I have daily conversations with my students. I know what is going on in their lives, and as a result I can translate some of that into my teaching. I really do feel that my students are the coauthors of a huge part of my life, and they are writing a story that I am proud to tell.