Teaching With Intention Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is THOUGHT PROVOKING!!!!!!!  I am loving this book! I want to read the whole thing tonight! But I don't want to get too far ahead of the discussion! But I want to read it! OMG! This is a hard chapter cause it makes you think! It's good to think! This is the stuff that we should be thinking about! But are we? I hope so! I am trying my hardest! I know we all are! OK - I will stop using exclamation points. Hopefully. ;-)

I <3 Debbie's (yes, I'm going to use her first name like I know her!) list of beliefs on page 17. I highlighted them. I agree with them. As I said yesterday, my classroom environment is a work in progress since I moved. It was organized for the students and I am hoping authentic. Our influence - OH MY GOODNESS! THIS IS HUGE! Am I perfect? NO!!!!! Do I regroup and apologize if I need to? YES! There are some days that are better than others. We are human. I want to do even more workshop format teaching. I am hoping to implement math that way in the fall. That is the hope plan for the summer. I was sooo happy when Debbie said it took her a year to define her beliefs. We need to remember that! It doesn't happen over night. It shouldn't happen over night. I got to thinking about my philosophy. Remember when they asked that in college? Like we would have known then. We had NO idea! But they asked us and we were suppose to answer. I wonder if I can find mine and see what it said. I wonder what would be the same and what would be different??? I <3 how honest Debbie is! She bared her soul on page 18 "Whenever I found instances when my belief and practices were at odds (and there were more than you might think!), I had to make  tough decisions. Would I change the statement or the practice? More often than not it was the practice that was out of synch.I discovered that even though I'd say I beleived in something, I'd find myself doing things, and asking kids to do things, that had my scratching my head." WOW! This was very powerful to me! THANK YOU FOR BEING SO HONEST! I know I fall into a rut sometimes. I did it that way in the past and it's easier to just do it again now. It's just easier and quicker. Life is busy! School is busy. But.... if we always do what we always did, we'll always get what we always got - so said Henry Ford. I need to close the door at the end of the day! I need to take that time to write and self reflect. I need to make sure I am being the best I can be for my students. I sooo wish this was a book we were reading together at school. How powerful that would be! I may offer it up at school and see if anyone else wants to take that journey with me.  I <3 Debbie's wishes too! I WILL JOURNAL THIS YEAR! I WILL NOT LET IT GET AWAY FROM ME! I REALLY HOPE I CAN DO IT! 



I want my classroom to be everything it can be! I want it to be a safe, happy, literate, mathematical place where children want to learn and grow. I want it to be student centered! I want it neat and organized. OK that's probably for me but why not! I will be working on this over the summer. I like thinking about the end and working backward. I think we get so caught up in the new beginning, we tend to forget where we want to end. 


I want to do the best I can by the students I teach! That is my belief! And I'm hoping to expand on that over the course of the year as I journal about my beliefs and practices. :)