DJE #5

"Teaching is not just about the transmission of knowledge, or even its expansion. Its calling is higher than that; it seeks wisdom beyond knowledge alone by applying knowledge to life, especially the life of students and the larger community, and thereby to express life itself.'' (Rud, Garrison, 2010)

I choose this quote because of the power it instills in me to want to be the best teacher I can be, and after reading this article I see the power of being a reverent listener and teacher as well. It's important that your students feel comfortable and safe in your classroom in order for knowledge to flourish.  To treat students with the same respect you would treat a family member or friend in times of need or to share joy with. 

Reverent listening is the ability to listen with respect and build a connection with the speaker. By keeping the respect of others and treating them valuable contributors you will reinsure your speaker that we all learn from each other in many different ways and age or power has no effect in that. It supports culturally responsive teaching because by reverently listening to your students, you are treating them with respect on a common ground and don't necessarily feel inferior to you as the teacher. This in turn builds community in the classroom and everyone feels safe and comfortable in their own skin.

Reverent listening is not to be confused with humiliation and domination by others who force us to listen,     and even less so, with the kind of incompetence that wants to be told what to do. This quote reminds me of school because I have always been an inquizative person, if I don't know something or didn't understand what was said I would always ask for further details. Well one teacher would always pick on me for doing that by name calling or making cracks at me for thinking I wasn't listening or paying attention. But that was never the case. She always called so much attention to me if I asked questions so for awhile in school I would always just go with the flow even if I had no idea what was going on. Thank goodness I got over that when I came to college...otherwise I wouldn't still be here.

3. What is meant by a "laundry list of value ethics"? Give an example from your own schooling experience. And then explain how this     approach to character education can be NON-culturally responsive.

Laundry list of value ethics is described by Rice as a narrow set of conventional character values that focuses on work ethic and duty. Which I think she means that teachers and schools that stick to the script loose the value of reverence. Teachers who post posters of dominance in the classroom have no regard for reverence. In school I have seen those posters that can give negative responses to kids such as "don't speak when the teacher is speaking", ect. I have had a few good reverent teachers that incorporated a lot of discussions and experience sharing, and in my opinion those classes and the content taught are always the most memorable. Even in this class, we do so much discussion, story telling, and experience sharing, and I feel the class really connects and listens to everyone, and in turn we all learn from each other. It makes me feel comfortable and a valued contributor to class.  Factors that are toxic to school culture are when all the valued traits of reverent and culturally responsive teaching are lost or broken. When teachers loose respect for their students, parents, or colleges the classroom morale goes out the window. If leadership is lost, sense of control is lost as well. If listening is lost, so is your learning. It's one big chain linked circle that will cause the destruction of school culture.

"Reverence and leadership intertwine dynamically. Wise and provident leaders realize that all knowledge is incomplete and listen to others. A reverent leader is not arrogant because she knows she cannot know everything about every situation, but must rely on followers to provide ideas, ideals, and, sometimes, leadership, through which all can learn about a situation and provide solutions to problems."

I love this quote because I know I'm not brilliant, if I was I would be creating the cure for cancer right now, I'm just me. I work hard to gain the knowledge I can, and I'm comfortable asking questions about what I don't know. I know that my students will challenge me at times and I want them to, but I also want them to challenge themselves. As a teacher, I am their bridge to cross over and once they cross, I collapse, and encourage my students to build new bridges of their own.

In Petagogy we learned about writer's workshop and I believe that writer's workshop is a great use of reverence for the classroom for everyone to share the stories they write and illustrate. I definitely want to have writer's workshop in my classroom. Here is a website of a lesson plan I found for writer's workshop.

http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/681.html

Reference:

Rud, A.G. & Garrison, J. (2010). Reverence and Listening in Teaching and Leading. Teacher College Record 112 (11) 2777-2792.