“Delta Autumn” put so many of my novice-teacher sentiments into the perfect words. It was one of those few books where the author seems able to read the minds of his readers. Well, that should not be a surprise, since the writers are teachers. I appreciate that it was written by idealistic optimists, and I trust that its real-life pointers and insights are legitimate and can be done. One of my favorite passages is: “Even though it can feel like you have been duped into working an impossible job, you will probably amaze yourself with how well you handle the completely unexpected and the totally insane. This is probably the most important skill you will learn” (p. 42). I also like the statements in the teaching Secondary English chapter: “The challenges that this subject area presents are exactly what drove us to it” and “You will have to show them that they know more than they think they do” (p. 98, 106).
Reading the book was a very interactive process. I felt like I was out to coffee with a group of wise, seasoned second- and third-years, who were filling me with advice. The book got me brainstorming about the philosophy and sociology of education, and generating to-do lists as I prepare for the fall. At the risk of turning this review of the book into a book report, I have included those thoughts and lists here (mostly for my own benefit, since “blogging it out,” as the second-years fondly put it, is good and productive for my own growth as a teacher). Thus, my approach to reviewing the book will be to digest it systemically it in three sections: “academic”/bookworm-y reactions; practical reactions,; and personal/ reflective/ anticipatory reactions.
I. Thinking about where I am and what has happened before I got here
The long, fascinating history of schooling in Mississippi got me thinking about policies and possibilities of progress in education. First, on policies: What if the “error” of the 1890 Constitutional Convention’s common school fund – basing school funding on the number of educable children in a district instead of on property values (as it’s done now) – could be reintroduced, now that schooling is compulsory in Mississippi? At that time (turn of the 20th C), the common school fund probably hurt black families, because the county made huge tax collections for education which parents got no returns on, since most blacks in the Delta did not attend school. But the turn to other funding techniques thereafter only worsened inequalities: in 1950, MS spent an average of $122.93/white pupil per year, versus $32.55/black pupil per year (about a four-fold difference)! It worsened with White Flight in the seventies, when white parents began to send their kids to segregation academies and vote to reduce property taxes. Federal assistance became, more or less, black public schools’ only resource. Even so, as Brown v. BOE showed, the greatest, most pestilent inequalities were not between tangibles, but intangibles, in schools. Examples of “intangibles” are well-reputed faculty, experienced administration, influential alumni, and the school’s standing in the community (p. 7).
Second, on possibilities: what if my English or Social Studies class could become like a mini-Freedom School? By that, I mean, what if I could carry on the spirit of Freedom Schools with my students by designing my curriculum and instruction in order to “‘fill an intellectual and creative vacuum in the lives of young Negro Mississippians, and to get them to articulate their own desires, demands and questions’” (p.13)? Now, obviously the historical context has shifted. I think that all schools today suffer from a certain flatness. The carbonation of creativity, the responsibility of teachers to activate and cater to students’ passions (yes, I said ‘responsibility’), and the pure joy of discovering one’s ability to express him/herself were foci of the Freedom Schools. That should be an enduring legacy; school should still capture the imagination of this generation of students. To do otherwise would be to regress, because Freedom Schools showed that it can be and has been done.
Most people would agree that education plays an extremely important part in a functioning society. As such, it can be a vital way to repair social dysfunctions (indeed, it may be THE only way). On the ground, though, in the classroom itself, a teacher needs to be prepared for the reality that positive change through schooling is both rare and a slow process. One reason writers of “Delta Autumn” offered for this (the persistence of the status quo with students’ levels of academic achievement) is that most of students’ time is still spent out of the classroom, in “poverty-stricken environments” (22). This is the age-old cultural deprivation theory in action. I do not like it, but I can find no way around it to explain why else education seems uninteresting and unimportant to students. What can teachers do about this? This is a question I will keep thinking on. While I do, though, I will keep in mind that the challenges of teaching in MS are “neither insurmountable nor overwhelmingly complex,” and that MTC has more than paved the way to making “immediate contributions” within the classroom and community (p. 24).
II. Advice I will follow and things I plan to do in my first year teaching (both specific and abstract):
- Prepare my room well, as this signals to my students that I am a well-prepared teacher. I need to think more about, how can I make students actually like the classroom? One way will be to build my own classroom library. This will be a huge priority to me. I will hit up used books stores in Jackson ASAP in August.
- Issue a getting-to-know-you questionnaire and content pretest in the beginning of the year
- Get crackin’ by using a subject-related activity on the very first day of class, instead of dwelling on paperwork that allows them to disengage. Give homework the first day of class.
- Worry about pedagogy and learning styles AFTER I have gained attention of my class and I have successful put them to work.
- Have students produce a product everyday
- Use the writing poems “punishment” for disruptive students (especially those who flirt!)
- “make the trains run on time” (p 54)
- Involve parents by assigning family histories or biographies, whether I teach English or history
- Keep parents informed throughout the year. Get a home phone number for student/parent use only.
- USE LESS WORKSHEETS, and opt for more creative in-class activities and individual projects instead. Students are tired of worksheets. For example, I will have students: Read plays in class, peer-to-peer teaching (since their ideas may be brilliant and just what their classmates need), start an illustrative timeline project and display it on the wall (for social studies, or do this for a plot of a book we read for English), play Brain Quest, or have students create their own board games (as a project).
- Collaborate and align my teaching objectives with the needs of other subject teachers (social studies teachers if I am an English teacher, and vice versa)
- I will read to them in class for short chunks of time, since depending on them to read on their own is likely to bomb
- Be selective in my grading so that I can pour thorough comments into the important assignments
- Show students that mistakes are OKAY! Show them that not understanding a reading passage is OKAY! Show them drafts of previous work I have written, to demonstrate that writing starts with, as Anne Lamott calls them, “s****y first drafts. (And, while I am on the subject, I also won’t be afraid to show my students higher-level examples to work from, because they CAN outdo them.)
III. Advice authors of “Delta Autumn” gave that I think will be really hard for me to follow:
I expect to have trouble not being afraid to make mistakes, and also not being afraid of being assertive and firm with my commands/discipline toward students. When I tutored last year, I was able to be stern with my four students. But when I taught at Holly Springs for the first time on Friday, however, I found myself being far too “nice.” I was way too polite and obliging in my language as I addressed my class, phrasing questions “Can you tell me...” instead of “Tell me...”. I used an excess of please/thank you. I want to learn to be more proactive, assertive, confident, direct and commanding. I do not want to be a flimsy disciplinarian. I care about order very much and am very adverse to socially messy environments. Hopefully this will be enough to make me sufficiently, consistently and effectively (and, of course, purposefully!) strict. The point is not to rule the classroom and crown myself dictator, but to establish a great learning environment. I’ll need to keep reminding myself of that, to remember why it’s important to not skimp on this. Mistakes help us learn! I hope I can be that bold teacher who says to the mumbling student, “What did you say? I can’t hear you, speak up, sit up, put your chin up!” It’s the loving thing to do, even though it seems like it’s nothing more than stern and heartless.
Secondly, thinking on my feet should not come unnatural to me, but ENJOYING thinking on my feet is another thing altogether. I like to worry and I found myself over-preparing for my first lesson (but I am so glad I did, because time passed quickly and ate up my activities...maybe I was flying through them too fast, but while I was in front of the class, my pace seemed to be super-slow to me.). I discovered on my first day teaching that improvisation in front of an audience is neither easy nor hard. On the one hand, I had an effortless, teachable moment on roots, prefixes and suffixes (off-topic), so that was good. On the other hand, I also had moments up there when I was frantically mentally groping for what was going to happen next.
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