I know there has been a lull in responses to this listserve. Ending the school year is often a hectic and exhausting time. Reading 1 chapter for 2 weeks gave me the time to regroup, file reports, pack the room and nap. For me, Chapter 6 was my "reason for teaching" chapter. Until now I thought I was just random, moving from one interest area to another, taking my students along on the journey to learn new things. In chapter 6 I was introduced to the term "Renaissance learner". This is me but, I would like to expand the term to Renaissance teacher. Funny that I started the year at a 2 day Nature Journaling class. My colleague (another Renaissance learner) and I envisioned grandiose ideas of using observations in art to enhance attending to details in multiple curriculum areas. Our literacy coach thought we were really stretching our connection to "raising test scores". Now Ellin has us learning from the great thinkers and artists of the Renaissance. On p. 137 she writes, "I worry that with schedules driven by different subject areas, curriculum created around tests, and a society that demands perfect completion of everything kids attempt , we are unwittingly contributing to the demise of the Renaissance person-creating our own medieval age." How sad but true. It's called the age of NCLB. All too often I see my students move on to 3rd grade, a testing grade. One teacher is traditional and a yeller. The kids start to hate school and lose interest. Behavior escalates and the teacher yells some more. It's a vicious cycle that is repeated year after year. Teachers plates are full yet we are continually dished out more and more as our test scores teeter, moral plummets, mandates increase and kids suffer. I feel that Ellin is trying to tell us, those that will listen, those that are here, that it is up to us Renaissance teachers to take students beyond what the tests measure. Over the past several years I have gravitated towards like minded people. I have belonged to the Mosiac listserve because no one at my school does book studies. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable writing here because of my lack of book study experience. But, I learn in the process and continue to read other's posts. In the margin of p. 157 I wrote in capital letters-IT'S ME! Ellin was talking about people who have an insatiable curiosity. How often I have wondered what it's like to do the same thing year after year. It MUST be easier than what I do. I see some teachers pull out the previous year's lesson plans to write down for the current year. They have their drawers of worksheets and lesson plans all ready to go. These are good teachers, they do their job but, I don't see the passion of learning in their students. Yet, these same teachers often look at me as if I'm off my rocker. But, I love what I do. I love to learn new things and I love showing this to the students. This year my students were fascinated by our worm composting project. They gobbled up worm facts and learned how to set up and take care of a worm bin. We researched why our pet parrotlet kept plucking her feathers. We observed nature and drew in our nature journals. We planted seeds for our prairie garden and learned to take care of things. At the beginning of the year our literacy coach told me I could have 1 week to do an open cycle about our service learning garden/recycling project. The rest of the time had to be devoted to district determined genre studies. After awhile I stopped arguing and started doing. I integrated science into nonfiction, wrote how I got our bird for personal narrative, set up the worm bin for procedural writing and took the kids out in the spring to write poetry while sitting around the garden. While the school's behavior problems escalated in spring, we were working as a community of learners. Others started to notice. The literacy coach realized that content can and should be integrated into literacy instruction. Our partnership with a Wildlife Refuge came through and a week before school was out I facilitated a Saturday fishing trip for 40 students and parents. So, I want others to know that you too CAN be a Renaissance teacher. Find colleagues that are also interested in learning new things. Start with them. By having a few close colleagues that I could bounce ideas off of kept my enthusiasm going throughout the year. It's hard to be this kind of teacher in the day of NCLB but I believe Ellin knows we are out there and that we can show our students how to live more fully in this world. It's not enough that we are Renaissance learners, we must rise to the challenge of being Renaissance teachers and taking our children along on this journey. This past year we visited several nature centers due to a grant (you should read, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder". The literacy coach was concerned about the many "disruptions" my class was having in their schedule. That sends the message that kids only learn from a teacher and the teacher must be within the 4 walls of a classroom. Ellin closes this amazing chapter by saying, "When you start to worry that you're not doing what your district demands, think about Michelangelo. Imagine the form of a slave straining away from the stone and feel confident in the knowledge that children need to strain away from the stone as well--focus on the idea that you may be teaching students who are now infused with the desire to understand, who will give birth to the world's Renaissance." Thanks Ellin for believing in us.
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