Yes but it was so much more than 'reading the room' in that story. The writing was bringing into relation the different voices and sensibilities available in a poetry lesson - the poem, several individual students, teacher and mentor with what she knew about language. It was so much richer than 'a room'. But anyway Steve, thanks for the response and the opportunity to think more about the kind of reading a teacher must do (especially as she asks students to engage with something a bit hard like an Auden poem).
I haven't been able to read all of the pieces you have posted but I am moved by your synthesis of thinking, feeling and ... what is the right verb here .... sensing perhaps that undergirds teaching. The wealth of material, which is all different but revealing of common threads, would make a fantastic multimodal resource for pre-service teachers as they reflect on what has beckoned them into teaching. I am reminded of what another great teacher - Parker J Palmer - taught me through his publications: that we need to bring soul into role. This made all the expressiveness, randomness and hard work in my teaching (the whole kit and caboodle that made up my teaching) feel OK. In recent years, I have found inspiration in Winnicott's idea of the 'good enough mother' and applied it to teaching. What you offer in your vignettes as well as in the larger narratives like Harriet's is very good indeed.
Thank you Mary. Loved what you wrote about 'sensing'. More articulated or closer to the conscious awareness than feeling? Less worded than thinking, but (like thinking) more consciously guiding our actions? The state we teachers are often in during class when so much is happening and we know we have to be acting, though we'd be hard pressed to say why we did x or y?
You are so right. Sensing is better than either thinking or feeling, though both of these are present too. I was often in a state of mild panic when I was first teaching as I tried to read the room and pursue my own teaching goals with students who had goals of their own to pursue. I was often completely unmoored by the awareness of different minds and hearts and bodies (my class) and the need to direct our joint work towards constructive ends. Learning to relax and 'tune in' to these other beings and to let dialogues unfold as they will, to be responsive as well as responsible, took (is taking?) time. I think that it takes a robust sense of self to be able to be responsive to our students and to meet them as they are whilst being responsible to our own legitimate and legitimated educational intentions. What do you think?
So interesting that your first instinct, in moments we all remember, was to try to read the room, looking for ways to steer a path which included both student and legitimate teaching goals. Do we end up surviving because we sense (feel?think about?) the need to 'read a room'? And is reading a room not quite the same as becoming aware of student goals? (I think it's different, or I sense it's different :-) ... but I'm not sure I'd be able to find the words for this. Maybe it's what we (you, CeCe and I) were trying to do in our story 'The Poetry Lesson'... we were trying, maybe, to include student and teacher goals, but also a reading of the room?
Yes but it was so much more than 'reading the room' in that story. The writing was bringing into relation the different voices and sensibilities available in a poetry lesson - the poem, several individual students, teacher and mentor with what she knew about language. It was so much richer than 'a room'. But anyway Steve, thanks for the response and the opportunity to think more about the kind of reading a teacher must do (especially as she asks students to engage with something a bit hard like an Auden poem).
And thanks for the conversation Mary, as always. xx
Hi Steve,
I haven't been able to read all of the pieces you have posted but I am moved by your synthesis of thinking, feeling and ... what is the right verb here .... sensing perhaps that undergirds teaching. The wealth of material, which is all different but revealing of common threads, would make a fantastic multimodal resource for pre-service teachers as they reflect on what has beckoned them into teaching. I am reminded of what another great teacher - Parker J Palmer - taught me through his publications: that we need to bring soul into role. This made all the expressiveness, randomness and hard work in my teaching (the whole kit and caboodle that made up my teaching) feel OK. In recent years, I have found inspiration in Winnicott's idea of the 'good enough mother' and applied it to teaching. What you offer in your vignettes as well as in the larger narratives like Harriet's is very good indeed.
Warmest of wishes.
Mary
Thank you Mary. Loved what you wrote about 'sensing'. More articulated or closer to the conscious awareness than feeling? Less worded than thinking, but (like thinking) more consciously guiding our actions? The state we teachers are often in during class when so much is happening and we know we have to be acting, though we'd be hard pressed to say why we did x or y?
Hi again Steve.
You are so right. Sensing is better than either thinking or feeling, though both of these are present too. I was often in a state of mild panic when I was first teaching as I tried to read the room and pursue my own teaching goals with students who had goals of their own to pursue. I was often completely unmoored by the awareness of different minds and hearts and bodies (my class) and the need to direct our joint work towards constructive ends. Learning to relax and 'tune in' to these other beings and to let dialogues unfold as they will, to be responsive as well as responsible, took (is taking?) time. I think that it takes a robust sense of self to be able to be responsive to our students and to meet them as they are whilst being responsible to our own legitimate and legitimated educational intentions. What do you think?
So interesting that your first instinct, in moments we all remember, was to try to read the room, looking for ways to steer a path which included both student and legitimate teaching goals. Do we end up surviving because we sense (feel?think about?) the need to 'read a room'? And is reading a room not quite the same as becoming aware of student goals? (I think it's different, or I sense it's different :-) ... but I'm not sure I'd be able to find the words for this. Maybe it's what we (you, CeCe and I) were trying to do in our story 'The Poetry Lesson'... we were trying, maybe, to include student and teacher goals, but also a reading of the room?