While reading Talking in the Middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors by Michael Harris, I found some key takeaways that I felt to be useful as future teachers.  The main one being: “encouraging independence in collaborative talk” (30). This seemed to be key to me because as a freshman here at Chico State I was enrolled in Math 11, aka ENGL 130/030, and felt like it was absolutely bullshit.  I obviously knew that my math skills were never up to par (hi, that’s why I’m an English major), however, I never thought it was necessary to take a course that made me feel like a 3rd grader relearning how to do long division, subtraction and addition.  Little did I know, I had forgotten how to understand and use these basic functions of math that were essential in being successful in more intense math problems, just as in English many students forget how to read and write in the most basic sense.  Harris stated “students insist that they prefer to do their own work, come to their own conclusions, write what was in their own heads: these students do not want to be told what to do” (30).  This was incredibly true for me in Math 11; I wanted to feel like I understood what I was doing to feel successful in the course.  Because I had an amazing teacher who offered up her free time to meet with my classmates and myself at Bidwell Perk Coffee House outside of class, I was able to get more one on one attention outside of the classroom setting and allow myself to learn for myself… with some guided expertise.

I feel as though too often in the classroom we lecture and speak AT the students instead of allowing the class time to be lead and facilitated by the students.  I understand that teachers are there to teach, but I think that Kim and Laura Sparks do an incredible job of letting students lead the discussion and thus create and develop their ideas for themselves.  Students feel more comfortable when they know they are in a safe space where their ideas are valued, and even if their answers are not correct, they can be redirected and learn from their mistakes.  As future teachers, we have to be aware of the way in which we teach and critique the young minds around us, and I think Harris evaluates many of the ways in which we need to think about teaching and writing.

Meghan Cole

While reading the Lave&Wenger piece on Situated Learning I noticed quite a few aspects that really jumped out at me.  In our class discussion on Wednesday, my group worked through the AA segment and at first I thought my experience with dance was very similar to the process recovering alcoholics go through.  However, after giving the piece a second read, I noticed how truly identical my life and experiences with dance resemble the midwives (still with some connections to AA).

As far as the process midwives go through, there is no formal training, and there is no specific date when you are finally labeled or given a certificate to signify that you now are a “midwife.”  And in my opinion, there is never a date when someone will receive a certificate or a medal for becoming a “dancer.”  I have been dancing since I was 5 years old, and have continued all the way through college.  In my early years, I took part in watching, listening, and observing, just as the midwives do with their elders to learn and enhance their skill base.  And as the years went on, I became co-captain and then captain of both my junior high and high school dance teams.  To me, this signified that I was growing as not only a dancer, but as a teacher, just as a midwife would after so many years of learning.  In this aspect, I relate back to the AA members as they eventually “graduate” after applying all the skills they’ve learned and teaching them to others.  Just this semester, I have been teaching Fuego (aka ZUMBA) at the WREC center on campus, and as I have had copious amounts of experience in teaching dance, this somewhat showed to me that my apprenticeship over the years in so many dance classes and recitals has paid off to a point where I now get paid for teaching dance.

All of my work with dance and learning through various types of apprenticeships makes me excited for interning in my English 30 class, and makes me miss my Junior High ESL class from last semester.  There are so many ways that we, as future teachers, learn new skills and methods of teaching, and they should all be considered helpful whether they seem useful or not.