Blog #6

4.1) At the beginning of chapter 4, Carol includes a discussion between Charlie and his teacher, from a book called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I’ve read the book, and it’s gut wrenching, edgy, and sometimes over the top – definitely meant for mature audiences who are not especially sensitive to harsh language and difficult lifestyles. But… this discussion moves me every time I read it. Have you ever had this type of a discussion with a teacher? Please tell me about it.

From the description of the book I thought that I had missed something from the reading because I didn't remember reading anything that intense. As I went back and reviewed the conversation between Charlie and his teacher I remember thinking that that was very nice. When I was in high school I remember my history teacher who also happened to be my wrestling coach giving me the same talk. He was talking more about wrestling at the time but it was similar. He told me that he had pushed me more because he knew that I responded well to it. Now my conversation with my coach didn't end quite as friendly but I think he had good intentions.

Looking back I can see that my coach/ teacher meant well but as developing adolescent I couldn't see exactly what he was trying to get across. This experience makes me be aware that although my intentions may be well meaning that I must make those actions clear to my students so that the student can understand where I'm coming from. What I heard as a student is "I'm pushing you more," which came across as unfair. Now if I was like Charlie and my teacher was more like Charlie's then I think the experience would have been more positive.

5.1) On page 56 Carol says: “It is the teacher’s contract with the child to care intelligently, unyieldingly, and deeply about the individual’s strengths and weaknesses, dreams and nightmares, uniqueness and commonality.” I felt this from Carol when she was my teacher. It was a powerful experience that really did change me as a teacher. Is there a teacher in your past who seemed to have this “contract” with you? Please tell about it.

My senior year of high school I took a class more as a joke then anything else but that class turned out to be amazing. Mrs Nicoles was the teacher and I felt that she had a contract with everyone of her students. I was the only boy in the class of about 15 students. I was able to learn many insights about myself and the world around me. I knew in that class that I could take risks and because I was opening to trying new things I was able to grow exponentially.

As I was preparing this blog I asked my wife about teachers that had contracts with her and we talking about how the teachers that had these contracts had a major impact on our lives. I just remember walking into Mrs. Nicoles class thinking that I was super cool and that the other girls were a little weird. After that class I realized how wrong I was because it changed how I looked at people. Mrs. Nicoles showed me how to care for other people by her example I could see that see cared about me just like she cared about the other students in class.

My hope is to be genuine with my class so that they can see that I have contract with them. This contract is something that I hope to refer back to throughout the year so that my students can see what they can expect from me as their teacher.