Students' Opinions on Government

I think that politics are often an area where students feel they have no voice--they cannot vote, they are often accused of taking their parents' perspectives, and they are often told they do not understand the "real world" well enough to be able to form their own, valid opinion. As Kendrick discussed, what a way to show our students that we care, that we validate their opinions, and that we want to know what they think by inviting them to express themselves through their writings.

As touchy of a subject as politics is, I think this is one writing assignment that would either have to stay between the individual student and the teacher, or one that the teacher would have to ensure discussion versus arguments. I think that one of the quickest ways to get our students to sink back down into their shell is to have a peer chastise them for their beliefs in front of the class. For a writing assignment of this nature, we would have to ensure a loving community in the classroom, not a debate. I am not quite sure how we could validate such solidarity and compassion amidst high schoolers, but if we could figure it out, I think a classroom discussion about writings would be a powerful way to bring the classroom into students' interests and excitements. Do we not all like to feel heard and understood?

If I were to give a writing prompt to foster such discussion in my classroom, I think this is along the lines of what I would want to do:

The past election was one of the most hostile that we have seen. Think about the platforms that both candidates ran on, and choose the one issue that meant the most to you. What does the debate of this issue mean for you? How do you wish the issue was handled differently in the media and among society?

My Name

My name just came about because it was the name of the protagonist of a children’s book my mom was reading to my older sister, and Hayley pointed at the name “Ashley” and said “sister.” That’s how Ashley came to be.

However, my middle name has a little more meaning; it is my aunt’s name. When I was in middle school, I used to be ashamed of telling people my middle name. Why? I honestly do not know. But coming out of high school and into college, I wear my middle name like a badge of honor.

As I have gotten older, I have come to love my name more and more as I have been able to look at my aunt and admire her for who she is--a strong, single mother with a heart way more generous than her purse strings should allow. My aunt is the type of person who has always flown under the radar, never quite lived up to the precedent her older sister set, yet has found a way to be an impactful trail-blazer by the way she chooses to live her life. Having never been married, my aunt adopted my sister and me as her own kids. She is there for us like a sister, spoils us like a grandparent, and loves us as if she were our mother. My aunt is an advocate for the betterment of our family.

Even after she decided to adopt a little girl of her own, she has always proceeded with our family in mind, and she’s only brought the gap between generations in our family closer as she chose to give a stranger a forever family of her own.

I hope that I can live up to the name I have been given—a name picked by my family, after my family, and hopefully for my family.

Teaching For Everyone

My only real training with teaching was teaching English as a Foreign Language in Sofia, Bulgaria this past summer, so I do not feel the most qualified to offer teaching advice or suggestions just based off my inexperience with it. However, this past summer I did learn a lot about what it meant to connect with students who were the most different from me.

There is a lot of social and racial tension in our society today, and I think those tensions definitely transcend to the classroom. Whether or not a teacher finds himself personally racist, we will still have to fight the underlying tensions that fight against classroom unity.

For me this past summer, I was the odd-ball in the classroom. Here I was, a 20-year-old American girl, fresh off a plane hoping to be able to figure out English enough to teach it to a bunch of Bulgarians way older and way smarter than me (just smarter in a different language).

Removed from the norms of my own culture, I had to become a student of my students. Instead of simply being able to rattle off facts about English, throw in puns and funny comments to keep them engaged, or rely on my own instincts, I had to learn how they would best respond; the way I found they best responded was when I took a genuine interest in what they liked.

Teachers these days are confronted with all sorts of people who are different from them. For a lot of those kids that seem to be the farthest out, I think one of the only ways we will be able to impact them is to show a genuine interest in what it is they care about.

This past summer, I had to take a genuine interest in the Bulgarian language, in anime, in music, and in culinary endeavors. While those things aren't exactly what ignite passion inside of me, my interest in them ignited passion inside my students, and it gave me a voice to be listened to and respected in the classroom.

Social Justice in the Classroom

The picture above was used as an advertisement by End It Movement, a coalition of anti-human trafficking organizations that seeks to bring awareness to this ever-present problem in our society and across the world. Every year since 2013, End It Movement has picked a day in February for all those aware of the problem of human trafficking to raise awareness of the issue together by drawing a red "X" on their hands and being a voice in their community. 

The reason I love this picture, though, is because it displays that red "X" to bring awareness to this social justice issue, but it also depicts a somewhat reserved, possibly helpless person doing so.

I know that, when I was in high school, I would hear about these social justice issues, such as human trafficking or extreme poverty or hunger, and I would want to drop out of school and travel the world and fix as many of the problems as I could. In reality, what could I do as a 15 year old that would drastically change these issues? Nothing really, except raise the voice that I did have to those people in power. 

But if I'm going to raise my voice in awareness of social injustice, I better also be living justly where I am. So I began to open my eyes to the people needing a friend or a voice all around me. I saw the kid getting bullied while waiting for his mom to come pick him up, I saw the girl who always sat alone in the lunch room, and I saw the freshman who was struggling to pick up all the books she dropped in the stairwell during class change. I opened my eyes to mini injustices happening all around me, and that is what has prepared me best to fight the big ones I see now to the best of my ability.

I think the biggest thing we need to teach the kids in our classrooms is that our fight against social injustice does not start when we grow up and have enough money or enough power to make this huge change. Our fight against social justice begins right there in the classroom, looking out for the lost and lonely peers sitting all around us. If we are not going to take care of the neighbor right next to us, how can we expect to change the world?

Short Story: "The Things They Carried"

I have to be honest; I do not often find myself reading short stories for fun very often, and most of the time,  I disregard the texts that I have to read for class shortly thereafter. However, my senior year of high school, we read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, which is a collaboration of related short stories from O'Brien about his experience in the Vietnam War. 

For me, the most memorable short story from this collection was the very first, which also happened to be called "The Things They Carried." I remember reading this short story during my senior year and expecting that this book would be just like any other book I had ever been assigned for school--confusing, non-engaging, and nothing of the nature that I would want to read. However, I remember being drawn into the beginning of a story like never before, as I wanted to read all the more about the physical, mental, and emotional things our soldiers carry for us.

I had considered the emotional toll it would take on soldiers before, but I never considered it in the context of getting in the way of their work. I never considered that they would physically carry letters they had received in their backpack or that they would superstitiously hold onto a loved one’s garments. I never considered that their thoughts would so preoccupy them that they would find themselves removed from their work or removed from mourning the loss of one of their brothers on the front lines.

But perhaps the greatest benefit we reap from O'Brien mentioning the physical and emotional things is the development of the plot, the setting, and the characters in one great swoop. We understand their lives as soldiers, the necessity of the physical things they carry, and the things most important to the characters, which set up storylines for the short stories to follow. 

Essay Prompt: Imagine you are going backpacking. What would you pack? Be as descriptive as O'Brien in describing the things you would carry to unveil the plot, the setting, and a great character description.

http://savanna.auhsd.us/view/26051.pdf