Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Category: Classroom

  • Not in our name.

    Sometimes re-framing is a demolition job. It can be a lot of hard work. Image found on sheribarbre.blogspot.com. Click to view source.
    Sometimes re-framing is a demolition job. It can be a lot of hard work. Image found on sheribarbre.blogspot.com. Click to view source.

    I.
    I try to teach my students to care. To care about each other and that, in order to do so, we need to go outside of ourselves. It is probably one of the more difficult things I try to do, and it isn’t always something I do explicitly. It is in our actions together, it is in hearing their stories when they are arguing or sad or hateful and then re-framing them to see them from the other’s perspective – because there is always an other in these stories.

    …She’s such a …. I hate her, him, them. She, he, they think they are hot shit. If he doesn’t stop I’m going to have to get him. She thinks she’s all that just because she…

    It is in trying to get them to talk to each other but more importantly to listen to each other. With some of my students, I get the sense that empathy, sharing, and caring are truly foreign to them and so I need to work all that much harder to re-frame their stories and push them toward a caring future.

    II.
    On January 7, 2009 8 Jewish women occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto to put pressure on the Canadian Government to withdraw support from Israel. To show their disgust, their outrage at the ongoing assault against the people of Gaza. To show how abhorrent the idea is that Israel’s actions are being done in our name, in the name of Jews.

    We are Jewish women, not in our name.
    Shame on Canada, shame on Israel.
    These are war crimes.
    Not in our name.

    I found this video, documenting the protest, on the Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) blog.

    III.
    So why does this video remind me of my students? Or rather, lend me to think about them? My hope is that somehow my constant re-framing of stories will help to lead my students toward a future of questioning, of wondering why things are happening, and of trying to re-frame the stories that don’t sit right with them. I hope to see a student I taught in a video like this one day, trying to re-frame a story that isn’t right.

  • When I was 14…

    I showed this video to my class a few weeks ago, we’re looking at poetry, trying to answer the question, What is poetry, anyway? Not the deepest of questions but it is, quite simply, asking them to think about everything that poetry is and could be. We started with free verse.

    When I was 14 by Dawn Saylor

    The boys were silent about it (they may have been asleep, but still…). The girls were … agitated.

    That’s ridiculous.
    Is she a prostitute or something?
    She must be a prostitute and she is talking about her pimp.
    That’s disgusting.

    I’m still thinking about their reactions. The phrase she who doth protest too much comes to mind. Could it have hit too close to home? Or is it far off the mark?

    What do you think?

    On a side note, I just did a google search for ‘girls’ to find an image for this post. The first 13 images that came up were of scantily clad women followed by 1 image of girls in a school uniform, followed by some more of what it started with. Here is what I could find that was…appropriate.

    girl sitting on a tree stump by somebox on flickr. Click image for source.
    girl sitting on a tree stump by somebox on flickr. Click image for source.

    I think I’m going to work the poem back in to a lesson in the near future and see what happens.

  • 19 years since the Montreal Massacre

    Montreal Massacre Memorial. Image found via Renegade98 on flickr. Click image to view source.
    Montreal Massacre Memorial. Image found via Renegade98 on flickr. Click image to view source.

    My tribute is remembering the conversations our girls began yesterday during ‘Gender Day’, when we divide the students by gender for the day.

    We had a heavy morning. We began by watching CBC footage from the Montreal Massacre in 1989 and other videos around the theme of violence in relationships. Some of the girls were frank in how they experience violence in their lives, others were visibly agitated but not wanting to talk about it at all. A similar reaction happened when our guest speaker from Alcoholics Anonymous came to share her story. The girls (and boys, but I get the impression it is more so with the girls) in our school drink. A lot. I was relieved to see that some of them quietly went to take pamphlets during the break that followed the presentation.

    I was struck by how some of the girls stated that they understood when boys tried to control some of their actions, that sometimes it is justified when a boyfriend tells them not to talk to someone or not to wear certain clothes. That it feels good when a boyfriend tells them not to wear makeup because you don’t need to impress anyone anymore, you’ve got a boyfriend already.

    Male control is still normal.

    Evidently our conversation is just beginning.

    Like I said, it was a heavy morning though. We needed to shift gears at one point – some of the girls were getting upset, others were shutting down a bit, and so we needed a break. Which we definitely got with the rest of our day! The morning was followed with a delicious lunch, provided by the girls, and an afternoon of music, art, dancing, chocolate fondue, and laughter.

    Needless to say I was in bed early last night!

    I invite you to visit our class blog to see the videos we watched together yesterday. They spurred some rich conversation.
    Gender Day – Dec. 5, 2008
    I’ve dedicated our Gender Day to the women who lost their lives 19 years ago today at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal.

  • Lessons from a baby giraffe

    I wonder if my students – 15-18 year olds – will find this as wondrous as I?

    They didn’t know she was pregnant until they saw some hooves poking through.
    It’s amazing, the things that go on and we don’t even know they are happening.

    The mother licks the baby clean, caring for it, making sure it is healthy, then kicks it to help make it strong so it can survive.
    Love isn’t all softness and comfort.

    Enjoy.

    home page image from the Guardian.

  • students students students: the moon is howling

    Moon howling tired.

    There are nights when only the moon is howling and the wolves are silent. ~ George Carlin (image by oceandesetoiles on flickr, click to view source)
    There are night when only the moon is howling and the wolves are silent. ~ George Carlin (image by oceandesetoiles on flickr, click to view source)

    At school last night until 5:30, working with students, correcting, planning. Woke at 4:30 to finish correcting history review assignments before class today. Will probably be at work until 5:30 or later again today.

    I crave my weekends so I can sleep in and not feel like I need to pack every single second of my spare time with planning and correcting. The time usually allocated to that during the day is spent with students. Yesterday I had 45 minutes in which to do some planning during the day. I spent 35 of it talking with a student, sorting out an issue, during which time I was called the rudest, most disrespectful teacher ever. And was told that she wants to quit school because of me. Nice.

    At the end of the day I read a piece of poetry by another student that brought tears to my eyes. Her younger brother is dying. It was a love poem for him.

    For the first time ever my weakest student stayed after school and admitted she needs help with her work.

    A new student started this week, she confided something personal and scary to me.

    It’s so easy to feel tired when holding all of these stories.