The Sixth Week

Monday 9/23

Today... was... amazing! Here are my students' memes that they brought for our Meme Textual Analysis. Most of them had never realized how packed memes are with meaning and cultural information. It was really interesting to watch them begin to pick apart what is, for them, an entertaining past-time and realize that memes are an essential part of how their generation memorializes information and passes on/shares important cultural things. (P.S. THe last one about the Angry Woman and Smug Cat meme was made by a student, aka Teegan M.! Very clever and very him, as an environmentalist major and a lover of cats!)

Wednesday 9/25
So, this teaching journal was inspired by the homework for my Teaching Composition class. It was about Writing as an Act of Citizenship... Here is is:

Homework:  Write an entry in your Teaching Journal in which you explore your subjectivity as a human being and as a teacher.  A subjectivity includes a series of experiences, beliefs, and orientations that shape our identities and actions. Of course, what we are inevitably implies what we are not. So, what are your blind spots? What does that mean for you in the classroom?  Please bring your entry to class.

            I think my subjectivity includes my race, my gender, my level of ability/disability, as really important factors on my presentation and how I perceive my surroundings. My environment growing up was very sheltered, and my parents and I have discussed how it has fostered a paranoia and distrust within me. I find it hard to be trusting, and I am often considering the honesty of other individuals as unreliable.

            Growing up in such a protected state has left me unprepared for a lot of things, and it has left me without the knowledge of how to engage in debates. Politics wasn’t something discussed in my childhood home, and I was never encouraged to broach the subject in school, so I felt very limited in my political knowledge. I think that politics and being aware of the entire situation is one of my blind spots. My exposure had been so limited that I struggled to engage others in the conversations that needed to happen as I entered college.

            I find/found it difficult to stand in another person’s shoes when they are not a pair I have ever worn myself. For example, trying to understand the perspective a person of color is more trying than trying to understand the perspective of another white woman. I think knowing this blind-spot means that I know where I have to work, what I must consider, especially when I bring issues of a political or social-issue nature into the classroom. Today, I actually brought the latest incident of accused black-face to their attention, and it was a little staggering to look out at their faces as I began to discuss such a controversial racialized topic that I couldn’t come at with the same anger as a person of color would.

            I had one student who reacted with anger, and I pointed this out to her, trying to show that the point of this was to engage in active listening. I don’t think she was able to do so at that point, and it has made me wonder about the fairness of asking that of my students on such a potent issue. I recalculated as I stood there, at the front of the classroom, and admonished myself, telling the students that their responses, whether emotional or not, were valid. I shared with them the fact that we do not always have to listen but to understand that listening is the best (and perhaps only) way to lead to reconciliation and healing.

            Another student (Teegan M.) actually came up to me after class and we spoke for about thirty minutes, at length, about his own political alignments (and confusions). It was an extremely rewarding conversation, because not only did I get to learn about my student, but I was able to hear how he felt during that class discussion. He felt fear of being antagonized by his fellow students for any opinions he might offer, especially as we moved on to discuss the current event of Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry. His political values, he said, were focused on the divide between the republican and democrat party; he fears that this divide will lead to a collapse of democracy and creation of autonomy (maybe that is not what he said). Although I don’t share or carry the same grasp of the situation, as he admits that his is limited and I admitted a need for my own research to fully engage in a debate or agreement, it was really empowering to hear that he felt that I was a safe person. That I would receive his opinions and offer no judgment. I only offered an evaluative standpoint of his opinions, stating that it seemed like he should do some research and that joining a club (politically-oriented) or even looking into some political science classes would be a great way for him to find that space to really engage with others about his beliefs and desires in the political realm.

Friday 9/27

Today, we read The Other Side is Not Dumb by Sean Blanda. I thought their discoveries about "the other side" was really important, and I think it did a lot of good for helping them understand what this project is about. I might add more here later...