Morning Page 6/28

Morning Page: Thursday, 6/28/07

How does your investment in your research question and the students’ BK about your topic affect the research?

I wonder about this topic because I was typing up questions for some of my colleagues this morning over email. It occurred to me as I was typing that it is a possibility that my own enthusiasm for my topic might in some way skew how the kids react to it. At first, I thought this would be a good thing, that a teacher’s enthusiasm should be evident in her teaching. Anything else would be boring, wouldn’t it, on the part of the student and, I would imagine, the teacher. Who wants to sit in that class? But, the concern I have for that regards the actual research. Does it taint it? Influence it?

I often feel troubled somehow about how the kids enter my class thinking about poetry, or worse yet, not thinking about it at all. That sort of sounds awful, but some teachers just don’t like poetry and either teach it because they’re told to or don’t teach it at all. I’m that way with certain things. I skim over grammar and root words, I’ll admit it. I’d rather get to the more fun things to teach for me. And maybe that’s where the enthusiasm element comes in. It’s more than possible that the kids pick up which things I’m more enthused about teaching and then it’s contagious. This is not to imply that all kids live for poetry once they’ve read it in my class---quite the opposite. Though, I would have to say the kids seem to have at the very least a different appreciation for it and for what they, themselves, can do with it. Many do really get into it, however. I think that maybe they’ve also only been exposed to the basics of poetry in their short 14 years (limericks, haiku, etc.) and the crazy, abstract things appeal to them somehow. Or maybe it’s all of the above: they’ve only seen a little poetry so far, other teachers are not as comfortable teaching it as I am, and I am overly enthusiastic about it.

All of these elements intrigue me almost as much as what the kids actually do with the weird stuff I put in front of them. Once they settle in with the rule-less environment, they find they have some degree of investment in sharing their ideas about it and passion or conviction can be heard in their discussions. Not every day, certainly. But it’s there. And I just wonder why. What can I do to ensure it’s always there? Can I transfer that kind of feeling into everything I teach, including (gulp) grammar, etc.?