This week in class, Mr. M tried out something new. He wanted to try a technique where for the first part of the class he didn't, for the most part, say a word. The expected outcome was that we would all come together and work as a unit, critically thinking and problem-posing our way into learning. From what I got out of it, we just restated what we learned in our homework, and only a few people in the class really vocalized. I tried to but I'm way too jaded I think for all of that. Instead of everyone coming together, the people who were already the most likely to participate in class took charge of the situation. Not to say that that's bad, it helped them get some things down that they really might not have understood, however it didn't offer a lot of room for people who aren't as comfortable expressing themselves like that. This style for teaching didn't really suit me or my way of learning, but I think Mr. M was smart for trying something he believes in and putting the problem-posing theory into effect.
So far in this course, we’ve been challenged and have been given plenty of opportunities to further ourselves as writers. Towards the beginning of the class we were asked to list several steps that we follow when we write a paper or blog post. The steps I listed are just things I’d do unconsciously anyway, so I’d like to think that I’ve been sticking to them pretty well. My writing process just flows and I see where it takes me, making revisions as I go.
My brother Parker was staying at my house for a few days this week and he's very interested in my weebly and likes the idea. He is a writer himself and has been published a few times in journals and magazines. He read my posts after I explained the concept of the assignments to him and liked my style of writing but also gave me some tips and we had a discussion about what happened in class so far.
"Do you like the class so far?" Parker asked.
I nodded and said, "Yeah it's cool so far, it's really social and the teacher likes to challenge and individualize us all."
Parker responded, "I noticed on your Weebly thing your class learned about Paulo Freire, I've read some of his works."
"Yeah my teacher likes him alot and puts his theories to use in the classroom pretty effectively for the most part, like the problem posing thing." I said back to him.
"Cool man, yeah Paulos a really smart guy, his work really helped mold modern education. He went through a time where oppression was rampant and through it all he came up with great ideas like this." He explained.
"I kind of feel uneasy about the whole problem-posing part though. I think it's great on paper but can't it just be like a mask for the banking concept?" I asked back at him," Because despite the attempts to make the learners function as a unit, it is still the teacher guiding them along."
He rubbed his chin in thought and responded, "Yeah there's debates on the pro's and cons of them, some people think it was good for the time or certain subjects of study, and it couldn't be applied to every learning situation.
We continued discussing and going over things weve done, and he seems interested. I'm going to keep in touch with him and discuss how my class goes.