I wrote this a while back and it has become somewhat of a mission statement for my classroom.
This may not sound all that surprising coming from an English teacher, but your English courses are critically important to your success as a student and as an individual. I would argue that if you pour your energy and focus into this course, it will set you up for success not only in high school, but in college and in life.
English is not just the skill of reading and writing. It is the skill of critical thinking. English is concerned with how you interpret the world and solve problems. How do you approach complex issues and make sense of the vast world around you. Moreover, how do you handle moral conundrums and ethical dilemmas? These are the questions of life. And how you handle these questions says everything about the kind of individual you are going to be.
Heavy, right?
Even though you are just getting to know me as a teacher, I am going to ask you to put some initial trust in me. I will count this trust as sacred, and I will treat it like a precious gift. And with this trust, I hope to cultivate a teacher-student relationship that enables both of us to thrive and grow. Make no mistake, your time in my English course is all about growth.
If I were to sum up simply our goals this year, it would look something like this:
- Develop a proficiency with the tools of technology available to us today.
- Build relationships with others to pose (and solve) problems in a collaborative and culturally diverse environment.
- Design and share information for global communities.
- Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information.
- Sharpen our understanding of the STEAM Habits as we navigate complex challenges.
This may sound a little daunting, but rest assured that this will be an exciting journey that we will all travel together. No one will be left behind.
One final thought to consider as we start off this school year. In this English course you will be wearing many different hats, as the old saying goes. What this really means is that depending on the challenge in front of you, you will need to take on different personae. Some of these will feel very natural for you, while others might feel a bit foreign. That’s OK! This allows us to explore different vocations in life as we think about what we want to do “when we grow up”.
Below are the eight different “hats” you will put on during the year:
- Storyteller. You would be surprised how many vocations in life require one to be a compelling storyteller. This includes composition on paper and digital storytelling.
- Philosopher. From posing complex questions to considering a problem from multiple angles, we must learn to think deeply about the world around us.
- Historian. As the old adage goes, we must know where we came from in order to know where we are going. Understanding our background allows us to identify trends, successes, and colossal mistakes.
- Anthropologist. You will no doubt encounter other cultures not only in our variety of texts, but in our classroom. Developing an ability to understand and appreciate other cultures will not only enrich your life, it will give you an edge in the global marketplace that awaits you – regardless of your profession.
- Reporter. In our ever-expanding digital landscape, it is important that you are able to search, locate, and analyze a remarkable amount of data from various sources. More importantly, it is critical that we are able to distinguish reliable information from unreliable (ever heard of fake news?).
- Critic. The skill of a critic is to take a text (literary, informational, multimedia) and be able to analyze it for it’s value in a given situation. This might be critiquing a novel, but it also can mean understanding retirement plans, medical options, or job offers. The applications here are extremely useful.
- Designer. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the profession you are most interested in will not demand a certain level of designing ability. This isn’t just for architects and interior decorators. Designing experiences is part of every career you can imagine. Design is critical when we are composing documents, creating online content, or shooting a video.
- Traveler. Travelers want to know, visit, and understand. Smart travelers realize it’s just as much about the journey as it is the destination. During our time together, my hope is that you will awaken your curiosity of the world. You’ll find that reading is a skill that will open you up to far off places of beauty and intrigue.
