Post #7

Blog Post 7

In his book, Bill Ayers has an entire chapter on "building bridges." By this phrase, I think that he means it as a metaphor for moving forward in your teaching (as an educator) or in your learning (as a student). I also believe that his description of building bridges can be seen as moving from one thing to another, never stopping, and just continuing to teach and learn. The bottom of the bridge starts as an idea or a topic and the bridge, the teaching, then leads to the furthering of education and the level of intelligence a student has increasing.

In his writing, Ayers describes a kind of pattern for his bridge-building technique. I believe that his pattern is to start with a problem or a question and to work towards getting an answer or a solution to the issue. One example of this pattern that he writes about is when his kids are talking about the black people at the ice skating rink. He leads that into a discussion about white privilege and really gets his students thinking. Another example that he writes about is with the adult literacy. He starts with them just talking as a group, but leads it into them journaling and thinking about their literacy.

If I had to pick something to plan a lesson on, it would be in a social studies class and on social justice. For the project, I would teach about the different aspects of social justice and problems that surround it. I would make the students pick a specific issue, research about it, and plan a way that they think would help stop it from happening in the world. They would share them out to the class when finished and play the teacher for a day, educating their peers about their specific issue.

One of the things I would consider for myself while planning out a lesson would be to know that there always is light at the end of the tunnel. Even if the planning wasn't working out the way I would want it to and I was just struggling with ways to keep the students engaged in the learning, I would just hold the confidence that everything would be okay and that the kids would get the information that they needed. Another thing I would keep in the back of my mind was to fully know myself. To be a good teacher and to understand your students, you should really know about yourself. I would realize that everything I do may not work for other teachers or be beneficial for every single student, but I could learn about myself enough that I would be able to help them work through their problems.