Chapter 10: Going Beyond The Classroom

Chapter 10 of Fires in the Bathroom looked at how a teacher can handle diversity outside the classroom too. The ideas in this chapter were really neat. One activity I liked was when one student explained that twice a week in science, they would go to clean up a park. The idea I liked the most, however, was guiding students to summer activities or camps.
The reason this activity really stuck out to me was because I work at an overnight summer camp based on Quaker values. The campers we get are very diverse, coming from as far away as Pakistan. A lot of children who I could imagine were overlooked in schools or acted out against authority figures gained a lot from the experience, and I gained a lot from working with them to resolve conflicts.

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

Chapter 9 of Fires in the Bathroom focused on one of my greatest fears – what happens if something goes wrong in the classroom? The examples that the chapter gave ranged from school skipping to actual fires in the bathroom. The example that stuck out to me was when a conductor shouted to the drummers, who were playing too loud, “We’re not in Africa.”
I’m greatly interested in music, and may be interested in music education. I was shocked that this happened, and think that no matter what’s going wrong, the teacher always has to be on top of things and in control of his own emotions. Trying to make a racial joke to alleviate a situation is by no means a healthy response, and the conductor should have apologized right away.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

Chatper 8 of Fires in the Bathroom was all about students who are still learning the English Language, whether they are learning to speak it or read and write in it. A part of the chapter that jumped out to me was when one of the authors said that they learn best in a classroom that uses both their own language and English. Forcing students to jump directly into a language they are not comfortable with is bad for students’ learning, as it discourages them and makes them feel like outcasts. The students’ comfort should be the first priority – they won’t learn without it.
This section of the reading really jumped out at me because I only speak one language. If I hope to teach my students well, I recognize that I will need to study other languages such as Chinese or Spanish.

Teaching Difficult Academic Material

This resource is incredibly helpful. Teaching different material, especially within my content area, is something that I always struggle with. What if the content is just too complex for my class, or more realistically, what if I become obsessed with the prejudice that my class is not ready for the difficult material? Looking at students’ comments, however, it’s pretty clear that students’ minds are pretty much able to take anything in and work with it if it is presented the right way. This paradigm that students have a point where they won’t learn anything should be abandoned, as it’s really detrimental to their learning. Challenging academic material is what I imagine a lot of students need to motivate them to learn. As long as they understand and are challenged, they should strive to learn the content.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

This chapter was one of my favorites. I have always wanted to be one of those crazy old coots that are wildly passionate about the content, but in a way that connects to the students. If I can show the students how much I care about English, maybe they will too. Keeping kids motivated is something that I think is going to be challenging and interesting. I know that I will have no problem showing pride in students’ good work and caring about their progress. The list of reading materials that many of the students cared about was handy – I may do a questionnaire asking what reading material my students care about.

Teaching to the Group, Working with the Individual

This chapter focused on group work and how the individual learns differently from a group. It seemed kind of hypocritical that the chapter begun by categorizing most students into seven groups before talking about how students learn differently. Later, however, I could see how these categorizations could help when assigning students to different group roles. I liked how the students suggested that the teacher take a more active role in monitoring the groups and making sure that some members don’t dominate other members. There was also a good distinction that while group work makes classes easier and more useful for teachers and students, the progress must be measured individually.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

This chapter focused on what a teacher can do to establish the classroom as a place where students feel successful. The pressures from family and peers that a teacher can try to downplay in the classroom can have a huge effect on the likelihood that a student feels able to succeed. The list of things not to do was helpful for me. Obviously, not favoring students is a no-brainer, as is comparing students to other students, but I imagine that when frustrated, having faith and believing in students is easier said than done. One thing that startled me in the chapter was the teacher handout for teachers to categorize students into “usual grade” categories. This idea seemed terrible to me. I think students should be judged by the work they do, and the very existence of this list seems to prejudice teachers.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

This chapter focused on classroom behavior and how the teacher in a classroom should look at classroom behavior in both teacher and student roles as a contract between the parties. Many of the students in the book offered really helpful advice that I plan on taking to my own classroom. I personally disagreed with a few of the strategies, particularly the ones that endorse even mild shaming. I think that making kids sit in the front of the class to “look stupid” probably wouldn’t do much to break the labeling that goes on in classrooms. The tables of effective consequences and indicators of possible sources of student misbehavior were really helpful for me. Strategies like calling parents should be used sparingly.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

I was taken aback by the answers that students gave about popularity. When some of the authors were saying they would rather have a really good teacher than a likeable teacher, I remembered how in high school, my peers would get excited if they had an easy or likeable teacher, and seemed to neglect the quality of the teacher. This chapter makes it clear that kids are just as interested in their education as the teacher is.

I guess the reason this surprised me was for some reason I’ve grown this social paradigm where students are supposed to prefer easy teachers to good ones. I suppose I always imagined students saw school in a short-term egotistical view and worry more about the present than the future. It’s certainly good to know that that’s not the case.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

I was surprised that the chapter suggested asking students about their daily schedules. I could relate with this, even without having a busy schedule crowded by sports. The author was saying that because students can have surprisingly busy schedules and teachers are somewhat detached from extracurriculars in most situations, teachers should try hard to understand the time requirements of students, along with getting to know them better.

I think the reason this jumped out at me was because I went to a very small school where teachers often were involved with most extracurricular activities, and had a better-than-average understanding of other things demanding students’ time. Even with a vague understanding, I recognize it is better to have a clear and spelled-out estimate of how much free time students can devote to schoolwork.