Every cab ride to and from Minster reminds me of home. There on the fields of green (which is astounding to me that it’s still green here because it’s been pretty cold) a herd of cattle grazes. Among them are some Belted Galloways aka “Oreo Cows” that remind me of how our herd looks at home. If it wasn’t for the bushes that line the fences and the steep hill in the pasture, it could look like I was driving by the fields of my house on my way home. This image has helped to ground me while here, but recently it has made me miss home more and more. There are lots of little things that I see every day that remind me of home. At first, they helped me to adapt to this new experience. Driving by signs for the towns of Derby, and Mansfield, towns next to my hometown and UConn, now make me wish I was home. I looked up the amount of towns in Connecticut that originate from England and the list is extensive (60 town names!). Massachusetts naturally has more, but I found it particularly odd that the town next to where we are living is the same name as the town next to me at home, except pronounced differently.
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Our inquiry project on controversial issues is slowly turning into a controversial issue that no one wants to cover but is part of the curriculum. It’s borderline overwhelming how much we have to do in these last two weeks. I knew nothing of conducting research before this project, so I have had to learn everything relevant to this project: lit reviews, coding, analysis, write-ups, etc., etc. I have also learned that it is very hard to do a project with ten people. Everyone is vying to do certain things and some people are getting left in the dust as the others pull ahead in the coding and analysis. Others are just skating along the outskirts, doing the little pieces that are left over. I’ve learned that doing research isn’t nearly as exciting as coming up with the plan and doing the preliminary readings. It’s a lot of coding (which I’m still not 100% sure how to do) and transcribing interviews. This takes forever! British accents are way harder to understand on tape than they are in person. The cadence throws me off and I end up having to replay sections over multiple times because of the different word they use (like quibble). But the interviews themselves were enlightening in a way no survey could be. It gave life to the project that will carry it through to completion. It also gave us more of a glimpse into how teachers answered the survey and why they gave the answers they did, as well as raise more questions for the project.
This inquiry project has definitely contributed to my growth as a teacher. It has taught me to work with others on large projects, how to delegate tasks between many people and to set and keep deadlines for a six month long project without losing sight of the end product. I have also sort of been forced to confront my own ideas on teaching controversial issues and my level of preparedness in doing so. In learning how other teachers approach teaching controversial issues, I see new ways of doing it in my classroom and what will work best based on techniques used. The answers to the interview where the teachers go into detail about a particularly effective lesson/activity about controversial issues have been very helpful in terms of adding to my repertoire of activities to use in classes, especially for teaching controversial issues. I plan on using many lessons described by interviewed teachers in my classroom. As I said earlier, doing a project on this has made me confront my views about the topic. I have a better idea of what I consider to be a controversial issue, although it’s not yet solidified into a statement, and how I could go about teaching it. This specific project enhanced my understanding of the British school system by allowing me to get more information and clarification about what different departments taught, specifically geography, because I’m not placed in any geography classes. Talking to a geography teacher at our school allowed me to see the units they covered, activities they do, and skills they teach. Their geography is very much like our social studies classes and if I ever was looking for a job in the UK I think it would be in geography and history. It seems to be an enjoyable class that talks about a lot more current and controversial issues. It also enabled me to see what different people and cultures view as controversial issues in and out of the classroom. All in all, and despite the current headache, the inquiry project is definitely something that will help me as a teacher in the long run. I’ll appreciate not having to worry about completing the project next semester when all the other Neag Master’s students are scrambling to do it! |