Intro
Letters To a
Young Teacher written by Jonathan Kozol was about sharing his knowledge and
experiences with Francesca who was a first year teacher. In the beginning of
the book, Kozol and Francesca end up teaching at the same school during their
first year except Kozol was there in a different time period. Kozol and Francesca
were under two different principals; Kozols Principal was not as understanding
and diverse as Francesca’s. Throughout the letters, readers see Kozols
responses and advice to Francesca. The letters are filled with knowledge passed
on from other teachers as well as himself. This book is all about the
collaboration between teachers who are trying to overcome certain obstacles,
but still hold onto creativity and understanding for their students.
Scenario Letter
Dear Mr. Kozol,
Last month I started my first day of
teaching and it has been excellent getting to know the students as well as
their differences. That being said there is diversity within the population of
the students, but the teachers and myself are not from diverse backgrounds.
Although during college as a Pre-service teacher, I began to love learning about
diversity and all the differences in culture that we have. Even though I
have gained some knowledge over this topic, I have currently read your book Letters To A Young Teacher. You helped
Franchesca and were like a mentor to many young first year teachers.
My class and myself would love the
opportunity to meet with you. Your guidance and advice would be greatly
appreciated as I go through this new school system full of diversity. I want to
be able to teach the students to the best of my ability and find new ways of
how to approach certain situations, especially with the holiday seasons coming
around. Receiving your advice would be of great knowledge to my coworkers and myself, as it would be a different outlook than our own.
Sincerely,
Miss. Strange
How Kozol Influenced Me Personally
Letters To A Young Teacher has really made an impact on me and I
believe it will be beneficial to my teaching career. There were many different
ideas that Kozol mentioned from his past visits in classrooms, which will be
beneficial in my own classroom. The book also helped me realize that sometimes
for our students, as teachers we have to set aside the curriculum in order to
keep the students interested. Then from the interesting topics or lessons, we
can plug the curriculum back into the lesson. Another beneficial piece of
advice from Letters To A Young Teacher
is to be able to reflect on my own lessons and also quest speakers within the
classroom or at conferences. Kozols writing also made me aware of the negatives
and positives of conferences and quest speakers. I also learned to speak up for
my students and to never reform my teaching in negative way, such as losing my
creativity and lacking in making lessons interesting for the students.
My Favorite Chapter
My personal
favorite chapter within The Letters To A
Young Teacher is chapter nine. This chapter is my favorite because it talks
about educational policies and how topics that are interesting and fun for the
students are rarely ever in the curriculum. Kozol talks about how there is no
happiness within the policies for public schools, because the focus is primarily
on standardized testing. Except within this chapter, Kozol writes about a
teacher he was observing and how she used an interesting attention getter for
the students. The day he was visiting the students got a little out of hand and
the teacher started to act like she was playing an instrument and humming a song.
Slowly, the students started to join in the song and were able to calm down.
Kozol mentioned that this kind of creativity is important to students, because
it shows them that teachers are not afraid to be creative and to connect with
them. I truly loved this chapter, because it shows different ways to connect
and get the students attention. Not only that but it showed me the truth of
education that I have never thought about, such as things that are fun and
interesting for the students are not always a main priority. This chapter
helped me further my ideas on how I want to teach effectively.
Extra Letter
Dear Mr. Kozol,
Thank you so much for visiting my
classroom. The students loved meeting you and I enjoyed all the guidance you
provided in your last letter. I am glad you were able to come out, even though
it has been a busy time for you. I am taking in consideration of all the new
advice you have given to me about diversity in the classroom. I cannot thank
you enough for the continuous support and guidance you have so graciously given
to me.
Since you last visited, I have
received a new student in my classroom. She is bilingual and struggling with
English, because her parents only speak Spanish. I have not had a lot of
practice within this subject, but the one thing I can do is talk to the teacher
in our school that is somewhat qualified to teach bilingual students. My
principal however is strict on how to teach our bilingual students within the
school. Tests are coming up and my principal provides the school with very
little Spanish books with English translations.
It has been
really rough with the differences in the way I would like to teach and the way
the principal prefers I teach. I remember you having a similar problem within
one of your school systems, when the principal didn’t provide any African
American books for the students.
I was wondering what I could
possibly do to help my student feel comfortable with the tests coming up, since
she only knows Spanish. I am able to help my student with some English
translations and I am doing the best I can with helping her adjust in the new
classroom. The other students are helping her tremendously through this process
as well. I love how so many of my students at such a young age, are able to
accept everyone despite their differences.
I am not sure how experienced you
are in this topic, but any advice is extremely helpful. How do I teach her in
my own way and work with a somewhat qualified teacher who is already passed her
maximum of students within the classroom? The only thing that I can possibly
think of to help my student is getting books that will help her and working
through them with her. Thank you so much in advance for all the advice you will
continue to give me. I greatly appreciate all that you do!
Sincerely,
Miss. Strange
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