Fear of the Unknown

I love this quote by Keri Franklin in her blog: “I needed to make mistakes, make corrections, and ask questions within the context of my own tweeting.” Just replace “tweeting” with writing and this will apply to our future students. It’s important for us to remember that mistakes are ok, but even more important than that is for us to teach our students that mistakes are ok. There is so much pressure on them to be really good at writing right off the bat. A lot of times, I’ve personally discovered, they weren’t previously taught that mistakes are ok and the way in which we learn. They are given a bunch of red marks and then a final grade. No wonder so many of them are discouraged!

Franklin also says, “Essentially, I was learning to write again on Twitter. This experience led me to feel like my students who learn something new; I felt unsteady, vulnerable, and scared.” I love that she relates her experience to those of her students. The students are learning a new skill and we need to keep this in mind when we are grading their papers. I was fortunate to have really good professors when I started college who took the time to help me to write better.

I am an older student attending college with people who are 10-15 years younger than I–some are even half my age. :-/ It was really friggin’ scary for me to start college at the age I was when I separated from my ex-husband. I had to learn a new literacy all over again. But, not just all over again, I had to learn a whole new way of writing. I’ve always excelled at English and with my writing and I’m in the process of writing two books, have written but not published two children’s books, and have a couple poems published. However, there was a TON I did not know prior to going to college. I definitely feel I’m a much more effective writer today than I was four years ago.

But, had I not ventured into the scary unknown world of college, I would not have learned what I’ve learned and I would not have had the opportunities for extending myself beyond my comfort zone like I’ve had in college.

College, in and of itself, is a literacy in its own right. For those of us who venture forth despite our fears of the unknown, we find that we grow and sometimes even have a new appreciation of things that we weren’t exposed to before.

As I end my time in college and begin the steps needed to venture into the world of teaching, I will leave a zone which has become comfortable and will enter yet another new form of literacy–the literacy of teaching my future students. I will need all four of Franklin’s necessities for entering this new “genre:” Support–I will need the support of more experienced teachers, my family, and even my future students so that I can be the best teacher I can be; Read Widely–I need to read profession related material, but also I need to read books that will (hopefully) interest my students.  Audience–I need to remember that my audience will be my students and I need to factor in their backgrounds, futures, and learning styles when I teach them; Learn the Language–I will need to know subject related terminology, but I also need to learn the slang students will use, and I need to learn the unspoken language of relating to my students, of making sure they know they can rely on me and I will help them in any way possible.

Franklin is right, “Experience the feelings that come with those beginning moments and experience the feelings of success. Share that with students.” She is encouraging us to step out of our comfort zones and learn something new so that we can relate once again to our students and how they might feel in our classrooms. We need to remember the uncertainty, the nervousness, the fear, and finally the exuberance we feel when we “get it.”