Final Fires Reflection

Fires in the Bathroom by Kathleen Cushman was the most interesting book I have read about education. This book just shows that a lot can be learned from student opinion. The students are the ones who are supposed to be benefiting from what you are teaching them, so hearing the opinions of students on everything from when to give to tests to what to do on the first day is an invaluable resource. I was planning on selling most of my textbooks at the end of the semester, but I might not with this book because I really enjoyed the way it was written and I can reread it and use it if I have questions in the future.

After rereading my blog entries for this book, I realized that for the first half of my blog entries, I wasn't thinking like a teacher, I was still thinking like a student and thinking about how my teachers used to treat me and how they used to teach me. I was saying things like "I felt like my teachers didn't understand or didn't care that I was very busy," or "there were times when I felt very brain fried or my brain felt overloaded, or I physically or mentally didn't feel okay, so I would rather have put my work down and came back to it later when I was at home in my own space." While it might have felt nice to vent to this blog and focus on what it was like when I was in highschool, I know now that I need to be focused on how I am going to be treating my students, what I am going to do for them, and how I am going to teach them. In my later blog posts I said things like "This part of the chapter stood out to me because it encouraged me because I love to play games in class and with my students. I feel that students will learn better when they are having fun because they are involved and motivated to participate, " and I would try to have some kind of peer or adult translator to sit in with the student during class and work one on one with them, or I would ask the student what kind of test they would like to take because maybe saying the answers orally would be easier for them." It is valuable to relate to your students by remembering your high school experience, but you are in a different position now, and you need to think about making the experience your students have better than your former one. After reading Fires in the Bathroom, I am more confident in the area of classroom management because I know how my students will react to what I do, and how to respond in a way that is best for them.