In reading some of Linda Christensen's book "Reading, Writing, and Rising Up" one passage stood out the most for me. "Where I'm From" was a section about allowing a student's personal life come into the classroom. Christensen discussed how inviting in the student's home life and personal experience opens up creative doors and makes the students feel safe. It also provides an enjoyable learning experience and causes the students to actually want to learn, attend class, and have more open discussions in the classroom.
While reading this section, I thought back to my experiences in high school and the English courses I took. My favorite types of papers to write were the ones involving my personal stories or my biography. It is in writing these papers that my confidence as a writer was built. A teacher or professor is less likely to scrutinize you on a paper that is made up of your own experience. Knowing that I wasn't going to be marked down for my thoughts is what gave me the confidence to push my writing in bolder directions, ultimately making my writing much stronger. Having a strong confidence in my thoughts and ideas, as well as my writing, is what helped me decide on being a teacher. I'm proof that combining students' personal and academic lives can really be a great idea.
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