This chapter was a nice way to end the book. I appreciate the fact that Xu doesn't believe that she is the expert on all, but the messenger of ideas and beliefs in engaging students.
As she discussed the need to have the administration and parents involved in "changes" in curriculum, I continued to think how this would affect me. I teach Social Studies and most popular culture I use, comes from the internet. This is high school students "popular culture". So I work hard to find meaningful and interesting sites that students would use and be engaged. This is fun for me and a challenge for me.
Her rationale is quite helpful any teacher if the need is to have parent and administration involved in the curriculum change. It definitely is specific and very informative. No parent or administrator would question why a teacher would use popular culture in their classroom. I especially like the section: the relation of the book to the program. It brings to the community why the use of popular culture will enhance the reading program being used.
Just as she has mentioned, I so believe in sharing "new material" with my colleagues. Daily my next door colleague and I share ideas and activities. We both have been working daily to engage students in their learning. What better way to engage students, than to involve them in the planning. This is a risk, but many times is worth the risk.
In conclusion, this year has been a year of teaching, my 22nd year, has been a year of extreme growth. I continue to monitor and adjust my teaching, always evaluating: has it been rigorous, and relevant.
This class and National Board Certification continue to push me to be the teacher of the future and not the teacher of the past. And the teacher that students can say, "she made learning fun".
And using popular culture in the classroom is fun!
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