In trying to stay on top of the weekly reading, I got ahead of myself. The week 7 reflection should have been my week 8 reflection! Here are my reflections about the Kirk reading and the topic of teaching virtues.
Perhaps more than any other areas of growth, and there have been many over this past summer, the idea of developing character and teaching virtues has really caught my attention. I believe it’s from the combination of having taught a year and feeling at an utter loss for how to help some students who seem to have ZERO sense of propriety or manners, and the reading and discussions I’ve had this summer for my Moral Issues in Education class. A year ago, I would have dodged this topic altogether, saying that character development is for family and church and I am here to teach math. Part of the reason for this stand would have been the sense of helplessness and lack of know how. Where do I start? How do I teach high school kids who should know this already? I now feel more hopeful because there are tools and guides, like Character Matters by Thomas Lickona. Also, I recently attended Professional Development where one of the take-aways was “don’t take yourself so seriously!” This is good advice for me, and I’ve decided to try this new area of teaching character development by just starting with simple conversations about manners in my class.
