Exit Slip 1: Frank McCourt

There are several things that struck me from both my experience of watching the video on Frank McCourt and the class discussion after. First, from the video, I was fascinated by Frank's methods for incorporating disruptive or resistive students into his lesson plans. In particular his idea to "go with them" if they (the students) resisted was far from what I experienced both in high school and in my so far limited teaching experience. I often saw teachers trying to steer the students back on topic through various methods, and to varying levels of success. Although it is counter intuitive to what my lived experience is, it seems as though Frank's methods could work, but I have some questions about it. First, how did Frank's method work and what did it look like? Part of me wishes I could jump into one of his classrooms to see this in action and to get some context for what an interaction might look like. The other question I had is would this work in a modern classroom? Could it be applied today and if so how?

This brings me into the class discussion aspect. I spoke with Andy and Brandon about their thoughts on the video. We started by asking each other some questions. In particular I asked my question regarding how well Frank's "go with the flow" method would work in a modern classroom. Andy pointed out that Frank retired in 1987 and mostly missed the explosion of technology that has since entered both teachers and students lives. We all wondered how this would change things. We all came to the same conclusion in that currently, from our perspective, there was no sure way for us to know yet (although this would be a great topic to revisit after the practicum). Despite our lack of a solid conclusion, Brandon pointed out that Frank appeared to be teaching a lot from lived experience, and I feel this is an important point to note. As teachers we should utilize our lived experiences from earlier in life and try to leverage them to help students that are resistive or struggling. In Frank's case this involved relating to students that resisted, because he himself was resistive at an early age. Although context changes overtime, we as teachers owe it to our students to try to show that we understand aspects of their struggle wherever possible. In a way, this may help us as be more approachable and understanding for students.