{"id":261,"date":"2019-09-03T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/clusterlearningatplymouthstate\/chapter\/whitney-howarth\/"},"modified":"2023-05-11T12:46:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T12:46:06","slug":"whitney-howarth","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/cluster-learning-at-plymouth-state\/chapter\/whitney-howarth\/","title":{"raw":"Teaching the Whole Student: A Work in Progress","rendered":"Teaching the Whole Student: A Work in Progress"},"content":{"raw":"

Summer 2019<\/h4>\nBEING SEEN, BEING HEARD, in the WORLD: How Open Changed my FIRST DAY of class<\/strong>\n\nThe night before my first open class I could not sleep.\u00a0 One reason was that I was up pretty late trying to figure out WordPress and upload my AMAZING OPEN PEDAGOGY INSPIRED, CRUELTY FREE SYLLABUS<\/a> to my brand, shiny new DOMAIN OF (MY OWN)?!\n\nLucky for me, my hubby is in marketing and knows Word Press stuff.\u00a0 Still, we were stumped.\u00a0 Of course, the next day it took the fantabulous Martha Burtis all of two minutes and three clicks to fix it, upload and teach me how it could be done, pain-free, easy peasy.\n\nI really can't express to you how THRILLED I am to be incorporating OER and Open Pedagogy and a PEDAGOGY OF KINDNESS into my Roots of Current Global Conflict course this semester (2 sections!).\n\nI confess I am tempted to embark on a mad-scientist experiment and use one section as a control group (with CRUEL syllabus, disposable assignments, and zero collaboration or attention to student agency) and take the other section on a cosmic ride through the wonderful world of ACCESS, AGENCY and CONNECTION.\u00a0 Wouldn't it be FASCINATING to see the difference.\u00a0 But I know, I've taught this class for 15 years.\u00a0 Moreover, such an experiment\u00a0 would probably be unethical. I get it. Anyway, who the heck has the time\/energy to figure out the IRB process for THAT since I'd be performing experiments on human subjects!\u00a0 I'll skip it.\n\nSeriously though, I'm so proud of my new syllabus (with heavy borrowing from Matt Cheney's own IDS model), my courage (I'm not BANNING LAP TOPS OR CELL PHONES!) and my new found appreciation for teaching the full student -- not just a toe, a lobe and some parts of the brain center.\n\nToday I experienced the best first day classes ever.\u00a0 I used all 100 minutes (but gave them a 10 minute potty break in honor of their humanness) and it was filled with activities and writing and discussion and a bit of WHY THIS CLASS IS DIFFERENT -- WHY I HAVE CHANGED -- and why a 3 day ATI conference way back in May (full of inspiring talks by Robin, Jessie, Martha, etc.) CONVERTED ME TO OPEN.\n\nI've mentioned before my AHA MOMENT -- when I figured out that OPEN was oriented towards justice, to democratizing the classroom, to giving students voice, to honoring students WHOLENESS -- and recognizing those obstacles to learning like food insecurity & housing at the holidays for folks unable to \"go home\" (LGBQT, etc.) -- but today in class I found a new and important reason why OPEN matters to me:\n\nI want to hear my students voices and I want them to really hear each other.<\/em><\/strong>\n\nIn this course, we talk a lot about conflict.\u00a0 About people who were, for various reasons, silenced or made invisible -- in their home countries, in the world, in history. We talk about colonialism in Iraq, we talk about ethnic strife in Rwanda, we talk about state terrorism in Iran, we talk about how many people resisted, stood up, spoke out, died to be heard, seen, recognized.\n\nThis is the perfect course to GET OPEN!\u00a0 I'm asking student to try new things, to trust me, to be vulnerable, to feel empowered, to challenge their assumptions, and to do the research they need to give voice to those who have been silenced by oppressive power systems.\n\nToday I showed the students a five minute video about what's going on in Kashmir.\u00a0 It focused on the Communication Black out imposed on this region by the Indian Government -- no cell phones, no social media, no internet at all.\u00a0 It focused on the danger of the single narrative.\u00a0 It told about the people's suffering, oppression, civil rights abuses, protest and lack of due process (since Aug 5th) -- and it suggests that the Govt run media, which insists everything has returned to normal in Kashmir, is lying to cover up the truth.\u00a0 India is a democracy, what happens when people can't protest, assemble, write freely, make a phone call to challenge the state's narrative??\n\nI asked to the students why most of us would not be comfortable with a govt that tried to silence us, forbade us from organizing, shot peaceful protesters and denied us access to tell our stories, call our families, reach out to the world to tell everyone what is going on?\n\nThe discussion in class, on the FIRST day was phenomenal.\u00a0 Students were offering ideas about MIRANDA rights and the 1st Amendment, Homeland Security, Terrorist Hackers and the threat of State's abuse of power (even in the name of \"law and order\").\u00a0 They wowed me.\n\nAnd then I handed them this assignment, to start in class, and to take home:\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_258\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"355\"]\"assignment An assignment for my students[\/caption]\n\nThis is wouldn't have happened without the CPLC -- without my ATI project -- without this new found emphasis on connecting to my students as WHOLE PEOPLE...and asking them to connect with the knowledge, differently.\n\nWe are gonna co-create the crap outta this class.\u00a0 And it is going to take us new places as people.\u00a0 And we're going to come to TRUST each other in new ways -- because we are going to hold space for each other to be vulnerable, and confused, and anxious -- even while we're learning about what it means to be heard, to be seen, and to be truly empowered by our knowing.\n\nI'm pretty psyched about this.\n\nAnd I can't wait for the rest of the adventure (the new digital tools, the blogs, the podcasts, the H5P videos, the Hypothesis comments, and the wiki wackiness) to unfold.\n\nOne thing I've come to accept is that all this is a work in progress.\u00a0 Just like me.\n\n\"zine<\/a>","rendered":"

Summer 2019<\/h4>\n

BEING SEEN, BEING HEARD, in the WORLD: How Open Changed my FIRST DAY of class<\/strong><\/p>\n

The night before my first open class I could not sleep.\u00a0 One reason was that I was up pretty late trying to figure out WordPress and upload my AMAZING OPEN PEDAGOGY INSPIRED, CRUELTY FREE SYLLABUS<\/a> to my brand, shiny new DOMAIN OF (MY OWN)?!<\/p>\n

Lucky for me, my hubby is in marketing and knows Word Press stuff.\u00a0 Still, we were stumped.\u00a0 Of course, the next day it took the fantabulous Martha Burtis all of two minutes and three clicks to fix it, upload and teach me how it could be done, pain-free, easy peasy.<\/p>\n

I really can’t express to you how THRILLED I am to be incorporating OER and Open Pedagogy and a PEDAGOGY OF KINDNESS into my Roots of Current Global Conflict course this semester (2 sections!).<\/p>\n

I confess I am tempted to embark on a mad-scientist experiment and use one section as a control group (with CRUEL syllabus, disposable assignments, and zero collaboration or attention to student agency) and take the other section on a cosmic ride through the wonderful world of ACCESS, AGENCY and CONNECTION.\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be FASCINATING to see the difference.\u00a0 But I know, I’ve taught this class for 15 years.\u00a0 Moreover, such an experiment\u00a0 would probably be unethical. I get it. Anyway, who the heck has the time\/energy to figure out the IRB process for THAT since I’d be performing experiments on human subjects!\u00a0 I’ll skip it.<\/p>\n

Seriously though, I’m so proud of my new syllabus (with heavy borrowing from Matt Cheney’s own IDS model), my courage (I’m not BANNING LAP TOPS OR CELL PHONES!) and my new found appreciation for teaching the full student — not just a toe, a lobe and some parts of the brain center.<\/p>\n

Today I experienced the best first day classes ever.\u00a0 I used all 100 minutes (but gave them a 10 minute potty break in honor of their humanness) and it was filled with activities and writing and discussion and a bit of WHY THIS CLASS IS DIFFERENT — WHY I HAVE CHANGED — and why a 3 day ATI conference way back in May (full of inspiring talks by Robin, Jessie, Martha, etc.) CONVERTED ME TO OPEN.<\/p>\n

I’ve mentioned before my AHA MOMENT — when I figured out that OPEN was oriented towards justice, to democratizing the classroom, to giving students voice, to honoring students WHOLENESS — and recognizing those obstacles to learning like food insecurity & housing at the holidays for folks unable to “go home” (LGBQT, etc.) — but today in class I found a new and important reason why OPEN matters to me:<\/p>\n

I want to hear my students voices and I want them to really hear each other.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In this course, we talk a lot about conflict.\u00a0 About people who were, for various reasons, silenced or made invisible — in their home countries, in the world, in history. We talk about colonialism in Iraq, we talk about ethnic strife in Rwanda, we talk about state terrorism in Iran, we talk about how many people resisted, stood up, spoke out, died to be heard, seen, recognized.<\/p>\n

This is the perfect course to GET OPEN!\u00a0 I’m asking student to try new things, to trust me, to be vulnerable, to feel empowered, to challenge their assumptions, and to do the research they need to give voice to those who have been silenced by oppressive power systems.<\/p>\n

Today I showed the students a five minute video about what’s going on in Kashmir.\u00a0 It focused on the Communication Black out imposed on this region by the Indian Government — no cell phones, no social media, no internet at all.\u00a0 It focused on the danger of the single narrative.\u00a0 It told about the people’s suffering, oppression, civil rights abuses, protest and lack of due process (since Aug 5th) — and it suggests that the Govt run media, which insists everything has returned to normal in Kashmir, is lying to cover up the truth.\u00a0 India is a democracy, what happens when people can’t protest, assemble, write freely, make a phone call to challenge the state’s narrative??<\/p>\n

I asked to the students why most of us would not be comfortable with a govt that tried to silence us, forbade us from organizing, shot peaceful protesters and denied us access to tell our stories, call our families, reach out to the world to tell everyone what is going on?<\/p>\n

The discussion in class, on the FIRST day was phenomenal.\u00a0 Students were offering ideas about MIRANDA rights and the 1st Amendment, Homeland Security, Terrorist Hackers and the threat of State’s abuse of power (even in the name of “law and order”).\u00a0 They wowed me.<\/p>\n

And then I handed them this assignment, to start in class, and to take home:<\/p>\n

\"assignment
An assignment for my students<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is wouldn’t have happened without the CPLC — without my ATI project — without this new found emphasis on connecting to my students as WHOLE PEOPLE…and asking them to connect with the knowledge, differently.<\/p>\n

We are gonna co-create the crap outta this class.\u00a0 And it is going to take us new places as people.\u00a0 And we’re going to come to TRUST each other in new ways — because we are going to hold space for each other to be vulnerable, and confused, and anxious — even while we’re learning about what it means to be heard, to be seen, and to be truly empowered by our knowing.<\/p>\n

I’m pretty psyched about this.<\/p>\n

And I can’t wait for the rest of the adventure (the new digital tools, the blogs, the podcasts, the H5P videos, the Hypothesis comments, and the wiki wackiness) to unfold.<\/p>\n

One thing I’ve come to accept is that all this is a work in progress.\u00a0 Just like me.<\/p>\n

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