Show Your Work Chapters 4 + 5

An important skill that this book wants us to do to help us in our future endeavors is
mentioned in chapter 4 and it is making a mental scrapbook. This is something that should be
utilized wherever we go and with whoever we encounter. This should be something that
includes lessons that you have learned yourself, or lessons others have taught you as well. It
can be tips for managing a classroom, or a technique to calm the classroom. It can be an activity
to have the kids reflect on their poor behavior, or a project about themselves and the world
around them. This mental scrapbook is filled with the things that help you live out your identity
and be the teacher that you want to be. It is important to take note of the people that gave you
ideas and resources to fill this book, give those people credit. They obviously want to help, but
it is important to recognize that the ideas were theirs and thank them for their contribution to
your success. I like how the book tells us that it is okay for us to have random things in our
mental scrapbook. Everyone has their quirks and that is something that we should all embrace.
I think that these quirks demonstrate a teacher’s ability to be themselves and put their own
spin onto certain activities and the overall structure of the classroom.
When filling our scrapbook, the book mentions to think about who inspires us, who
influences us, and what things fill our heads. These questions are really personal for each
teacher. I think that a majority of the people right now who are my influencers are the teachers
who made me want to be a teacher! They are the teachers who would make a relationship with
me more than just in the classroom. These types of teachers are the ones who check in on
family and also make sure that the student is not overwhelmed with schoolwork, issues with
friends, or activities. It takes a certain type of person and heart to notice that something is up
with a student because it can be really hard to notice. In this generation we are really good at
keeping our guard up and not letting others into what is really going on or bothering us. As a
teacher I want to make it clear to my students that I am someone who they can turn to in the
tough times and that I am there for them no matter what.
In chapter 5, it talks about the importance of a story. I think that this is really neat, I
have had a lot of teachers in the past tell stories about their life and to me that shows into their
life deeper than the surface. This is most definitely something that I appreciated in all years of
my schooling. Stories aren’t just for little kids; they are something that all ages are drawn to!
There are connections that can be made from other’s stories. Whether I am teaching older kids
or younger, I want to implement this into my classroom. Telling them about my life will
hopefully help them to open up to me and make me seem like a welcoming person who is really
accepting. Stories can pull at heartstrings and connect people through emotions, while being
easy to follow and mindless. I think that teachers who make the curriculum into a story can be
some of the strongest teachers. They can trick their students into work that seems less
strenuous than it really is and that is powerful. Adapting to whoever you are talking to is
important to keep people engaged and entertained. This is why teaching through stories can be
really successful and easy to follow. As I said before this is something that I will undoubtedly
include in my classroom as much as possible to be a better ally for my students in the future.