{"id":2021,"date":"2015-04-07T23:02:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T03:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/?p=2021"},"modified":"2015-05-18T15:52:07","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T19:52:07","slug":"conversation-bubbles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/conversation-bubbles\/","title":{"rendered":"CONVERSATION BUBBLES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nicole\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I never wanted to be a teacher. I didn\u2019t think I would be any good at it. So taking this class was a step out of my comfort zone from Day One. And I know my nerves showed. They still show. I wasn\u2019t sure how to interact with the Shortridge kids. They range from age 12-18, and I was 12 a decade ago. But it\u2019s not just the age\u2014it\u2019s the environment. I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to go to a public school in the city with kids whose futures are determined by the color of their skin. I never experienced that.<\/p>\n

So when I walked into the classroom and the kids were rowdy and didn\u2019t want to jump into the prompts we prepared for them, I felt lost. Getting those kids to write wasn\u2019t easy. Some of them are not there to write. Some are there for the social scene. Even the ones who come to write don\u2019t always want to write. So what do you do? Well, I converse with them.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I don\u2019t mind when we get into conversations and stray from the writing. And that\u2019s because my favorite part about working with the Shortridge kids is not writing with them. It\u2019s not watching them produce writing, a piece they\u2019re proud of. Of course when they create something meaningful and important to them, I feel proud and accomplished. But I believe I can make a different impact on these kids. My favorite part is the conversations I have with them. No, I don\u2019t always know how to react or what to say to these kids who live a life so different from my own. But when we get to talking about religion or sexuality or gender, I\u2019m all in. I like forcing these kids to question why they think an activity is a \u201cman\u2019s\u201d sport. I like discussing why they identify as bi-sexual and how they can understand their identity through writing. I like defining how I understand spiritually and religion and encouraging them to find their own path.<\/p>\n

No, I might not be the best teacher. I might not feel I understand where they come from. I might not know what to say all the time. But I love feeling like I\u2019m engaging in conversations they\u2019re afraid to have with others. Or ones they just don\u2019t know how to vocalize. I love informing them of ideas I believe and challenging the ideas they have. I love sharing my life experiences in the hopes they can lead students to positive ones of their own.<\/p>\n

Nicole Lennon is a senior English Creative Writing major.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never wanted to be a teacher. I didn\u2019t think I would be any good at it. So taking this class was a step out of my comfort zone from Day One. And I know my nerves showed. They still show. I wasn\u2019t sure how to interact with the Shortridge …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":624,"featured_media":2022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[37038],"tags":[],"coauthors":[265091],"class_list":["post-2021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bu-tutor-reflections","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/624"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2024,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions\/2024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}