Week 4: Three memorable quotes

Share 3 (three) exact quotes that are meaningful to you (from across these two chapters), and explain why they matter to you.
The good teacher communicates a deep regard for students' lives, a regard infused with unblinking attention, respect, even awe. An engaged teacher begins with the belief that each student is unique, each the one and only who will ever trod the earth, each worthy of a certain reverence. Regard extends, importantly to an insistence that students have access to the tools with which to negotiate and transform the world. Love for students just as they are--without any drive or advance toward a future--is false love, enervating and disabling (Ayres, Klonsky, & Lyon, 2000, pp. 2-3). This quotes opened up Chapter 3, and it automatically caught my attention! It sends the message the a teacher must be compassionate and engage the students consistently in order to reach the students. It mentions the importance of communication; I AGREE! My favorite part of the quote is the part where it talks about love for students. If a teacher doesn't have love for their students, it would be a cold, cold classroom without any feeling of unity at all. If a teacher loves all their students, all of the students are then treated equally, which is SO important! However, it's wrong to love the students without drive because, as the quote says, that's "false love" and then becomes "disabling" for the students.
Classroom environment, classroom communication, class guidelines, working routines, support systems, and shared responsibility are molded according to the roles they must play in achieving the goal of maximizing the growth and capacity of each individual learner and of the class as a group (pp. 37). This is a very general quote, but I think it sums up a lot of important things. It is key to make the classroom environment positive and warm, filled with trust and love. Not only will this help the teacher to love every student, but it will help students love one another. It is important to communicate classroom instruction and expectations clearly; I learned this in field. My cooperating teacher always stated her expectations of the lessons by saying, "Today, students, you will be experts at _____." Then, she would call on random students and ask what they will be experts at. The cooperating teacher said that sometimes the principal would come into the classroom to observe, and he would ask some students what their goal of the lesson is. This student then tells the principal what he/she is going to be an expert at. This worked wonderfully, and I even used the technique in my teaching! It is also important to share classroom responsibilities. All students like to feel as though they are accountable for something in the classroom, so a job chart might be helpful! Also, let students help out and do teacher jobs, such as handing back papers or cleaning up. Actually, I think that all students should help clean the classroom at the end of each day!
Whatever disturbs that balance in our teaching disturbs our teaching (pp. 55). What I took away from this quote is PREPARE PREPARE PREPARE! If a teacher fails to prepare for a lesson, the balance of that lesson is disturbed. Maybe you're short on materials, or you don't know how to properly wrap up the lesson. Then, the teaching itself is disturbed and the students aren't taking as much as they should from the lesson. I really think that wraps it up... Bottom line: Preparing is essential to a smooth and "undisturbed" lesson, leading to a smooth and "undisturbed" learning by the students.