Nakkula Chapters 2 & 3

I found this reading to be so far, the most dense.  There were many times that I had to go back into the text and re-read because I was simply getting lost, confused, or the words being used were not in my vocabulary.  It felt silly having to look up various words in the text because I could not gain meaning from context clues.  I now have an understanding of how my students must feel when they are reading something and all these strange words keep appearing.  With that being said, I did get a lot out of it whether it was me agreeing or questioning Nakkula and myself.

I found the Antwon/ Julian story very interesting because it seemed so real to me.  As I read I could see the story being played out in my mind.  I cringed when they boys got caught and really hoped that neither would suffer severe consequences.  It is strange because I know that they did something wrong, but I was still concerned for them.  I feel Mitch handled Julian very well and the consequences of his actions brought him to a meaningful place, not harsh punishment.  It made me think about how I handle discipline and if my actions will bring a student to a place where they can reflect on their actions and determine what they would do if they were asked to participate in something like this again. 

The Identity section was the one that I had to re-read quite a few times.  I think for both the context and some of the vocabulary being used.  Once I got past this, I tried to look for myself in the descriptions.  I determined that I may have been more than one at some point in my life.  There were times that I went along with what was the norm in my family and social groups while there were other times that I felt a need to make my own decisions about what I liked or wanted to do.  There were times growing up when I didn't have a clue as to what I liked or wanted.  It could be for many people that we go through these different identity paths depending on the outside influences that are happening in our lives.  It became obvious to me that I believe outside influences can positively and negatively affect an adolescent.  This puts a very large responsibility on the teacher, but I didn't see this large responsibility being put on the parents in the reading. 

Chapter three had some interesting points but also some things that are not new.  Youngsters take risks and some are good and others are bad and I believe all teachers know this.  What was new for me was how as an educator I can also take risks in hopes that my students will model this kind of behavior too.  Taking risks is not an easy task.  You put yourself out there in a very vulnerable state where it could go one of two ways.  It made me think about how I can take risks as an educator and if I have truly been doing this in the past without even realizing it.  I would like to be more spontaneous in the classroom in order to make it interesting and exciting for my students.  It would be done in a way to show them that you can be spontaneous but not put yourself in a harmful situation.  Perhaps some of this will rub off on my students.