Mary O’Reilley and bell hooks are connected

Of course I would find a way to link Radical Presence to critical pedagogy! I think I need to do this because I am less comfortable with O’Reilley. I found some relatable parts, but I like how hooks says the some of the same ideas in a different way. In her books Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community, bell hooks addressed the needs of her class to form community. Though this, she places a great importance on listening to students and the need to express their ideas. This is a goal of mine this year. I need to listen more, and form a better community with my students.

Tonight at dinner I said that I was glad that I collected data for my project in October, because after that I became an evil, stressed out beast! I became withdrawn, and I didn’t want to use the energy to work on community as much as I had before I became so busy. I would try really hard to hide it, but some days were harder than others. I had worked to form a bond with the students at the beginning of the year. That might have been because I was really learning with them, not teaching the so much. I would give them a few lessons, but the students had such ownership of the material. But then stress with the Luna laws, my project, including the building of a new curriculum mostly on my own, more school wide lockdowns so the cops could come to take a student to court or the hospital, and other factors started taking over, and I lost that community feeling. I have to say that it is also hard to build a community every six weeks with whole new classes, even if some of the same students are there; it is just going to be different.

This year I hope to make a fresh start, especially with some of the students I had last year. I want to be able to listen to them more, to be able to have them share their ideas like I did with that session I collected data. They learned so much from each other, so they were able to find value in their peers, even with peers they had never talked to. My students loved the meditation part of laughter yoga the most. I really think that is because they could just be quiet. They only needed to pay attention to breathing. I need to do that more. I hate to call my students kids because I think it is demeaning, but that’s what they are. They are still kids. They may act older, and have lived through more than I have, but I need to remember they are still just kids, needing someone to listen to them and to give them someplace safe to be heard.