Double Entry Journal #5

"We argue that reverence is central to the kind of teaching and leadership we need in today's schools and that listening is one of the prime activities of reverence" (....) I selected this quote because I agree with the idea of reverence within the classroom especially in today's society. The environment and our surroundings are changing, if teachers do not model reverence than students may never understand the importance of it. I believe listening is a major activity of reverence because in order to show respect one must be able to listen. In my opinion, if students talk in the classroom while the teacher or other students are talking than they are being disrespectful because they are not listening. Therefore listening is a huge aspect of reverence. 


1.What is reverent listening and how can it support culturally responsive teaching? Reverent listening is the idea that by listening to others you are being respectful. Reverence is a virtue, a trait of character; so too is reverent listening. Reverent listening can support culturally responsive teaching because it gives students the opportunity to learn about one anothers culture. 

2. Give an example from your own schooling experience of what this quote means:

    "Reverent listening is not to be confused with humiliation and domination by others who force us to listen,and even less so, with the kind of incompetence that wants to be told what to do."

In school teachers constantly were telling students to listen; many of my peers got yelled at for not listening to others. In my opinion when you are young you don't fully understand why you "must" listen in school. It was to learn new things but it was mainly due to the fact that listening is a sign of respect and as a class or community we should always be respectful of each other. I recall students getting mad for getting yelled at to listen, but with my experience if a teacher reinforced to me to listen I felt ashamed because I knew I was being disrespectful and my parents taught me to always be respectful of others.

3. What is meant by a "laundry list of value ethics"? Give an example from your own schooling experience. And then explain how this approach to character education can be NON-culturally responsive. In my opinion a laundry list of value ethics clearly means that a list of value ethics was created and the ethics upon it are most important to be taught and conducted just as a laundry list. This approach can be non-culturally responsive because who is picking and determining these value ethics. The person creating this laundry list may have a different viewpoint from other people within the classroom/area.

4. Have you ever had a teacher that at one time or another exhibited the traits of a reverent teacher? What did they do? How did they make you feel? Yes, I have had teachers who exhibited the traits of a reverent teacher. One teacher was very persistant on the importance of reverence; she constantly spoke of respect. On the other hand, another teacher within my school was less successful with this approach because in my opinion she was so concerned with receiving respect from her students that she became more of a friend and lost even more respect from the students because she lowered herself to their level.

5. What factors contribute to a "toxic" school culture? According to the text non reverant listening is a major contribution to a toxic school culture because this leads to violence and other out breaks. Teachers who are not leaders in reverence contribute to this toxic environment because then students do not have a role model to look up to.

6. Find a quote in this article that you would like to incorporate into your own philosophy of education and explain how it fits or changes your philosophy of education. N/A Honestly I found this article very confusing and although I agree with the ideas in it for my philosophy, I could not choose a specific quote because the vocabulary seemed rather confusing to me and I could never see myself speaking in the form used throughout the article.

7. Find a strategy/activity conveyed in a video, blog posting, lesson plan, or online article that will help you become a  teacher who cultivates a reverence in their classroom and school community (key search terms: teachers and reverence, teachers and mindfulness, teachers and rituals, routines (do not search teachers and ritual without the routine qualifier. If you do you will se disturbing stuff ). Link to it and describe how you will use it in your future classroom.

This teacher had students create this video called, Respect Rap Only, to explain how they feel about respect... they speak about respecting the teacher around 2:11. The video is a great creative way for students to understand the importance of respect.