On collective responsibility for engagement

"There are times when I walk into my classroom and the students seem absolutely bored out of their minds. And I say to them, 'What's up? Everybody seems really bored today. There seems to be a lack of energy. What should we do? What can we do?' I might say, 'Clearly the direction we're moving in doesn't seem to be awakening your senses, your passions right now.' My intent is to engage them more fully. Often students deny that they are collectively bored. They want to please me. Or they don't want to be critical. At such times I must stress that,'I'm not taking this personally. It's not just my job to make this class work. It's everyone's responsibility.'" Teaching to Transgress, page 155

main ideas and theses
Energy level in the classroom comes from both the professor and the students. If the students are for some reason disengaged, it is not necessarily the professor's fault. Every member of the learning community has equal responsibility to be committed to the gaining of knowledge.

consistencies with experiences as student and as teacher
I have definitely been in classrooms with a low energy level, especially in my large required classes at Baylor. Sometimes, such as in poli sci, the lecturer has been entirely aware that most students are asleep but simply continuted with his lecture. In other courses, typically smaller classes in which professors are aware of the needs of their students, my instructors have done nearly exactly what hooks describes here. My educational psychology prof has said several times in class, "We'll move on; y'all are clearly thrilled with this" at rare moments in which my classmates and I aren't fully engaged. (Also, it is true that we usually "come to" at this point and try to make her feel better and say, "oh, no, it's just that...") She would definitely agree that it is not her role to simply provide us with information; she fully intends for us to look at the material together and discuss it, each member of the community bearing equal burden.
However, I also have to admit that I have been on the other end of this situation. As Children's Intern at my church this summer, I had to fill in sometimes for missing teachers. I can think of one lesson in particular for which I didn't prepare nearly enough, when the fifth grade boys I was teaching looked incredibly bored. I wrapped up what I was doing as quickly as I could while still hitting the main points, and then moved on to some active applications of the lesson, which the boys enjoyed much more than listening to me talk. While I was trying to transmit information to them, they were obviously disengaged, but when I gave them an equal role in the learning, they became excited about what we were doing.

consistencies with teaching beliefs and practices
I agree with what hooks has to say here about engagement and responsibility of all members in the classroom. Of course, this looks a little bit different in the elementary class - I can't cancel class for the day when my first graders get a little wiggly. At the elementary level, I think this probably means more along the lines of adjusting teaching to fit the needs of my students. In this way, I can give each learner a part in the learning.
I also agree that it isn't always the teacher's fault if a class is not engaged; some days my students will simply need some time to play in the sun. However, I do think that if a teacher brings excitement to any subject, then the energy of the students should follow. All too often, kids are bored because their teacher has taken the whole of the responsibility for learning upon himself and will not relinquish any of it to the learners.

impact on future professional development
I think that, in the future, what I have read in Teaching to Transgress will be an encouragement and reminder to me to give some responsibility for engagement in the class to my students. This way, not only am I allowing them to construct knowledge for themselves, but I am also freeing myself of just a tiny bit of the burden of being accountable for the learning that happens in my class. If Billy is not engaged, Billy will not learn that day. I can help Billy and try to engage him, but ultimately, it's Billy's choice.