Had a close call where I almost lost my entire presentation, but was able to save it with Dr. Bogad's help (phew). I am pretty new at the Google thing still, so I'm putting in the 15 second slide link that the website gave me when I published it just in case (only option was 15 or 30 seconds) and the link I am trying with the instructions from your blog with the 20000 at the end. :)
15 Second Provided Google Link
Pecha Kucha (20 sec slides)
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
PARCC
Furthermore, as the authors argue, I feel curriculum and content that is supposed to be included and taught is probably being forgotten about, simply to try to help children prepare for a test that they have little chance to be fully prepared for; as if it it setting these children up to fail, and still not learn the content they need to actually be learning. "In some cases, teachers reported that 'whole curriculum projects were put on hold and maybe cancelled because tech was reserved for PARCC.' Essentially, teachers had two options: speed through content too quickly or skip certain content altogether. Either way, both situations were detrimental t learning" (10). I can see how detrimental this can be to all students, but especially ELLs and students with disabilities. I cannot imagine how difficult and overwhelming it would be for young students who have a tough time with everyday curriculum, to be thrown into testing in this fashion. 
I noticed from all of the data graphs taken from teachers answers on the surveys, that is not a small amount of teachers that strongly disagree with the positivity or usefulness of this testing, but rather, more than 80% on all of the questions asked. If the majority of educators feel so strongly against this testing, why has nothing been taken away from that and changed? From my own experiences when I was in elementary school, I remember teachers cramming material into us and almost drilling into our heads for weeks before standardized testing; when I look back on all of that, I could not tell you one thing I learned. It's purposeless to drill something into children's heads all for a test, only to be lost shortly after, in place of teaching them meaningful curriculum that they actually need.
I enjoyed reading the authors' ideas for solutions, and I agree that public conversations with teachers and parents should be conducted to find solutions, and that there should be authentic opportunities for teachers and educational researchers to help plan an assessment system based on the local and diverse student population. I think this is the most important thing we can do, because it seems standardized testing is not helping anyone in any influential way.I look forward to reading everyone's blogs this week, because like I said, I have no experience with this, and I know the majority of you all do! I also found an interesting article mentioning the issue that people assume students actually try on standardized tests, when in fact, many do not even bother.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Teaching Multilingual Children
Similar to how many previous readings have done for me, I found myself seeing a situation in a completely different light from someone else's perspective when reading Aria, Richard Rodriguez. I have dealt with many similar situations in my own classroom, with young children having difficulties learning to speak English because their family only speaks in their native language at home. As a teacher, it can be frustrating to have a parent come in multiple times a week asking why their child is not excelling as quickly as others in learning English, when all they do is speak to the child in another language. I had tried to explain to this parent that it is confusing and extremely hard for a young child who still simply learning their own language, to then learn to translate in their head to learn to speak and understand a new language. However, while reading this article, I began to see it in a totally different way for the child and family. The author made this situation feel so sad. While they all seemed to learn and become more confident in the English language after speaking it at home, they were also not as happy and felt their family had changed, and it sounded heartbreaking. I don't believe families should ever "abandon" their own language to the point where it is lost, but I can see the troubles with finding the balance with learning a new language, as well.
I actually wish I had waited to do my summaries and interview until after this week, because these readings would have been so perfect with who I interviewed, since she is teaching English to Spanish speakers in Spain and Costa Rica.
The second reading, Teaching Multilingual Children, is a great reading for teachers who may be having the challenges I just mentioned above. While the authors present many strategies and implementations for teachers, they also present two concepts: that teachers should be aware of the special kind of speech that mothers and fathers are automatically with their children, and try to emulate this, and that it is critical to be aware of the social and emotional factors which affect the second language learner. This article presents many guidelines for teaching English to non-English speakers, and it really covers all of the topic that educators may need. I actually ended up also sharing this with my friend who is teaching those children, because I know it will be very helpful for her as well, as experienced as she is now. In addition, I printed a copy for my assistant who is still working in my previous classroom, because I know she also had a tough time understanding from the family's point of view when it came to teaching those children English. This was a very important and helpful read for me.
After speaking with my friend whom I am interviewing for this class, she sent me a link to her friend's blog that she is teaching with currently, that is unrelated this week, but I thought it was very interesting and really went along with a lot of what we talk about in this class. Hence, I wanted to share it on my blog. It is all about how she is treated and perceived as a multiracial woman throughout all of her travels. Give it a read if you get a minute!
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Seeing Queerly
Safe Spaces: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth
Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megan S. Kennedy
The authors of Safe Spaces create the idea that schools and classrooms should be, as anyone would hope, a safe space for all students; especially LGBT students. However, "without the deliberate creation of an inclusive atmosphere, what happens inside classroom walls reproduces the prejudices that exist outside these walls: straightness and gender conformity are assumed; LGBT identity is deviant" (84). I felt the paragraph about teachers and peers ushering the children from their homes and relative protection and insulation of family life makes the reader reconsider just how important it is that we as educators make these children in our schools feel welcome and encourage equality as much as humanly possible within schools and communities. "If our homes are incubators, keeping our children safe as they grow into the patterns of family life, schools are 'outcubators' --places that introduce new ways of thinking and behaving" (84).
When the authors point out the fact that sexual orientation topics are entirely absent from most curriculum in elementary schools, it opened my eyes to how valid and important that statement is. I hate to say it, but while curriculum is based solely around core subjects, I do feel these children should also be learning real life situations, and that includes the situations of gender and sexual orientation that they may not be familiar with, but will be exposed to in their daily life. This entire reading actually made me frequently think of Allan Johnson's piece. I felt the two were so closely related-just on different topics. Both express how great of an influence communication can be, yet how negative and demeaning it can also be in terms of promoting or bullying a certain race or sexual orientation, etc. One of the many ways it very much reminds me of Johnson, is how he brought up the point that we need to "say the words". In this sense, I feel it is important in this day to "say the words", and talk about what many educators avoid with our youth, which is situations and words relevant to LGBTQ. Furthermore related to this idea of Johnson's, the authors reference a PBS television in which the children have two moms, where the children just simply state that they love them both very much, but do not ever address sexual orientation; the words "gay" or "lesbian" are never used. So, just as Johnson argued, avoiding using these terms and beating around the bush as educators or simply avoiding the topic altogether, creates a sort of discrimination: "such a decision kept LGBT people outside the walls of our classrooms and, by extension, outside the canons of polite society" (87).
The authors describe a way a Kindergarten teacher had incorporated such family structures in his lesson on families. This reminded me of a reading class I took here last year at RIC, and our professor was a strong supporter of the LGBT community. When she asked us to incorporate LGBT families into a lesson with our early childhood children, many of the others in my class felt very uncomfortable doing so. While I feel comfortable briefly addressing these topics in my own classroom, and making it known to children that two dads, etc is a completely acceptable family, the other students in class voiced that they felt uncomfortable doing this because of how their students families would react. Many of them felt that the parents of some of the children would feel upset that they would bring this topic into the classroom at such a young age, and that the parents themselves should be the ones addressing and educating these topics to their children. Others felt that their children did not discriminate or bully LGBT children/families, because they either did not know about it or did not think it was abnormal, and did not want the possibility of creating the issue. Again, while I did not mind bringing such books into my classroom (as long as they were developmentally appropriate), I could also somewhat understand where they were coming from, since they worked in some private schools, etc. This reading made me think of that, and made me curious where some of you would stand in this position, and how you feel on the subject of introducing LGBT to your children. The reading also addressed that their educators had these same concerns, and the possible arguments that they could present to concerned parents or those who complain about them introducing the topic.
I liked this reading a lot, because I felt it pointed out a lot of possible situations that could arise, and also a variety of strategies in putting out such situations amongst children, and how educators can ensure that they create a safe and welcoming space for these students. I think this reading is very useful for educators with all types of experience, as many of these subjects are new to the children they are working with.
GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network
I LOVE this website! This is a great resource for educators, and really anyone at that. I love that it has so many resources available for educators to learn about this, how to act on it, how to teach it, and how to provide an inclusive program for youth. The website offers professional development opportunities, support, events, etc in relevance to LGBT. This is definitely a website I will be storing somewhere for future use! I did a little more research on the website, and found an interesting interview with the founder of GLSEN, and the barriers that teachers still face. It's a good read as well if you get a minute :)
Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megan S. Kennedy
The authors of Safe Spaces create the idea that schools and classrooms should be, as anyone would hope, a safe space for all students; especially LGBT students. However, "without the deliberate creation of an inclusive atmosphere, what happens inside classroom walls reproduces the prejudices that exist outside these walls: straightness and gender conformity are assumed; LGBT identity is deviant" (84). I felt the paragraph about teachers and peers ushering the children from their homes and relative protection and insulation of family life makes the reader reconsider just how important it is that we as educators make these children in our schools feel welcome and encourage equality as much as humanly possible within schools and communities. "If our homes are incubators, keeping our children safe as they grow into the patterns of family life, schools are 'outcubators' --places that introduce new ways of thinking and behaving" (84).
When the authors point out the fact that sexual orientation topics are entirely absent from most curriculum in elementary schools, it opened my eyes to how valid and important that statement is. I hate to say it, but while curriculum is based solely around core subjects, I do feel these children should also be learning real life situations, and that includes the situations of gender and sexual orientation that they may not be familiar with, but will be exposed to in their daily life. This entire reading actually made me frequently think of Allan Johnson's piece. I felt the two were so closely related-just on different topics. Both express how great of an influence communication can be, yet how negative and demeaning it can also be in terms of promoting or bullying a certain race or sexual orientation, etc. One of the many ways it very much reminds me of Johnson, is how he brought up the point that we need to "say the words". In this sense, I feel it is important in this day to "say the words", and talk about what many educators avoid with our youth, which is situations and words relevant to LGBTQ. Furthermore related to this idea of Johnson's, the authors reference a PBS television in which the children have two moms, where the children just simply state that they love them both very much, but do not ever address sexual orientation; the words "gay" or "lesbian" are never used. So, just as Johnson argued, avoiding using these terms and beating around the bush as educators or simply avoiding the topic altogether, creates a sort of discrimination: "such a decision kept LGBT people outside the walls of our classrooms and, by extension, outside the canons of polite society" (87).
The authors describe a way a Kindergarten teacher had incorporated such family structures in his lesson on families. This reminded me of a reading class I took here last year at RIC, and our professor was a strong supporter of the LGBT community. When she asked us to incorporate LGBT families into a lesson with our early childhood children, many of the others in my class felt very uncomfortable doing so. While I feel comfortable briefly addressing these topics in my own classroom, and making it known to children that two dads, etc is a completely acceptable family, the other students in class voiced that they felt uncomfortable doing this because of how their students families would react. Many of them felt that the parents of some of the children would feel upset that they would bring this topic into the classroom at such a young age, and that the parents themselves should be the ones addressing and educating these topics to their children. Others felt that their children did not discriminate or bully LGBT children/families, because they either did not know about it or did not think it was abnormal, and did not want the possibility of creating the issue. Again, while I did not mind bringing such books into my classroom (as long as they were developmentally appropriate), I could also somewhat understand where they were coming from, since they worked in some private schools, etc. This reading made me think of that, and made me curious where some of you would stand in this position, and how you feel on the subject of introducing LGBT to your children. The reading also addressed that their educators had these same concerns, and the possible arguments that they could present to concerned parents or those who complain about them introducing the topic.
I liked this reading a lot, because I felt it pointed out a lot of possible situations that could arise, and also a variety of strategies in putting out such situations amongst children, and how educators can ensure that they create a safe and welcoming space for these students. I think this reading is very useful for educators with all types of experience, as many of these subjects are new to the children they are working with.
GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network
I LOVE this website! This is a great resource for educators, and really anyone at that. I love that it has so many resources available for educators to learn about this, how to act on it, how to teach it, and how to provide an inclusive program for youth. The website offers professional development opportunities, support, events, etc in relevance to LGBT. This is definitely a website I will be storing somewhere for future use! I did a little more research on the website, and found an interesting interview with the founder of GLSEN, and the barriers that teachers still face. It's a good read as well if you get a minute :)
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Literacy: Are Today's Youth Digital Natives?
Danah Boyd's chapter Literacy: Are Today's Youth Digital Natives? tells an informative summary of how today's society is divided because of technology. Her intro to the chapter speaks about how teens have grown up in a world where internet has always existed, and that from this perspective, "teens are 'digital natives', and adults, supposedly less knowledgable about technology and less capable of developing these skills, are 'digital immigrants'". However, these teens and students are not interested in learning through the use of technology, rather, they are engulfed in a social media world. Hence, this term of being a "digital native" is more so a distraction than it is a useful trait. While there are of course teens that Boyd has interacted with that use their knowledge in technology in appropriate and productive ways, there are also teens that are strictly familiar with social media and can not distinguish spam, or the difference between a web browser and the internet. Because of this, Boyd argues that is dangerous to assume that youth are automatically informed, while it also naive to assume that "digital immigrants" have nothing to offer, etc.
The Emergence of the Digital NativeJohn Perry Barlow, a renowned poet and cyberlibertarian, positioned those who "come from Cyberspace" in juxtaposition with those before this time, dubbed them the "native" against the "immigrant". Douglas Rushkoff then argued in his book that children should be recognized for their ingenuity. On this hand, Rushkoff uses the terms "native" and "immigrant" to celebrate children's development in the digital age. Boyd challenges both perspectives, saying that both you and adults still have a lot to learn.
Boyd goes on to speak about how youth must become media literate. They need to develop the skills to ask themselves questions about the construction and dissemination of particular media artifacts. They need to understand the reasoning behind marketing and advertising, and how computer systems work. It is important for the youth to learn these, rather than how to complete their MySpace layouts, for basic functioning in today's work force and employment. The Politics of Algorithms
Boyd brings up the example of Wikipedia vs. Google; that Wikipedia is a community source that any one is able to edit, and that most information is from their own beliefs or other sites that are not credible, when Google, on the other hand, continuously alters their algorithms to minimize the efficacy of those trying to manipulate search results. Algorithms are fundamental to how many computer systems work; it is important to recognize what algorithms are neutral in this case.
It is important to educate youth on what sites and search engines they should be using and why. Many students did not actually understand why their teachers did not want them using Wikipedia, for example, or they still used it regardless. In this case, adults often end up giving teens misleading or inaccurate advice and information about what they see online.
Boyd explains that the problematic frame of the digital native often undermines efforts to celebrate and critically examine how teens do and do not engage with social media. "I believe that the digital natives rhetoric is worse than inaccurate:
it is dangerous. Because of how society has politicized this language,
it allows some to eschew responsibility for helping youth and adults
navigate a networked world. If we view skills and knowledge as inher-
ently generational, then organized efforts to achieve needed forms of
literacy are unnecessary. In other words, a focus on today’s youth as
digital natives presumes that all we as a society need to do is be patient
and wait for a generation of these digital wunderkinds to grow up. A
laissez-faire attitude is unlikely to eradicate the inequalities that con-
tinue to emerge. Likewise, these attitudes will not empower average
youth to be more sophisticated internet participants. " Teens are gaining experience and knowledge of technological skills through use of social networking and media, however, they also need the education from adults and "digital immigrants" on how to use such skills and where to apply them appropriately. Technology will increasingly play an important role in society, therefore it is very important in our youth and future generations.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
We Begin to Know Each Other
While navigating around the Rethinking Schools website, which has an overwhelming amount of exceptional information, resources, and articles, I found one article that I was more intrigued to read than others. The summary of We Begin to Know Each Other by Maiya Jackson caught my eye and left me wanting to hear the rest of it.
The article is primarily about an 8th grade girl named Laura, who was born a boy. Laura applied for Manhattan Country School (where Maiya Jackson is director) upon entering the 8th grade because she was being pressured to leave her current school after making the decision to become a girl. Not ready to deal with the questions that would arise from the community, Laura's current school asked her to leave when she made this decision.
This was the baseline that was explained in the brief summary prior to reading the full article. While I can imagine that the topic of transgender can be quite a complex one for staff and families of such a young age group, I could not believe that a school took the initiative to ask this child to leave. This child had undoubtedly struggled with her identity for all of her life thus far, and had made a bolder and braver decision than many adults have in their own lives to change that. This is so impressing to me that a child this young can be sure enough to make such an aggressive, and assuringly scary, choice on their own.
Manhattan Country School (MCS), the school Laura would be transferring in, "is a pre-K to 8th grade progressive school in New York City with a social justice mission. Our student body has no racial majority, and we have a sliding-scale tuition system that supports socio-economic diversity". The admissions team wanted to trust that the school would be safe and welcoming place for Laura, but was unsure how the wider school community would be in regards to talking openly about transgender identity. While reading how the community and school felt, I found myself relating it back to the students transferring into Frances Howell in This American Life. While very different identities, it is seemingly the same situation of bringing students in to a school that may make current students and families feel uncomfortable, but also wanting to make the new students feel safe and welcome.
The mission of MCS is proven throughout the article many times, but mainly because of the way Laura found MCS. She had found it by attending Cometfire, a citywide group for LGBTQ middle school students and their allies (love that this is a thing there). There, Laura became friendly with an 8th grader, Sophia, that had been out as a lesbian since the 5th grade. Again, as a side note, I was very impressed that a child had come out by that age. I feel that goes to show how serious gender identity can be, and that these children so obviously know this all of their lives (see related video link at end of blog).
After the admissions team met with the school psychologist to talk about Laura's adjustment and how to support her, she entered the 8th grade class that already had three gay families; "Sophia had already blazed a path to talk about gender and sexuality. The class's 6th grade activism project had been lobbying for marriage equality at a state senator's office; their 7th grade project was leading a campaign to stop bullying of LGBTQ students". These points that show how unbiased and welcoming this school is is absolutely amazing to me. This is exactly how schools today need to be, and I wonder how Delpit and the other authors of the readings we have previously done would react to such an outstanding body of students and staff.
As the school prepared for Laura's welcoming and the new school year, Sophia's mother wrote an e-mail in regards to Sophia's gender as well. She had attended a gender nonconforming camp for kids that summer, and made a transition to being called 'SJ' and living in a masculine spectrum. It was very meaningful to her, and SJ wanted to continue his transition identity that year school. Another thought provoking situation for me, because I could not help but respect that this parent was so supportive and open to their child's identity transition, especially at an age where many children do not still know themselves, and go through many phases.
Upon these situations, the school found themselves wondering how to deal with certain situations, such as gender bathrooms. They opted for hanging signs on the door that said "occupied" when students were using them, rather than having a girls room and a boys room. They did not want to have only locked unisex bathrooms, because of the potential safety hazard of students locking themselves in bathrooms.
The staff spent much time discussing this with each other and their students, and even did staff development sessions on gender identity and writing exercises of the first time when they were aware of their gender (I found myself briefly thinking of this as well, and finding it rather hard!). The staff would tell their students on the first day of school while making opening remarks for the school year. They talked about the importance of community, and introduced SJ, who all the students were already familiar with as Sophia. At first, Maiya reported that the students were rather open and accepting of Laura and SJ. However, as the school year went on, there were minor issues and confusion for the students attending school with Laura and SJ. Students brought up issues such as sports, and how they felt Laura playing on a girls team was an unfair advantage having been born a boy. Some brought up overnight field trips, and how it was going to work gender wise. The 8th grade girls apparently kept asking a 7th grade girl why she was interested in dating SJ, because he was a "boy" and had a crush on her, implying that she was a bad friend for not choosing to go out with him. All of these confusing issues with staff and students brought me back to when Allan Johnson said that "people fear the unfamiliar". At the beginning, everyone seemed fine with it. As time went on, and questions arose, and the students and staff could not justify their questions with answers for themselves because they were unfamiliar with the situation, they seemed to start that fear he speaks of. The staff held several meetings throughout the year, and had started with written questions from the students. It seemed the sessions were helpful, however, while reading the end of the article, I believe the most effective strategy for the students dealing with these confusing issues was to hear from Laura herself. Laura gave a talk to the 7th and 8th grade students at the end of the year, and I felt it even put things in perspective for me. She explains that she has always been a girl, stuck in a boy's body. "I want all of you to close your eyes and imagine seeing yourself in the mirror, but instead of seeing yourself as your biological sex, imagine you are the opposite sex..now open your eyes. Some may have liked the image they saw and some may have not. If you did not like the image you saw, imagine what it would be like to live 11 years of your life as that image". This quote is extremely powerful and I would love to refer back to it for anyone that may be confused or biased against transgenders.
I wanted to include this brief video on Jacob, a 5-year-old child that was born a girl and has already chosen to live as a boy. I think it is very interesting to see a child at this age be so sure of his identity change, and it proves that children know this far before they even know what gender really is.
The article is primarily about an 8th grade girl named Laura, who was born a boy. Laura applied for Manhattan Country School (where Maiya Jackson is director) upon entering the 8th grade because she was being pressured to leave her current school after making the decision to become a girl. Not ready to deal with the questions that would arise from the community, Laura's current school asked her to leave when she made this decision.This was the baseline that was explained in the brief summary prior to reading the full article. While I can imagine that the topic of transgender can be quite a complex one for staff and families of such a young age group, I could not believe that a school took the initiative to ask this child to leave. This child had undoubtedly struggled with her identity for all of her life thus far, and had made a bolder and braver decision than many adults have in their own lives to change that. This is so impressing to me that a child this young can be sure enough to make such an aggressive, and assuringly scary, choice on their own.
Manhattan Country School (MCS), the school Laura would be transferring in, "is a pre-K to 8th grade progressive school in New York City with a social justice mission. Our student body has no racial majority, and we have a sliding-scale tuition system that supports socio-economic diversity". The admissions team wanted to trust that the school would be safe and welcoming place for Laura, but was unsure how the wider school community would be in regards to talking openly about transgender identity. While reading how the community and school felt, I found myself relating it back to the students transferring into Frances Howell in This American Life. While very different identities, it is seemingly the same situation of bringing students in to a school that may make current students and families feel uncomfortable, but also wanting to make the new students feel safe and welcome.
The mission of MCS is proven throughout the article many times, but mainly because of the way Laura found MCS. She had found it by attending Cometfire, a citywide group for LGBTQ middle school students and their allies (love that this is a thing there). There, Laura became friendly with an 8th grader, Sophia, that had been out as a lesbian since the 5th grade. Again, as a side note, I was very impressed that a child had come out by that age. I feel that goes to show how serious gender identity can be, and that these children so obviously know this all of their lives (see related video link at end of blog).
After the admissions team met with the school psychologist to talk about Laura's adjustment and how to support her, she entered the 8th grade class that already had three gay families; "Sophia had already blazed a path to talk about gender and sexuality. The class's 6th grade activism project had been lobbying for marriage equality at a state senator's office; their 7th grade project was leading a campaign to stop bullying of LGBTQ students". These points that show how unbiased and welcoming this school is is absolutely amazing to me. This is exactly how schools today need to be, and I wonder how Delpit and the other authors of the readings we have previously done would react to such an outstanding body of students and staff.
As the school prepared for Laura's welcoming and the new school year, Sophia's mother wrote an e-mail in regards to Sophia's gender as well. She had attended a gender nonconforming camp for kids that summer, and made a transition to being called 'SJ' and living in a masculine spectrum. It was very meaningful to her, and SJ wanted to continue his transition identity that year school. Another thought provoking situation for me, because I could not help but respect that this parent was so supportive and open to their child's identity transition, especially at an age where many children do not still know themselves, and go through many phases.
Upon these situations, the school found themselves wondering how to deal with certain situations, such as gender bathrooms. They opted for hanging signs on the door that said "occupied" when students were using them, rather than having a girls room and a boys room. They did not want to have only locked unisex bathrooms, because of the potential safety hazard of students locking themselves in bathrooms.
The staff spent much time discussing this with each other and their students, and even did staff development sessions on gender identity and writing exercises of the first time when they were aware of their gender (I found myself briefly thinking of this as well, and finding it rather hard!). The staff would tell their students on the first day of school while making opening remarks for the school year. They talked about the importance of community, and introduced SJ, who all the students were already familiar with as Sophia. At first, Maiya reported that the students were rather open and accepting of Laura and SJ. However, as the school year went on, there were minor issues and confusion for the students attending school with Laura and SJ. Students brought up issues such as sports, and how they felt Laura playing on a girls team was an unfair advantage having been born a boy. Some brought up overnight field trips, and how it was going to work gender wise. The 8th grade girls apparently kept asking a 7th grade girl why she was interested in dating SJ, because he was a "boy" and had a crush on her, implying that she was a bad friend for not choosing to go out with him. All of these confusing issues with staff and students brought me back to when Allan Johnson said that "people fear the unfamiliar". At the beginning, everyone seemed fine with it. As time went on, and questions arose, and the students and staff could not justify their questions with answers for themselves because they were unfamiliar with the situation, they seemed to start that fear he speaks of. The staff held several meetings throughout the year, and had started with written questions from the students. It seemed the sessions were helpful, however, while reading the end of the article, I believe the most effective strategy for the students dealing with these confusing issues was to hear from Laura herself. Laura gave a talk to the 7th and 8th grade students at the end of the year, and I felt it even put things in perspective for me. She explains that she has always been a girl, stuck in a boy's body. "I want all of you to close your eyes and imagine seeing yourself in the mirror, but instead of seeing yourself as your biological sex, imagine you are the opposite sex..now open your eyes. Some may have liked the image they saw and some may have not. If you did not like the image you saw, imagine what it would be like to live 11 years of your life as that image". This quote is extremely powerful and I would love to refer back to it for anyone that may be confused or biased against transgenders.
I wanted to include this brief video on Jacob, a 5-year-old child that was born a girl and has already chosen to live as a boy. I think it is very interesting to see a child at this age be so sure of his identity change, and it proves that children know this far before they even know what gender really is.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Literacy With An Attitude
I found the few pages dedicated to Anyon's studies of the working-class, middle-class, and affluent professional schools rather interesting, but not unexpected. It seemed to be almost as I would expect from experience or observation myself, unfortunately. I wonder what would come of the working-class and middle-class students if some educators from the affluent professional schools were placed in them. "In the affluent professional school, work was not repetitious and mechanical, as it was in the working-class school; it was not knowing the correct answers, as it is was in the middle-class school; it was being able to manipulate what Anyon termed symbolic capital" (17). The children in this school were able to answer what 'knowledge' is, make choices on their own, and think as an individual. They understood answers and context of the material presented to them because it was taught in a passionate way, rather than "because the book says so". One step further, the executive elite school was academic, intelligent, and rigorous. "In the executive elite school the children were developing a relationship to the economy, authority, and work that is different from all other schools. They learned grammatical, mathematical, and other vocabularies by which systems are described. They were taught to use these vocabularies to analyze and control situations. The point of school work was to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life at the top."
I couldn't agree more with Finn's argument that when students begin school in such different systems, the odds are set for them. A student in the working-class school is not likely to excel in the same way as a student from the excel or elite schooling. It is very sad, because many children in the working-class schools probably possess the necessary tools and skills to excel, but do not have the opportunity with such poor educators. My favorite quote from this reading may very well be when Finn states, "I'd like to hope that a child's expectations are not determined on the day she or he enters kindergarten, but it would be foolish to entertain such a hope unless there are some drastic changes made" (25).
I thought Finn's writing was full of knowledge and information, however, it was definitely not as 'spicy' as our previous readings. While I enjoyed the information he presented, I found it much easier and more engaging to read more opinionated and casual texts such as last week's audio, or such as Johnson's piece.
Friday, February 12, 2016
The Problem We All Live With
So far, The Problem We All Live With with Ira Glass and Nikole Hannah-jones was my favorite "reading" if you will. While it was audio, I felt I took a lot more away from it, being so casual in conversation, and carrying so much history through various people's telling of their own stories. I felt extremely engaged the entire time.
It is clear from the prologue and the first parts of Part I, that Nikole is very knowledgable and experienced in the subject of integration with students and why it works. At first, I was somewhat questioning it, because sometimes, it is out of peoples' control of what school districts they live in. However, once Nikole told her side of why it works from her own personal experiences as a child, I found myself strongly agreeing with her.
When Nikole spoke of Nedra Martin and her daughter, Mah'ria Martin, a star student from Normandy, the town and district in which Michael Brown lived, I was appalled. It is truly sad to hear how much of a mess school systems can be, and that these children are almost set up for failure as soon as they enter them. It is clear that such school systems need to have improved and educated teachers and administration hired immediately. As if it is not clear enough, I think the fact that Mah'ria's case speaks loud enough in advocacy: the fact that she, at age 12, had thought ahead to bring her breakfast invitation because she was used to her school "screwing up".
I felt so happy to hear Mah'Ria talking of how welcoming the children and administration were at Francis Howell after the parents' committee meeting! Hearing her speak of her new friend Britney also was so heartwarming! On the contrary, to hear Rihanna's story of being called a 'nigger' by a white child is heartbreaking. The fact that these children were smart enough to walk away from such situations and speak so highly at such a young age is inspiring to me.
Listening to the exchange between Nikole and the most recent superintendent for Normandy, it gives me hope for the current and future students. I think bringing in teachers to coach is a step, however, after hearing Nikole's multiple reasons and experiences through both her and all the students transferred to Francis Howell, I strongly agree that integration is the answer to these problems. As I said before, this was very engaging and entertaining, and hearing it through children's perspectives and experiences was heartfelt and gave me a much better idea of situations rather than just reading about them through research or opinions. It also gave me a better idea of the background of integration; and a little bit more knowledge to what I was questioning in my last blog post in regards to wondering if students and families in certain districts had "choices" of schools. I would love to hear or read more from Nikole Hannah-Jones.
I have to say that it is quite ironic this is our reading for this week, following Beyonce's controversial halftime performance at the Super Bowl this past Sunday, a quiet political protest against police for a very similar situation that Nikole speaks of with Michael Brown. As someone who was there live for the performance, I immediately thought of our discussions in this class, and have had so many thoughts on it. I thought to myself just how fitting this was for our class, and that had I not been enrolled in this class, it may have come as a more of a shock to me. However, after this controversial performance, I have watched the rise of racism and anti-racism videos, posts, and blogs outpour from my social media networks. I wanted to leave off my blog post with a very interesting article that a friend of mine, who is of color, posted last night on her Facebook wall.
It is clear from the prologue and the first parts of Part I, that Nikole is very knowledgable and experienced in the subject of integration with students and why it works. At first, I was somewhat questioning it, because sometimes, it is out of peoples' control of what school districts they live in. However, once Nikole told her side of why it works from her own personal experiences as a child, I found myself strongly agreeing with her.
When Nikole spoke of Nedra Martin and her daughter, Mah'ria Martin, a star student from Normandy, the town and district in which Michael Brown lived, I was appalled. It is truly sad to hear how much of a mess school systems can be, and that these children are almost set up for failure as soon as they enter them. It is clear that such school systems need to have improved and educated teachers and administration hired immediately. As if it is not clear enough, I think the fact that Mah'ria's case speaks loud enough in advocacy: the fact that she, at age 12, had thought ahead to bring her breakfast invitation because she was used to her school "screwing up".
I felt so happy to hear Mah'Ria talking of how welcoming the children and administration were at Francis Howell after the parents' committee meeting! Hearing her speak of her new friend Britney also was so heartwarming! On the contrary, to hear Rihanna's story of being called a 'nigger' by a white child is heartbreaking. The fact that these children were smart enough to walk away from such situations and speak so highly at such a young age is inspiring to me.
Listening to the exchange between Nikole and the most recent superintendent for Normandy, it gives me hope for the current and future students. I think bringing in teachers to coach is a step, however, after hearing Nikole's multiple reasons and experiences through both her and all the students transferred to Francis Howell, I strongly agree that integration is the answer to these problems. As I said before, this was very engaging and entertaining, and hearing it through children's perspectives and experiences was heartfelt and gave me a much better idea of situations rather than just reading about them through research or opinions. It also gave me a better idea of the background of integration; and a little bit more knowledge to what I was questioning in my last blog post in regards to wondering if students and families in certain districts had "choices" of schools. I would love to hear or read more from Nikole Hannah-Jones.
I have to say that it is quite ironic this is our reading for this week, following Beyonce's controversial halftime performance at the Super Bowl this past Sunday, a quiet political protest against police for a very similar situation that Nikole speaks of with Michael Brown. As someone who was there live for the performance, I immediately thought of our discussions in this class, and have had so many thoughts on it. I thought to myself just how fitting this was for our class, and that had I not been enrolled in this class, it may have come as a more of a shock to me. However, after this controversial performance, I have watched the rise of racism and anti-racism videos, posts, and blogs outpour from my social media networks. I wanted to leave off my blog post with a very interesting article that a friend of mine, who is of color, posted last night on her Facebook wall.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Colorblind is the New Racism: Raising Awareness about Privilege Using Color Insight
First, I apologize that I am posting this blog rather early, however, I will not have extensive access to a computer or internet as I am leaving for California on Thursday and will not be back until Wednesday evening. When beginning Colorblindness is the New Racism by Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman, I felt almost guilty that I fell under the category they first were mentioning in the beginning, because as I have said already in class in regards to the subjects of our previous readings, I never really think about or see race, and that I do not think badly about those of other races. However, I do acknowledge that racism is a problem, yet I certainly do not agree with certain points that the authors bring up as unequal. For instance, Armstrong and Wildman bring up that public education in the United States is one example of the process of attempts to attack privilege that serve to reinscribe it. They argue that white students are generally afforded the best educational opportunities in the United States, while these benefits elude many students of color (64). I was confused with this claim, because unless I took it wrong and they are talking of something else, I was under the impression that families decided where their children go to school and provided educational opportunities, and if income or finances are an issue, there are services for that (like I said, I feel like I might have taken this out of context or in the wrong way, but it was just my thought).
While I agree that colorblindness is a thing, because I feel completely colorblind at times, I am not quite sure if I can see why colorblindness as educators in the classroom is necessarily a bad thing. If there are no issues in the classroom, amongst educators, or amongst children, with race, why should it be brought up? I feel that is almost like the saying "if it's not broke, don't fix it". By bringing up a nonexistent issue, I feel it could result in creating the issue and making it therefore present.
Armstong and Wildman also ague some similar points to Allan Johnson. They discussed a section on developing color insight, which they said "color insight begins by considering the different contexts that participants in a discussion of race bring to the table. Individual concepts of race may differ and cause concern that one's views may offend others. This fear leads to a tendency to avoid discussing race altogether. Color insight requires a commitment to not sweep race under the rug, but rather to name its presence and to examine its attributes from multiple perspectives, including the operation of privilege" (69). This quote relates to when Johnson described putting yourself in categories on the "diversity wheel" (pictured above). Furthermore, Armstrong and Wildman then take this one step further and present a "power line" chart for identifying privilege, which reminded me of the SCWAAMP we did in class.
This reading was very interesting, although there were times I found myself re-reading a lot of lines to understand or regain focus. It lost my attention a few times, however, I did notice after researching the authors a little bit that they have both written various other articles, such as this on race and wealth disparity.
While I agree that colorblindness is a thing, because I feel completely colorblind at times, I am not quite sure if I can see why colorblindness as educators in the classroom is necessarily a bad thing. If there are no issues in the classroom, amongst educators, or amongst children, with race, why should it be brought up? I feel that is almost like the saying "if it's not broke, don't fix it". By bringing up a nonexistent issue, I feel it could result in creating the issue and making it therefore present. Armstong and Wildman also ague some similar points to Allan Johnson. They discussed a section on developing color insight, which they said "color insight begins by considering the different contexts that participants in a discussion of race bring to the table. Individual concepts of race may differ and cause concern that one's views may offend others. This fear leads to a tendency to avoid discussing race altogether. Color insight requires a commitment to not sweep race under the rug, but rather to name its presence and to examine its attributes from multiple perspectives, including the operation of privilege" (69). This quote relates to when Johnson described putting yourself in categories on the "diversity wheel" (pictured above). Furthermore, Armstrong and Wildman then take this one step further and present a "power line" chart for identifying privilege, which reminded me of the SCWAAMP we did in class.
This reading was very interesting, although there were times I found myself re-reading a lot of lines to understand or regain focus. It lost my attention a few times, however, I did notice after researching the authors a little bit that they have both written various other articles, such as this on race and wealth disparity.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children
I had a very hard time getting into Lisa Delpit's The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children. I understand that providing quotes from educators of color and their feelings towards white colleagues and experiences, she is arguing that white people do not listen or take into consideration what those of color try to say to help educate children. She explains this when mentioning the statements she collected since completing 'Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator' on page 23, stating, "I described the estrangement that I and many teachers of color feel from the progressive movement when writing process advocates dismiss us as too 'skills oriented'. I ended the article suggesting that it was incumbent upon writing process advocates, or indeed, advocates of any progressive movement, to enter into dialogue with teachers of color, who may not share their enthusiasm about so-called new, liberal, or progressive ideas" (23). While I can see why she is frustrated, I then felt confused and somewhat naive when it came to the five aspects of power that she proposed on page 24. When we spoke in class of why it is difficult for some of us to see these different perspectives, Dr. Bogad made sense of it saying "fish may not see water". I found myself questioning if this was the case for me while reading Delpit's discussions on these five aspects of power. I found myself only agreeing and understanding the fifth one, "those with power are frequently less aware of- or at least willing to acknowledge- its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence" (24). I can think of examples that help me understand this aspect in many scenarios, not just the situation of race (i.e., various levels of positions in the corporate world). As far as the rest of these aspects, I had a very hard time understand what she was describing. While I certainly do not consider myself someone of power, it left me wondering if I am blind to them for certain reasons, or if I just have not experienced such yet.
I did however, understand and agree more with Delpit when she was arguing that everyone cannot simply want the same thing for everyone's children as they do their own (28). Delpit makes a great point when she brings up that "this is a very reasonable goal for people whose children are already participants in the culture of power and who have already internalized its codes. But parents who don't function within that culture often want something else" (28-29). However, it is almost as if she is making assumptions of what liberals and others want for their children, and her entire argument was examining the underlying assumptions of both camps in the first place. This is why I found myself confused multiple times throughout this reading.
I was much more engaged in the remainder of the reading, when Delpit began to explain the reading programs and why they worked for some children and not for others. I agree with her talking about the differences in children's home lives and how that effects children's learning, as well as how children from different cultures are spoken to differently at home and may have troubles understanding different cultures ways of instructing or displaying authority (paragraph 2 and 3 on page 34 on speech). "Both white and black working-class children in the communities Heath studied 'had difficulty interpreting these indirect requests for adherence to an unstated set of rules'" (34). As a follow up to this idea, I really enjoyed the conversation between the teacher and 'Joey' on pages 42 and 43 on language diversity.
While it was hard for me to get into Delpit's reading at first, I actually very much liked it by the end of the reading. There were many points and discussions that I was actively engaged and found myself agreeing with, while there were also others that I felt confused by or that I wished were described in different ways. I would be interested in reading some of Delpit's other articles published as well.
I did however, understand and agree more with Delpit when she was arguing that everyone cannot simply want the same thing for everyone's children as they do their own (28). Delpit makes a great point when she brings up that "this is a very reasonable goal for people whose children are already participants in the culture of power and who have already internalized its codes. But parents who don't function within that culture often want something else" (28-29). However, it is almost as if she is making assumptions of what liberals and others want for their children, and her entire argument was examining the underlying assumptions of both camps in the first place. This is why I found myself confused multiple times throughout this reading.
I was much more engaged in the remainder of the reading, when Delpit began to explain the reading programs and why they worked for some children and not for others. I agree with her talking about the differences in children's home lives and how that effects children's learning, as well as how children from different cultures are spoken to differently at home and may have troubles understanding different cultures ways of instructing or displaying authority (paragraph 2 and 3 on page 34 on speech). "Both white and black working-class children in the communities Heath studied 'had difficulty interpreting these indirect requests for adherence to an unstated set of rules'" (34). As a follow up to this idea, I really enjoyed the conversation between the teacher and 'Joey' on pages 42 and 43 on language diversity.
While it was hard for me to get into Delpit's reading at first, I actually very much liked it by the end of the reading. There were many points and discussions that I was actively engaged and found myself agreeing with, while there were also others that I felt confused by or that I wished were described in different ways. I would be interested in reading some of Delpit's other articles published as well.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Privilege, Power, & Difference (Allan G. Johnson)
While reading Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson, I was truthfully surprised by the abundance of thoughts I found myself thinking. From the start of the reading, my eyes were opened to a new perspective of a variety of struggles. While I am aware these issues are still happening everyday, it is not something I find myself thinking about too often because to me, these are not issues. I still can not understand how or why people feel discriminated or uncomfortable with different races, genders, sexualities, social classes, etc. Therefore, I felt very connected to Johnson in that I can relate to his feelings and have a similar background or "status" (i.e., straight, white, middle class).
Throughout chapter 1, Rodney King's Question, it made me feel hopeless in terms of deceasing discrimination in the world. When Johnson says "the problem of 'getting along' doesn't stop there. It is also an issue across differences of gender, sexual orientation, and numerous lesser divides"(3), I couldn't help but think that there will unfortunately never be an end to this. Once segregation and the major racism issues began to decease, people began to "come out" more in terms of homosexuality, and then that became more of a discrimination issue. Now that homosexuality is starting to become more accepted (for the record, I am not saying either racism or discrimination against any of these things is completely abolished, I am well aware there are still many issues), people are having problems now accepting those who experiment with their genders, etc. The strong and current controversy on Caitlyn Jenner is the most recent example of this (I apologize for the vulgarity of that article, but that exactly proves my point). No matter what, I feel like people are going to continually find something to hate on. And when that dies down, they'll move on to the next new thing and make that an issue. I really loved when Johnson said "people can't help fearing the unfamiliar" (3). That quote very much stuck with me after reading this; it hits the nail on the head of why we continually have all these issues today, and why we unfortunately will for years to come.
Before reading this, I was actually thinking of a conversation that I had with my best friend while she was home on winter break this month. She is now living in Spain, and speaks fluent Spanish. However, she is considered "white". I really enjoyed chapter 3, The Trouble We're In, because his writing is almost exactly what we were talking about. While she was in the airport traveling home, she was on the phone speaking in Spanish. The man sitting next to her, for whatever reason, asked her when she was off the phone if she was white. Like I previously said, this is not a subject I find myself thinking of too often, and neither does she. She explained to me how that question made her really stop and think about it, and that she did not know how to answer that question herself. She has always been considered "white", but then found herself wondering what "white" even is. It is simply the color of your skin? Because there are certainly Spanish or Hispanic people that are even lighter than some "white" people. Is it where your ancestors come from? We were talking about this for quite a while that day, and this is exactly what Johnson is saying in this chapter. He explains that it is all made up. He also brings up the point that many people consider people white if they look white. I found it interesting to see so many of our own points brought up in his book.
The bulleted list of privileges also makes me think a lot harder about such situations and perspectives from different peoples points of views, especially those in regards to heterosexuals.
In conclusion, I was very emotionally involved in this reading, and like I said in the beginning, I was pleasantly surprised by that. I would be interested in how the author currently feels about this, because while these issues are still existent, I also feel like there has been a lot of improvement since this book was written in 2001. Johnson wrote about the issues with women and the issues of their presence in the corporate world, explaining that they are not able to hold higher positions than men. I feel like this example is one that has come a long way, because there are many powerful and higher women in the corporate world today. The reading made a variety of strong points and caused me to think about things in a much different perspective. I would definitely be interested in reading books by this author!
Throughout chapter 1, Rodney King's Question, it made me feel hopeless in terms of deceasing discrimination in the world. When Johnson says "the problem of 'getting along' doesn't stop there. It is also an issue across differences of gender, sexual orientation, and numerous lesser divides"(3), I couldn't help but think that there will unfortunately never be an end to this. Once segregation and the major racism issues began to decease, people began to "come out" more in terms of homosexuality, and then that became more of a discrimination issue. Now that homosexuality is starting to become more accepted (for the record, I am not saying either racism or discrimination against any of these things is completely abolished, I am well aware there are still many issues), people are having problems now accepting those who experiment with their genders, etc. The strong and current controversy on Caitlyn Jenner is the most recent example of this (I apologize for the vulgarity of that article, but that exactly proves my point). No matter what, I feel like people are going to continually find something to hate on. And when that dies down, they'll move on to the next new thing and make that an issue. I really loved when Johnson said "people can't help fearing the unfamiliar" (3). That quote very much stuck with me after reading this; it hits the nail on the head of why we continually have all these issues today, and why we unfortunately will for years to come.
Before reading this, I was actually thinking of a conversation that I had with my best friend while she was home on winter break this month. She is now living in Spain, and speaks fluent Spanish. However, she is considered "white". I really enjoyed chapter 3, The Trouble We're In, because his writing is almost exactly what we were talking about. While she was in the airport traveling home, she was on the phone speaking in Spanish. The man sitting next to her, for whatever reason, asked her when she was off the phone if she was white. Like I previously said, this is not a subject I find myself thinking of too often, and neither does she. She explained to me how that question made her really stop and think about it, and that she did not know how to answer that question herself. She has always been considered "white", but then found herself wondering what "white" even is. It is simply the color of your skin? Because there are certainly Spanish or Hispanic people that are even lighter than some "white" people. Is it where your ancestors come from? We were talking about this for quite a while that day, and this is exactly what Johnson is saying in this chapter. He explains that it is all made up. He also brings up the point that many people consider people white if they look white. I found it interesting to see so many of our own points brought up in his book.
The bulleted list of privileges also makes me think a lot harder about such situations and perspectives from different peoples points of views, especially those in regards to heterosexuals.
In conclusion, I was very emotionally involved in this reading, and like I said in the beginning, I was pleasantly surprised by that. I would be interested in how the author currently feels about this, because while these issues are still existent, I also feel like there has been a lot of improvement since this book was written in 2001. Johnson wrote about the issues with women and the issues of their presence in the corporate world, explaining that they are not able to hold higher positions than men. I feel like this example is one that has come a long way, because there are many powerful and higher women in the corporate world today. The reading made a variety of strong points and caused me to think about things in a much different perspective. I would definitely be interested in reading books by this author!
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Hi! My name is Amanda, and I'm currently working as a lead Pre-Kindergarten educator and training for a director's role at The Children's Workshop in Lincoln, Rhode Island (testing out that hyperlink add in!) I began working there three years ago when I was employed by Northern Rhode Island Community Services as a Therapeutic Integration Specialist, working with children with behavioral issues and special needs to maintain their placement in the classroom. I was then offered to continue working in this position in addition to taking on my own classroom, which is when I took on the lead Pre-K position as well! Once I realized how passionate I am about making such a positive difference in children's lives at this age when their development is crucial, I decided to go back to school for my master's in Early Childhood Education. I hope to continue on to become certified in Special Education as well. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you (and how to blog) this semester!
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