Equality 101

Today is the first day of school for my students, and surprisingly, I’m not nervous like I was last year. (This may be the first time in my entire school career that I’m not!) I have my syllabus ready, my supply list, and my parent contact form all set to go. I have a plan for a brief get-to-know-yourself unit the first week of school (Proust and Multiple Intelligences surveys, followed by choosing and writing a narrative essay based on common college application essay prompts). I hate the survey I gave out last year (what is your favorite color? etc.) and I resolved to make my class more applicable to the real world and my students’ lives from day one. My students also told me that they get the same kind of thing in each class, so I am hoping mine will be slightly different. However, I still wish I could find something more interesting and/or geared toward team-building to do with my students on the first day or two. Read the rest of this entry →

As we approach our week of in-service, many of my colleagues and I have been discussing tweaking our classroom expectations (or, as most refer to them, rules) before the year begins. Some teachers have decided to let the students in each class create their own set of expectations, sort of like a contract between teacher and student. Some teachers are trying to make their guidelines more specific to avoid argumentative and creative students try to get out of consequences. On the opposite side, other teachers are trying to reduce the number of rules they have since students tend to adhere well to a few short and simple rules.

Last year my number one rule was respect, and it will be again this year. Above all things I believe that students should never feel uncomfortable or unwanted in my classroom. I specifically ban use of the phrases “that’s retarded” or “that’s gay,” because, after all, we’re in English class – figure out a more appropriate phrase to express yourself! I wish I could say all teachers felt equally about the demeaning nature of these phrases, but at least I show my students that there are people out there who disapprove of these terms being used in that manner. If nothing else, at least my students begin to understand why these phrases are not okay, and they also begin to navigate the world of politically correct speech. Small steps, but the sooner they learn this, the sooner they will appear more educated in the eyes of those who are listening to them speak. Read the rest of this entry →

Yesterday Shelly wrote about plagiarism and cheating at the university level, and it struck me because these are the exact problems we deal with at the high school level. At the high school level we teachers tend to first emphasize the ethical dilemma of cheating (cheating is simply wrong, you’re cheating yourself, etc.), but I also stress the importance of making it your education. I give my students the speech on how they are in one of the most educationally privileged countries in the world, etc., etc., etc. Truthfully though, when it really comes down to it, I challenge them to try and find ways that all the information they learn in high school will be useful to them (even if it’s simply preparing them for a state exam or preparing them for a college level class they’d have to take in it). As Shelly mentioned, students will not participate in something they do not find relevant, and if they have to, they will find all ways to cut corners and ‘get through it’ in order to get their grade and move on. In high school it’s all about keeping enough activities on your plate and maintaining a high enough GPA to get into college. Read the rest of this entry →

Research shows that students perform better for teachers who are invested in them. And by invested, I mean teachers who know their students. It’s a lot of work to build relationships in the classroom and a student/teacher relationship is a complicated one. As teachers we are authority figures, confidantes, parental figures to some students, role models, and guides. We facilitate our students’ educational experiences. It’s a heavy load, if you think about it.

One strategy I use to get to know my kids at the start of a year or semester is a bio-poem. I teach social studies, but I find that particularly when we are doing biographies or examining a historical figure, I can pull my students in most easily when I can relate the content directly to their lives. The bio-poems help me tease out personal elements that I can use as the connective tissue between the student and the history.

Even if my kids can’t read, they can relate to Gandhi, to Malcolm X, to Alexander the Great. And it’s incumbent upon me to foster that engagement by knowing my students.
Read the rest of this entry →

The last minute or two of class I see my students packing up their bags and texting away furiously on their cell phones. As the bell rings and students file into the hallways, and a fight immediately breaks out. A student in a classroom down the hall is, unknown to that teacher, getting harassed by another student in that class. She texts her boyfriend (under the desk), and less than five minutes later he barges into the room and starts attacking the student that was bothering her. One student sends another student a sexually explicit photo of his/herself, and after things go sour between them, the photo is all over the school within a matter of hours.

All of these scenarios are real, and all of them are very new. Technology can be a wonderful tool in the classroom, but it is also bringing about a new set of nightmares for administrators worldwide. ‘Sexting,’ as the issue in the final scenario is referred to, has been reported throughout the nation, and cyber bullying has also made its way into the headlines more than once. As Lauren stated in her recent article, Schools Must Take Action on Cyber Bullying, “many feel that because the bullying is often happening after school hours via Facebook, text message, or e-mail, that the school should not get involved at all. While legally they may not have to interfere, I think that schools and teachers have a moral obligation to help solve this problem, which seems to only be getting worse.”

Cyber bullying is indeed a legal nightmare for administration, however with high school age students, cyber bullying isn’t the only problem facing students, teachers, and administration. Read the rest of this entry →

I do not live in Arizona.  In fact, I’ve never even been to Arizona.  When I was in undergrad, though, it seemed like Arizona would be an oasis for teachers.  There were superintendents and principals at job fairs that were offering contracts to teachers right then and there, without the strenuous interview process that teachers applying in the Chicago suburbs faced.  How easy it seemed to be to get a job teaching in the Phoenix area, and how wonderful the weather would be without the stifling humidity in the summer and the snow in the winter.  Now, however, I wonder if Arizona is the same sort of haven it used to be for budding graduates from teacher education programs.  So much is going on in that state that it’s hard to believe anyone would move there now, in this climate.

I am the eternal optimist, or, at least, I really do try to see the best in situations.  I have been told that Arizona legislators had reasons for passing SB1070.  I have been told that the state of Arizona is in such a bad economic situation that they had to do something.  I have been told all of these things, and more, but I can’t see any positive side to a law that creates such a culture of hatred and racism that people are comparing Arizona police to the Nazis.  And now, this law and the culture surrounding it has opened up avenues to effect the education of students in the state and, by extension, the country and the world.

Read the rest of this entry →

With Amazon’s Kindle e-reader already on the market for some time, and Apple’s iPad (with the same capabilities as a Kindle included in its features) newly introduced, I have been wondering how e-reading might work in the classroom. The majority of my students are what we in the education world label “reluctant readers,” and it is a struggle to get them to read anything on their own. Currently I feel like my classes focus more on exposing them to literature (which they mostly listen to or read in groups) and improving their writing, but they lack in improving individual reading skills. While I do have struggling students, the majority are capable, just simply not interested in picking up a book to pass their free time, much less for class (reluctant!). Would being able to play with an expensive piece of equipment decrease my students’ reluctance to read on their own and increase their overall interest in the subject? Would it be money well-invested in their future literacy in both literature and technology? In other words, would it better prepare them for the real world and the future of reading? What about the fact that only 25% of the students in my high school go on to some for of college or vocational training? Would this truly be necessary, or waste of valuable and already-tight resources. And, would using an e-reader be at all harmful to my students?

Please feel free to share your thoughts!

In a speech he made in 2000, Tony Blair used the term “irreducible core” as in, what is your irreducible core?  As in what makes you you?  When you get right down to it, human beings have principles they will fight for.  It’s been proven and proven throughout history.  Look at The Revolutionary War for example.  The fact that the colonists won was based on pure heart alone.  Without that irreducible core belief in democratic ideals, those dudes would’ve crumbled under the sheer might of the British forces.

I attended a talk yesterday given by Liz Walker, who is a force herself, having traveled back and forth to The Sudan many times times over the last 9 years.  She stated that her irreducible core, her reason for being on this planet, was humanitarian work.  Specifically, to build the girls of Southern Sudan a school.  To even the playing field as much as she can.  To bring them literacy, to broaden their world view, to show them that life doesn’t have to be all about death.  She said that she looks around at kids in her Boston neighborhood and they’re all about money and the best sneakers, the newest iPhone, the flashiest jewelry.  But money is not an irreducible core.  The girls in The Sudan, she said, aspire to be doctors and pilots.  Doctors, because they bring people back from the dead.  Pilots, because they drop food from the sky.
Read the rest of this entry →

With last night’s Academy Award for Best Director going to Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy has awarded that Oscar to a woman for the first time in its history. There could not be a more perfect way to commemorate the strides women have made in entertainment and society. Bigelow’s win helps celebrate today’s theme: “Equal rights, equal opportunity: Progress for all.”

What I most enjoyed about her victory was not the fact that that a woman won, but that the best film-maker did. Bigelow put it best in her post award comments, “I’d love to just think of myself as a film-maker, and I long for the day when a modifier can be a moot point. But I’m ever grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female film-maker and have them feel that the impossible is possible and never give up on your dream.”

That is what International Women’s Day is about.

This is the third post in a series about the social contexts of education specifically addressing culturally relevant classrooms through research. These are my thoughts, opinions, and research as I currently take a class on the very subject.

Previous posts in the series are here: Gender, Math & Equity Research; Race in the Classroom

Culturally relevant classrooms has been a theme in my posts thus far at Equality 101—but I have not, until this week, read about specific examples that try to achieve culturally relevant classrooms. One in particular is from a study that was published in a book called Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms edited by Norma Gonzalez, Luis C. Moll, and Cathy Amanti. The editors define funds of knowledge as:

the historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being.    (133) Read the rest of this entry →