Because I just finished reading the Spring chapter on student diversity and because I am in Los Angeles right now where there are many more obvious diversity struggles going on ,I will ponder some of my thoughts on my readings and experiences with diversity and how we relate to students. Differences in color, class, and race are flash points in educational equity discussions throughout the twentieth century and continue on today. Spring walked us through the many fights for desegregation that have taken place in courtrooms for the last 100 years or more. I was actually surprised to read that these legal battles started as early as they did,as in the 1921 case of Mary Bo-Tze Lee challenging the segregation of Chinese students. The suits brought against school districts in the 1940's were paving the way for the resultant changes and turmoil of desegregation and busing in the 50's and 60's.
In my experience in school, I was insulated from these issues. I lived in a white upper middle class town near Los Angeles. There was a neighborhood of "Mexicans", as we called them then, near the high school, a couple of black students, and the amazing Aguirre brothers from central America who were soccer stars...but we didn't really know what soccer was back then. Even though the term "white flight" was in the vernacular of the town, I don't remember anyone in my school being treated any differently or being excluded or having tension for that matter. I'm sure it existed in the minds and vocabulary of the parents and adults in the district, but I somehow didn't see it in my experience and therefore didn't develop a strong sense of the need for or existence of racial tension or inequity in my school. Looking back, I don't have any memories of the hispanic students, which may mean they lacked acceptance and found their own place to hang out at school as they do today at the high school in which I often teach.
I remember very clearly when my eyes were opened to the issues of discrimination and segregation. I spent two weeks or more every summer at a camp that was racially mixed. Many of the other campers were from neighboring Pasadena, CA which was embroiled in busing and desegregation issues. I remember listening with rapt attention to the black girls talking about angry hateful issues at school between the black and white students. My thought as a young girl was how strange it was that the kids who were actually interacting together were the ones that were the most biggoted against each other. Very confusing at the time, but as an adult I realize the bubble I was in sheltered me from both sides of the issue. I didn't struggle with any feelings regarding race and acceptance, because I wasn't in the midst of the interactions and didn't have any opportunity for attitudes and struggles to develop.
The next piece that influences me is that the city I grew up in and lived until age thirty became the focus of a major immigration from Taiwan in the 1990's. The racial balance (or imbalance some might say) was flipped, it seemed overnight, to a predominantly Asian community. This was unsettling for many of it's residents. Along with it came an interesting change in our schools. The expectations and competition accademically rose from high to phenomenal. These newly immigrated families wanted their children to not only succeed, but to excel and earn the top spots in the colleges. Reading before school entry became a mandatory skill, parents lobbied for math concepts to be introduced at a much younger level. I developed the attitude that Asian American students were setting the bar for the new American school standards.
I also found it interesting to go back to school events and instead of looking down at a basketball game at a sea of blonde haired students, I saw a sea of students with a blonde, here and there, sticking out like a sore thumb. At first I felt a bit like the world I knew had disappeared and then I began to look at how wonderful our country was. The blonde haired, blue eyed students were not typical American students, these were typical American students as well. Interacting with them, they had their own cultural styles, eating different things for lunch and celebrating different holidays, but they were American teenagers just the same, a diverse mix as America has always been. The nature of our country started with and continues to be a place of refuge and opportunity for all who want to call it home. I found it touching and inspiring (though it is still somewhat unsettling that I can no longer read ninety percent of the signage in my home town).
So to bring this back to the reading, what this speaks to me as a teacher is that change is always happening racially and socially in our country. Spring was filled with statistics about the demographic changes in the past and more importantly the changes upcoming in our future as teachers. If the predictions in Spring come to fruition we will be teaching a predominantly non white, highly hispanic or latino community of students in the future. What does this mean to us? For one thing it means we need to check our expectations at the door. Don't see groups of students, but see individuals. Observe how each student behaves, responds, learns as an individual not as a member of a race or class or for that matter a member of a particular family. My own husband was constantly faced with negative expectations as "one of the Gibson boys". His solution...fight the system and drop out after ninth grade.
The reading helped me remember that so many of our social classifications are invalid predictors of educational achievement in the classroom and we should avoid assigning qualities to students by race. "Asian" is as meaningless a classification as Latin American or even American for that matter. There are so many diverse cultures, attitudes and abilities within any of these labels. We need to be not only color blind, but also culture blind so to speak when it relates to our achievement expectations for our students. This does not mean blind to the influences the culture of a student may have on their person, but it should not give us a place to set a bar for achievement. Take a fresh look each time a student enters our room.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Oh...There you are Peter...
This title is one of my favorite scenes from the movie Hook with Robin Williams. As a child looks at the face of the grown up Peter Pan he can't see any resemblance to the Peter Pan he knows or at least thinks he should see. But, with careful examination (actually he holds Peter's face in his two hands and manipulates it this way and smooshes it that way...) he finally sees that Peter is actually in there. He stops being suspicious of Peter and just loving the old Peter the way he loved the Peter he knew. The Ayers chapter this week struck a chord with this idea of really looking deep and thoughtfully at our students to try to see the person inside behind the skin of behaviors and abilities.
Ayers talked about the limiting factor of all the labels we use in the schools today. Do these labels really tell us much of anything about who our student really is as a person, or what they need to learn well or more important to feel viable and appreciated for who they are? The labels, Ayers tells us only speak of what the students can not do not what they can do.
I really like some of Mr. Ayers ideas for getting to know his students. I have seen the use of self descriptinve poetry before, but thought of it only from the perspective of helping students become more aware of themselves. I can see how really studying these as windows to the child could be helpful. Examining a childs hopes and fears would help us develop a sense of compassion for even the most exhausting of our charges.
To journal about each student in class would seem like a daunting task. I can see how the value of this tool could help identify patterns in behavior and force us to watch and listen to what our students are doing and saying. I journalled for all my own children and found it helped me to not only remember the moments but also to put things in their life in perspective. It also gave me a sense of humor about some of their foibles too. I think in the classroom a chart could be used to make small notations on a daily basis to evaluate maybe weekly to gain a better understanding of the bigger picture of who these children are and how they are best learning.
As Ayers tells us, a teacher needs to be part detective part researcher and part puzzle master to understand what makes kids tick and to learn ourselves how to best serve them. As I pondered this during the day, I had a novel thought. What if the schools provided summer daycare programs manned by the same teachers that would be in their classrooms in the fall. Wouldn't it be interesting to have the luxury of knowing our students ahead of time? We could just observe them at play and in their interactions without the pressure of having to accomplish teaching and learning. We could start our school year with such an understanding of who they are and what makes them tick. I guess that would be the benefit of looping with kids though several grades.
This reading really encouraged me to remember to value each child as they are and look for the positve qualities in each of them. Listen to what the kids are saying to you and others about who they are. Most importantly to be an observer in the classroom looking for the ways in which each student is unique and value them all individually.
Ayers talked about the limiting factor of all the labels we use in the schools today. Do these labels really tell us much of anything about who our student really is as a person, or what they need to learn well or more important to feel viable and appreciated for who they are? The labels, Ayers tells us only speak of what the students can not do not what they can do.
I really like some of Mr. Ayers ideas for getting to know his students. I have seen the use of self descriptinve poetry before, but thought of it only from the perspective of helping students become more aware of themselves. I can see how really studying these as windows to the child could be helpful. Examining a childs hopes and fears would help us develop a sense of compassion for even the most exhausting of our charges.
To journal about each student in class would seem like a daunting task. I can see how the value of this tool could help identify patterns in behavior and force us to watch and listen to what our students are doing and saying. I journalled for all my own children and found it helped me to not only remember the moments but also to put things in their life in perspective. It also gave me a sense of humor about some of their foibles too. I think in the classroom a chart could be used to make small notations on a daily basis to evaluate maybe weekly to gain a better understanding of the bigger picture of who these children are and how they are best learning.
As Ayers tells us, a teacher needs to be part detective part researcher and part puzzle master to understand what makes kids tick and to learn ourselves how to best serve them. As I pondered this during the day, I had a novel thought. What if the schools provided summer daycare programs manned by the same teachers that would be in their classrooms in the fall. Wouldn't it be interesting to have the luxury of knowing our students ahead of time? We could just observe them at play and in their interactions without the pressure of having to accomplish teaching and learning. We could start our school year with such an understanding of who they are and what makes them tick. I guess that would be the benefit of looping with kids though several grades.
This reading really encouraged me to remember to value each child as they are and look for the positve qualities in each of them. Listen to what the kids are saying to you and others about who they are. Most importantly to be an observer in the classroom looking for the ways in which each student is unique and value them all individually.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Why Teach and Other Questions
Kids these days! I have heard before the quotes that William Ayers used in the first chapter under Myth 12...Kids today are worse than ever before...they are sloppy and they disrupt, they are selfish and lazy. These are thoughts that we hear a lot of todays students. My husbands company, Hewlett Packard, required all managers to read an article last year entitiled " Motivating the Whats in it for Me Workforce". It described the same youth that Socrates, Shakespeare, and as a matter of fact the Bible describe especially of teenagers. Mr. Ayers suggests that kids are kids and always have been. I remember reading the Little House on the Prairie series and how the boys tormented Laura as a young teacher, playing awful pranks on her due to her youthfulness and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow portrays master Cranes students as just as incorriglible. I have thought of these scenarios many times, especially as a substitute teacher who has fallen prey to pranks like having my trash can filled with water to soak me to the knee while trying to stomp the trash down or seeing a paper airplane flying by me as I demonstrated the quadratic formula. It helps to realize that I am not alone and this is not a reflection of my prowess at classroom discipline. Kids will be kids and a sense of humor and a lot of patience are neccesary comodities when working in the classroom at any age.
Mr. Ayers states that (pg.16) "they need caring and connected adults to engage and encourage them." I have been on a long journey to learn what was the most effective way to relate to students mostly flying by the seat of my pants. I have tried setting boundaries and expectations clearly and enforcing these out of a sense of self respect. I have tried to be fun or funny or professional or fascinating. I have tried using grace. I have tried holding the line. And what I have found is that teaching requires a mix of all strategies. I liked Ayers quote of Greene (1973) that says, "Given what I now know (about the world, aobut this class, about this student before me), what should I do? " That is the truest statement, I have heard about teaching and I like it because it encompasses eras of society and public practice and individual styles and attitudes about education.
In spite of the evidence of "problem" kids throughout the ages, I do think that there are eras in which teaching has been easier and harder due to public attitudes and values. I do think that right now we face a particularly difficult population due to the societal values in regard to authority and respect. We have the drug culture adding fuel to the fire. We have two person working families with parents too tired to be as intimately involved with their kids or the schools. There has been a culture of raising children to see themselves as very valuable and equally as powerful in the classroom relationship as the teacher. No matter what your view of the value of this thinking, whether you perceive it as a positive or negative trend it has had impact on the classroom environment of today. There have always been discipline/respect problems in the classroom. Human nature makes that imperative, but there has been in the past some respect for position from both students and parents that is lacking today. Most teachers I know are highly frustrated by the fact that they cannot count on the parents to help support them in classroom issues where they are seeking to help children succeed.
William Ayers talks about the tool that all teachers have at their disposal, no matter what the era, no matter what the student and that is relationship. He comments that teaching skills should be viewed as the result of concern for the whole person. I have found that discipline or deadlines or cojoling have little impact both as a teacher or a parent without relationship. In my substitute teaching I have little trouble with students that feel I am interested in them as people. As a full time teacher, the kids who made the effort to achieve or came in to try to save their grade rather than giving up were ones that I had been able to invest in, who thought it mattered to me whether they failed or succeeded. They know that I was willing to work with them as long as they put out the effort too. I like what Ayers (p.22) says about looking deeply at students (What went on in their life today? What are their parents attitudes? How do they feel accepted? Do they see themselves as having the capability to succeed?) and see them as creature like ourselves and yet unique in important ways. I need to be reminded of this regularly especially in regard to students that I find particularly difficult in some way.
This week I had a chance to talk to some people from Australia about behaviors and attitudes about school. I thought there were some interesting results. I had an Australian exchange student staying with me for the week. After a couple of days at school I asked the fourteen year old about whether he thought our school seemed very different from his school back home. He responded that it seemed as different as could be in every way. The students have less respect. They wear uniforms and cannot have cell phones on campus. There is no snack machine and you definitly could not eat in class or put your feet on the tables. It sounds from this students perspective like a more controlled atmosphere. I also spoke with one of the trip advisors who is a teacher. She on the other hand said that except for school uniforms, the school and its atmosphere seemed to be very similar. So where does the reality lie? Are kids the same everywhere? Is our society global enough these days that the current social attitudes in regard to education, its perceptions, goals and public attitudes towards it are universal?
Mr. Ayers states that (pg.16) "they need caring and connected adults to engage and encourage them." I have been on a long journey to learn what was the most effective way to relate to students mostly flying by the seat of my pants. I have tried setting boundaries and expectations clearly and enforcing these out of a sense of self respect. I have tried to be fun or funny or professional or fascinating. I have tried using grace. I have tried holding the line. And what I have found is that teaching requires a mix of all strategies. I liked Ayers quote of Greene (1973) that says, "Given what I now know (about the world, aobut this class, about this student before me), what should I do? " That is the truest statement, I have heard about teaching and I like it because it encompasses eras of society and public practice and individual styles and attitudes about education.
In spite of the evidence of "problem" kids throughout the ages, I do think that there are eras in which teaching has been easier and harder due to public attitudes and values. I do think that right now we face a particularly difficult population due to the societal values in regard to authority and respect. We have the drug culture adding fuel to the fire. We have two person working families with parents too tired to be as intimately involved with their kids or the schools. There has been a culture of raising children to see themselves as very valuable and equally as powerful in the classroom relationship as the teacher. No matter what your view of the value of this thinking, whether you perceive it as a positive or negative trend it has had impact on the classroom environment of today. There have always been discipline/respect problems in the classroom. Human nature makes that imperative, but there has been in the past some respect for position from both students and parents that is lacking today. Most teachers I know are highly frustrated by the fact that they cannot count on the parents to help support them in classroom issues where they are seeking to help children succeed.
William Ayers talks about the tool that all teachers have at their disposal, no matter what the era, no matter what the student and that is relationship. He comments that teaching skills should be viewed as the result of concern for the whole person. I have found that discipline or deadlines or cojoling have little impact both as a teacher or a parent without relationship. In my substitute teaching I have little trouble with students that feel I am interested in them as people. As a full time teacher, the kids who made the effort to achieve or came in to try to save their grade rather than giving up were ones that I had been able to invest in, who thought it mattered to me whether they failed or succeeded. They know that I was willing to work with them as long as they put out the effort too. I like what Ayers (p.22) says about looking deeply at students (What went on in their life today? What are their parents attitudes? How do they feel accepted? Do they see themselves as having the capability to succeed?) and see them as creature like ourselves and yet unique in important ways. I need to be reminded of this regularly especially in regard to students that I find particularly difficult in some way.
This week I had a chance to talk to some people from Australia about behaviors and attitudes about school. I thought there were some interesting results. I had an Australian exchange student staying with me for the week. After a couple of days at school I asked the fourteen year old about whether he thought our school seemed very different from his school back home. He responded that it seemed as different as could be in every way. The students have less respect. They wear uniforms and cannot have cell phones on campus. There is no snack machine and you definitly could not eat in class or put your feet on the tables. It sounds from this students perspective like a more controlled atmosphere. I also spoke with one of the trip advisors who is a teacher. She on the other hand said that except for school uniforms, the school and its atmosphere seemed to be very similar. So where does the reality lie? Are kids the same everywhere? Is our society global enough these days that the current social attitudes in regard to education, its perceptions, goals and public attitudes towards it are universal?
Monday, January 12, 2009
Technodope or Technology Maven of the Modern Classroom
This folks, is my first experienc with Blogging. Watch out, I'm breaking out. I am looking forward to casting off my staid old ways of doing things and jumping in and joining the 21st century and its technology. In our first night of class I was inspired by the discussion on how far behind teachers are compared to other professions in regard to technology. In the past I, like others have been resistant to make the change to welcoming using technology in the classroom except for the obvious research and word processing. I think I somewhat resent the intrusion as a teaching device. Let's face it...I like being up in front of a group of students giving me rapt attention as I dispense sage wisdom and entertaining information. After all, I am part avid learner and part "ham" enjoying my captive audience! How could I pass that off to a bunch of wiring and plastic, bells and whistles?
Recently, I taught for a day in a math class at a middle school. It was a self paced computer based course. As I wandered around seeking out who I might bring into the light of understanding in math, I began to think about my feelings about technology as teacher. One of the struggles with teaching is meeting the needs of all the learners in the class. There are learning styles to deal with and developmental levels. Different students have different strengths. Very few students are ever in the exact same place of understanding at the same time. How can a teacher be what each of these students needs? In short, one teacher cannot. That is the fact that we have to wrestle with. And if one of us is not capable of meeting the needs of all of them, then what does a teacher do? Do I teach to the strongest link in the class and hope the others will rise to the challenge? Do I teach to the weakest link and hope the stronger learners in that subject will find something to stave off the boredom and ensuing mischief. Do I hope desperately for enough parent volunteers for consisitent ability group work?
Well, walking around the lab watching the students do their independent work, paced to their own speed and learning needs, I had a paradigm shift. I began to see the computer and appropriate programs as that army of volunteers willing to give each individual student the one on one attention they need to really learn efficiently and well. I can't be there to walk each student through individual paths of learning, but the technology we are developing for the schools can.
The question that remains is this; Where do I fit in between the technology and the child? Am I now a glorified babysitter who makes sure the students are safe and on task, in charge of being the last one out to turn out the lights and lock the door? Am I a resource for one on one tutoring when the student still doesn't "get it"? Maybe I'm obsolete altogether.
Some of these questions remain to be answered both in the community of teaching and learning and in my own heart and mind. One thing is certain though, and that is that technology is here as a viable tool to help our students learn and will be here for a long time to come. I can embrace it and get really effective in using it so that I relish technology as a pivitol partner in education or I can fear it and stay stuck being forced to use something that I put up with and wish would just go away. I have changed my tack and have decided to head into the wind of change. I have a long days journey to travel until I will be competent and able to really enjoy using technology. A destination is never reached though by a traveller that refuses to leave the port. I no longer want to be resistant to the change in education. I want to learn all I can about technology and it's uses in order to be the best teacher I can be for the benefit of the most students.
What are your thoughts on technology in the classroom. Are you afraid...very afraid?
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