What makes great teaching?

 Top 5 Strategies

1.      One Pager

a.     I had a great time creating my one-pager. In a one-pager, a student must explain a topic using text and visual symbols. It gives a creative outlet while also requiring students to understand and be able to explain the material they are learning.

Example of a one pager

2.      Social Media (Blogging with other educators)

a.     This entails creating a blog online in which you post and reply to the posts of other educators. I think this is a great way to get new ideas and not get burnt out as a teacher. You can also share lesson plans or things your students do in order to inspire other educators.

3.      Anticipation Guide

a.     In an anticipation guide, students discuss their thoughts on the topic before reading, during, and after. They may be asked if they agree or disagree with a statement before reading (or lesson) and after. It is a good way to see how the lesson or article impacts your students and if it is being done correctly. It is also a way for the students to see how their perspective changes.

Anticipation Guide Example

4.      Black-Out Poem

a.     In a black-out poem, students take an article and blackout certain words to create a poem that reflects the topic. This requires students to understand the topic and to read the article. I had a lot more fun doing this than simply reading the article and summarizing it.

Black-out poem example

5.     Self-Assessment

a.       In this assignment, we were tasked with assessing our own blog posts. This made me really reflect on what I had written. If you give students a clear rubric, they will be able to make improvements on their own. This helps students reflect on their work and improve it before getting a bad grade or negative feedback.

Self-assessment example

What is worth learning?

What is worth learning?

 I have created a black out poem that focuses on curriculum violence. You can view it by clicking on the attached link. I first selected the original article, Ending Curriculum Violence, by Stephanie P. Jones. This article details many examples of curriculum violence in schools across our nation. A big issue we have in America is the way we teach about Black history in our country. Jones discusses the fact that slavery is often the only part of Black history that is taught, and many schools insight curriculum violence by forcing students to reenact slavery or complete assignments that have racist undertones. I blacked out many words in this article in order to give a shortened poetic version that explains what curriculum violence is and how it impacts our students. The full article is a great read, though, and I highly recommend it to those that are wanting to become a teacher or are already a teacher.

To summarize, curriculum violence is the manipulation of academic material in a way that harms a student's psychological well-being. An example of this would be showing traumatic and racist images or videos to students. While slavery is something that should be discussed, showing students graphic videos or images of slavery is harmful. Students can understand the concept and horrors of slavery without seeing items that may cause psychological trauma to a young child. One example from Jones' article was an elementary teacher requiring students to create wanted posters for slaves. There is no way to really depict a slave and students will simply end up drawing a Black person. As a Black student, seeing wanted posters of black people hung up in your school could be incredibly traumatic and scary. As teachers, we must think of how these assignments seem from the perspective of our students in order to instruct our curriculum as best as possible. 

It's 2022, why are schools still segregated?

Upon first glance at the title of this blog, you may think, "What? Schools aren't segregated anymore. That's illegal!" While you are correct that sanctioned segregation of schools is illegal, schools are unknowingly segregated today due to the after-effects of segregation in the 1900s. This is due to factors such as systemic racism and redlining.

What is redlining?

Redlining is a discriminatory practice enacted during the New Deal Era by Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). FDR established a program to stimulate the economy by giving loans to Americans to buy homes. This may sound great, but this program instilled a wave of systemic racism. FDR began what is known as redlining. The loan program was only offered to certain neighborhoods, leaving the remaining neighborhoods, which were separated by an imaginary red line, high and dry. These neighborhoods were almost always consisting of minority groups, and the neighborhoods in the green zones, that received the loans, were mostly comprised of white Americans. 

Redlining segregated minority groups to impoverished areas and has thus led to the segregation of schools. The schools in these areas are home to a majority of minority students, while the wealthier schools in suburban areas have a population consisting of white students. Redlining, in combination with systemic racism, has held back minority groups and students of color from being able to attend schools with better resources. This also ties into the education gap among races here in America. Until there are reparations for racism and segregation, this gap will continue to exist in our country.

What does money really have to do with it?

 What does money really have to do with schools?

In a capitalistic society like America, money is everything. Having money opens a lot of doors for you, and, unfortunately, this extends to our school system. Money impacts what resources schools have to offer, and it also directly impacts the students.

The primary funding of public schools in Texas comes from property taxes. This varies drastically among different areas. If you live in a more rural and less wealthy area, the property taxes are likely to be a lot less. Due to the lack of funding, students who live in these areas often attend schools that do not have many resources. This may prohibit children from learning new interests from the lack of classes offered or even prohibit disabled children from attending certain schools that do not have funding for special education programs. I have known many families who have had to take their disabled children to schools that are much farther than their local schools because of this. Disabled students who do not have a family member that is able to transport them for 30+ minutes every day are subjected to schools that do not have the resources that support them. 

Private schools also often have many more resources and activities than public schools, but their tuition prices can be steep. For underprivileged students, attending private schools is not an option. Having the funds to attend these prestigious schools gives wealthy students an upper hand in the world, which causes disproportionate success rates.

Chandra Villanueva of TribTalk stated that better-funded schools have more opportunities for hands-on learning and smaller class sizes. This is likely because these schools have the funds to hire an adequate amount of staff members to best suit their student population. With smaller class sizes, the teacher can focus more on each student and give them the best chance of success. With large class sizes and few staff members, students and their struggles may get overlooked.

Overall, money is a huge part of our school system and is a big factor in students' success. We must do something to combat this and give children all over our nation the same chance of achievement and success.

What lengths am I willing to go to in order to do right by every child?

 

In the word graphic above, you can see some ideas that I feel encompass what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher and what culturally responsive teaching is. I do include one counter-example, "not-learning", which means that a student is willfully rejecting even the most compassionate and well-designed teaching. This can be very frustrating for teachers, and this is when teachers need to go above and beyond for their students. These students are not just rejecting learning because they are poorly behaved children. These children often have difficult home lives that are out of their control, and the only thing they can control is how they behave at school. If your students do not feel safe or respected, especially by you, they will reject your teaching and the school system. To combat this, you will need to go to extra lengths to make sure your student feels comfortable and respected in the classroom. You must make a genuine effort to get to know your students and their families. Learn about the cultural media they are interested in, learn about their family stories and traditions, and learn about their culture. If you acknowledge the students' struggles and let them know that you are on their side and care for them, you can break through not-learning and be an amazing culturally responsive teacher. While you may feel underpaid or underappreciated as a teacher, it is so important to go to great lengths to see your students succeed. Seeing them succeed and having an impact on their life is the most rewarding experience you can have.

How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

 How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

In America, there is an overwhelming majority of female teachers. This absolutely has an effect on the profession of being an educator. Career fields that are dominated by women are not taken as seriously and are underappreciated. Another example of this would be nurses versus doctors. In our society, nursing is often viewed as a feminine field while being a doctor is a more masculine job. Because of this, I often see people taking doctors more seriously than nurses or male doctors more seriously than female doctors. You can see the devalued work clearly with the salary that teachers receive. The work that goes into being a teacher is not easy, but it is viewed as an easy job. 

In the picture above, you can see the rules for teachers in 1915. While this may seem ludicrous now, some of the rules are still things that are expected from teachers. Teachers are expected to dress and act modestly. It is frowned upon if we post anything on social media that involves things like partying, drinking, etc. Your life outside of school almost has to remain secret, which does not help teachers connect to their students. The dress code is strict for teachers, and, in some schools, we are not even allowed to wear jeans. We are not allowed to wear shorts, which pushes female teachers to opt for dresses and skirts during the hotter weather. While it is not a rule that we must wear dresses, the dress code does subtly push female teachers to dress "feminine".

Is Schooling Equitable?

 

What is equity?

I included a popular image that gives a great visual example of what equity is. Equity is giving everyone what they need in order to succeed. This may be more than others need or less than what others need.

Is schooling equitable?

In my opinion, schooling is not equitable in America. We have students from so many different backgrounds, ethnicities, and economic groups, and yet, schools typically only have one strict way they go about educating.

There is a disparity in the way that students of color are treated, especially discipline-wise. Black students are often treated as adults or even as criminals, while white students' misbehaviors are ignored or they only receive a small slap on the wrist. The suspension and expulsion rates are high for students of color, and this does not give them a fair chance of succeeding. If they were the people in the graphic above, it would be like taking a box away from the smallest child. If you continuously suspend or scold students, they will turn their backs on the school and possibly end up dropping out because of the isolation they feel. I'm not saying that students of color should not be disciplined for misbehaving, but it needs to be fair and the same for all students. As a teacher, you should also look into why a child is misbehaving and what their home life is like before resulting to suspension or expulsion.

There is also a disparity in the demographics of teachers. A strong majority of teachers in America are white. In the past, I thought that this was because of the demographics of the United States. I have since realized that there is also an issue with racial bias and discrimination in the hiring process of teachers. We need to combat this issue and recognize bias in schools.