Learning Experience: “From Outrage To Organizing, Why Community Schools, Q/A, Aren’t you on the parent listserv, blood on the tracks, little kids big ideas”

Google Slide: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1F-cDY-WC5dEXESvv9RtX2gdRYE-p0sBDlyESzhAVHxE/edit#slide=id.p

My LC group had the sections over the following, “From Outrage To Organizing”, “Why Community Schools”, “Q/A: How can I decide if a school reform project is worth supporting”, “Aren’t You on the Parent Listserv”, “Blood on the Tracks”, “Little Kids, Big Ideas”. These sections were covered on chapter 5 titled “Beyond the Classroom”, which were covered on pages 273 to 301.

We had three main objectives that we wanted the class to think about as future educators. Since the conversations we had in class on Tuesday could potentially be illegal one day. The scary fact of all of this, is three states (I believe) have already passed these laws. The objectives are the following. How schools can engage communities, students, and educators in social activism. How do we as educators approach challenging topics our students present to us. How do we teach these challenging topics to our students.

Audrey had the section “From Outrage To Organizing”, which was found on 273 to 278. The section by Ikechukwu Onyema, had focused a lot on education activism. Ikechukwa had mentioned Freedom Schools. These schools are functioned as liberated places of political education, and literacy interventions. During the Civil Rights Movements. The section goes into more detail about police brutality towards one race, which are the African Americans. The section goes into more detail about the harsh treatment African Americans get faced with police. After many police brutality incidence, teachers and the students had came together. They had created a modern day “Freedom School”, by doing this they had deepened the conversations about race. They had mentioned the historical political cartoons to spreed the concerns that they had. The political cartoon was “The Talk”, which gave the perspective of both races, whites and blacks. Whites give their sons the birds and bees talk, while blacks give their suns talks abut police. All of this encouraged teacher unions to be more active in their communities surrounding education and teacher’s issues.

I had the section “Little Kids, Big ideas”, which was found on pages 298 to 301. The section was by The Editors Of Rethinking Schools. The editor had overheard a student saying how he wanted to “nuke the world”, the child then said “everything is just so bad. We should just nuke the world and start over”. All of this was being said when our president and the leader of North Korea were going at it. The editor began to question all the things this second grader had said. We have to remember, that these kids hear things on T.V. They hear things from their families and friends. They even play video games around these topics. For many of these students, these are social topics that they face in their everyday lives. These are topics that need to be addressed to students. These are topics that we can not beat around the bush with. When we choose not to address or deal with these topics and issues. We are only leaving the students with misunderstandings and we leave them in fear. We need to start to listen to their questions, and respect them. At the end of the day, these students are the future they need to be educated. When we are faced with these challenging topics. We have to do our research and give them the most accurate responses as possible. We have to find age appropriate content to present our students with as well. We will also inform the parents of what we are teaching in our classroom. We give the parents no room to put their input in these conversations either. We have the privilege to choose who voices we privilege, and whose stories we tell. Students deserve the opportunity to look through the world in eyes who are not their own, and get a better understanding of the world around them.

Katie had the section “Aren’t You on the Parent Listerv”, which was found on pages 283 to 289. The section was by Grace Cornell Gonzales. Grace is a kindergarten teacher in the San Francisco area. Grace was really happy to see how diverse her school was, when she first had started her teaching job there. When she had attended her first PTA meeting at her school, she had noticed that the parents who had attended were mainly white, middle-aged, upper class, and native speakers. She had quickly became concerned that all voices were not being heard or even seen during these meetings. Only the white, middle-aged, upper class, and native speaking parents of these children were getting involved in the classroom. Grace quickly had noticed the diversity of the parents in the meetings, were not the same as the diversity in the schools. Grace had came up with a plan for more parents to get involved in their students educations. Later on in the section, it had mentioned how much more diverse these meetings had gotten. The room was no longer filled with those white, middle-aged, upper class, native speakers. The classroom had became more equitably among the parents of Spanish and English speaking.

Claudia had the section “Blog on the Tracks”, which was found on pages 290 to 297. This section was written by, Amy Lindahl. The section had talked about how segregated, they had an idea but they had never really thought about it. In 2009, African Americans were only 12 percent of the US population, only 7 percent had earned a bachelors degree in STEM, and another 4 percent had earned a masters degree in STEM. The section had talked about Neil DeGrasse, who had always wanted to be an astronaut since he was nine years old. Anytime Neil had expressed his interest in this career, people would always say “don’t you want to be an athlete?”. Neil had never listened to anything anyone had told him, now he is the most visible scientist in the land.

Sully had the section “Why Community Schools”, which can be found on pages 279 to 281. This section was written by Public Schools as greenhouses of democracy. Privatization of schools is now becoming a major issue in the education system. So how to fix that, is creating more community schools. Community schools have the characteristics of a private school, while being more accessible to everyone. There are six pillars that make up these community schools, and the are following. Strong and Culturally curriculum, high quality teaching, inclusive/shared leadership, community support services, positive discipline practices, and family and community engagement.

Comic Strip: Bryden Elementary School (3)

For my last comic strip, I want to bring it back to the basics and the start of “The New Teacher Book”. It has been a little difficult for me to find sections, that would fit in with what I have observed and taught. I feel as if Bryden Elementary School is a pretty diverse school, and everyone is aware of that. I also feel as it has been difficult to connect my experience with some of the topics, because I am currently with Kindergartners. They are so pure, and have not seen the bad in the world yet. Although I have not particularly enjoyed my time here, and feel like I have gotten take advantage of in away. I can say I will truly miss the little humans. They get so excited to show me what they have made. They get excited when they can read to me. I will never forget when Selha read a book to me called “The Paper Bag Princess”, and she read through the entire thing with no problem. Or on my second to last day, Tarki had given me a hug when it was time for me to leave.

This comic does not do the true justice to the section of the book I am connecting it to. I am choosing to relate this blog post, and comic to the section ” 12 Suggestions for New Teachers”, by Larry Miller. I decided to tie this section with this comic, because I feel as if Abby followed some of these suggestions. That Larry had made in this section.

The second suggestion out of the twelve, is “Base your curriculum on social justice”. It ask the following, “Are students learning the skills they need to be critical thinkers, advance their education, expand their life options, and become active citizens?”. When I was thinking about this in the perspective of a kindergarten teacher. It had became difficult for me to think of how the actives they did in class would expand the students life options, and or become active citizens. I then thought about the art projects that often had done when I was there. One of the projects was use white paint on a blue paper, with the white paint draw lines be creative but do not make a cloud. After they were done making this cloud, they had to write what they had saw from the white paint. The students responses were so unique. They often told their peers what they saw in the clouds, something the students did not see. One student had said they saw a unicorn, another had said he saw a car, and one had said they saw an elephant. With this project, it had allowed the students to become critical thinkers, with what they saw in the clouds they had painted. Another art project that had been done was on Earth Day. The students had to bring recycled materials from home, and make something out of them. By them bringing in recycled materials from home, it showed them that they are good citizens by recycling. As well as saving the Earth by recycling.

The fourth suggestion out of the twelve, is the following, “Whenever possible, connect your classroom discussions and curriculum to students’ lives, communities, and cultures. Learn as much as you can about your students”. When I was walking around the classroom, and looking at everything on the walls. I had saw each student and their families. With the pictures they had to talk about their culture. Which was really interesting to me. I had learned that for some of these students, English is not their first language at home. They had older siblings that were teaching them English, but they would still speak in their first language at home. When the students had came back from spring break, they had wrote about what they did over spring break. They even had brought in photos that got hung around the room from their spring break. Abby did another unit with her students, were they were able to show their favorite holiday. With this, I was able to see all different holiday’s that were not just Christian dominated holidays. I was also able to see all the holiday’s that related to their students culture.

Abby had learned a lot about her students over the months she has been with them. She would often share what she knew about them with me. We had talked about a student named Selha. Selha is at a second grade reading level. I had told Abby I was so shocked when she had read “The Paper Bag Princess” to me like it was nothing to her. Meaning, it was super easy for her. When other students had trouble reading at a kindergarten level. She had also told me, this one student I do not remember his name off the top of my head. She had her brother when he was in kindergarten. It amazes her how well this student was able to speak better English than her brother. When she had this students brother. They had just moved here from another country, and they barley had spoken any English.

The last two suggestions I wanna relate to this comic. Fit well together, and it had made sense for me to put them together. The one suggestion is the sixth one out of the twelve, “Build students’ confidence in their intelligence and creativity”. The second suggestion is the ninth out of the twelve, which states the following, “Have engaging activities prepared for students when they walk into the classroom”. Every morning, Abby does words of affirmations with the kids. By doing this it allows the students to know they are smart, they are loved, they have big hearts, and to be kind to themselves. With the words of affirmations, I believe it follows nicely with the sixth suggestion given. Even though, the students are not fully getting graded for their work as hard as other grades. These affirmations allow each student to know they are smart, and the grade on their work does not define them as a little human. Abby also does these movement breaks on YouTube, called GoNoodle and Cosmic Kids Yoga. GoNoodle is more fast paced, compared to Cosmic Yoga which is slower paced. Both of these channels allow the students to have movement breaks. This allows the kids too calm their mind and body from yoga, and help release build up energy from GoNoodle videos.

Even though, I may not have the best overall experience. This experience did teach me a lot about myself as well as the education world. I think even being here at John Carroll has taught me a lot about myself, and how I am able to use my voice to help others. That is why I want to advocate for others who simply cannot do it for themselves. I do enjoy little humans a lot. I think they have so much personality, and they are just so pure. I just simply can not see myself as an educator anymore. I will forever be grateful for the opportunities this class has given me. As well as Bryden Elementary School, and Abby has given me as well. Her and her students have welcomed me with open arms, and I mostly enjoyed every minute I was there. Just with the ten hours of observations I had done with them. I had grown to grow a connection with the students. Each and every student is so unique in their own ways. These students are also so incredibly bright, I know they will succeed as they go from grade to grade. I can most confidently say I will miss these little humans. I simply wish I was able to follow them from grade to grade. It does make so happy, when they get so excited over the little things that are going on in their lives. Even when they are so excited to tell me what they are learning.

Earth Day project

Earth Day project

Earth Day project

Cosmic Yoga

Japanese New Year

Hanukkah

Easter

Thanksgiving

Recess

“The Pigeon Has To Go To School”

Circle reading time

Comic Strip: Bryden Elementary School (2)

The first time I had went to Bryden Elementary School, I had noticed how diverse they were compared to the elementary school I had went to. My elementary school I had went to, the majority of the students that had attended were white. We had very little diversity in that school. With Bryden, I saw a bunch of diversity at that school as soon as I walked in the building. Even seeing the students in the class, no two students had really looked a like. It was neat to see how diverse the school was with different cultural backgrounds. The kindergartners eat lunch in their classroom, often times I will stay for lunch and recess. Since that is typically what my schedule allows me to do. With that being said, I see a lot of different foods from each student from their cultural backgrounds. I think this relates to the section “Inclusivity Is Not a Guessing Game”. I wanted to pull this quote out and relate it to how diverse this elementary school is. “We can be deliberate in including, making space for, and recognizing our students in all aspects of their identities. Making schools inclusive doesn’t have to be a guessing game” (Vaught 192).

I had sat on the abc carpet with the children, who all had assigned spots on the carpet to social distance due to COVID 19. When I had looked up above the board, I was able to see photo’s of the students without their mask on. When I asked Abby (the teacher) why she had done this. She explained that the students who have never seen one another without their mask on. By having the pictures up on the wall, each student was able to see one another without their mask on. I want to relate this to a section in “The New Teacher Book”, titled “Getting Your Classroom Together”. There is a subsection titled “The Politics of Bulletin Boards” Bob Peterson states the following, “I wanted my students to “see themselves on the walls,” both literally – the walls have pictures of students and their work – and figuratively” (Peterson 35). School has been hard not being able to see my professors or my classmates without their mask on. When we lifted the mask mandate it was strange to see my professors and classmates without their mask. It was interesting to see has she able to do that for her students. When they finally had lifted the mask mandate at Bryden. It did not feel as strange to see the students without their mask on. Since I have been looking at their pictures on the wall without their mask.

When I was walking around the classroom, I had noticed all the different seating she had in placed for the students. First the students had sat in tables of four, and the colors associated with the table. By having colors associated with the tables, it had made it easier for Abby to have certain student’s come to up and get supplies and or go to their lockers in the hall. She also had flexible seating for the student’s when it became time to silently read. This had reminded me of a section in the “The New Teacher Book”, titled “Getting Your Classroom Together”. In this section, there is a subsection titled “modeling”. In this section, Bob Peterson talks about the flexible seating he has in his classroom. Students are able to move their chairs and desk. This way the students are not always looking directly at the board at all times. This had also created a safe place for his students as well. The flexible seating Abby has in her classroom, allows the children to move around and not be in their seats for hours on end. At the end of the day, this students are in kindergarten and it is hard for them already to sit for long period of times.

During the time I was there, the kids were doing an art project. They were learning about clouds, so in the art project they were making clouds out of paint and they had to write what they had saw in the clouds. After everyone was done, Abby hung all the cloud paintings around the classroom. The students were then able to walk around the room, and see all the different clouds. They were able to ask each other questions about the clouds, and even say what they had saw in the clouds.

Actual photo’s from observation.

Picture’s of student’s without mask hung up above the board.

Flexible seating for reading/ down time.

More flexible seating for student’s.

I was not able to find pictures from the weather unit, but I did find pictures from Earth Day.

Current Connection: “Taking Teacher Quality Seriously”

google slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1no4tlDmV_TW9RWWVKoBrZHtxPV1s6SPsfoPhXq7I5m4/edit#slide=id.g1256ae12a9c_0_25

For our groups current connections we had it over the essay’s “My Dirty Little Secret: I don’t Grade Student Papers”, “Taking Teacher Quality Seriously”, and “Beyond Test Scores”. I choose to do my current connection over the essay “Taking Teacher Quality Seriously”.

I choose to do it over this essay, because I felt like I could relate to this one the most. When I was at Hiram, we learned a lot about teaching standards. With it being the Hiram standards of teaching, Ohio standards of teaching, as well as InTACS standards. This section reminded me a lot what I was learning. The PGS standards reminded me a lot of the Ohio standards of teaching. They also had a lot of similarities with the standards. With how teachers should be committed to their students, and know every content they are teaching.

I had thought about doing a current connection over the different standards of teaching their is. When I had really thought about it, I did not know if that made the most sense for a current connection. Considering I do not know the standards John Carroll teaches, and the ones I did know about were the ones I was learning was from Hiram. Really digging into the essay I tried to think of things that had really stuck out to me. Which was that most teachers quit their profession in the first five years.

When I was having conversations with alumni from sorority, who are teachers. They explained how poorly they were getting treated, as well as how they burnt out they are. Since COVID the teaching world has been very difficult for teachers. Most kids have not been in school school for two years now. Which makes it extremely hard for them. They are having to re-teach kids how school works again, as well as the curriculum they are having to teach. Education is an awesome major, but it also a very time consuming one. If teachers had gotten treated like other occupations, they might not get burnt out as fast as they are.

My article that I had chosen to relate to this essay, is titled “Unfair Teacher Expectations: Changing the RuleBook for the Profession”. This article had went over how underpaid teachers are, and how often they have to pay for their own materials in their classroom. I had thought this had fit perfectly with “better support” that was listed as a better ground for teachers, administrators, and parents. If teachers had gotten better support by the administrators, they may not have to buy so many of their materials out of pocket. Teachers are doing a lot more than what they are getting paid for. If districts started to pay teachers more. They might not be leaving as fast as they are now.

I also wanna connect another part of the article, with “better support”. The article had mentioned that teachers often feel like they have to devote their entire life to teaching, and if they don’t they feel like they will get looked down upon by others. I noticed this a lot in school, specially in high school and even now in my college years. Student’s expect grades to be put in right away, and of course I get it as well. I wanna know how good I did on that test or that essay, as much as my peers do. Teachers have a life outside of school, just as much as we do. We often have these expectation that teachers have no life outside of the classroom. If we gave our teachers as much support as we do, they would not want to live their field so fast. Administrators even have high expectations for teachers. Everyone should have high expectations for their workers, but not as much as they are putting on teachers. A lot of it has to due to the fact with a bunch of bills being passed, and so on. Administrators need to give teachers better support than they are already giving them.

This article and essay, had made me really re-think my career choices. As much as I always wanted to be an educator, and it has always been a dream of mine to help students the way my teachers helped me. Between my field observation, reading’s and article’s, I had quickly realized that becoming an educator was not for me. I believe that teachers are one of the underpaid perfusions their is, and they do not get treated the way they should be treated.

Comic Strip: Bryden Elementary School (1)

I think so far my field observation has been okay. I am only supposed to be observing the teacher, instead, I am also teaching. Which I know that some kids in my class would kill for. Going straight to teaching, and not doing any observation work made me decide that the education field was not for me. I am glad I had figured that out so early on, rather than being so far into my major requirements. On my very first day, I was teaching a student how to read and speak English essentially. Bryden Elementary School is a very diverse school. Some kids come from households where English is not their first language. Which can make it difficult when they start to attend school. Having to teach that student how to read and speak English was extremely difficult for me. I have the patience, but I could tell that the student was starting to get frustrated because they did not understand it. I believe that in a way, the teacher is taking advantage of me. She now has an extra set of hands when I am there, and kindergarten can be a tricky grade level to teach as well. During my second day there, I came during recess time and lunch. It was the only time that had really fit with my schedule. During recess, the teachers in the kindergarten team did not talk very nicely of their students. As educators, they should not be talking so poorly about their students. It was hard to hear that because these students are bright individuals. They are essentially going to play a big part in the world one day. Some kids may be struggling more than others, but that is when we take the time to give those students the extra attention that they need from us. From all the readings in “The New Teacher Book”, the teachers are not doing the same things we have been reading. I knew going into the education field it was going to be difficult, but I guess I did not realize how difficult it was actually going to be. I am extremely grateful for the experience I now have. As well as getting the opportunity to teach so early on. I have nothing bad to say about Bryden Elementary School, nor the teachers in that school besides the fact that they do not talk highly about their students. As I said before though, kindergarten is a tricky grade to teach. You are teaching the kids how to school. Meaning that you are teaching the kids how to sit in their seats and not move around a lot. All the classroom manners that they will need when they go into first grade.

Learning Experience: “Inclusivity Is Not A Guessing Game, I Believe You, On Behalf of Their Name”

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1L98tYdSyN5bmSTV-mNdFhL1bywjVU_K8-5CQVx4NJSw/edit#slide=id.g11f96387d0b_0_0

For my group’s learning experience, we had it over the section, “Inclusivity Is Not A Guessing Game”, “I Believe You”, and lastly “On Behalf of Their Name”. Our learning objectives for the class were the following, understanding inclusivity in the classroom, understanding how to earn students’ trust and making sure they feel heard, and lastly understanding the importance of being an all to students no matter their pronouns. The outline for my group’s learning experience was simply a google slide presentation, discussion questions, and a group activity. My group as a whole decided that we need to think outside of the box and do something no other groups have done yet, which was a class activity. This way everyone was engaged and not just sitting there not paying attention or engaged in our learning experience. The discussion question was another way for the class to be engaged and participate as well. From other learning experiences, as well as current connections. We learned that not everyone was engaged and answered the questions as well. Doing a class activity was a fun way for the class as a whole to learn that not everyone is alike and we all have different views. It had also shown that students who were in between the two choices often just went to one side. By doing this, it showed how transgender’s feel when they have to choose what restroom they go to. 

The first section that was covered and discussed was “Inclusivity Is Not A Guessing Game”, which had been covered by Audrey. For this reading, it had covered how a Muslim student in the class was not able to eat birthday treats, because the treats were not halal. After this had happened to the little girl, the teacher became more aware that everyone was not alike in her class. Later on in the section, the author Chelsea Vaught brought up holidays. Schools typically only talk about Christian Holidays. It is essentially important for schools to teach students about other holidays and heritage. This way every student in that school feels included, and safe. It is also important that we bring all of this into our lessons. Maybe not every single holiday, but those holidays the students in the class celebrate. 

The next section was “I believe you”. Which had been covered by Claudia and I. This reading had covered the statement “I believe you”. A little girl named Lily, would come to class every day saying that her head hurts. The teacher would rub her head every day. While rubbing her head she always said the statement, “I know you miss your dad”. The teacher always suggested to Lily that if she tried to do school work maybe her head would feel better. The teacher went to her team about it and asked what they should do. They decided it was best to rule out the “I believe you” statement, and start validating the students’ experiences as well as feelings. This way the students know that their words and actions are intentional, and we care about how they feel as well as their actions. The section Claudia had covered in this essay was “Amazing Grace”. A little girl wanted to play Peter Pan in a school play. She was told she was not able to because she was a girl as well as African American. Eventually with a bunch of hardships, and everything in between. When she had taken on the role of Peter Pan, everyone was extremely proud of her performance in the play. 

The last section was titled “On Behalf of Their Names”, which was covered by Sully and Katie. This section had covered how a queer teacher had felt in his school. Parents and students would say to him, “you don’t fit in”, “what even are you”, and “stay away from my kid”. Later on, they did a presentation about the difference between sex and gender. This way everyone was able to ask questions. Students said their pronouns grammatically did not make sense. The students just did not want to make the adjustment. They simply did not include those who are transgender. Everyone needs to be understanding of another, no two people are exactly alike. We also need to be accepting of everyone who is different from us.

Current Connection: “How Could You Let This Happen?”

Citation for article being used: Ove T. Female student at Catholic school alleges sexual assault in lawsuit. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA). February 18, 2020. Accessed March 21, 2022. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W64140921121&site=ehost-live

Google slide: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vtBvK1TJTrZOiZB8QBqHvYY_xal7zmk6pjjEH-3cm9A/edit#slide=id.g11a75122c5b_0_20

For this week’s current connection, I did it over the essay “How Could You Let This Happen?”. This essay is a sensitive topic for me and could be for some of my peers as well. People who have been sexually assaulted or even sexually harassed, tend not to talk about it. As they think it was something they had done, for it to happen to them. This section of reading focuses on a teacher, and a female student in her class. This incident had happened in Seattle, Washington. A teacher had gotten an email from one of her student’s parents. The teacher had thought it was going to be a normal email since this students’ mother often checked in on her daughter at school. The students’ mother had brought awareness to what happened to her daughter at recess. The second-grade girl had told her mother how a group of boys had sexually assaulted her at recess. By this, the group of boys had grabbed, groped, and even gone as far as to hump this girl. The group of boys had even told the girl they were going to have sex with her. The teacher was upset by what had happened to her student and even had brought it up to the principal of her school. The principal had told the teacher he was going to keep a close eye on the boys. Also completely downplaying the situation at hand. The principle had also said, he would talk to people to see how much recess time the boys should miss. These boys are only losing recess time for what they did? That does not seem right at all. The teacher had decided to take matter into her own hands, and talk to students about personal space and how it is important. The teacher had brought this up to her colleagues, and they had supported her in the decisions she was making. With multiple talks with the principle and the district. She had decided to apply to transfer. After all, she had felt very discouraged and like nothing was being rightfully done as well. 

The article I had chosen to connect to this reading was: “Female Student at a Catholic school alleges sexual assault chargers in a lawsuit”. In this situation, it had happend to a female student in junior high. This time it was more serious to an extant, and the principal was also a female. I decided on this one, because the principal in “How Could You Let This Happen?” was a male. This principal in this article in a female. Showing that the gender of the prinicpal does not play any bias in these sort of situations. This article does not say how old this female student was. Considering it is a junior high, she is barley a teenager. This student went as far as to sue the principal and the two male students involved. Since nothing was being done to what had happened to her. One of the male students stood in the hall, watching the other male student forcibly kissing this girl. This male student then picked the girl up, and had taken her to the bathroom. Where things had gotten more serious. This student was saying “no” and “stop”, the male student did not stop what he was doing to her. The girls phone had fallen, distracting the boy. By this happening, the girl was able to pull her pants back up and get out of the bathroom. The girl had told her parents, later that night her parents had a meeting with Ms. Nicker. The principal had told the females parents the NEXT day, the case would be closed. Unless she had agreed to meet with the two male students that had done this to her. The two boys had denied that they had done any of this to the girl. The principal had also said, she was not able to report the incident since it was about to be the weekend. The school did report what had happend to the police, but no charges were going to be filed against the two male students. The school had done nothing to discipline the boys involved in this. One of the boys involved also had other sexual assault accosation around him at this time. Shouldn’t that already be a red flag to them as well? The female student had also mentioned the same male student had done this to her, did something to her at a basketball game. Nothing as serious as what he had done the second time. She had decided to sue for “emotional distress”, since nothing about her case being done. Or no serious action was being taken at school to these boys. This case is still being under investigation. 

I was able to relate both articles to one another. Since both of the students’ it had happened to were girls, and multiple boys were also involved. Nothing had also really happened to the boys who did those things to the girls. What is that showing society, and the boys as well? If no actions are being done. It shows people that it is okay to do those types of things to an individual. When in reality it is never okay to do anything like that to someone. We always always have to ask for consent.

Learning Experience: “bilingual education, immigration, and social imagination”

This week’s assigned reading was all about bilingual education, immigration, and social imagination. One of the many excerpts and essays I had chose was “Lost Homes Unit”. An inspiring photographer named Fazal Sheikh captures pictures of refugees who have lost their homes, and who have retained their cultural identities. Over the course of years that Fazal Sheikh has been doing this, he has made sure to build a relationship with these refugees, as this is a sensitive topic for some of them. Each and every one of his pictures tells a different story about a refugee, who has essentially “lost their home”. Another section of this week’s assigned reading was titled “Visuals to Develop Narratives”. This particular section talks about a teacher who had opened the idea of the “Lost Homes Unit” to her students. This had given the students a chance to talk about a time they had to move or even lost a home. By doing this, it had given the students an opportunity to connect their stories to other stories about migration. It also gives the students a chance to imagine what it would be like to be a refugee and lose their homes. During both of these sections, it talk’s about the “pull-factors” that these refugees often face. These factors as the following… racism, even some sort of poverty, and cultural shock as well. The third section from this week’s assigned reading was the Q/A titled “How can I teach both content and language to students learning English as an additional language?” This excerpt suggest it is important to find out the students background knowledge. It also even suggest that teacher’s also need to educated about student’s different backgrounds. 

For my group’s learning experience, we decided to sit down and find topics on the section that had really stood out to us. We also wanted these sections to relate to us in someway, as well as our classmates. Before even creating our presentation, we had a zoom meeting with Dr. Shutkin. By doing this, we were able to bounce ideas off of him, and also figure out great things we were able to do. After our meeting with Dr. Shutkin, we had came up with ideas and how we will give our presentation to the class. First we had come up with a few key points that we wanted to share, and give our classmates a better understanding of the section.  By the end of our presentation, we wanted each student to understand the following. Understanding the hardships that each immigrant goes through (including immigrant students), understanding the importance of bilingual language, and understanding social imagination through interior monologs. We then divided the work up into sections. Everyone had a different section that had really stood out to them, to talk about to the class. 

The layout of our presentation was close to other learning experiences we have seen. To make ours stand out a little more than the rest, we had incorporated a video clip in our presentation. We also had multiple discussion questions for our classmates to answer, as well as videos that related to the content we were presenting. The content we touched based on in our presentation was the following… Social imagination, and interior monologue to go along with this. For this slide we even incorporated a video, and asked the students to pick a character. While thinking about their character try and figure out a interior monolog that could have been in place. We also touched base on how to teach students as their second language. For this slide, we gave key points that teachers could use for their students whose first language is not english to feel included. For our next slide, we introduced bilingual language programs. That we have in place for our students. For this section Audrey explained each of the different programs that we have set in place. The last slide we briefly touched based on, because of time restrictions. Was the “Lost Home Units”, for this section we made sure to include some sort of photograph from Fazal Sheikh. This way it gave ourselves and even our students a better understanding of what the refugees had to go through. An important part of our slides were having these discussion questions in our presentation. By doing this it gave our classmates to be engaged and involved in our discussion. By having so many different interior monologs questions. It also gives our classmates including ourselves, a chance for the students to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, and try to understand what they are going through from their point of view. For references used in our Google slide show, were the following… The New Teacher Book, YouTube, and photographs from the photographer Fazal Sheikh. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14g2erJtzSzE4QICCG5K8H_LTOx2hfenyY-iPcSD8nt0/edit#slide=id.g1161f03484e_0_58

Current Connections: “House Bill 322 and House Bill 327”

My current connection for this week’s reading was the House Bills, which are in the process of being passed. These two bills are related to both Equity and Social Justice, as well as Black Is Beautiful. House Bill 322 relates to both Equity and Social Justice, as well as Black Is Beautiful. House Bill 322 primary focuses on K-12 schools. This Bill essentially is not letting teachers talk about history how it is written. Teachers will need to talk about the good and bad parts of history. This can be hard, because if we do not talk about history on how it is written. History can repeat itself. For example, the Jim Crow Laws. There is nothing good about these laws, the primary targeted the black community. There is nothing positive targeting one race, to put it nonchalantly it is racism at its finest. There were movements, acts, as well as Supreme Court cases that helped put an end to the laws. In a way, it is a positive part of history. But, what about all the other tragic parts of history? Such as the Holocaust. If we try to erase history the way it happened it will repeat itself. That is not creating social justice for those races, or religions that were affected in the past. House Bill 327 focuses more on Black Is Beautiful reading. House Bill 327 primary aims towards race. This Bill focuses on all schools, such as K-12, as well as state colleges and universities. House Bill 327 focuses on race in the classroom, as well as how race is taught. Any teachers or professors that go against this Bill, and teach race how it is supposed to be taught. These schools and universities can lose funding from The Department of Education. When looking at this Bill, and all looking at the sides on it, I found two points that really stood out to me. One of the sides said the following… “Members of one nationality, color, ethnicity, race, or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to nationality, color, ethnicity, race, or sex (R.C. 3313.6027(A)(1)(e))”. The other side stated this… “Members of one nationality, race, color, ethnicity, religion, or sex attempt to treat others disrespectfully based upon nationality, race, color, ethnicity, religion, or sex (R.C. 3313.6027(A)(1)(e))”. I feel as if this directly targets the black community, and all the work they are trying to do to be as equal as other races. With the funding, I found it interesting on how much funding they can withhold from these schools. One side had said the following based on the funding issue. “In the event that a district or school knowingly violates the bill’s provisions, withhold state funding from the district or school until the Department of Education determines the district or school is compliant (R.C. 3313.6027(C))”. The other side is a little more strict on the whole funding issue, they said the following. “Similar, but: (1) requires a confirmed report from a student, parent, teacher, or community member, (2) reduces standard from knowing to reckless, (3) reduces funding by 25% for a first offense, 50% for a second offense, and 100% for a third offense, and (4) makes the state Superintendent also responsible for determining when a district or school is compliant (R.C. 3313.6027(C)(1))”. I found all of this to be super interesting, and informative. For wanting to be an educator I believe it is important to know about these Bills that are trying to be passed. I also believe it is something that we can do to fix this problem. We have a voice and the First Amendment. We need to make a stand. What these bills are trying to do, is something that is morally incorrect. I try not to get too political, but I know that is something that does happen in school districts. Unfortunately, that is the sad truth not a lot of educators talk about. I believe that educators that are in field now, should stand up and talk about all the things they typically do not talk about. With these two Bills as well, I do not think a lot of people know about them. I had no idea about them until they were brought to my attention at Hiram. These two Bills were first introduced early last year. It obviously takes a lot for them to be passed. I believe at the end of the day, we can try to put a stop to them. Also, educators everywhere should be aware of them as well. Not a lot of teachers know about these Bills, and it goes against all the progress we have made in history as well.