"Good Teaching is Good Teaching"

Inclusion should acknowledge and seek to include students who experience any type of discrimination or disadvantage based on disability, “poverty, sexuality, minority ethnic status, or other characteristics assigned significant by the dominant culture in their society”

[thosewhocanteach]

The Wingman: Engaging Reluctant Students

Quick strategy for engaging students who are quiet and reluctant. By giving these students a guide sheet and responsibility during discussions, teachers are able to have more students engaged in the activities.

“The idea of the wingman, is how do I get them to be engaged in a lesson and  feel safe and not lose them?”

[thosewhocanteach]

Students are Worth It

Teachers might need a reminder every now and then that students are worth it. Here's a quick reminder from one teacher who works every day to help here students and shrink the gap between different types of learners.

"I feel like holding students accountable for their behaviors and learning is important but I have to hold myself accountable to making sure that I reach all of them.”

[thosewhocanteach]

This teacher makes her students aware of their power and responsibility in shaping the classroom culture. Not only have they come up with classroom rules, but as she mentions, when anyone is offensive, disruptive etc. the class stops and decides together if that moment is going to help or hurt them moving forward. This not only creates a positive learning environment, but gets students to think about what they do and say to their peers. For students with disabilities who might be bullied or teased, it not only demonstrates that that behavior isn’t allowed in the classroom provides opportunity to show their peers that this kind of action only serves to harm both them and their target in the future. Inclusive classrooms are those in which peers can relate to each other and respect each other’s differences. 

[thosewhocanteach]

Gold Stars & Good Grades

When I was in Ms. McKenzie’s second grade class, I was new to the school that year. Most of my classmates had already known each other from the year before and established their friendships. I was quiet, but I did really well and earned my gold stars (which were posted next to our names on a bulletin board) regularly. I had a great year at my new school. My teacher even told my father one day that she wish she had a classroom full of me. A moment he still proudly remembers and reminds me of every so often.

There was a boy in my class whose name I can’t remember but his face remains in my memory. He sat behind me or next to me, close enough to distract me with questions and comments. I would usually laugh or engage with him, but not enough to get in trouble myself. I don’t remember him ever really doing his work or participating in the lessons. In fact, what I remember the most is how often he got in trouble for being aggressive, distracting or not listening to the teacher. He didn’t earn stars most times and was sent out of the room often.

The next year I found out my classmate was now in a special education class, a small class that did everything separate from us, even lunch and gym. I barely saw him anymore after that. I did see him years later, waiting for the bus in high school. He was riding a bike and had the same mischievous smile. Recognition flashed across his face as we made eye contact, but we never spoke. I wondered what happened to him; what school had been like for him. As I became more immersed in the field of Special Education as a graduate student, I started to wonder what steps were taken before his placement was changed; if he received a diagnosis because he had a disability, or if he was labelled and placed in a more restrictive environment because of his behavior; because the teacher couldn’t figure out how to teach him. I wonder now about my teacher wishing she had a classroom full of me. While I appreciate her acknowledgement of my “good” characteristics, I now realize how problematic that mentality may have been for my classmate. Was my he placed in special education because he wasn’t anything like me? He wasn’t quiet and didn’t earn stars and that had made him less desirable as a student.

As educators, it is not our responsibility or purpose to mold or wish students into a narrowly defined version of a good student. Rather, we should identify their strengths and use them to support their confidence and abilities in other areas. I can’t place total blame on Ms. McKenzie for my classmate’s placement in special education. Not only do I lack enough information to draw conclusions, but I was in second grade during the late 90s and education has significantly evolved since then. It still has a long way to go if we mean to be truly inclusive and culturally responsive. My hope is that I learn from the history of education in our society and my own experiences so that I can be mindful and intentional in my practice as a teacher. I hope to teach a classroom of students in whom I see myself, as well as students who are nothing like me. I hope to be see those differences as sources of inspiration to challenge and further develop my pedagogy, rather than a hindrance and distraction.

-Antiganee

[thosewhocanteach]

Unfortunately, the whole U.S. education system is broken, especially for students of color. But what one teacher does in her own classroom can make a world of difference. Teachers have a responsibility to examine their own prejudices, and to learn about the experiences of (and oppressive forces working against) the students they are teaching. Because when we walk into a classroom, both as teachers and as students, we don’t magically leave our struggles and life experiences at the door.

These are books that everyone can learn from before entering the classroom. I have a few more to check off my reading list. A huge takeaway I’ve gotten from my Disabilities in Context course this semester is that we (as teachers) must remember what assumptions we enter the classroom with. We must also consider the assumptions our students might be making about the classroom, teachers, peers, etc. We must also remember that everyone’s assumptions are based upon their experiences prior to the moment in which we engage with them. By being aware of our own assumptions, we can be a part of the solutions rather than perpetuating the problem.

[thosewhocanteach]

Scholarly Resources about Inclusivity

But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. by Gloria Ladson-Billings

http://equity.spps.org/uploads/but_that_s_just_ladson-billings_pdf.pdf

Moving Beyond Tolerance in Multicultural Education by Sonia Nieto

http://www.sonianieto.com/OLD/PDF/Moving%20beyond%20tolerance%20Mult%20Ed%201994.pdf

Winners Need Losers by Ellen Brantlinger

http://4000summerb2014.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/7/3/28734887/brantlinger_2006b.pdf

Presuming Competence by Douglas Biklen and Jamie Burke

https://sssresourcelibrary.wikispaces.com/file/view/Presuming+Competence+EE_article_6_06__3_.pdf

Adding Urban Complexities to the Mix by David Connor

http://4000summerb2014.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/7/3/28734887/connor_201-.pdf

[Re]Claiming "Inclusive Education" toward Cohesion in Educational Reform: Disability Studies Unravels the Myth of the Normal Child by SUSAN BAGLIERI, et al.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234717475_ReClaiming_Inclusive_Education_toward_Cohesion_in_Educational_Reform_Disability_Studies_Unravels_the_Myth_of_the_Normal_Child

“Coming out Crip” in Inclusive Education by Nirmala Erevelles

http://www.academia.edu/2368626/_Coming_Out_Crip_in_Inclusive_Education

Keeping Kids in Schools: Restorative Justice, Punitive Discipline, and the School to Prison Pipeline by Thalia Gonzalez

http://www.ibarji.org/docs/gonzales.pdf

[thosewhocanteach]

Response to Intervention: Safe Spaces for Math and Literacy

At Charles R. Drew Charter School, the Literacy Center and Math Lab provide fun, engaging, and enriching interventions to help support students most in need.

“Charles R. Drew Charter School uses Response to Intervention (RTI) to reach their goal of 100 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards in all subject areas. Their achievements include:

Lowering the number of students in special education classes from 13 to 8 percent

Outperforming the state in reading, English language arts, math, and science for the past five years”

Although I would have rather heard the principal say that they work individually with students based on the areas in which they need more support (rather than calling it a deficit) this school is using RtI to help their students achieve rather than contributing to the disproportionate number of students of color being referred for special education services. 

"Our goal is to make it a different enrichment option for them. We recognize that yes, it's serious work, and they need to learn to read [and to understand math], but it also has to be fun," emphasizes Dawn Stephen, Charles R. Drew's literacy teacher. "It has to be engaging, and they do have to burn some energy because it is their time away from the general classroom. So there have to be opportunities for them to talk, to move, to get up and down, and to touch materials that they wouldn't generally touch in the classroom."

It is wonderful that students are not having to be pulled out of their math and english classes, but I wonder what the students miss by opting out of their robotics, gym and art classes. Is there a way to incorporate the skills these students need to attain into gym, art and music classes rather than having them miss out on a well rounded school experience?

(italicized paragraphs are my comments/critiques)

[thosewhocanteach]

SEL Is Good Teaching

If you're engaging all students in classroom discussions, offering them responsibility and choice, and communicating with warmth and support, you may already be teaching SEL.

Students’ emotional well-being can affect their learning as well! We must remember to teach the whole student.

“Students also experience emotions that originate in the classroom and are especially relevant to learning. For example, achievement emotions are feelings of success or failure (and everything in between) that result from classroom activities. In the charter school where I taught a few years ago, teachers openly discussed with students the anxiety and stress that came with certain activities, such as taking tests or public speaking, and helped students develop strategies that they could use in those situations. Although the school didn't have an SEL program at the time, teachers knew how to incorporate students' emotions during class to improve their disposition toward learning. Students can also experience emotions related to the topics addressed in class. Do you know students who get excited at just the thought of working in the lab or participating in an art contest? What about students that shut down in front of math problems or poetry? Great teachers care about the subjects they teach and have meaningful ways to share this passion in the classroom. Planning engaging lessons is a great way to incorporate social and emotional skills. Start by asking yourself, ‘What do I want students to know, feel, and do at the end of this lesson?’"

[thosewhocanteach]

It’s imperative for teachers to empower all of their students and build confidence in learning. A classroom environment where students are not afraid to take risks and learn from their peers may not be easy work, but it is necessary work. It also provides students with disabilities and students with different learning styles to express their own methods of learning/teaching.

[thosewhocanteach]

How 'Hamilton' helps me teach about xenophobia and immigration

Because of his students’ cultural identities, their responses to Donald Trump and the pro-immigration message of "Hamilton," one teacher decided to create a project that would synthesize these ideas in ways that are culturally responsive while reaching far beyond the scope of Broadway and this year’s presidential race.

“After conducting this research and submitting a portfolio with several artifacts, students will collaborate on a creative presentation in which they must present their research using the multi-modal elements of hip-hop culture (rap, spoken word, DJ, break dance, graffiti art). Ultimately, students must accomplish what Miranda did when writing “Hamilton”: tell a story about immigration, identity and legacy using hip-hop as the medium.

It would have been easy to have students analyze primary source documents and then demonstrate their understanding by writing a rap. That might have been fun, creative, and academically rigorous, but for me it would fall short of what’s possible when we think about the musical’s potential to engage a diverse population of students from immigrant backgrounds.”

[thosewhocanteach]

Why I Dropped Everything And Started Teaching Kendrick Lamar’s New Album

When Kendrick Lamar released his sophomore album, To Pimp A Butterfly (2015), I was in the middle of teaching a unit on Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye (1970). My freshmen students were…

“Our 21st century students are great consumers. They are saturated with information, media, and layers of subtext. If we don’t ask them to critique different kinds of media, to “read” the world through a critical lens, we aren’t teaching literacy at all. They must become producers of new knowledge and new understandings, new texts and new meanings.”

[thosewhocanteach]

This teacher remixes Beyonce’s hit song “Formation” to help her students remember math rules and inspire confidence in their learning.

This class outdoes themselves when two of their Spanish speaking students recite the lyrics in Spanish.

[thosewhocanteach]

"It’s our problem free [teaching] philosophy...”

We all have teachers we remember and teachers who fade out in our memories. The ones that don’t cross our minds every so often are those who may have been decent teachers, but they may not have made a significant impact on our lives that we can effortlessly recall. We also have those teachers who we are likely to remember as we grow old. These teachers may have not believed in us or made us feel like we weren’t good students or, on the contrary, these teachers may have inspired and given us keys to success that we carry with us everyday.  I can very clearly remember the teachers that influenced me, from kindergarten to twelfth grade; from Ms. Hall who taught us the meaning of integrity in third grade, to Mrs. Jones who made it her mission to get us to think critically in the tenth grade.

A commonality that all teachers share, whether they are memorable or not, is the amount of time they spend with their students. Teachers sometimes spend more time with their students than the students’ parents are able to, due a variety of circumstances. That includes the fact that for about five days a week, ten months out of the year, students spend six hours a day within the walls of school. It is no surprise then, that teachers are able to have such an impact on students, to the point that students sometimes, accidentally, call their teacher mom or dad (much to their own embarrassment). This is not to say that parents don’t play an enormous, irreplaceable role in their children’s lives. However, teachers fill many roles for their students throughout their academic and personal lives.

With this in mind, I know that my sole responsibility will not be to teach my students subject matter designated by curriculum. I will not just be a cog in the machine to get students to pass tests. It will be my responsibility to influence students to be well rounded scholars, to teach them to think critically about the world around them and give them the resources to do so successfully. I hope to prepare them to be successful adults. I aspire to be able to convey to my students that learning isn’t purely academic, but that it is lifelong process; that learning is an approach to life that one can use to better navigate the individual paths we are on.  And that our paths often cross with others and we are able to learn from them; often those people happen to be teachers.

In order to be the best teacher for my students, I must also continue to see myself as a learner and student of life. I must maintain my philosophy for teaching by being an example to my students. I realize that that involves me being an active learner and seeking knowledge and support when I face challenges. It means using the resources available to me and collaborating with my mentors, colleagues and friends for support in the process. By sharing this process with my students, I hope this will positively influence their learning and demonstrate that it is not an isolated, rigid process that involves unnecessary hardship. I hope to show them that struggling can produce valuable outcomes for both them and those around them. By including them in my own learning process, I hope to show them that I am not all knowing or all powerful because of my role as a teacher. I hope to empower them and motivate them to higher levels and expand their horizons. I want them to know that although I can provide them with the paint, brushes and canvas, it is their mind, their technique, and their vision that creates the masterpiece.

-Antiganee