Reflection

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vjoooTwHjOr8rYjKg_Vy0gpAhb9RdcFgLQtyNuEnrII/edit?usp=sharing

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FYqlFCo2QowGLOLAFM5QKkXCPUWDYYrHErkubt9XGUM/edit?usp=sharing

Teaching at the Intersections: 

Honor and teach about your students' multiple identities

Quotes:

1. "We need your help building this house, but your probably should listen to know what to do first." This quote from the "Tips for Being an Ally" video, I feel, encompassed everything we have talked about thus far in this class. Whether it's about power, privilege, or being an ally, our first job needs to be to listen. Listening allows us to educate ourselves, so we can then educate others. We, as the ally, need to understand our privilege, and how we can use that privilege to help others. "Before I can fight for the rights of others, I need to understand the right's I have that other's don't." I really enjoyed this video and, of course, got sucked into the rabbit hole and found this one along the way and really liked it too!
2. "Teaching with intersectionality in mind means “seeing your students as more than just the thing that stands out in the classroom, as far as race or their gender, and understanding that there’s a long background to all those things.” This reminded me a lot of the color blindness vs. color insight. By saying that we are color blind, we are ignoring the background and history that each individual in our classroom has. We, as teachers, need to not only see them for who they are, but also for where they come from. We need to understand that maybe our student has to make dinner and do the dishes for her family every night and that is why she can't do her homework. I had a student in my class last year who, as a second grader, had the highest IQ in his house. He had different expectations for homework because we knew that when he went home he was raising his 2 year old brother. He made his family dinner, fed the baby, put him to bed, and then took care of his house. Looking at him, this was something you would never know, but we as educators need to see past what we just "see".
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3. “Adults are responsible for helping students to have a safe space to navigate how they identify themselves and what intersections they see of themselves.” This is so important. If our students learn anything from us, it should be that our classroom is a safe space where they can just be. Whether that means in our class is the only space they feel comfortable identifying their preferred pronoun, or it's where they can talk openly and freely about their struggles, than that is all we can hope for. No matter what a student is through, I would hope that they would know that they can come to me with anything. For this reason, I have made it my mission recently to get to know more of the older kids in our building. Since my school only has 35 students, it's not a hard task. We have been inviting them to our room for reading buddies, or lunch bunch visits, and just making our classroom space an open, welcoming area, for anyone who needs it, and I take pride in that. 

New Rules Hurt Bilingual Students

By: Sarah Hesson and Rachel Toncelli 

Teaching Bilingual (Even If You're Not One!) 

By: CUNY-NYSIEB

Teaching Multilingual Children

By: Virginia Collier

Aria

By: Richard Rodriguez

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SO many articles! SO many thoughts! Here are my 3 talking points:

1. I started by watching the CUNY-NYSIEB videos first and what really stood out to me was the language. I absolutely loved how they refer to their students as Emergent Bilinguals, and learning "English as a new language". Just that terminology alone, I feel, would make students learning english feel more welcomed and included. I think that the usual titles that we hear of, "English as a second language" or "English language learners", in my opinion, don't sound as open to the child's original language as "English as a new language". EANL sounds like the child will just be adding more skills to the repertoire, rather than replacing their first language with English. I also watched the 2nd and 3rd videos in these series and I love that in the second video, their classroom's are co-taught with a teacher who is a fluent Spanish speaker and a non-Spanish speaker. I can only imagine the level of variety those students are getting every day in the ways that they are taught. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the Sarah Hesson article from 2017 that talked about RIDE wanting to cut the amount of time ESL students were spending with ESL teachers. I really hope that this didn't pass because it sounds like a nightmare for those poor students. I can't imagine spending a majority of my day being "taught" in another language, that I barely understood. 
2. I think the short but sweet Richard Rodriguez article perfectly articulates how important it is to assure students learning English that their language is valued, important, and should never be pushed aside. When frustrated me the most is how the nuns at his school probably felt that they had done so much good after visiting the home because things changed, when in fact it was the opposite. The nuns encouraging the family to speak English at home eventually led the family to become distant from each other and the only ones it benefited was themselves because Richard began to speak up in class, whoopdie do. 
3. "Do not forbid young students from code-switching in the classroom. Understand the functions that code-switching serves"(Collier article). I can't even begin to imagine all of the benefits of code-switching, but what I can imagine is how much skill and concentration it must take to be able to do that. I speak Spanish, not very well, but enough to hold a conversation. However, when I am trying my hardest to speak the language, that is all I can focus on. If I'm trying Spanish, I'm speaking only Spanish. The idea of being able to switch between the two to get your point across and be understood or get your needs met is incredibly impressive, and no educator, or anyone for that matter should downplay that skill.

Argument Statement:

The argument for all of these is pretty simple...we need to empower students learning English, while also encouraging their native language. Whether or not we speak the language of the student, there are so many things we can do to help them and it's our job to do that.  

Going to School Documentary

So, this documentary made my head spin because it was a time capsule that was only a sliver less horrible in nature than the one we watched about the Groton school. Anyway, I have found over the course of these blog posts that I best formulate my thought's while bouncing off of quotes, so here are just a few that smacked me in the face stood out to me while watching:

"I am not willing to negotiate my child's education."-Mrs. Martinez (2:37)

Not much to be said about this other than the fact that I commend Mrs. Martinez so much for her dedication to her child. Through out this entire documentary, we see her busting her behind for not only her son, but other people's children with special needs. She is the definition of an advocate for not only her son, but for all of the children in that district with special needs.

"The child learns that he or she is valuable, not expendable." -Gloria (4:50)

Wow... isn't this what we all want for the students in our classroom? To teach them that hey have value, they are worthy, and that they can do anything. I bet that the students with special needs at this school felt the farthest from that. Having to stay segregated into one part of the building or not have the proper equipment needed to get into the building must make them feel so unimportant to the school district, when it should be the other way around. 

"That she would study more, that is my greatest desire. That she would become something." -Ana's Mom (19:50)

Just like in the Groton film, this reminded me so much of Jo's mother. No matter how hard Jo's time was at Groton, her mom was just so thankful for the opportunity and wanted her to continue to strive for more and more. Ana had fragments of a bomb damage her spinal cord, and her mom's greatest desire is that she will study more and become something. From my perspective, I look at her as a survivor, and that she already has become something. But, Ana's mom took her here from her home country, leaving two other children behind, to allow Ana to make something of herself, not matter what. 

"Don't bother with the operation, this kid is so damaged, it won't matter if you correct his vision." -Aaron's Dad (31:04)

I had to include this sheerly because of how outrageous it was. To think that a doctor would say this about a child is mind blowing. I loved the part right after where the dad said something along the lines of "Well, he made it! Ha!", it was so fulfilling for me, I can't even imagine how it was for him, as Aaron's dad. 

"A society is measured by what we do for those who are most in need." -Cathy Henig (55:20)

What does this say about our society now? I look at it from a special education perspective and I see the growth and change that has occurred for the better, and it says that we have a great society. However, if I look at it through the lens of the other topics we have discussed in this class, I feel that our society has had a shift. Special education is no longer the huge fight that it was in this video, for most children and families. There is so much accessibility in school's now for families, it's incredible. However, if we look at immigrant families who need our help, or people with mental health problems and/or addiction that need our help, what is our society doing for them? How is our society measured now? We have had a shift of need, a need for more changes to be made to how our society runs. 

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Article Summaries:

"Colorblindness is the New Racism" By: Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman

If I had to pick one thing from this text that I would say is the most prevalent, I would say it would have to be identifying and naming privilege and power. Armstrong and Wildman argue that "Society cannot battle a phantom that it cannot recognize and name" and that essentially means that we won't get anywhere with changing the powers that be until we can recognize that they actually exist. More importantly, it is important to continue to try and make these changes. For example, just because we had one black president, that does not mean that every race problem in the country is solved. 

"Inclusivity is Not A Guessing Game" by Chelsea Vaught

The big picture of this article is that everyone's culture, backgrounds, beliefs, and religions needs to be thought of and recognized in the school systems. As teacher's, it is our job to learn about or students, and also encourage them to learn about themselves. If model an interest in other people's culture, kids will follow suit. Teaching students that we can all be different, and celebrate those differences, is so important. It will raise a generation of inclusive and kids adults, and hopefully will begin to make the much needed change in our world. For the purpose of my final project, the majority of the content came form this article. When talking about this with my students, the dialogue will look a little like this:

"Do we all look the same? Do we all celebrate the same holidays? Have we learned everything there is to know about all the kids in this classroom? No way! There is so much we don't know about where everyone's families come from, what they celebrate, and what they look like. For this project, we will be talking about everyone's families and what makes them the same and different from our own. You will be getting the chance to ask your own families about your culture and background. Some stuff you might already know, and that's great! We all want to learn about you and can't wait to hear what you learn from your own family!"

Safe Spaces

By: Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megan S Kennedy

1. "Classrooms lay the foundations for an inclusive and safe society: a just community where common interests and individual differences coexist".

There are so many parts to this that are important. The "key words" that stick out are:

• lay the foundation
• inclusive
• safe society
• community
• individual
• coexist

How is all of that so important in one sentence?! As teachers, it is our job to lay that foundation for a classroom where students can come everyday and actually want to be there. It's our job to make sure the space is inclusive for everyone no matter their ability, race, gender, sexuality, you name it. It is our job to make every student feel safe and a part of the classroom community. We need to meet each child where they are are on an individual level, not where a textbook says they should be, and all members of the class need to coexist. I get it, we are all in this class and this is not news to us, but it really just stood out to me how powerful one sentence could be. 

2. "Maria's lived reality as a young lesbian was erased by the teacher's red pen".

Wow...yet again all I can say is wow. It is wild for me, as a straight person who never had to even think about my sexuality being questioned, to think that in a second your entire identity could be erased by a single person. I can't even begin to imagine the hurt she must have felt in those moments of processing "Should I tell her she's wrong? Will it even matter? Does she even care?" Now, imagine the impact that teacher could have had by simply giving her credit for that answer and moving on. Maria would have been validated in herself, not by a flashing light saying "I ACCEPT YOU!!", but just a subtle checkmark to say "Excellent, I'm happy for you". As I'm writing this response, all I can hear is this song in my head, and for all of us Musical Theater fans, enjoy! 😀

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3. "One reason educators take the path of least resistance is their fear of negative repercussions from parents or administrators". 

We talked about this a lot when talking about power and privilege and how to pick and choose what you want to teach and how you are going to teach it to make it the most effective and impactful while not going against administration. However, the phrase "the path of least resistance" really resonated with me. It really seems.... honestly lazy. I know that I can confidently say that I am in a school that backs 99% of things I want to do... but I'm sorry, we all need a little resistance, am I right? I mean, even like I brought up last class about teaching in Central Falls and the principal asking me if I was going to do anything about the kids in my room who needed to stand. That is one of those times where a little resistance if not a bad thing. Is she going to fire me for letting a kid stand? No. Is he getting his needs met, feeling respected and heard in my classroom? Yes. Then that's all that matters. Same goes for discussions around LGBT topics.

*This author argues that simply, as a teacher, it is our job to make our classroom a safe environment for all students regardless of their sexuality. No student should enter our classroom and feel less, or erased, or not thought of. *