6/20 The Beauty of Bilingual Learners

 

It is one of the greatest downfalls of American education that those in power seem to be completely unaware of the hidden power of bilingual learners. These texts and videos reminded me so much of the Precious Knowledge documentary because of the ways that students experiencing their language and culture made them so much more engaged in education.

 I watched the "Teaching Bilinguals" videos first before reading any texts and was so inspired at the stories of the success that those educators achieved in humbling themselves to be in a place where English may not be the primary language spoken and they may not be understanding everything their students are saying. As someone who works in education, it feels like a necessity to understand EVERYTHING that goes on in the classroom because of the fear that something important is happening and you don't know it. I so appreciated the perspective of the teacher who knew hardly any Spanish and was teaching her students from the place of "we can all learn something together", which is maybe the most engaging stance for a teacher to have in a classroom. It involves and validates the students in a way that a teacher who "knows everything" never can. 

It was hard to follow those hopeful videos with the "Aria" article by Richard Rodriguez. I was so deeply sad reading their story of gradual estrangement from their language, culture, parents, and eventually themselves. The way the author described everything made me think of brainwashing their subconscious into feeling like they weren't validated in speaking Spanish anymore, like they no longer had ownership of the words. "After English became my primary language, I no longer knew what words to use when addressing my parents. The old Spanish words (those tender accents of sounds) I had used earlier-mama and papa-I couldn't use anymore. They would have been too painful reminders of how much had changed in my life."It is so tragic for a person to feel so detached from their first language, and I can imagine (and the author describes) causes an acute change in the way the person views themselves. "Today I hear bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of 'individuality' by becoming assimilated into public society... But the bilingualists simplistically scorn the value and necessity of assimilation." And the author goes on to say that assimilation does make public individuality possible. This was an interesting and complicating statement and while you can hear the heartbreak in the authors stories, they do acknowledge the value of gaining English and a public language. 

"Teaching Multilingual Children" by Virginia Collier was a more difficult article for me to read because of all the technical educational guidelines and tips, though I gained some grounding understanding that helped me better understand "Aria". The emphasis on Caregiver speech was fascinating and reminds me so much of how I have viewed children learning their first language. "Eradication, which may be said to be the traditional view of the language-teaching profession as a whole, looks upon dialects other than standard as deficient in themselves, as deserving of the stigma they have attracted, and as the causes of severe problems in the total learning process including the acquisition of reading and writing skills", Guadalupe Valdes writes. The way I comprehended this is that educators moralize language and dialects as "right" or "wrong" and that when students can lose the old language and gain the new that they can access much better futures. This is a sad and deplorable use of time in school and educational experiences lose so much richness from the variety of students and background and languages if we just try to take away student's experiences prior to English. 

I really enjoyed the emphasis on the important of literacy in the primary language before trying to enforce literacy of a second and new language and how this can hurt the child's primary language skills. "The 'most successful long-term academic achievement occurs where the students' primary language is the initial language of literacy'".  This makes sense as a tool to not only affirm the primary language but to also give student's another tool in their tool belt while also enhancing their confidence. 

I was looking through Google about the research being done on code-switching and found this really interesting, short video on research being done at NYU.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W48ORvJ7uqM

This TED-Ed video describes the benefits of having a bilingual brain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmOLN5zBLY

6/17 Final Project Article Summaries

 

1) Recommitting to the Joyful Classroom by the editors of Rethinking Schools is an article that I was reading that explained to my why it's important for us to feel joy, at school and just in life. Our world can feel really messy and hard sometimes, and it can be hard to remember good things in the middle of all that. Having the feeling of joy isn't just being happy, though. Having joy means that we have a lasting sense of contentment, in spite of bad things. And it doesn't mean that bad things don't still happen or that we ignore them, but we can still use our imaginations, be kind, laugh, play, and love each other. We forget sometimes that bad things can't swallow us whole because they feel like that, but we can choose to walk a different path...the path of joy! This article was teaching me that school should be a place of fostering joy and teaching it to you guys. In order for us to get through hard times, we NEED to express joy by making music, writing, singing, running outside, dancing, laughing, and talking. There are so many creative and fun ways to feel joy. Do you think you have ever felt joy? What is your favorite joyful thing to do?

2) The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies by Christine Sleeter is another article I read that inspired me to talk to you guys. Sleeter was trying to share how important it is for people to understand their family's history. Who here knows stories about their ancestors? It's a really important thing to know where we come from and the history of our ancestors (the people in our family who came before us). It shapes our ideas of ourselves and colors in some of the blanks that we may have in our minds about who we are. This can be something that brings us joy and pride. One easy way to practice this it to ask your oldest relative if they know any stories about your ancestors (grandparents, great grandparents or even farther back). Then we can do some research to dig more into the places we come from and our backgrounds. We can see the joy in our family's lives by seeing the patterns of hardship, but also their perseverance and contentment! 

6/17 Rethinking Sex and Gender and Reshaping our Brains

 

Unlearning and relearning can be some of the hardest work in life. It is so important for everyone, but especially the professionals in the school systems to do that work. We have all grown up with different norms and beliefs and expectations for the world, and we have to be able to grow and expand and change as our world does. The world has become increasingly more aware and accepting of people who are LGBTQIA+, which is necessary and beautiful. As nurses and educators, we have to do the work of putting aside old cultural norms and some of the things we learned or internalized as children in order to make room for this more inclusive world. I often find myself frustrated when it is hard for my brain to remember another's pronouns, wanting to be sure I don't make a mistake and not to injure someone with my assumptions. I fully embrace that I am not perfect, but always want to always be loving to those around me. 

The RIDE Guidance for Rhode Island Schools on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students was a helpful tool that I have never read completely. I have heard it referenced by others in my school but it was enlightening to learn what was specified in it. In order to be a good ally and advocate, we must hold to the exact laws that have to do with our students and colleagues who may be in this category. These practices will help us to not only protect our students but to ensure that they feel safe being themselves and expressing themselves the way that they need to in order to feel like they are a respected part of society. 

The Trevor Project article was of further assistance since it did a better job using more accessible terminology and language to detail the ways in which we can all be better allies to our youth. I think the way this article was formatted was very telling about the steps in which we need to become allies.

1) We must understand and be educated. As we all know, knowledge is power, and in this case the knowledge of the differences between gender, sex, and gender expression are vital. We must have the humility to express what we do not know and understand and have the perseverance to learn. 

2) Respect is something that every human being deserves. Properly calling people by their preferred pronouns and names we are respecting them and honoring their identities. The point is also made in the article that this respect can and does save lives! 

3) Finally the article addressed the myriad of ways that we as people can mess this up, by mis-naming someone, by not listening, and not being accountable for our words and actions. Committing to doing better after apologizing is always the best road to take in this situation, as it is important to learn from our missteps. We are all human and therefore will all make mistakes, we are not perfect but for the sake of our students and those around us, taking accountability is the best way to move forward. 

This article argues that everyone deserves the right to feel safe, loved, and known and we can be part of facilitating that by being educated and informed, paying attention and asking questions, while also making sure that if/when we mess up that we apologize and commit to better choices. These simple instructions feel very accessible and is something that every person should be committed to while interacting with others in the world. Hopefully, we can all make a lifelong commitment to unlearning and relearning.

6/12 TEACH OUT PROJECT PROPOSAL- "SUMMER OF JOY"

 

Choose a text:

 1) https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/recommitting-to-the-joyful-classroom/

 -Recommitting to the Joyful Classroom by the editors at Rethinking Schools. We have not read this one collectively as a class, but it focuses on the importance of student's experiencing and classrooms focusing on being joy-filled, not just happy or absent of struggle but able to feel a deep and abiding sense of contentment even during pain or sadness.

2) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xuqWXdvnACgQe6nK5JcSuAzszPE6FvQJ/view

-The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies by Christine Sleeter. This article discusses so many of the ways that a child embracing and learning about themselves and their heritage enriches their experience at school as well as their value of their own life. To me, this is a great example of self-care in students and allows them to feel distinct joy because of the ways that they get to warmly embrace themselves and their own history. 

WHO IS THIS FOR??

K-5th grade students! I would love to focus on ways that students can care for their joy over the summer, especially when every circumstance and home situation over break isn't the greatest. I will dive into practical ways they can steward their joy, as well as highlighting ways they can care for their bodies well in the summer heat! 

WHAT FORMAT?

I have a cork board in our main school hallway the I use to provide education health info to the kids. I switch it out every month or so. Before school is over I'm going to create a display on my board about the "Summer of Joy". 

6/12 Canaries, troublemakers, and white supremacy OH MY

 

1) In the book Troublemakers, Shallaby is emphasizing over and over again the importance of the kids who schools have branded as the delinquents, the disruptors. They act as a litmus test for our education system and whether or not it is thriving. "Our school are designed to prepare children to take their assigned place in the social order rather than to question and challenge that order. Because we train youth in the image of capitalism instead of a vision of freedom-for lives as individual workers rather than solitary human beings...". This was a super strong quote, and deeply resonated with what I have witnessed in the school system in the year I have spent there. 

2) "With these youngest of people, the desire for self directed learning is fierce. They move and run and jump and skip, they do not sit still for long stretches...."As they author speaks on babies and toddlers in this quotation, I can't help but think of how some school are moving to more alternative ways of teaching. I have a friend who is currently teaching at a nature school in TN. The school is public and there are a myriad of children that attend this school who remind me so much of the labled "defiant" kids in the article. They have room and space to grow and flex and challenge, while also getting some of what they so badly need...time outside, time to be kids, which miraculously helps regulate their nervous systems. I wish every school could function like this. Obviously there are still many issues to be overcome but I love that adding more time in nature assists kids in their quest for freedom in learning. 

3) "Thus, the withholding of education is a political tool used to maintain and ensure an economic and social underclass." The author goes on to describe how it was illegal during slavery to teach Black people to read, thus preventing them from accessing the power of writing or organizing. It is devastating after reading all the DEI decrees made by Trump to think about this quote and think of all the compounding factors that we have to work against when it comes to making education equitable and accessible for all people, particularly those without privilege. I was frustrated a lot while reading this article because I found myself excusing some of the educators in my school behaviors because the kids act in such a way that is sometimes dangerous to one another and so disruptive that they have no other choice but to separate them from the class. I had to keep reminding myself that the students I was thinking of have been raised in this system and experienced compounded years of the detriments of Western education. No kid wants to be the bad kid. That is Shallaby's argument, and it means that we have failed and it is our job to figure out why and how to fix it.

6/10 "Doing Race Talk with Teachers"

 

Dyan Watson wrote "Doing Race Talk with Teachers" from the Winter 2019-2020 edition of Rethinking Schools. This is a link to a little staff bio on Watson from her time teaching at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR. 

 https://www.lclark.edu/live/news/43838-for-the-love-of-teaching-dyan-watson-departs-lampc

Link to the full article:

https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/doing-race-talk-with-teachers/

This article speaks to one professor's attempts to bring teachers into the headspace of race in the classroom in a healthy and informed way. She used so many personal stories along with teaching prompts and ways of using empathetic thinking in order to showcase the importance of how we think and view race in education. "My aim is to send into schools teachers who are adept at designing curricula that respond to the diversity of the community and prepare their students to be kind, socially just participants in a democracy. I want my student to understand how race influences how they teach and interact with students. I want them to constantly think about how race intersects with both teaching and learning". After participating in our class and also reading through the personal stories she includes, I can't help but see the way that traditional Western education does a disservice to students of color and those who are not privileged. 

Near the end of the article she highlights a personal story about AAVE (African American Vernacular English). "The two most helpful ways I'vs dealt with this burden [not having a team of allies present in her corner] in the classroom is to do a lesson on [AAVE], and on my fears as a parent raising Black boys. The lesson about AAVE usually comes within a unit on language and power. I begin with an exercise I got from Rethinking Schools editor Linda Christensen. I ask the class master's degree-seeking candidates the following..." She continues to describe a prompt where she asks students to describe why they want to be teachers, but in writing they have to follow three rules: no "s" on plural words, no "s" on possessive words, and no "s" on third person verbs (aka "He swim", "we swim", and "they swim". After writing she asked the students to write a response about the experience, some of their reflections were, "'It's hard to think about grammar and answer the prompt'...'I had all these ideas but then when I saw the rules, I abandoned them'. I point out that when students have to focus on rules instead of ideas, the ideas suffer and that when teachers prioritize speaking in a language or manner that isn't natural or native, it diminishes self-worth." I loved this as an exercise in true empathy and understanding what it would be like to be forced into this box by the educational system that so many students feel. I think as a tandem to this it's important to remember what we learned about in the Delpitt article about how "students must be taught the codes needed to participate fully in the mainstream of American life" while still being encouraged to express themselves in a way that feels genuine to their culture and history. She includes many more ways that she brings students into a mind frame that better helps them to understand the importance on including race in not only their thought process but into their classrooms. 

Her stated goal for her classroom is to bring teachers to a place by the end of the semester when they are asking different questions than at the beginning. Instead of saying things like "Urban kids don't want to learn as much as the other students in class" they will ask things like, "How do we empower students to use their home language and provide them the tools to be successful in a racist world?". To be teachers who own that their classroom is a gateway for many and that they only need to be open-minded about to hand each student the keys. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61e4ZHm6Oqc&t=8s

This is a video of Watson speaking at an event, reading a letter she wrote to her son Caleb, at 24:09. I highly recommend watching it as it is something she reads to her master's students at the end of their semester. 

6/5/25- Accurate and Relevant Representation in Curriculum

 

After reading through the Trump executive orders earlier this week, I thought this article was a great example of why DEI is important and vital to schools. There was so much research mentioned in this article about how curriculum (specifically surrounding race and how people of that race are portrayed and discussed) affects kids in schools and colleges. We can't say enough that REPRESENTATION MATTERS, but also how are those people represented? Sleeter argues throughout this entire article that the lack of appropriate representation and the dominance of Euro-American perspectives discourages engagement with students of color and that ethnic studies is a way for them to re-engage with education. 

1. "Systematic analyses, however, consistently find the opposite. While content related to African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans has been added, deeper patterns and narratives that reflect Euro-American experiences and worldviews, and that have traditionally structured K–12 textbooks—particularly history and social studies texts—remain intact". Even with all the progress in our country with all of these diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives we have still missed out on so much in the realm of educational curriculum. How is a student of color going to feel engaged, but also involved in a history course if the only time they see themselves in it is during discussions of racial violence, slavery, aad black history month? It feels as though these narratives were sprinkled in to meet a quota and the actual work of "what does it mean to live in history and our current age as a _____ person?" has not been done. It reminds me of the article we read by Delpitt and their view of the Silenced Dialogue.

2. "Like the eighth graders interviewed by Epstein, 43 gifted Black middle school students interviewed by Ford and Harris (2000) all expressed a desire to learn more about Black people in school; most agreed that this would make school more interesting, and almost half agreed that they got tired of learning about White people all the time." I remember being so excited in school anytime we would talk about a female person in history. It felt important, like seeing something that I could do just because someone else of my gender had done it. This is a small example in light of the topic of race and having appropriate representation, but the feeling is there. It is vital to student to see themselves in history and books, not only in situations that are compromising and hostile but there are too many good examples of people of color in our world who could be better represented/talked about in these school books. Can you imagine the change in student engagement?? It's hard to never be the one represented, especially not in a positive or uplifting light. 

3. "Lewis (2001) found several White parents she interviewed to believe that talking about race would be divisive, even in the context of Black History Month, and to dismiss ethnic diversity with statements such as 'We should all be Americans.' " The colorblindness theory is very much at work in these findings. "It's too hard or painful or divisive to talk about race (we would have to own our privilege and power) so let's just forget it and all be American". This feels very much like the sentiment of the executive orders regarding DEI. It's as though these white people just want to "move on" and forget that race exists. In the meantime, however, our systems that support diversity and inclusion have just been directly attacked and it is disturbing to see our executive office take this stance, and sadly leadership does dictate a lot of where our country will go.