Christy’s Blog Page

I would be lying if I said I had never complained about a parent spending too much time in the classroom or at the school or one that never comes and shows any kind of support at all for their child’s educational success.  Every teacher has complained about one of these two things, if not both before.  On p. 385 it reads, “Whereas educators stress participation in organized school events and parents who keep up with the details of lessons, parents often see the care, support, encouragement, and cultural values they give their children as the foundation for their success in school.”  I found this interesting because as so many of us complain that the parents aren’t working with their children at home, sometimes we forget to stop and think about the time in which those parents have with their children while their not working trying to put support their wellbeing.  They lend their support to their children by saying words of encouragement to them, caring for them, and instilling their values and beliefs within them.  It would be interesting to walk in their shoes…maybe we would understand a little better and maybe some would care a little more. 

It is important to show parents that you care about their child.  I read on p. 386, “Hard work and patience are essential.  Parents may not respond immediately to teachers’ goodwill and invitation to become an active part of their children’s success in class.”  Just as one doesn’t run before walking, relationships take time to form and maintenance is needed to contain them.  Some things that I do that make a positive difference is call parents and tell them something positive about their child.  Not only does this make the child feel good, but the parent takes ownership in the behavior as well.  The parent won’t cringe the next time you introduce yourself on the other line of the phone call and wonder what terrible thing their child did to deserve a phone call home.  A new thing our school just started is sending positive postcards recognizing students through the mail.  All postage is paid for by the school and it only takes a minute to write a positive note acknowledging a good deed or task done by the student.  Wouldn’t you just love to see that student’s face when the parent brings that postcard to the child and reads it?  Wouldn’t you love to see the parent’s face?  Both of these things let the parents and the students know you care and by showing that, you are developing a trusting parent/teacher relationship. 

I read on p. 399, “Learning from families and community members enhances teachers’ capacity to care, but care is not only about “knowing”; it requires doing as well.  W.E.B. DuBois addressess this crucial element of care.  He instructs teachers to reach back in time and acknowledge the history of their students’ and community’s social circumstances.”  He calls this notion…”sympathetic touch.”  He continues to go through three qualities of care that “bridge schools and communities” (p.399)  If you read through these qualities, you will find (as I did) that they mirror the Critical Child Project that we are doing for this class.  My question is, however, while I feel it is important to understand the culture of our children critically, is it feasible to do a cultural in-depth study of each student in ones class?  How can we understand each of our students culture (history, aspirations, values, etc.) if time is not permitted to actually do an in-depth study?  What is the alternative?  Is the culture quilt assignment something that we as teachers can utilize to learn more about our students culture or is there more?  I wish I had a checklist that I could pull out to assist me in my culturally responsive teaching.

One last thing I found interesting and made note of was the response Mary Ann Pecheco gave to some parents on p. 401 when they were concerned that their child was talking too much.  She responded by saying, “in higher education, the willingness to initiate conversations, participation in group projects, and dialogue were required of students and highly valued.”  What a great response!  I think I may actually use that response in a parent/teacher conference…but it so true!  As students ourselves, we all know how important it is to initiate conversations, participate in group projects, and carry on dialogue during conversations.  While some of us don’t do this often…that doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t have a lot to say.  :0) 

School culture is everything!  Without it, one could lose the fire and passion for teaching and learning.  This chapter focused on school culture and how new teachers and seasoned teachers learned from one another to improve their school culture and the instruction in which they teach.  On p. 340, it read, “New teachers can make use of their heightened perception, but they also need to be aware that the existing culture does not take happily to those who challenge it abruptly.  After all, the culture is normal; challengers are not.”  I have known more than one teacher who didn’t like to experience change.  Change is uncomfortable, especially when change is conducted by someone who is new to the learning community.  I have always had the opinion that if changes need to be made, they should be made slowly and collaboratively.  A true leader, I believe, throws an idea out and allows others to elaborate and make changes where one sees fit.  The leader then takes those ideas and puts action into place where needed.  It may not be exactly what everyone wants, but it is a decision that was collaboratively made and was not made abruptly. 

 I like the idea on p.345 that reads, “When schools offer all students an intellectually rich curriculum and expect all of them to perform well, students get the message “We believe you can do it.”  This is key, although unfortunantly, not all teachers feel this way.  Do you ever wonder what teacher your students are going to get for the following year, what kind of instruction they will be exposed to, or how they will be treated?  Will the next teacher care about them like I do or will those that you have worked so hard with fall between the cracks because they lack the support they once had?  I think about these things.  Each teacher is different-we differ in personality and teaching styles.  What if I act one way with a child one year and they get something totally different the next year?  Does that impact their academic development in a negative way?  How can we be activists for social justice and the development of caring student/teacher relationships if one doesn’t have the same passion for teaching that you carry with you on a daily basis?  I feel as though I am blessed to work in a school in which I feel that most teachers value the kind of school culture described in this chapter.  Our teachers are dedicated to student learning and acheivement and caring relationships are noticable by the looks on children’s smiling faces.  This is not the case in every school, that is why change begins with those who are activists for social justice and a positive school culture.  We, as a result of some of things I feel we have learned by going through this program, begins with us…         

As I listened to Gorski the other night, I kept thinking…Wow!  He knows a whole lot about culture and what we’ve been talking about over the past year!  It was almost a bit overwhelming…how does one get to know that much about something and he looked so young!  For me though, I guess that is why we are here, in this program, learning about the things we are learning.  Our minds have begun to think about things that I had no idea we would be thinking about when signing up for this program.  It’s a good thing.  Culture is apart of all of us…it’s how we identify with who we are.  Wouldn’t it just make sense for us as educators to tap into our students culture to understand who they are a little bit better.  Shouldn’t this be how we should drive instruction?  Gorski made a good comment…”We should just throw out all those tests.”  I agree…when are we going to begin teach our students instead of teaching our standards?  When is what’s best for our students going to be the driving force of how we plan our curriculum?  Why is the CRCT the measure of what is important for our children?  It’s silly and it’s only going to get worse with NCLB.  Gorski made many good points…ones that I never really thought of before…such as the perceptions made by the media on certain socioeconomic communities.  We see more of the bad with the lower socioeconomic groups because it is not hidden as well as it is in the higher socioeconomic communities.  Gorski makes me want to learn more about the message he brought to us. 

I read the article the was written by Anita Bohn and found it interesting because I had always heard great things about Ruby Payne and her strategies for teaching children who come from poverty.  I heard of Ruby Payne about six years ago when I first began teaching.  My principal had introduced our staff to the book and told us a little about its content.  I never read the book after that, though I wondered about her message to educators.  This article surprised me because I did not know some of the things that it described.  For example, the article said that she owned her own publishing company so that gave her rights to publish really anything she wrote.  It also accused her of publishing and holding conferences based on unresearched information.  While I do not know this to be true (as I am only going by what this article implies), I wonder about the validity of the message she brings to educators of poverty stricken schools.  Is her message true or is it false?  I cannot say, more research is required of me to make an accurate analysis.  I found her questions on the second page of the article interesting as well.  I found myself asking the question about the lower class questions…”does the lower-class really know the answers to these questions or is this some kind of stereotyping?  Where did Ruby Payne get these questions and how valid are they of the lower-class?  Again, more research is needed to answer this question.  I thought the same of the middle class questions as well.  Bottom line…teachers don’t need someone to come in to their school and tell them how to teach poverty stricken kids based on the questions listed in this article…kids need to know you care and that you are going to stand by them and help them to succeed.  Trust can make the biggest difference in whether a child succeeds or fails.  No graphic organizer is going to give that kind of assistance to a child…all they need is YOU…