Effective Learning Can't Take Place Without Relationship
Effective Learning Can't Take Place Without Relationship
by Lauren Creek
At this point in our program if you don't understand how important it is to create authentic relationships with your students then here I am jumping up and down waving in front of your face screaming "HELLO!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN???". There is nothing that we have learned this year that resonates with me more than the simple but crucially important idea that each of our students are their own unique individual, and fostering genuine relationships with each of them is integral to their overall success in your classroom. I've said this before but as a person who is incredibly relational this idea seems second nature to me; of course you can't reach someone or make an impact on their life until you get to know them, show them that you are invested in their life, and truly care about them. I regularly say that if you take the time to talk to someone and meet them on their level you can at the very least find some semblance of common ground and that is how relationships get started. I truly believe once you find that common ground it opens up the possibility for the other person to share more about themselves, what they are interested in, what makes them different, and that is how you build relationships. However, I know that not all of us find this idea of creating relationships with our students and their families as easy or realistic.
- What are some concerns you have about creating relationships with your students and their families?
- What are some small steps you can take to begin this process if it feels overwhelming, uncomfortable or unrealistic to you? (see page 112-113 of "These Kids Are Out of Control" for ideas).
In Monica R. Brown's article, Educating All Students: Creating Culturally Responsive Teachers, Classrooms, and Schools, she provides us with an exhaustive list of what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher, the characteristics and actions, as well as examples of how to create a culturally responsive classroom. These long lists all deserve further investigation and time spent figuring out how to include these ideas in your classroom. Yet, while I was reading this thorough list of culturally responsive ideas and practices all I could think about is how overwhelmed I'm sure many of you felt at another long list of things you have to incorporate in your classroom to be an effective teacher. I imagined your faces looking something like this...
Forgive me for making assumptions, but overwhelmed seems to be the one constant of how we have all felt throughout this program. Somewhere in between the laundry list of things you need to consider Brown also says, "culturally responsive classrooms...specifically acknowledge the presence of culturally diverse students and the need for these students to find connections among themselves and with the subject matter" (p. 60). When you actually take the time to get to know your students as an individual, invest in their success and future you will want to do whatever it takes to make sure they thrive in your classroom. It may not always go perfectly, and as Dr. Taylor and Dr. Magee have both mentioned we'll make mistakes along the way, but each small step in the direction of what is best for our students will get us one step closer to becoming this kind of teacher.
According to Milner et. al. the four things that go into creating a caring learning environment are "being student-centered, having high expectations, persistent practices, and partnership with families and communities" (Milner et. al., p. 97). I find these all critically important but the one idea that was new to me was this idea of persistent practices and specifically consistently being a "warm demander". A warm demander is described as a teacher who "combines personal warmth with active demandingness", "they see themselves as advocates for the young people within a system that may not be so caring", "they consider the whole child" (Milner et. al., p. 111). Most importantly "warm demanders foster a caring space for their students to struggle, push back, get upset, and express the full range of emotions" and "give and earn respect, providing space for their students' whole humanity in persistent ways every day" (Milner et. al., p. 111). As I continued reading about being a warm defender it reminded me of a teacher I had in high school Mrs. Johnson because that is exactly what she was. She allowed me space in her class however I was that day whether that meant I was crying, frustrated, joyful, etc. she would check in with me and let me know she cared about what was going on with me as I struggled through a very hard time in my life. However, where other teachers would have given me a pass or ignored what was going on she still expected excellence from me and never let what was going on outside of school keep me from succeeding in her classroom. She is one of the people who inspired me to go into teaching, and she made the greatest impact on my life. She was a champion for her students, a warm demander, and that is something I want to strive for as a teacher.
This is a TED Talk given by Rita Pierson called "Every Kid Needs a Champion" and I think this goes hand in hand with the forming relationships with your students and being a warm demander. Check it out!
Questions
- How can we be champions for our students in a "system that might not be so caring"?
- Of the four characteristics of a caring classroom environment (student-centered, high expectations, persistent practices, partnerships with families and communities) which do you think will be the most difficult to enact in your classroom? The easiest? Why?
- Do you want to be a "warm demander" in your classroom? What would that look like for you?
- What are some concerns you still have about creating a safe and inviting culturally relevant classroom?
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Resources
Brown, M. R. (2007). Educating all students: Creating culturally responsive teachers, classrooms, and schools. Intervention in school and clinic, 43(1), 57-62.
Milner IV, H. R., Cunningham, H. B., Delale-O’Connor, L., & Kestenberg, E. G. (2018). “ These Kids Are Out of Control”: Why We Must Reimagine” Classroom Management” for Equity. Corwin Press.
Lauren, YOU are amazing!
ReplyDeleteYes, we must get to know our students, family, and community to fully understand the makeup of the school we are working within and our classroom community. My concern is this is going to take time and much planning. In Educating All Students by Monica Brown, I was able to connect with the two tables. We are preparing culturally responsive teachers breakdowns a process of going through to become a caring teacher. Whereas the Frameworks for culturally responsive teachers summaries the keep leaders in the culturally responsive movement concepts. I could not have appreciated the summary without reading all the previous articles that we have over this past year.
I had maybe one or two teachers that I connected with during high school. One was Mr. Green, he was the Project Challenge teacher (Outdoor leadership physical educations course), where his team used Rock Climbing, Canoeing, and Ice Climbing to develop leadership skills within the students. His approach was very similar to the “Four Areas of practice for Building a caring Classroom Environment” from Chapter four in Those kids are out of control. He challenged us to be a leader, trusted, and gave students a voice when they did not have one. This program was developed around belief, rigor, and persistent practices after all many times, I held the lifeline of an unknown classmate on the other end of the rope. More often than not a classmate that I argued with, or was on a different social, economic level so, when their head popped over the ledge, I was invested in their success that I was their friend/family. Since you asked, which was the hardest or easiest? The hardest for me was the partnership with families and communities because this will require much personal time. Knowing that I will have to spend many hours after 4 pm each day and weekends, developing lesson plans and grading papers, then squeeze in “getting to know the families” seems overwhelming. I have a strong belief in people, which I think will transfer over to students very quickly. High expectations and rigor seem like just little hurdles in my life as my family put this pressure on me throughout high school and young adulthood. I will need to reign it in so, i can make it personal for each student. I will be focusing on time, patiences and planning to meet the needs of my students.
Jay, you beat me to posting! I agree that it will take time to build relationships with parents, students, and community members. I'm not as sure about the planning portion. I'm sure I will do a lot of planning before my first school year to ensure I have opportunities to develop these relationships. However, in my experience, whenever I plan things, they never go according to plan. Though I am someone who likes organization and planning, I need to work on allowing flexibility in my schedule to build these relationships. Rather than only scheduling parent meetings, I need to be open to meeting with parents as the need arises throughout the school year.
DeleteI'm jealous, Mr. Green's class sounds fun! Though I did go to a leadership camp at Bradford Woods, I felt like the people who worked for the camp didn't actually want you to be leaders. By this I mean, they'd encourage you to be leaders when doing the activities however, afterwards, they'd want you to revert to silently following their rules. I think it's great that Mr. Green wasn't like that. I also like that you mention how his class helped you to connect with your peers. We're often so focused on the relationships between teachers and students, that we forget interactions between students have a significant impact on students' school experiences. To me, this is a huge part of creating a safe and inviting classroom. I had many negative peer interactions growing up. As a result, I didn't always feel like I had that safe environment to share my experiences/opinions in. Even if the teacher is nice, if you're getting side eye from a classmate, you're not going to want to share.
In the race for who posts first Jay wins! Thanks for sharing your experience, Jay! That sounds like an awesome program I wish we would have had something like that at our school. It sounds like Mr. Green really embodied the characteristics of a culturally responsive teacher. I think it will take a lot of time to plan and build relationships when we're first starting out, but once we have experience with doing all of these things I have to believe it will get easier. Our lessons will be more tweaking or adding knew parts as we learn more about the curriculum and our students which will free up more time for other things like making connections with your students and their parents. It's easy to get bogged down with all these things especially because we're so removed from the actual action of setting up our own classroom and engaging with the families and communities. I know you'll get there once you get some experience!
DeleteLauren, I laughed when reading your post. Yes, hopefully by this point we all know how important connections are! Honestly, I’m not worried about forming connections with my students. When subbing and working with our 3rd grade buddies, my favorite part has just been sitting down and talking with them. I am nervous about connecting with parents. I’m just not sure what to expect. Before going into teaching, I heard many people say that the hardest part of teaching was appeasing concerned parents. In "These Kids Are Out of Control", they discuss reaching out to parents to share positive news (2019, p. 122). Though this may seem like an obvious idea, traditionally many schools only contact parents with negative news. I like this idea because it demonstrates to parents that you value their child’s contributions in your class.
ReplyDeleteI would ideally like to be a warm demander. When reading the description of a warm demander, like you, I was reminded of some of my teachers growing up. I think it's easier to say that you're going to be a teacher who cares about their students (unlike the teacher mentioned in the TED talk who said they don't pay him to like the kids, yikes!). You're taking it a step further if you care about your students enough to challenge them and push them to succeed. I'd like to think that my students will have other teachers and adults advocating on their behalf after they've left my classroom however, this isn't a guarantee. I don't want my students to be dependent on me. My goal would be for them to leave my classroom not needing me anymore. Of course, I will always advocate on my students' behalf when needed, but I want them to get to a point where they're confident enough to be their own advocate.
I definitely agree that reaching out to parents with positive news is an often overlooked way to build a relationship with them. As easy as it is to send a message or have a brief phone conversation with parents about their children's growth or positive contributions, so often parent-teacher communication is limited to negative news or areas where the child is 'lacking.' As I think about sharing positive things with parents, I'm wondering what would be the best medium. Phone, text, email, snail mail, some kind of messaging like Class Dojo? And how often should parents be contacted about something good? I also like the idea that we've read about of sending out class newsletters. I know elementary students can sometimes be less than willing to share about what they're learning, so a biweekly/monthly newsletter seems like a good way to keep parents informed about what is going on in the classroom while also demonstrating that teachers want to have open, regular communication with parents.
DeleteAddy, I know I am most excited about creating these relationships and connections with my students as well. In fact I sometimes worry that I'm so excited about that part that I will struggle more with teaching the curriculum than getting to authentically know my students. I too heard more than a few times that dealing with the parents is the worst part of teaching what with all the helicopter/overbearing parents running around out there. I think you make a good point about reaching out the parents right off the back with positive things about their child it will probably start you off on a better foot than if it's only negative. But with all people I'm sure there will always be difficult parents and it will be good practice in patience. I love love love that you want to prepare your students to "not need you" once they leave your classroom. That is such a great goal that you have encouraged them and pushed them to succeed that they don't have to lean on you to succeed after the fact!
DeleteLadies, I echo your concerns with parents. I think I'm more worried about (as Lauren mentioned) helicopter parents who don't partner with the teacher, and instead try to undermine anything the teacher does. Rachel, you also brought up a good point about what a good medium would be to deliver the positive news that is so desperately missing from many teacher/parent interactions. I think that face to face or, at the very least, an actual phone call, would be great ways to check in. Face to face interaction tends to be less as the children get older (at least in the schools I work in). Pre-K students are dropped off in the am and picked up in the pm, so it's easy to deliver any positive/negative news daily. I'm hoping to build relationships with my parents (having them in the classroom, inviting them to activities in the school, and meeting them on their terms outside of school) so that face to face interaction happens frequently. However, I know this may still be difficult with schedules for some parents, so I think a classroom website/emails/texts would be great ways to keep building relationships.
DeleteOverall, I want parents to view me as partners in working with their child, not their enemy or authority. I desire real connections with them inside and outside of school. Because of this desire, I think telling them any news, even the bad stuff, will be easy. As Lauren mentioned, it's all about finding the common ground!
Soooooo I just wanted to chime in about the parents part because I wrote that in my original response as well. I definitely agree with you guys about contacting parents about positive things that happen with students and that too often contacting parents is a negative thing. I've also wondered about the medium in which to do this. I like the idea of newsletters, and also texts/emails for individual positive happenings from students. I think the mode of communication will also depend on where I teach and that it will vary year by year depending on my students and their families.
DeleteI'm also gonna tag along on this comment section because you all share the same concerns that I have about relationships with parents! I'm not worried about making positive connections with them, I'm just mainly worried when it comes time to address concerns in their achievements or in the classroom. When I was reading this section of the chapter, I was thinking about some of the ways that we can establish these positive relationships with them. I think I would like to send out newsletters, or like Rachel suggested, using an app like Dojo, to keep them informed on their children's learning and what we are doing in the classroom. I also like the idea of having them fill out a Get To Know Me/Us survey at the beginning of the year, and maybe asking them thought provoking questions that might dig up interests about the child, things they might notice about their interests at home ("If your child didn't have homework on a week night, what would they do with their free time?") or to ask about ways in which they can bring their expertise into the class room. As long as we also take the time to make more positive phone calls about their students than we do negative phone calls, I think that will help when it does come time to make a phone call regarding a concern or area of push for the child.
DeleteThanks for your comments guys! It looks like we all have similar concerns when it comes to interactions with our students' parents! I like how you all focused on wanting to start the conversation with parents about the positive things you see in their children to start the relationship off on a productive foot instead of a constantly negative and critical one. I also love all of the ideas of how you would stay in regular communication with the parents i.e. newsletters, Dojo, etc. Emma, I really like the idea of a Get to Know Me/Us survey with more thought provoking questions. I think this is a great way to begin that relationship and show your interest in getting to know their family. Priscilla, I love how you said "I want parents to view me as partners in working with their child, not their enemy or authority." I think that's a great goal to set for yourself in your interactions and connections with the families of your students.
DeleteThanks for your post, Lauren. As I was reading chapter 4, I kept thinking, 'and the relationship-building aspect of teaching comes up again!' I feel like building relationships seems like such a simple thing for the HUGE impact it can have on students. I love the idea of building relationships with my students and their families, but I know that sometimes my personality keeps me from building as deeply into people as is necessary. As both an introvert and a task-oriented individual, it is a constant push for me to focus on spending the necessary time (and energy) on getting to know people deeply. I know, going into teaching, that I will have to actively work to get to know my students' families. The kids (I feel) are easy--I'll be spending 6 hours a day with them--but the families will take more effort and intentionality.
ReplyDeleteYou asked about being a 'warm defender.' When I read the chapter, I was immediately drawn to that term and the type of teacher it embodied. I think it take an extraordinary balance to do it right. Too much warmth and you become the 'easy teacher' or the 'pushover.' For me, being a warm defender looks like setting and enforcing clear expectations in all areas--academics, classroom norms, interpersonal relationships--and reminding students of those daily, whether they are meeting the expectations or not. It involves being a cheerleader for students, reassuring them that they can achieve and can thrive in the classroom. I loved the sentence, warm defenders "communicate to students that their teachers' persistence shows that they care and that 'she thinks I'm worth the effort'" (Milner et al., 2019, p. 112). When I read this section of the chapter, one of the teachers I worked with immediately came to mind. Miss Clayton set very clear behavioral and academic standards for her students at the beginning of the year, and expected her students to meet those high expectations. She believed every student was a capable learner and expected to see growth throughout the year, which she made clear to students. She also expected students to adhere to the classroom norms/expectations. If they didn't meet those norms, there were clearly defined consequences (taking a break in the cool down corner, a brief visit to a buddy teacher's classroom, loss of computer responsibility if being unsafe with the computers, etc.), but the next day, none of that carried over. If there was some conflict between students, she would take the two students aside and have them work out their differences. Although Miss Clayton was not as 'nice' or 'easy,' her students all loved her and gave her their best efforts.
Rachel, I love that you are already thinking about the person you are and what that means for establishing connections and relationships with your students' parents. I think that's the first step in the right direction acknowledging what may take extra work or getting outside your comfort zone. I also really like you said about the balance it would take to be a warm defender, because you don't want to be a pushover but you also don't want to go too far the other way...I'm sure we've all had teachers like that! I agree that setting clear expectations, norms, consequences and actually following through is incredibly beneficial towards being a warm defender. Miss Clayton definitely sounds like a teacher I would want to have as a mentor!
DeleteUgh, this is so real and so good. Connections, connections, connections -- it is becoming quite redundant by this point but it really is the foundation for creating the classroom community we all strive to. In response to your question about concerns we may have with creating relationships with students and families, I am most worried about connecting with the parents/families. I find that it is so much easier for me to talk to kids and connect with them. However, when it comes to adults I find it more difficult. I think it is going to be challenging for me to be social with the families because I am not as comfortable with that aspect of education. The home visits we have discussed sound ideal for creating that community, however I find them absolutely terrifying and it give me anxiety just thinking about it. This is something that I am definitely going to have to work on when it comes to speaking to the students' families in the future.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Tori! I completely understand your hesitance and discomfort with creating relationships with your students parents and families. It's one thing to develop these relationships with our students, but parents are a whole other ball game and can be very intimidating. Especially since we haven't really had experience with that aspect at all. I remember the first time the idea of home visits was brought up I immediately felt like that was such an invasion into these peoples lives and would be very uncomfortable. I can completely relate to your feelings about that, and like many things I think we'll get a better idea of what works for us when we start experiencing it for ourselves.
DeleteTori, So true. The safety of the classroom, which in essence is our house, it will be easy to build relationships because it's our turf. When it is time to step on into another families home, it opens the doors to a whole new world. I wonder if the teachers at Lew Wallace or Enlace Academy do home visits? Is so, that would be great, because then we would have someone to go with on the first experience. If not, i wonder how they make per school connections with the students and families. My son's school has a Ice cream social the day prior to school starting. So, that is the time they get to meet the teacher, see who else is in their class and check out their classroom. We spend about an hour at the school exploring. I wonder if urban school do it different then non urban school districts? So, i've ended with more questions then answers.
DeleteNice post Lauren! So, you’re saying relationships are important….? Just kidding, relationships with our students is a prerequisite for a culturally effective classroom, I think. Like you said we all have learned this, and it comes without thinking, hopefully. I really like your mention of Milner’s “warm demanders” and your experience with your high school teacher. I have had a similar experience with my 3rd grade teacher. I know I was young, but I was in a class with my two best friends and we were trouble makers. She was stern on us three and didn’t give us any slack when it came to the classroom. I’m not sure about my other two friends but I always knew my teacher, Miss Padgett, cared about me as a person. I had an emotional connection and a personal relationship with her like no other teacher that I had.
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about my concerns regarding relationships with my students and families, I mainly focus on the concern of me being a white male educating students who have had experiences that I haven’t. I know I’m going to try to do all the small things to establish a positive relationship with good communication. I hope me being a white male doesn’t get in the way for this to happen. But we all know this should be a priority going into the teaching profession.
Doug, thanks for sharing your experience with your third grade teacher. It's so fun learning about these teachers that have shaped our lives or that we remember. I like this idea of a tough but fair and caring teacher, because at the heart that sounds like what it is to be a "warm demander". I think that its great that you're recognizing the things that could potentially be barriers in creating relationships with your students. That's a great first step!
DeleteLauren, many of your points resonated with me - finding common ground, being overwhelmed...ha! I think the nature of this condensed program creates the overwhelmed feeling! Moving on...
ReplyDeleteYou asked: Of the four characteristics of a caring classroom environment, which do you think will be the most difficult to enact in your classroom? The characteristic that seemed to bring some unease was persistent practices. Specific parts of this section I could see myself easily enacting, while others may be more of a stretch. For instance, under Persistent Practices of Belonging and Success (p. 117-118), I read about students' being removed from the classroom. I'm torn on this - I've seen (and we have all heard) students who display such emotional distress that the entire classroom is taken out or the student is removed. I still don't know which is the better practice. I believe that if the well-being of my entire class is being threatened, then the removal of a student who is severely acting out may be the best option. HOWEVER, I'm hopeful that through creating a safe, open classroom space with student-created norms and expectations, and building relationships with my students, that this situation will rarely happen. The tips in the blue box on page 118 may be posted somewhere for me to refer to during difficult behavioral times; I want to always be aware of my part in the equation.
Awesome post Lauren! It's definitely obvious that fostering genuine relationships with your students seems to be a repetitive part of our program, but I completely agree with it. To answer your question "What are some concerns you have about creating relationships with your students and their families?" I don't really have any concerns about creating relationships with my students. From the work I've done the past couple years working with kids, mainly with special needs but also some kids in general education settings, I feel like creating relationships with students is one of my stronger assets. My concern is more about creating relationships with families. I sometimes worry how parents of my students will view me because of my age. I'm 25 and I still sometimes feel like I'm not really an adult! As of right now, I feel comfortable giving parents of my students my contact information and letting them know if they have any concern to contact me (I know this could possibly end up being not the best idea depending on the parents). I definitely think having easy contact with families is a good idea and I'm comfortable giving parents my cell phone number. I've always believed that when I became a teacher I would have very good communication with families about my students, but I'm slightly concerned that my age could possibly have an affect on some parents respecting me.
ReplyDeleteI think one way I can combat this is by one of Milner et. al.'s practices to cultivate relationships, which is attending extracurricular activities featuring my students (113). As a teacher, I want to get involved with my school and community by possibly coaching or being a part of some school group. By doing this, I will have the chance to build those relationships with my students and their families.
Lauren, as usual you bring up some really great points here! I also liked the thought of taking on the role of warm demander in the classroom! Because I think there is definitely something to be said about students needing to run through the emotional ringer if they have to in order to process or work through a challenging or particularly difficult task. I think as long as they understand that frustration has boundaries (i.e. not throwing things at their fellow peers/teacher), that they should be allowed to "push back, get upset, and express the full range of emotions", when they can do so in a caring space (Milner et al., 2019, pg. 111). I love that you had a teacher that cared for you and has inspired you in such a way like Mrs Johnson did!
ReplyDeleteTo answer one of your questions above, "of the four characteristics of a caring classroom environment which do you think will be the most difficult to enact in your classroom? The easiest? Why?" I have to agree with you when in saying that creating a space where students are valued and respected, and making connections with them, is not something I am particularly worried about at this point because I think that kind of stuff comes relatively easy to me. The thing that I am most concerned with at this point is the relationships with parents (only because I HATE confrontation of any kind) and developing the expectations I might have of my students to ensure that they are given "rigorous multimodal lessons" that challenge and engage my students (pg.108). While it isn't that I think that I am going to have low expectations of my students and a lot of down time in the classroom because they don't have enough to do, I think my mind is very worried about content and being prepared to make adjustments on the spot for lessons that don't go as planned. How I am going to create enough of a challenge for all my students if I can't predict where a discussion might go? I think this is just concerning because it's something I can overwhelm myself with because I'm just that kind of worry-wart. I think I just need to continuously remind myself that the students already bring so much into the classroom that they can challenge themselves if they feel valued and cared for in their learning. Working with the third graders has certainly proved that to me, and it is very apparent that they can lead an engaging lesson/conversation when they are given the chance.
Emma, I completely agree with your concern of developing expectations and lessons that challenge and engage your students. I think this is one of the things that in my mind I could see myself failing at just because of the lack of actual practice and real experiences with it. There are still so many unknowns that unfortunately can only be filled in or answered by actual experience. Until we hav the opportunity to have these real and authentic experiences it is totally justifiable to be "worry-wart" about it lol!
DeleteThanks for the page number references, Lauren. We will have ample opportunity to get to know our students as we will be spending a significant amount of time with them. Making connections to their families will take more effort as we will have less opportunities to interact with them. While initially I did not feel comfortable with the ideas of home visits, I have since changed my mind especially after reading about the effort the teacher in Black Ants and Buddhists made to spend an hour with each of her students families before the school year began. While it will take time and planning, the result is worth the effort. It also allows you to meet with parents that may not be able to come to school due to work schedules. I also think it is crucial that you attend community events. As stated in the text, “When teachers immerse themselves in a students’ community, they get a first hand view of the students life outside of the learning experience” (Milner et al, 2019, p.113). Asking students to write narratives is another great way to for students to share their experiences. Like you alluded to in your post, getting to know the students as individuals seems like an obvious solution. It really is the central tenet upon which all others rely. If you don’t take effort to get to know someone and let them know that you care, you cannot expect them to open up to you or be able to build connections and community. When we have that sense of community and we know their strengths as well as areas of push, we can advocate for them.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to echo your thoughts on home visits Amber. They do sound very intimidating. I think being first year teachers we automatically think of the worst outcome, or at least it's easy to go there. I do think the schooling we have had so far is starting to set in and I do feel a little more prepared. I can tell you from my experiences in the past when I worked at the country club teaching golf that having a relationship with the parents is well worth it. You do have a connection and the communication with the parents is already established if there is a need for a conversation. Knowing that does make it easier going into our first year. I also wanted so say I liked your idea about writing narratives to learn about their own experiences. I'm always looking for my ideas when it comes to connecting with our students. I feel like we have learned so much it's easier to forget one or two really effective strategies.
DeleteAmber, thank you so much for your comment! I like that you brought up the Black Ants and Buddhists article, because that also made the ideas of home visits seem much more achievable and gave a really nice tangible example of how it looks when done well and how beneficial it can be. I also really like that you brought up how important it is to also show up for community events outside of school. This is a great way to prove to your students and their families that your desire to be in connection with them isn't just lip service, but that you're willing to actually take the time to engage and experience their lives in an authentic way.
DeleteLauren, thank you for a great post! You make a bunch of great points and definitely nailed my facial expression with the Ron Burgundy meme… lol. You mention the overwhelming feeling we all have at times during the program and I believe you absolutely nailed it “these long lists all deserve further investigation and time spent figuring out how to include these ideas in your classroom. Yet, while I was reading this thorough list of culturally responsive ideas and practices all I could think about is how overwhelmed I'm sure many of you felt at another long list of things you have to incorporate in your classroom to be an effective teacher.” I think the overwhelming feeling, at least for me, stems from our program actually providing us with vast amount of information and focusing on educating us about the issues and about the ‘and hows’ regarding cultural relevance, responsiveness, etc. While also helping us develop our understanding, awareness, consciousness of and challenging us to challenge ourselves and the status quo – unveiling the oppressive nature of the school system and illuminating an alternative way.
ReplyDeleteI have had/heard the conversation with many, most recently in our book club last class, Emma mentioned it… that many of her friends who are teachers have told her they had not received this education in their programs and how they felt we are lucky to have the opportunity (Sorry if I botch that!). But, it is something I have been considering since and for me, yeah, I feel overwhelmed…a lot!... but I think it is a natural aspect to go through as we grow. Especially, coming from or growing up in the system that is being challenged – my ideas, concepts of school, of teaching, of the classroom, curriculum, etc. have been challenged and are now constantly shifting/evolving. This process, as I grow (the growing pains of developing and becoming more critically and culturally aware, empathetic, conscious, relevant, responsive) is without question a necessity, and it also leaves me with a sense of…’oh crap, I don’t know anything about anything!’ …and somewhat in limbo, in the sense that most everything I had in the bank was/is based in a system that is not equitable. I am constantly thinking now, “I have been holding these notions, biases, stereotypes, etc. that are in need of change’. This has been a massive shift in an incredibly short period of time and … it is incredibly scary and overwhelming at times, because at the end of the day, my goal has continued to be since day one, to be able to reach every single student and my greatest fear I have as I am set to step into my own classroom is failing even one of my students, and my conception of how to ensure I achieve this goal has and continues to develop and evolve.
Thanks for your response, Austin! I think it's great that you are thinking about where you come from and how that will impact you as you strive to be a culturally relevant (insert proper adjective here) teacher. As well as the time devoted to thinking about the biases/stereotypes that you have in your life and how they will affect your students. Since so many of these aspects of teaching were maybe lacking from our own personal experiences with schools, and the constant realization that we need to change our thinking can be the most challenging and overwhelming part. However, the fact that you recognize it and want to do better is the first step in doing better. I completely resonate with your that feeling of being in limbo especially until we get actual experience having these interactions.
DeleteI think some concerns and overwhelming feelings come from the notion that the entire system must change in order for there to be real change. “For real reform to occur in today’s schools, a complete transformation must take place. It is not enough to have teachers change their teaching and classrooms to reflect their students’ diversity; the schools that they teach in must also become culturally competent educational systems.” (Brown, 2007, p. 61). This is obviously true, but as a student, in my current position, just learning about myself and how to become culturally responsive… I feel helpless sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I think you nailed it on the head, “When you actually take the time to get to know your students as an individual, invest in their success and future you will want to do whatever it takes to make sure they thrive in your classroom. It may not always go perfectly, and as Dr. Taylor and Dr. Magee have both mentioned we'll make mistakes along the way, but each small step in the direction of what is best for our students will get us one step closer to becoming this kind of teacher.” Remembering small steps, one step at a time, can be incredibly impactful. I completely agree with you that getting to know each and every student and invest in their success AND FUTURE, become advocates for them, cheerleaders, and/or whatever they need, remain student-centered in focus and truly believe and know that each and every student is capable of achieving success (Milner et al, 2019) is absolutely necessary. Without this, we (1) run the risk of falling into the deficit-thinking toxic mindset that has been established in the current system, but (2) we cannot and will not be able to establish a classroom culture, curriculum, etc. that is equitable or “caring learning environment… where all students feel fully seen, heard, respected, and cared for” (Milner, p. 97).