What Makes Great Teaching?

    When I first signed up to take this course it was mostly because it was a required course for me to finish my Bachelor’s degree in education. Right away I knew this would be the course I most connected with. I have been working in education as a paraprofessional for six years. I love my job. I work in a district that is predominantly African American and Hispanic. While this may not seem like a difficult dilemma, it is when you are a Caucasian teacher that students look at you and say that you don’t understand them. This class has inspired me to go beyond building the student-teacher relational trust that I have always prided myself in. 

    While going through this course there were lessons that really stood out and made me rethink how I want my future classroom to be taught. These lessons inspired me to find the best ways to make my classroom more equitable and diverse. 

    Picking my top five lessons was the hardest assignment of all. I loved the Novel Read because it gave me a chance to read a novel for the class that had me really listen to what the book was trying to say. Teaching me to understand the background and experiences of students of color. I feel that this is a must for every classroom in America. Students should be able to read about other backgrounds and experiences than their own and really listen to what they are saying to better understand the differences. 

    Another lesson was about equitable schooling. I was extremely inspired by the TedTalk that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie did on her story of coming to America for college from Africa. The preconception that Africans are poor. Her story reminded me that we can’t judge students by looking at their races or where they came from. For example, you wouldn’t want to label a student as a bad student because they come from a town you feel is a bad town. Students can not help where they are born and raised, all we can do is teach them fairly and be open to hearing their stories.

    One of the last lessons I really connected with was about what lengths I would go to in order to do right by a student. One video I felt I connected to the most was Reality Pedagogy by Christopher Emdin. He mentioned connecting with students and the community that they live in by naming areas of the classroom with landmarks and or street names from the community around the school that the students attend. This gives teachers a way to be culturally responsive in their teaching. 

    Throughout the class, I have added more and more tools to my teaching toolkit in order to become the best teacher I can be for my students. 

    I am glad that this course is required and would highly recommend it to anyone working with children.

It's 2023, Why Are Schools Still Segregated?

 

    When I look at the schools that are in the district I work in I don't instantly think of them as being segregated. There are students from all races and backgrounds. But then I look deeper. The district I work in is East of Austin, Texas and back in 1957, just 66 years ago, Lyndon B. Johnson, was a senator that started a segregation process of whites, African Americans, and Hispanics. He removed Emancipation Park and pushed African Americans and Hispanics to the East side of Austin. This pushed many out of Austin and into areas East of Austin. When I look further into the Manor and Elgin areas I see that the student demographic is predominately African American and Hispanic. Digging even deeper the schools are labeled as Title I because they are in low-income communities. The segregation after slavery was abolished still has lasting effects on the descendants that can not recover from not having the generational wealth that the white families have been able to benefit from.

    The generational wealth that white families have benefitted from gives them higher-class neighborhoods that provide better funding to their schools, thus giving their students a better education. Whereas the neighborhoods dominated by African American and Hispanics are full of families that are unable to get higher paying jobs and are still looked down upon as if they are in the slums or ghettos. The properties have lower local taxes because of this discrimination which brings less money into the schools. With this lower funding, the schools are not on the same level as schools in predominately white neighborhoods. 

    There has to be a change in the system to make education a level playing field for all students. The real question ends up being, how do we do this? And where do we start?