The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to sociocultural and linguistic differences, using a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage positive social interaction and support learning in their classroom.
Apparently Katrina was not feeling well today. After the short quiz, she had her head down on the desk. Mr. S. told her to pick her head up and if she did not feel good she could go down the the nurses office. So Katrina picked her head up and just sat there. She didnt take notes, she didnt do anything, just sat there. Half way through the class she gets up and goes to fill out a pass. Mr. S. says, "let me just call to make sure the nurse is down there". The nurse did not answer, so he said, " I'm sorry, shes not there, your going to have to sit back down for a little while". So Katrina huffs and puffs, and sits back down. She proceeded to put her head down a few minutes later, so Mr. S. said, "Katrina thats not acceptable in my classroom, if you really feel that sick go to the main office". So she picked her head up, and again, just sat there. With 5 minutes left of the class, Katrina gets up to right herself a pass to go to the main office, and Mr. S. said, "I'm sorry Katrina, theres only 5 minutes left of class, I can't let you go down there now." So she starts arguing with him, but walks back to her seat, takes out her cell phone, and starts texting, not trying to hide it at all. Mr. S. looks at her and says, "um excuse me, is that or is that not illegal in this school?" and she sat there texting still. He said, "Katrina, answer the question! Is that or is it not illegal to use cell phones in this school??" All she said was "okayyyy", with quite the attitude i might add. Yet, she still had the phone sitting in her hands... So Mr. S. started getting agitated because she was clearly just ignoring him. He said, "put it away right now, what are you not understanding about that?" And she went off on him. She starting yelling, "WELL I ASKED YOU THREE TIMES TO GO DOWN TO THE NURSES OFFICE AND YOU WOULDNT LET ME AND NOW YOUR YELLIN AT ME!" Mr. S. calmly said, "well I called down to the nurse and she wasnt there, I'm sorry." And he walked back up to the front of the room to proceed with the lesson for the day. She sat for about 30 morfe seconds, got up, and walked out. I was greatly bothered when she started yelling at him about asking him to go down 3 times and he "wouldnt let her". He was the one who offered for her to go downstairs and then to the main office. She was the one who decided not to go when he said she could. Then by the time she wanted to, it was too late. Not his fault she didnt want to listen. He clearly demonstrated sensitivity towards her and her feelings. But obviously, she continued to be disrespectful, and he would not tolerate it. Delpit spoke about the "culture of power" and how the misunderstanding of rules, would lead to undesirable behavior. However, it was very clear to Katrina what the rules were and what was expected of her in Mr. S's classroom, she just chose not to follow them.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families...
The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students' learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community.
A girl in the class I am helping in is named Katrina. Katrina used to be a very good student, did all her homework, paid attention in class, and did well on tests. Katrina had a baby, came back, and is a completely different person, as well as student. She does nothing now. She recieved a 0 on her last test because she put her name on it, and handed it it. Did not even attempt to try and problems. I understand that having a baby affects your life majorly because now you have another life to take care of. But if I were in her position, I would want to try my hardest to do it all, so I could graduate, and make a better life for my child than what I have settled for.
Mr. S. had gotten in touch with her parents to see what was going on because he was worried, and they informed him that she suffered from postpartum depression. This is when a woman has moderate or severe depression after giving birth. If the teacher had never called to speak to her mother, he would have never known. Things like this happen all the time, and if it goes unspoken, then the child ends up suffering in the long run. This is because the teacher will end up punishing the student for bad behavior, when really they are just dealing with stuff at home and need support. I think that teachers talking to parents about problems would help the teachers learn about what goes on in their life outside of school. This could help the teachers have a better understanding of the students. This is like what Brown said in her article with the Mansfield girls. These girls felt like their teachers didnt understand where they were coming from because they just made assumptions and had an idea in their head of how girls should behave. If only the teacher listened to them more, or got in touch with those girls parents, then maybe, just maybe, the teacher would feel better about the girls and vice versa.
A girl in the class I am helping in is named Katrina. Katrina used to be a very good student, did all her homework, paid attention in class, and did well on tests. Katrina had a baby, came back, and is a completely different person, as well as student. She does nothing now. She recieved a 0 on her last test because she put her name on it, and handed it it. Did not even attempt to try and problems. I understand that having a baby affects your life majorly because now you have another life to take care of. But if I were in her position, I would want to try my hardest to do it all, so I could graduate, and make a better life for my child than what I have settled for.
Mr. S. had gotten in touch with her parents to see what was going on because he was worried, and they informed him that she suffered from postpartum depression. This is when a woman has moderate or severe depression after giving birth. If the teacher had never called to speak to her mother, he would have never known. Things like this happen all the time, and if it goes unspoken, then the child ends up suffering in the long run. This is because the teacher will end up punishing the student for bad behavior, when really they are just dealing with stuff at home and need support. I think that teachers talking to parents about problems would help the teachers learn about what goes on in their life outside of school. This could help the teachers have a better understanding of the students. This is like what Brown said in her article with the Mansfield girls. These girls felt like their teachers didnt understand where they were coming from because they just made assumptions and had an idea in their head of how girls should behave. If only the teacher listened to them more, or got in touch with those girls parents, then maybe, just maybe, the teacher would feel better about the girls and vice versa.
The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups...
The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.
Noone enters a classroom without a personal history; thus, noone enters a classroom completely free of bias. My life was completely different than any of the students I am seeing on a weekly basis at this high school. I was raised to go to school no matter what. The only excuse would be if you have a fever. A decent amount of these students do not go to school alot. I have always been respectful to people of authority, and to my peers as well. These students are not respectful to people of authority, nor their own peers. They do not call the teacher in my classroom by his name. They say, "hey, mister! I need a pencil!" I find that very disrespectful. If I ever needed to borrow a pencil from a teacher, I would say, "Excuse me, Mr. S., Im sorry to bother you, but would you happen to have a pencil I could borrow til the end of class?" In the hallways and in the classroom, I hear them talk to each other, and its also very disrespectful. I believe that it is all about how you were raised, and the neighborhood you grew up in. There is no doubt in my mind, I know that I live among the privileged. I was born into a certain social category, and my family is very comfortable. Many of these students, however, are not. Just because of where your family stands in society, does not mean you can't change that for yourself. It is much harder for the unprivileged ones to change this, however.
I feel that alot of this has to do with what Kozol talks about. The name of his article, "Still Separate, Still Unequal" pretty much sums it up. The entire population of the high school I am in is African American and Hispanic. i have not seen one white student since I have been attending. Everyone says their schools are integrated and diverse. Well people would look around and say, "well this school is still segregated". I know it was not on purpose that there are no white kids in the school, it just so happened that none of them lived in the neighborhoods that this school included kids from. Still unequal .. you could say that. Yeah, they can vote. Heck, we even have an African American President. But alot of people of color definite do not live among the privileged.
If I was the teacher of this classroom, I would have a lot of trouble trying to stick with the surriculum, but try to keep all the kids who are absent alot, up to date on what we are learning. Because I am in a math class, I believe the hardest part will be to come up with word problems that incorporates some of their culture and upbringing.
Noone enters a classroom without a personal history; thus, noone enters a classroom completely free of bias. My life was completely different than any of the students I am seeing on a weekly basis at this high school. I was raised to go to school no matter what. The only excuse would be if you have a fever. A decent amount of these students do not go to school alot. I have always been respectful to people of authority, and to my peers as well. These students are not respectful to people of authority, nor their own peers. They do not call the teacher in my classroom by his name. They say, "hey, mister! I need a pencil!" I find that very disrespectful. If I ever needed to borrow a pencil from a teacher, I would say, "Excuse me, Mr. S., Im sorry to bother you, but would you happen to have a pencil I could borrow til the end of class?" In the hallways and in the classroom, I hear them talk to each other, and its also very disrespectful. I believe that it is all about how you were raised, and the neighborhood you grew up in. There is no doubt in my mind, I know that I live among the privileged. I was born into a certain social category, and my family is very comfortable. Many of these students, however, are not. Just because of where your family stands in society, does not mean you can't change that for yourself. It is much harder for the unprivileged ones to change this, however.
I feel that alot of this has to do with what Kozol talks about. The name of his article, "Still Separate, Still Unequal" pretty much sums it up. The entire population of the high school I am in is African American and Hispanic. i have not seen one white student since I have been attending. Everyone says their schools are integrated and diverse. Well people would look around and say, "well this school is still segregated". I know it was not on purpose that there are no white kids in the school, it just so happened that none of them lived in the neighborhoods that this school included kids from. Still unequal .. you could say that. Yeah, they can vote. Heck, we even have an African American President. But alot of people of color definite do not live among the privileged.
If I was the teacher of this classroom, I would have a lot of trouble trying to stick with the surriculum, but try to keep all the kids who are absent alot, up to date on what we are learning. Because I am in a math class, I believe the hardest part will be to come up with word problems that incorporates some of their culture and upbringing.
The culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of assessment techniques...
The culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning.
Every student learns in their own way. There are many different types of learners. The three main types are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.
Visual learners learn best by watching and seeing how things work. They need to visualize things. The best way to help these learners is to use demonstrations and visually pleasing materials to help paint mental pictures for the students. In my classroom, the teacher was teaching the students about vectors, and had to show how different amounts of force being pushed in different directions produces a vector. To demonstrate this, he used a desk and pushed the desk at a force of 10 Newtons. Whatever direction the desk went in, was the vector that it produced. By showing them, some people understood. Others were still confused.
Auditory learners learn best by listening and verbailizing, rather than reading written information. These learning are pretty easy to teach, as long as what you are teaching them sounds good and is nicely organized conversationally.
Kinisthetic learners are the last type, the ones who learn the best by doing hands-on activities. These are the children who don't learn not to touch the stove because its hot until they touch it themselves and learn that its hot! And then they'll never touch it again =] They like to learn through trial and error. The best way to help them is by doing many hands-on demonstrations that allow them to help, and do real life examples that can be discussed and solved.
There are many ways to help your different learners and assess them on what they know. I believe that assigning homework and collecting it can greatly help improve a students grade. Also, by giving them frequent quizzes that they know about in advance can help them keep up on their work so they will not get behind. Then when time for a test comes along, they will not need to cram because they have kept up on it all along. Because every student learns differently, and tests differently, it is so crucial that you have all those extra grades in there to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to do well. This can help a student do well in the course based on how hard they try, not how well they test. The only problem with this are when students are absent alot. At my school, 2 to 4 kids are absent everyday from my pre-calc class. I have mentioned before that there are only 10 students in the class. The students had a quiz to take today, and yesterday one of the girls came up to me and said, "Miss can you help me? Ive been absent." Of course I helped her. The only problem was that she didnt know even the basic things that were taught a month ago at the beginning of this chapter. So with what little time I had, I did my best to teach her the basic stuff she needed to know in order to finish the review by herself for homework. She is absent alot from class. I have been going twice a week, and I see her maybe once every other week. It is very hard to stick with the curriculum and have "No Child Left Behind", when there is only so much you can do, and only so much you can control in that students life.
No matter what type of learner a student is, however, they all come from different backgrounds. We do not know what goes on outside of the school's walls. Some students may work hard at a part-time job to help support their family, some may have kids already, and some may do all their homework and study all the time. A lot of teachers expect all their students to spend all their time on homework and studying, and nothing is more important than that. HAH! I find that funny, and completely impossible. Like I said, we don't know what those students go through outside of school. Kliewer discussed the differences in different learners and learning and how to handle it with students of disabilities. These students may not have disabilities, but in order to help them without crossing the line, we need to be flexible and help them as much as we can. If we don't help them and try to accomodate ourselves to their needs, they may never get the life they strive for.
Every student learns in their own way. There are many different types of learners. The three main types are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.
Visual learners learn best by watching and seeing how things work. They need to visualize things. The best way to help these learners is to use demonstrations and visually pleasing materials to help paint mental pictures for the students. In my classroom, the teacher was teaching the students about vectors, and had to show how different amounts of force being pushed in different directions produces a vector. To demonstrate this, he used a desk and pushed the desk at a force of 10 Newtons. Whatever direction the desk went in, was the vector that it produced. By showing them, some people understood. Others were still confused.
Auditory learners learn best by listening and verbailizing, rather than reading written information. These learning are pretty easy to teach, as long as what you are teaching them sounds good and is nicely organized conversationally.
Kinisthetic learners are the last type, the ones who learn the best by doing hands-on activities. These are the children who don't learn not to touch the stove because its hot until they touch it themselves and learn that its hot! And then they'll never touch it again =] They like to learn through trial and error. The best way to help them is by doing many hands-on demonstrations that allow them to help, and do real life examples that can be discussed and solved.
There are many ways to help your different learners and assess them on what they know. I believe that assigning homework and collecting it can greatly help improve a students grade. Also, by giving them frequent quizzes that they know about in advance can help them keep up on their work so they will not get behind. Then when time for a test comes along, they will not need to cram because they have kept up on it all along. Because every student learns differently, and tests differently, it is so crucial that you have all those extra grades in there to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to do well. This can help a student do well in the course based on how hard they try, not how well they test. The only problem with this are when students are absent alot. At my school, 2 to 4 kids are absent everyday from my pre-calc class. I have mentioned before that there are only 10 students in the class. The students had a quiz to take today, and yesterday one of the girls came up to me and said, "Miss can you help me? Ive been absent." Of course I helped her. The only problem was that she didnt know even the basic things that were taught a month ago at the beginning of this chapter. So with what little time I had, I did my best to teach her the basic stuff she needed to know in order to finish the review by herself for homework. She is absent alot from class. I have been going twice a week, and I see her maybe once every other week. It is very hard to stick with the curriculum and have "No Child Left Behind", when there is only so much you can do, and only so much you can control in that students life.
No matter what type of learner a student is, however, they all come from different backgrounds. We do not know what goes on outside of the school's walls. Some students may work hard at a part-time job to help support their family, some may have kids already, and some may do all their homework and study all the time. A lot of teachers expect all their students to spend all their time on homework and studying, and nothing is more important than that. HAH! I find that funny, and completely impossible. Like I said, we don't know what those students go through outside of school. Kliewer discussed the differences in different learners and learning and how to handle it with students of disabilities. These students may not have disabilities, but in order to help them without crossing the line, we need to be flexible and help them as much as we can. If we don't help them and try to accomodate ourselves to their needs, they may never get the life they strive for.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The culturally competent teacher should be able to...
The culturally competent teacher should be able to account for, demonstrate awareness of, and respond to the sociocultural distinctiveness of her or his students, families, and communities when planning for delivering instruction.
I am working in a high school math classroom with a bunch of senioritis-filled seniors. The class I sit in and observe is a Pre-Calculus class. There is not one white student in the class of 10 kids (when everyone is there). Walking the halls of that high school, besides a few teachers, I am the only white person. I hear all the students speaking spanish to each other in the halls, and when they do speak english, they use very vulgar language. The sociocultural characteristics of all the students I have seen at that school are completely different than anyone I have ever gone to school with. All the boys I went to school with never made any comments out loud and pretty much kept to themselves. Whereas the boys in this high school whistle at me and make comments loud and clear as I walk by them. Since I have never experienced this before, I did not know how to handle it. Of course I think of something to say after the fact, when it is already over and done with. I find it very disrespectful, even though it was meant as a compliment, to shout comments at somebody like that when you do not know that person.
In my classroom, there are only a few students from different ethnic backgrounds. Most of them are of spanish descent. One girl in particular who stands out to me is from a country in Africa. The teacher had told me that earlier in the year before I started going, she would sit on the right side of the room with other girls. She was very disruptive and was not doing well in the class, so the teacher moved her across the room and separated her from all her friends. She takes very well to disciplinary actions because of her culture, and her school work highly improved after she was moved across the classroom.
The teacher is loved by all the students, but I would not consider him to "demonstrate awareness of" his students, families, and communities when planning for delivering instruction. He is teaching math, not history or english. He looks for different ways to explain the strategies of solving problems, and looks to me for help if he cannot think of a way to get it through to them. Math is much more simple-minded and much easier to not cross a boundary and have to worry about offending anyone.
One student in particular has alot to offer in this class. The first day that I was there, all the students were not really paying attention, and the teacher had to pry the answers to his questions out of the students. Then he asked a really abstract and hard question, and this boy came out with the best answer. He nailed it on the head and it completely blew my mind. Here I am, thinking these kids do not know anything about Pre-calc, and this student came out with an answer that I would have never come up with myself. Since then, that boy has been questioning things, been enthusiastic about the class, and definitely motivated to learn. This student made me think of Ira Shor and his idea of empowerment because somebody empowered this student. Somebody was there to encourage this student to ask questions, grow as a person, and make a difference in his society. If he stays as passionate about every aspect of his life as he is in that math class, he will go very far in life. He will help strengthen his society and help it grow and change for the better.
I am working in a high school math classroom with a bunch of senioritis-filled seniors. The class I sit in and observe is a Pre-Calculus class. There is not one white student in the class of 10 kids (when everyone is there). Walking the halls of that high school, besides a few teachers, I am the only white person. I hear all the students speaking spanish to each other in the halls, and when they do speak english, they use very vulgar language. The sociocultural characteristics of all the students I have seen at that school are completely different than anyone I have ever gone to school with. All the boys I went to school with never made any comments out loud and pretty much kept to themselves. Whereas the boys in this high school whistle at me and make comments loud and clear as I walk by them. Since I have never experienced this before, I did not know how to handle it. Of course I think of something to say after the fact, when it is already over and done with. I find it very disrespectful, even though it was meant as a compliment, to shout comments at somebody like that when you do not know that person.
In my classroom, there are only a few students from different ethnic backgrounds. Most of them are of spanish descent. One girl in particular who stands out to me is from a country in Africa. The teacher had told me that earlier in the year before I started going, she would sit on the right side of the room with other girls. She was very disruptive and was not doing well in the class, so the teacher moved her across the room and separated her from all her friends. She takes very well to disciplinary actions because of her culture, and her school work highly improved after she was moved across the classroom.
The teacher is loved by all the students, but I would not consider him to "demonstrate awareness of" his students, families, and communities when planning for delivering instruction. He is teaching math, not history or english. He looks for different ways to explain the strategies of solving problems, and looks to me for help if he cannot think of a way to get it through to them. Math is much more simple-minded and much easier to not cross a boundary and have to worry about offending anyone.
One student in particular has alot to offer in this class. The first day that I was there, all the students were not really paying attention, and the teacher had to pry the answers to his questions out of the students. Then he asked a really abstract and hard question, and this boy came out with the best answer. He nailed it on the head and it completely blew my mind. Here I am, thinking these kids do not know anything about Pre-calc, and this student came out with an answer that I would have never come up with myself. Since then, that boy has been questioning things, been enthusiastic about the class, and definitely motivated to learn. This student made me think of Ira Shor and his idea of empowerment because somebody empowered this student. Somebody was there to encourage this student to ask questions, grow as a person, and make a difference in his society. If he stays as passionate about every aspect of his life as he is in that math class, he will go very far in life. He will help strengthen his society and help it grow and change for the better.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Worst first experience everrrr!!!!
Good evening everyone!! I was originally assigned at a high school I was not very familiar with. I went for a ride the night before to make sure I knew EXACTLY where I was going. I was all set and ready to go for my first day, when I recieved an e-mail saying the teacher I was assigned to had changed her schedule. Okay, no big deal. So I tried working it out, but our schedules were SO different that there was no way. I was reassigned to a very new high school to do my service learning in a Pre-Calculus class. Because of all the conflicts, and loss of paperwork, not on my part I should add, I started my service learning hours very late in the semester.
So there I was, following directions from mapquest to my high school, and the directions took me to a closed gate with a big, unlabeled, brick building behind it. Okay, what building is that??? That does not look like a school. How do I get through that gate?? I finally found my way through an old plaza to get to the building, and I surrounded the whole building trying to figure out what it was. Finally, I walk up to the front dorrs and there is a little tiny paper sign with the name of the school through a set of double doors. Success! I had found the school. I went home to get changed into my professional outfit I had picked out the night before.
Nervous, but excited, I was off to the school to start my serice learning! I got there, was buzzed into the main office, and was not greeted very nicely. I told the secretary what I was there for and who I was there to see. All she said was, "he's not here". "Okay, so what should I do?", I said. All she said was, "well thats ok, you are fine." I was very confused, this was my first visit, I had no idea what to do, where to go, where to sign in, and she was not helping me. She was very vague, and after alot of confusion on my part, she finally said, "oh that teacher doesnt even have a class this period, he mees with other teachers at this time." Great.. what now? Why was I even assigned to come on this day if my teacher did not even have a class??? I had to miss my meeting for Secondary Education majors for this visit that was very poorly planned. I was told this teacher was available at this time on this day and he was not. Just thinking about it makes me livid!
Finally, almost 2 weeks later, I was able to meet with the teacher on the right day at the right time, and all he had me do was observe the class. Hopefully this gets better....
So there I was, following directions from mapquest to my high school, and the directions took me to a closed gate with a big, unlabeled, brick building behind it. Okay, what building is that??? That does not look like a school. How do I get through that gate?? I finally found my way through an old plaza to get to the building, and I surrounded the whole building trying to figure out what it was. Finally, I walk up to the front dorrs and there is a little tiny paper sign with the name of the school through a set of double doors. Success! I had found the school. I went home to get changed into my professional outfit I had picked out the night before.
Nervous, but excited, I was off to the school to start my serice learning! I got there, was buzzed into the main office, and was not greeted very nicely. I told the secretary what I was there for and who I was there to see. All she said was, "he's not here". "Okay, so what should I do?", I said. All she said was, "well thats ok, you are fine." I was very confused, this was my first visit, I had no idea what to do, where to go, where to sign in, and she was not helping me. She was very vague, and after alot of confusion on my part, she finally said, "oh that teacher doesnt even have a class this period, he mees with other teachers at this time." Great.. what now? Why was I even assigned to come on this day if my teacher did not even have a class??? I had to miss my meeting for Secondary Education majors for this visit that was very poorly planned. I was told this teacher was available at this time on this day and he was not. Just thinking about it makes me livid!
Finally, almost 2 weeks later, I was able to meet with the teacher on the right day at the right time, and all he had me do was observe the class. Hopefully this gets better....
Introduction!!
I have never written a blog before, so this is extremely weird to me!! I had the toughest time getting my old computer to let me do this .. but here I am! My name is Kim as everyone knows, and I am in my third year at RIC. I have finished all my general education classes and am all set to start my major in Secondary Education in Mathematics.
My semester is going great!!! I am doing fabulous in all my math classes! Since I am done with all my gen eds, I can focus on my math and education classes.
I grew up in Cranston, RI and graduated from Cranston High School West in 2007. I live with my mom, older sister Jessica, and my little brother Devon. I have 2 Border Collies names Koda and Skye, who I take to work with me 4 times a week. I work at a pet store called All About pets, in Warwick (which is where I take my dogs obviously lol) and also American Eagle Outfitters in the Warwick Mall. I love playing the piano and singing =] I have recently gotten into country music and I cannot get enough of it!!!! Talk to you again soon!!!
Kim
My semester is going great!!! I am doing fabulous in all my math classes! Since I am done with all my gen eds, I can focus on my math and education classes.
I grew up in Cranston, RI and graduated from Cranston High School West in 2007. I live with my mom, older sister Jessica, and my little brother Devon. I have 2 Border Collies names Koda and Skye, who I take to work with me 4 times a week. I work at a pet store called All About pets, in Warwick (which is where I take my dogs obviously lol) and also American Eagle Outfitters in the Warwick Mall. I love playing the piano and singing =] I have recently gotten into country music and I cannot get enough of it!!!! Talk to you again soon!!!
Kim
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