Feedback Session With My Colleagues

Teachers should advocate for all students’ backgrounds and cultures to better their students’ learning. To accomplish this, teachers should be informed about their students’ home lives, be conscious of how and what they should be taught, and ultimately make their education a priority. Students from poverty in a multicultural classroom need the correct tools and teaching approaches from their teachers.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

“Start Where You Are But Don’t Stay There” by Richard Milner is a book about dealing with diversity in the classroom in today’s day and age. It holds a focus on allowing all students to be successful academically and throughout their lives. Milner talks about several different case studies in which teachers must help students who are struggling. It goes through scenarios with Mr. Hall, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Jackson, and Ms. Shaw, who are all struggling with diversity in different ways. This book holds an importance in expressing ideas and concerns of equality in schools, and I believe it would be beneficial for all aspiring educators to read it.

Currently, general education classrooms have increasingly become diverse with both disable students and students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In order for educators to ensure that they effectively teach these classrooms, meet the needs of each student both successfully and individually, effective research that is based on strategies need to be implemented. The U.S. Department of Education suggest that, the current school-age population is becoming more diverse as time passes, yet, majority of the teachers in these schools are white non-Hispanic women. According to another report by The Condition of Education in 2006, American schools are portraying increased diversity and growth. The report suggested that, forty two percent of students in public schools were ethnic or racial minorities in the year 2003; this increased from twenty two percent since 1972. Owing to these reasons, teachers in these schools are expected to educate a diversified class of students including those that come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers are therefore, required to implement a number of key strategies that will ensure that every student in specific classroom feels that he or she belongs there (Worrell, 2010).

While discussing this issue, it is crucial to focus on helping those of “low-income kids, English-language learners, and kids with disabilities the support they need to thrive” by raising the standard of education that these students are receiving to the same level as their higher-class counterparts (“Hillary Clinton on K-12 Education”). By improving the public schools that these minority students attend, there is higher the possibility that these students will continue on to higher education

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a prime example of the impact that can be extracted from a strong and caring passion towards an education. Baca was passionate in learning how to read when he was in prison, and he eventually achieved that goal. With his passion fueling his career, Baca would go on to become a poet, writer, and education activists for diverse classrooms. Baca is fueled by improving the conditions of those who feel like they have hit rock bottom like he once was. Several books were written from Baca’s backstory in hopes that people would learn from his mistakes and lessons learned within his lifetime. One of the subject areas that Baca has spent a good amount of his life promoting and discussing is the importance of education. Baca wrote a collection of stories that showed his experiences where people attempted to keep him down, but Baca’s drive to continue to expand and learn prevented him from staying down. This collection of stories is called “Stories from the Edge,” and Baca decided to add something extra with this book. He decided to go into a classroom with diverse students and he shared his stories from the book in greater detail. There were open discussions with the students about how his stories related to the students lives. After the student group left, Baca met with the teachers that aided with the student interaction, and they discussed the teaching methods that fuel the students motivation to learn. Jimmy Baca clearly is passionate in aiding individuals

How to minimize the hurts of non-white children once their belief on the theory of a society is fair and equality is completely collapsed when the reality is happening in the opposite. In the reading “Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color” Mildred Boveda, an assistant education professor at Arizona State University, said: “I will admit that it sometimes felt risky to tackle these difficult conversations, but this [research] underscores why we cannot equivocate when it comes to preparing our children to face injustices.” I agree with her opinion. Because finding the proper solutions to fully empower and equipping the best knowledge that can help children cope better is not easy, but it is the responsibility of the family, the school, and society. The three elements need to act and work together in an effort to dare to speak about the truths mentioned above.

Generational poverty prevents many people from pursuing higher education. Passionately addressing the issue in her article, Donna M. Beegle advocates for change. Her writing is semi-formal due to its first-person point of view, while simultaneously informative; containing crucial facts and evidence that build her argument. Her goal is to target teachers and inform them of the effects they have on their students, and how they can work towards becoming more receptive and encouraging. In “Overcoming the Silence of Generational Poverty” Beegle uses emotional appeals by sharing her own experiences to effectively draw the audience in, before building credibility and logically describing the hardships of the impoverished by presenting facts from her study.

Teaching in racially diverse classrooms often leaves educators feeling uncertain about how to proceed and how to respond to historically marginalized students. There is pressure to acknowledge and accept students of color with different perspectives, to diversify the syllabi, be more aware of classroom dynamics, and pay attention to how students of color experience the learning process.

“I won’t learn from you” is a classic and powerful group of essays written by Herbert Kohl. The first three chapters “I won’t learn from you”, “The tattooed man”, and “Excellence, Equality, and Equity” all explore ideas that students are more in charge of their learning than most individuals believe. With these theories, students and teachers can help improve each other in every way. Kohl writes a variety of humorous stories, lessons on teaching, and inspirations to be a teacher to any child, regardless of their race, gender, religion or abilities. He addresses serious issues in the public school system, such as reforming to the demands of the school district, adapting the curriculum, and the many pressures as an educator. Kohl helps the

These children reminded me of the problems I too faced growing up poor in Baltimore. One consistency within these students’ stories was the lack of diversity and positivity in regards to their perceptions of the average man of color. Comparing these students’ stories to my own tribulations as a youth, I began to realize that there is a pattern of deficiency in quality representation within low income communities. Understanding that I have a gift for education, I sought to help fix this problem not only for the students in Justice for Juniors, but also many others. Since then, I have been dedicating to myself to developing my craft as an educator and continuing to educate and mentor those in lower income communities. To gain more experience, I joined Terrapin Teachers at the University of Maryland which is a program designed to teach STEM majors how to become effective teachers. Through this program I learned key organizational skills and teaching techniques such as; inquiry based teaching, investigative questioning, how to facilitate classroom discussions, and classroom management

It is my ultimate goal to be an academic advisor for first-generation, low-income student population at the four-year university level. To achieve this aspiration, I have given thought to the possibility of being an Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) advisor or an advisor for a similar program. As a first-generation, low-income student myself, I know the reality of what it is like to not have the resources necessary to achieve full success at the university level, and I would therefore love to be a resource for this population of students. Because the population that I wish to serve is very specific and has specific needs, my reasoning for the purposes of higher education will be tailored to the needs of this group of students and how I feel that they might best be served in order to ensure their successful development at the university.

Throughout the semester the readings and activities that we have done shaped me to be the kind of teacher I want to be in the future. Teachers need to know the different kind of theories that teachers need to know for their classrooms. In order to understand and direct our educational practices, we need to reflect on our own beliefs and understandings. As a teacher we need to examine the role of race in order to learn the cause that affects the achievement gap in the U.S. schools today. In today’s world we see many student face this achievement gap because of family, communities, and most importantly, it all starts of with having a relationship with their teachers. As a teacher we need to show interest in our students’ life. If we are more engaged in our students’ home lives and interests, we are going to understand and achieve great relationships. I

expectations for all students can combat marginalization. The schools included in a study by Ragland, Clubine, Constable, Smith, Council of Chief State School Officers and Texas University (2002) set measurable and high goals for all of its students, while minimizing formal categories and labels. This enables faculty and staff to focus on creating educational opportunities for the students and assess areas for improvement in student and teacher performance. Without tracking and labels, the focus is on the individual, where it belongs, regardless of race or socio-economic status”, ( Carbone II,Steven,2010)

Education is a privilege given to people in a free society so they can gain knowledge and have a broad awareness of the world they live in. However, this privilege has unequally been stripped from people of color throughout history. People of color currently experience education at a disadvantage because they are taught with the understanding that they should naturally recognize the culture, when they do not. There are many steps educators can take to help students of color gain the education they deserve, but they are stuck in their self-proclaimed, righteous methods and believe change is unnecessary. In Lisa D. Delpit’s essay, “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children,” she argues that there are