Promising Practices

Promising Practices: What my day was like…??
It was an overall great day. I arrived right on time and had some coffee to wake me up. I got chance to talk to of few people I knew and who were pretty excited about getting the day started. I was kind of anxious to get the workshops going because I what it was all about. I was also happy that it was my first Saturday off in about a year. I always work on Saturdays so I forgot what Saturdays were like. I was pretty thrilled to be a a major even with fellow teachers and classmates, it felt like if we were already teachers and just wanted to learn more.
My first workshop was Engaging Interaction in Our Classrooms. It was a fairly interesting workshop because the speaker just kept on saying that her presentation was not the same because she was a Mac type of person and that are technology at RIC was not the same as her computer. It was a Basic talk about Privilege, Bias, and Discrimination in Interaction. We also talked about Ferris Bueller, which is a great movie. It was something I could relate to because I have seen it so I understood what she was trying to say. So it started off very well but during her second part of her presentation I was just getting lost with what she said because she was saying one thing but contradicted herself by saying another. For example, she had my full attention and my Kozol side when she saying that we need to get rid of certain stereotypes that affect students and our classrooms. “He’s black; he’s just not smart” I can see were certain people think this way and abuse kids emotionally. This workshop had could easily be related to material that we have covered in class. I mention Kozol because she was stating her facts about how kids in poverty do not have a chance of interaction when there the ones that need it the most. She also spoke about how teachers help and reinforce the “HIGHER-ACHEIEVERS” instead of helping the kids struggling. The presenter really lost me when she began in eyes contradicting herself because she started of by saying that as teacher we must learn to comfort are students no matter what the circumstances are that all kids are entitled to an equal education. After she talked about Interaction with those less fortunate she went on to talk about Gender interaction. I thought she was going to talk about how to get girls interacting with boys and boys interacting with girls. I was completely wrong, she started to talk about how gender bias, which in many cases it is the man getting the praise, if its one thing I know girls do a lot better in school than boys do. She stated that teachers select males more often than girls which I thought was pretty funny because I’m writing a paper on gender bias, how boys have fallen behind girls in education in the last 40 years. So I know that boys in schools are not really favored, teachers give more positive feedback to girls, they evaluate the same behaviors differently, and tend to want girls succeed more than men. Simply look at are class, how many boys are there? I don’t think she looked around because there was about 20 girls and 4 boys in that workshop. It really put me in a Carlson mood because I feel as if boys in schools are not really listening to; if you don’t do sports then your chances of being known around school are not likely. Boys/Men get discriminated on in education because teachers may believe that there not committed, or to energetic, therefore needing drugs to calm down.
My second workshop was very interesting; it was the one I was really anxious to go to. I was entitled Teacher of English Language Learners. The main goal in this workshop was to understand certain key components that as Spanish educators can help prepare students with BILITERACY. I learned a few interesting facts about ELL’s, about 79% of them are Spanish speaking Latinos, 75% are poor, 91% live in urban areas, 75% live with parents who have not completed 8 years of schooling. All true facts, ill be the first to tell you because I’m one of those students that originated from those percentages. I never really thought about it until this workshop. I grew up speaking Spanish in my household, since both of my parents did not know any English. I was forced to speak English and get rid of my Spanish. I can not say I’m poor, but my family did live a hard beginning when settling here. We never received any type of help because my parents were both illegal immigrants. It was a very hard childhood for me and my sisters. We have always lived in urban areas, no matter were you go in Providence it will still be considered a urban city. For me and my family its always been a humbling experience and a place of comfort. My father did not even graduate from middle school, and my mother only made it to 8th grade before being forced to give it up in order to care of her sisters and work to help provide her family. The workshop helped me really understand that in order to teach kids about Language and helping them succeed in a education system built only for English is to dive deep into student’s cultures and understanding were they come from. That we must build with what we have and make it an equilibrium between English an Spanish. This workshop really brought me to Collier and Rodriguez. Collier says that we must honor student’s first language in order to help them learn and succeed in a education system not fit for them. I think Rodriguez plays a key part because many parents think its okay for kids to lose their first language and learn English as long as it helps them succeed in this society. I think otherwise because we should make the system fit the students needs and make it work around there abilities. If we do not then the chances of them succeeding is not likely.
Dr. Tricia Rose was the greatest. She was what made my day. I could not wait to hear her speak. It was like if she has been sitting in on are classes because she talked about everything we have talked about this semester. From the beginning she hit us with Tim Wise argument that we still cannot say that were living a post racial society, but like she said we got to get past the racism in this country. She then touched on Delpit issues saying that Power and Privilege still exist in out society. She kept it “REAL” from the beginning to the end. She started off saying that we must be painfully honest about elements, issues and reality. We have to take things for what they are, knowing your place before somebody else comes and tries to tell you who you are without knowing you. Then she pointed out Christensen because she was talking about how we have to stop denying things that all of us need in order to survive in this society. The connection between the “real world” and the classroom should not be hidden because then students will not be prepared for the hard facts about life. The struggles, obstacles, and neglecting of this society. “STOP THAT KID HE STOLE SOMETHING”. This was the example she used that people need to change these stereotype because they make are society even more harder to live in. So just because e we see a black kid running in the street does not mean he stole something, he can be running to catch a bus or simply getting a workout. She touched on Delpit, McIntosh, and Christensen in a couple of sentences. She really caught my attention when she was talking about Structural Oppression and Resistance. I watched America Violet which was a very good movie, and clicked with what she was talking about We Shall Remain series. America Violet is movie that is a true story which happened in Texas in 2000. It was around the time that Bush was elected. There were raids being done by the police departments. For some weird reason they only raided African American neighborhoods, isn’t that something. The people arrested were all basically forced to take plea sentences. Which set them free but could not go anywhere in life since they were convicted felons. The district attorney was behind all of these raids, and they proved that he was racist and all cases were dropped. The only reason this happened is because some people that were sick of these types of acts to the charge to change the system and even though it did not happen they still started something so that it will not happen again. I do not want to give it away but it really stuck with me. Tricia Rose got the point with her closing arguments. The pledge was amazing and I wish I could have added it in this essay but I will for sure make that a part of my class in the future. I will end with what word from Tricia Rose that does not need any further interpretation, it’s not what you are, but with what do with yourself.
Teaching is a Great Gift and Huge Responsibility!






http://www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2009/state/ell.pdf


http://www.understandingprejudice.org/