Interesting how last weeks articles were defining multicultural education and now it's being reconceptualized into the same ideal standards

This mention of charter schools is such an important point as it's an example of a strained attempt to bring equity among all socioeconomic backgrounds.

I completely agree. It's not just something that should be taught to students but also adults. Maybe that's why there are so many adults who still struggle with their emotions because this type of teaching wasn't implemented. There are some friends of mine who I'll use the same SEL strategies on them that I use on the kids.

This story reminds me of the articles we read during our week of learning about racism.

I like how this article is organized into the different potential threats to hope. It reminds me of a video game where there are different characters and their stats are written out to describe how much damage they do or what their best attacks are.

Reading this makes me think how we've gone full circle from the beginning of the quarter to now. With all the different components of a child's education dynamic, this reading feels like the grand finale of life outside of school.

I like how this student is so organized with her thoughts. She really knows what she wants and is able to present it in a digestible, clear way. This kind of organization makes her argument stronger and more appealing. I would imagine especially to adults who already find students at a different level than themselves.

This made me laugh. I love how these letters are so unsolicited. It's the student's time to voice how they really feel and they're really taking it as far as they can go.

She's busting out her own story. Personally, if I was this teacher, I'd feel really guilty reading this knowing that it's my job to learn more about the kids in order to better support them. If I didn't already know about this, this letter would impact me pretty strongly through the guilt it illicits.

I know a teacher who learned spanish because the school district she was working in was primarily hispanic. I found this so admirable as she created another bridge for her to connect to her students. I could tell she really loved being a teacher, even aside from her learning another language. The way she talked to the students and listened to them showed that she had a good control over friendly banter and being authoritative.

I agree to a certain extent. Yes there are people outside of school that can teach us life lessons but at the same time, not all those lessons may be school oriented. Then again, this brings to light the organized education the school system brings. Just because we don't learn certain things in school doesn't mean it's any less valuable than algebra or essay rhetorics. Intelligence is not solely based on a student's reading level or their report card, that's why we see schools incorporating SEL lessons as well.

I like how this student included this personal anecdote about her grandfather as it appeals to the ethos of the audience. It reminds me of when I was in high school writing for my college essays. It's not just about striking emotion in the audience, but also reminding the audience of what their personal educator was like, not necessarily a family member but someone just as close.

That's what's tough about being a teacher. It doesn't matter how high of an education you have to the kids, or where you went to school. What matters is how your experience and training translates into the classroom. Again, teachers are there for the students, and if the students don't feel supported, challenged, acknowledged, then has the teacher really done their job? It's one of the fields that depends immensely on the personality of the teacher, not just their credentials.

This is such an important point that I strongly agree with also. Knowing how students learn is a learning curve for teachers in themselves. After all, teachers aren't there for themselves, they're there for the students. It's like in last weeks article, teachers are servants for the education system and that shows in their empathy and willingness to listen.

I like how this project gave students the tool to make their own, informed decision. The process of teaching kids about NCLB makes their opinions seem more valued and integral, especially since they carry the perspectives of the effects of NCLB.

Again, another characteristic required in teachers to make them and the students more successful. This relates back to the Harlem reading that touched on the same themes, where teachers would need to be flexible, compassionate, and offer individual attention when needed while also guiding the students to have opinions of their own.

I really love this term. I feel like it accurately and simply describes the landscape of opportunity that is given in schools, but can be applied in other areas as well. After all, the readings we've read before show that inequity in school is not just a school issue but a deeply rooted socioeconomic issue.

This is the third time a reading this week has mentioned flexibility in curriculum. I'm starting to see a pattern here and it's so true. How can we ask for flexibility in our own lives when we don't offer the same to children. I think we forget that students are going to be adults soon, and they'll need the same respect we give our peers.

This is so true, not just for district officials but for anyone. Empathy is so difficult to find in those in power because often times, they were able to reach their position starting at a higher advantage. We see it as adults but kids see it too. I remember working with this one student who was telling another student that it's hard for people to understand her depression because not everyone is depressed, that's why she feels so alone.

I like how this reading mentions that this is the most important. After all, this isn't about completing an assignment, it's mostly for the development of the students and building that culture of acceptance on and outside of campus.

This also reminds me of my old teacher. We had a few weeks in class where we analyzed Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly. I don't think it was necessarily relevant to the culture of our class, considering most of the students in that class were middle-class asian students who had no ties to life like that album, but that just reminded me of her.

This is very meta. We're doing that for this class and we're reading about another class who's doing the same thing.

This process of teaching kids literature reminds me of the way my IB class was structured. I really admired my teacher in this class for her forward thinking approach in teaching us. The way she taught us kept the floor open to discussion and collaboration, something that I haven't experienced before on that campus. She would still promote the classics like this article mentions but guides our ideas to better analyze each reading.

I really relate to this. I feel like in high school the only classes I wanted to put effort in were the ones where I felt like the teachers would look out for me and promoted the same among the students. Their effort to show that they cared would earn my respect. Then I would want to try for them, not just for myself.

Flexibility is a luxury. There takes a certain scenario for the school to have this much time and money to be flexible while making sure all the students are able to reach their goals. Not to mention the amount of staff they would need to make sure the class is still running if several students needed one on one attention. Or maybe theres a system that Harlem has that makes this more efficient. The way I see it, I would want to be flexible with my class and spend one on one time with each student but to do that while running the whole class is so difficult to manage.

That's beautiful. I wish all teachers were like that. I also like how Carpenter phrased the "wall of suspicion set up by the students". It's such an accurate phrase that is very difficult to work past as an educator. Many students, especially in their late middle childhood stage, begin to form a distrust towards the adults in their lives as they try to find their independence and character. Rather than their outlet be placed into their peers, it makes sense that teachers would get the short end of the stick. However, like Carpenter said, this can be broken down by demonstrating love, compassion, empathy, and the basic interest of care.

I would argue the same thing. Though I can see where the tension can come from with a diverse school population, given our previous readings, I believe it's up to the adults of the school to mold the student's perceptions on how to approach their diverse campus. There is so much potential that comes from a diverse group of people, and the thing with kids is that they haven't learned how to harness that potential to benefit themselves. As I'm encountering more experiences and meeting a more diverse group of people, I learn a lot more about the world than if I were to stay in the comfort of my cohort.

I know my coworkers and I talk about the students a lot. Especially if they're struggling at home and act out in school. The way to approach children who act out in class is to understand the underlying issue, because there is no such thing as a bad kid. No kid wants to feel isolated and rejected, especially by an adult figure. There's always something underling the problem. There's this one student at my work that always acts out in class like cutting the teacher off when they're talking or bothering his classmates but my coworkers and I talked about it and he's opened about depression and self-harm to one of us. After hearing that, instead of pulling him aside to tell him he can't be yelling in class, I ask him is he needs a break from the classroom and to go for a walk to cool down or if there's anything I can help with.

This reminds me of the first week of elementary school when teachers would have us write about us on a sheet and decorate it with things that interested us. I can see how my teachers would do this to get to know us on a personal level but to incorporate our interests into the classroom seems so farfetched to me. Maybe that was the purpose of those activities in the past but to me, a teacher taking the time to find resources that can incorporate our interests into the class is hard to imagine. While balancing managing time to follow a curriculum, meet school standards, they'll still make time to create a culture in the classroom?

Interesting how incorporating family life into a class dynamic can benefit everyone, including the classmates. In the past, we've read about how important it was for teachers to understand a student's home environment to better assist them, but to say that it could alo directly contribute to a classroom?

To a certain point, I agree with these standards-based reforms. Like with any system, we see unfairness in representation, addressing diverse issues, etc. Who's to say that this system won't follow the same corruption?

This model is definitely more of what I was thinking of in terms of accuracy compared to the previous model. All the points interact with each other, not just at an intersectionality level but at a school level. Counselors affect the culture of the school which affects the language and so on.

I'm not sure if I agree with the model of this map. I find that this doesn't show the impact each component has on each other, and that it's only effect is towards the total school environment. True in some sense but is not representative of the US school experience.

This approach reminds me of the second reading where the integration of culture is treated like another chapter in a math textbook. There is not really a strong dive into the culture, but merely reading and learning about it.

I've heard of this term before but never in a negative connotation. I guess it's a very mixed term given the sensitivity of the subject. Afrocentric can be taken in the context of a white audience at a very different definition from a black audience. This reminds me of a show that addresses the interpretation of american black culture from these two persectives called Atlanta.

It's incredible to me that some people don't live life this way. Maybe it's because I live in the bubble of California, but there really are people out there who are uninterested in learning about other people's culture, even socioeconomic status, because that was how they were raised. It's so disheartening to hear people pit against each other over menial things when relationships should be approached with more empathy.

That's why I was so shocked in the previous reading when they talked about hanging posters with explicit slurs. If racism itself is considered a bad word, the intensity students must feel reading a poster flooded with slurs could be overwhelming. Even for adults that could be overwhelming.

I feel like often times when adults are teaching children how to confront racism, it comes off as corny, like antiracist raps or skits on how to be a better person. It turns the idea that antiracism is uncool and that microracism comments are just jokes.

I can relate to this. In middle school I could feel a lot of racial tension, considering I was in a predominately latino community. There were definitely a lot of racial assumptions made towards me because I'm asian and that made me make my own assumptions based off their community. It wasn't until high school when I made more diverse friends that I realized the impact empathy and open mindedness can have on forming new relationships. I don't necessarily credit this change in mindset to my school. I didn't know this was an issue that schools could address until these readings.

This is really bold of a school to post, considering these words are not acceptable to use even outside of a school context. I'm conflicted on this method of teaching. It's a very strong message that addresses words and conflicts that students already know about, but having to see it in front of you, I can imagine is painful to read. These words are very hurtful, so having them all put in front of you can be very shocking.

This reminds me of when my marching band was getting a change in directors. In our own way, band was a small school where we had our curriculum, our culture, roles, etc. When we got our new director, he said they changes he wanted to make were not going to be visible until at least 4 years, since some of the students, like me, were used to the culture built from the previous band director. Changing the attitudes and routines of teenagers is very difficult, especially when it comes to more outrageous students like the ones described in the reading.

I find this mindset common in a lot of positive routines, such as gentle parenting or Buddhism. It isn't helpful to dismiss problems, but by being able to address them with a growth mindset and find lessons to take away from them, problems are seem more approachable.

It seems like the multicultural aspect of tolerance isn't really integrating culture into curriculum as a sense of normalcy, but layering it on top of the students education, as if it was another chapter in their math book. I don't know how I feel about that. At what point does their education stop at education, and not something more immersive and culturally appreciative?

I find this interesting as there are a lot of people who justify the "color-blind" agenda. I would like to hear their perspective on why this is a better way to treat people, especially students, given that everyone, even outside of a socioeconomic and racial level, is different, so why are they treated the same? It reminds me of the case in Seattle when they were labeling Asian Americans as White because AA test scores were higher than White test scores. By labeling them as one group and not admitting to the obvious differences socioeconomically and culturally, it diminshes the AA identity.