Weblog 7

Education in a Multicultural Society: Our Future’s Greatest Challenge
By: Lisa D. Delpit

This article written by Lisa Delpit is very insightful toward future teachers. She divides her thoughts into five different sections: 1.) The cultural clash between students and school, 2.) Stereotyping, 3.) Child-deficit assumptions that lead to teaching less instead of more, 4.) Ignorance of community norms and the “Messiah Complex,” and 5.) Invincibility. The purpose of these five groups is to provide details of multicultural problem in schools and how to fix them.
I found one quote in particular that stuck in my mind. “A primary source of stereotyping is often the teacher education program itself. It is in these programs that teachers learn that poor students and students of color should be expected to achieve less than their ‘mainstream’ counterparts.” (p. 241) After reading her section on stereotyping I began to see how easy it was to do. This particular section proved to me that the teachers have a large part in how students act and participate in class and it is very easy for teachers to overlook that they are the one creating the problem, not the student. We should be taught throughout our educational career on how to deal with these issues and what to expect.
Another part I thought was very strong about her article was bringing parents and members of the community into the classroom. By getting to know the parents it lets you get to know and understand the students better. Also teachers will know what the parents will be expecting out of their children and give the teacher a guiding way to teach. A teacher should always take what parents have to say very strongly.

Weblog 6

Personal Narrative

After reading chapters three through five in Crossing Over to Canaan by Gloria Ladson-Billings, I began to realize that there are many techniques told that I have either recognized in my past or current experiences or could use in my future. A students achievement can be overlooked in all of the other tasks trying to be accomplished in the classroom. I believe that teachers should be able to communicate with their students to ensure him/her that what they are teaching is being grasped by the students. The teacher should also be able to ask the students what he/she could do differently to help the students understand the material better.

Being aware of the many cultures that I will be facing in classrooms is very important as well. I think that this can help students achieve more in the future as well. Teachers as well as students can learn more about our own cultures and others as well. By doing this it will allow the teacher along with the students to recognize their personal biases. I think that culture is an important aspect that needs to be taught as well as understood in a classroom.

Sociopolitical consciousness is the third and last aspect talked about in the book. I think that it is important for teachers to know about the social and political issues in which they live. I think that a teacher needs to be aware of the world around them first. By doing this a teacher can better educate the students with information reguarding the society they live in.

Weblog 5

Chapter 1: Can Anybody Teach These Children?
Q: If you were a new teacher put into a situation where my student did not want to learn how would you react and what actions would you take?
A: If I was put into the same situation as Carter in chapter one of Crossing Over to Canaan I would try to think of a way for my students to appreciate what I was trying to teach. My content area is history. Many students find that subject very boring and hard to learn. Carter incorporated music into learning how to write. I think that finding something that can both relate to the student and to the subject area would help compel the student to learn. Also, I believe that incorporating fun and different teaching techniques into the classroom would help the students stay interested in the subject, even if it is not their favorite.

Chapter 2: Sojourners
Q:There were many different instances’ that made many of the TFD students realize they wanted to teach. When we filled out our pre-student teaching application we rated a list of schools in which we would like to reach. Why and how did you base your decision with those schools?
A: I come from a small town in the middle of nowhere Ohio. I do not come from a very diverse community. There was only one African-American student in my high school and he graduated with me. On my application I decided that my last choice would be a Catholic school, then middle/high class schools and then first Cleveland Heights. I chose this because I have never had to face a situation that deals with diversity. I think that pre-student teaching in a diverse school will help me to understand different student sand their backgrounds and help me grow as an educator.

Weblog 3

"We Have a Story to Tell" vs. "History Is a Weapon"

In comparison of “We Have a Story to Tell” from theNational History of the American Indian to “History Is a Weapon” by Howard Zinn, the notions of ideology, sentiment and historiography play completely different roles. Although both of these articles are dealing with the same time period they are completely different in the content they imply. “We Have a Story to Tell” states the facts point blank about what happened. Its not that Zinn does not do the same thing, he just adds in more gruesome facts and examples to paint a better picture for his audience of what life was like for the Indians.
I think that Zinn explains ideology and historiography perfectly when he compares it to a map maker. When a cartographer is making a map there are a lot of area’s left out or slightly strewn. This is due to the fact that the world is round and it has to be put onto a flat piece of paper. When is historian is writing about what has happened in history, the same thing happens. There is no way that we can know all of the facts about what has happened, so many things are either left out or the truth is stretched.
It is not that either one of these articles are wrong. They are just telling the story from different perspectives so inevitably each article will have varying facts and examples. I think that each of these articles have great facts and are very truthful. Depending on what I was trying to teach to my students would be the determinant of which article I used.

Weblog 2

Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality: Chapter 2
Dear Kristina,
Greetings future educator and role model. You already know that many of your future students will look up to you and the decisions that you make in your classroom. I would like to share with you my history and the way many have looked up and respected me in the decisions I have made toward the educational future of our country. The only way for the republic to survive was for the United States to be a homogenous “white” society, and for this reason Native Americans were not granted the right for an education at first. I believed that it would be wise choice for the Natives to be educated so they could become more “American.” As time went on societies views began to change. If the Native Americans were educated then we could cultivate them into the cultural beings they wanted them to be. United States citizenship was finally given to the Native Americans in 1924 by the Citizenship Act. I was the first to begin the process of educating the Natives and became head of the Office of Indian Affairs. I was able to get the United States to believe that if they educated the Natives they could culturally mold them into the way we wanted and it worked. This was they key to humanizing them. We were granted $10,000 by the president to be used for this schooling. The picture I included is a product of a group of Cherokee Indians that have successfully been culturized to the American standards. So my advice to you as an educator is, if you believe strongly in something set your mind to it and things are always possible.

Sincerely,
Thomas McKenny

Weblog 1

Solidarity, courage, and Heart: What teacher educators can learn from a new generation of teachers.
By and large I strongly agree with most of what Sonia Nieto has researched in this article and many of the things she talked about I had never even thought of before to be honest. I had realized that there were a lot of segregation and diversity was growing in many schools but I did not know that it was growing to this degree. Even smaller rural schools are facing this new element in schools and many do not know how to react.
I came from a small middle class farming area in Ohio. I went to school with on African American student. Since I have graduated there have been many new housing developments and the area has grown numerously, bringing in much more diversity. Just like Nieto has explained, the diversity is eventually going to be just as much part of smaller towns and rural areas as inner city schools. Also just like she explained, many people are not going to know how to react, not because they are prejudice, but because we have not grown up around it and are not used to it.
I agree that teachers need to be trained and be comfortable working with many different students in many different socio-economic backgrounds to better prepare themselves for the future and their career of teaching.


Class Goals
- To be able to work with many different types students with different ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds and at the same time be comfortable doing it.
- Learn how to incorporate these different backgrounds into my teaching and lessons.
- Learn not only about these ethnicities but from them to better prepare myself for the future.