Social Justice Event

17th Annual Promising Practices Conference:
Culturally Responsive Curricula in STEM

Keynote Speaker: Christopher Emdin, Ph.D

     On November 1, 2014, I attended the 17th Annual Promising Practices Conference on Culturally Responsive Curricula in STEM. At 8:00am on November 1, 2014, I had not a clue what STEM was or what I was walking into. As I approached the Donovan Center, there we're people everywhere going in every which direction, and I still didn't know what I was walking into. I received my name tag and packed and sat down to wait for further instructions. After the director gave the audience some information, I proceeded to my first workshop, still not really knowing what to expect.
     I walked into the room where the friendliest African American woman greeted us all. The first workshop I was attending was, Confidently Working Towards Your Career. Once the class all got seated, another woman walked into the room and they both introduced themselves. Yasah Vezele and Katherine Cook we're their names and they were conducting the seminar. They were so confident when speaking, they both made me feel like I could trust and believe whatever they were saying, but I guess what's why they were conducting this particular seminar. They taught the classroom good points in being confident in your career and gave websites where you could go to further your career. They also handed out 10 index cards to random people in the room with statements that were true and Faldo on them. Statements like, Men are inferior to woman in the workplace. Then as a group we had to say if the statements were true or false. I really enjoyed this workshop and I started to then figure out what STEM and this day was going to be about.
     The next workshop I attended was, Creating a Bully Free Classroom. This room was filled to capacity. This workshop was taught by, Elizabeth Rowell. She gave a PowerPoint presentation with so much energy and detail it affect the whole group of us. She focused on how people/students should accept other people who are different. That it is important to realize that people are different. She also provided a plethora of book names that could be brought into schools that could help students understand differences and to help them learn about the topics they might be confused about. Overall this workshop was very informative.
    After Elizabeth Rowell's workshop we all proceeded back to the Donovan Center, where lunch was provided and we would hear the keynote speaker. Dr. Christopher Emdin, Ph.D. Walked up on stage with a very neat appearance and I must admit, I thought it was going to be a very bland speech.
     The first minute Christopher Emdin was on stage he had completely hooked my attention. His idea that using hip hop is an effective way of teaching was something I had never heard before, I was intrigued. That on the screen above him was blank except for, #HipHopEd, there was much to question and much to be curious about. Where was he going to take us with his seminar? He started to bring up points that I had not really considered before. How come classrooms sit in uniformed rows with the teacher standing at the front of the room? Or that students need to give the exact answers and ways they got to the answers that the teacher is looking for and can't use their own methods of getting to the answer? He really focused on the fact that children learn differently. He especially focused on the impact that hip hop effected the black community and many students learn and listen to hip hop. He stated that, " When you think about Hip Hop Ed we think about rap pedagogy. You don't think about emotion, like the first case, you don't think about the fact that rap is a thin slice of the complexity of the culture." (From the teach teachers how to crest magic video) That music is a strong element in the way many people/students learn. That there is no right or wrong way to teach. That the teacher should be aware of where they are teaching and adapt their teachings on the students they have. To accept that not everyone learns the same and to try different teaching techniques.
     Three readings I can relate to Christopher Emdin, Ph.D's seminar would have to be, Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change by: Ira Shor. I think this relates to Emdin's seminar because , " to socialize students, education tries to teach them the shape of knowledge and current society, the meaning of past events, the possibility for the future, and their place in the world they live in." - Shor. Both Shor and Emdin focus on the importance of the students learning and having knowledge of the society they live in. That education (no matter how it's learned) is preparing them for the future. The second reading would be, Why Can't She Remember That? By Terry Meier. One quote I really thought went hand and hand with Emdin was, " it is especially important in multilingual, multicultural classrooms for children to feel (a) that their teachers' comments and responses "make sense" and (b) that these either fit with, or differ from in understandable ways, the assumptions about language that they bring from home." I think Emdin was really focusing on the importance of how students learn and retain information differently. That it is the teachers responsibility to recognize that and adapt to different circumstances. The last reading I can relate would be, The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children. I think that both the reading and Emdin was trying to convey that people do learn differently and that's okay. What is not okay is letting a student do poorly because they can't connect with what they are learning. Every student wants to learn. It's up to the teacher to be effective and find ways to teach them. Whether it's through rap and hip hop, sitting in a group setting, or having students talk and bounce ideas off of each other.
    After the seminar, I did some research of Christopher Emdin, Ph.D, one quote that he said that will stick with me is, " education should not be a way out of your neighborhood. It should be a tool for improving it."
     Some videos that I also found that I think go well with this seminar are:
      1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw 
     2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ddtbeduoo
     3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYpcqntL8O0
     These videos touch upon many of the facts and information provided to us through Christopher Emdin's seminar. Each of these videos are extremely powerful and very important to watch and listen to if your are an up and coming teacher. One fact that I will remember and take with me, is not all children learn the same way. An effective teacher, a good teacher will learn and listen to their students and see what the best way of teaching is from them.

Empowering Education

Empowering Education
Critical Teaching For Social Change
By: Ira Shor



1. " To socialize students, education tries to teach them the shape of knowledge and current society, the meaning of past events, the possibilities for the future, and their place in the world they live in."
- This quote is so important to this article. I feel as though in order to understand what's happened in the past shapes the individual for the future. I feel that education is teaching students not only "book smarts" but is preparing them to know the society they are apart of. For students to be able to have knowledge and plan for the future is so important.

2. " The teacher is the person who mediates the relationship between outside authorities, formal knowledge, and individual students in the classroom. Through day-to-day lessons, teaching links the students development to the values, powers, and debates in society."
- This quote is important because a teacher's job is the most important job. I think its vital for teachers to realize the impact they have on students with the lessons they are teaching. To realize the lessons they are teaching may go further than the classroom.

3. " There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than it's emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than it's failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil."
- The author focuses on the " point at which democracy and learning meet in the classroom." With that being said, the importance of the learner participating in the classroom activities and learning through that process is extremely valuable. That students learn in all different ways is important to recognize and teachers must adapt to which ever way their students learn. Whether it may be traditional or through direct activities. I do feel as though it is failure not to secure the cooperation of the pupil because everyone wants to learn. It is up to the teacher to make it possible and interesting. 


This video explains how to create an empowering classroom atmosphere. The ideas that these two people share are very basic but seem like hey would be highly effective.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhKKsvG1n6Q 

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

Citizenship in School
Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Christopher Kliewer

                                   


" Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community."
- This quote is so important to this article. I think it points out another form of education that people don't focus on as much. The ability to form relationships whether with the teacher, a classmate, or outside school relationships helps develop other major life skills. To be able to have relationships and communicate to others builds an endless road of possibilities.

" A sense of reciprocity or shared value exists in relationships in which individuals, including those with the most severe disabilities, are recognized as thinking, feeling, caring human beings with personalities all their own."
- I feel it's very important to recognize the importance of shared values in relationships. Especially the importance of this with people who have a severe disability. It's important to remember that all people have the ability to think, have feelings, have personalities, and be caring human beings. We should never limit or not give opportunities to people who have a disability. We should recognize their possibilities and help with whatever we can.

" Society itself is hurt when schools act as cultural sorting machines - locations that " justify a competitive ethic that marginalizes certain students or groups of students ... [that] legitimize discrimination and devaluation on the basis of the dominant society's preferences in matters of ability, gender, ethnicity."
- Students should never be discriminated or devalued for their gender, ethnicity, or in their abilities. We as society need to stop labeling or sorting, thinking we're helping but instead encourage students to try their very best.


If society is limiting people with disabilities, how can we ever grow as a society? If people with disabilities want to learn, who are we as society to stop them?

http://youtu.be/d5aFO0LrSuc

In the Service of What?

In the Service of What?
The Politics of Service Learning
By: Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer


                                            


1.                                                       Service Leaning Goals
                                 Moral                       Political                          Intellectual
            Charity         Giving                      Civic Duty                     Additive Experience
            Change         Caring                      Social Reconstruction   Transformative Experience
- I feel like no matter why you do service learning, whether it may be moral, political, or intellectual, it's important that service learning is being done. it's bettering society, and students are learning.

2. "These curriculum theorists and education reformers wanted students to engage in service learning projects so that they would recognize that their academic abilities and collective commitments could help them respond in meaningful ways to a variety of social concerns."
- I think it's so important for students to recognize their academic abilities and commitments to be better pro-active in their communities.

3. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." - President John Kennedy
- In the 1960's, president John Kennedy said this famous quote. This quote can apply to many aspects in the American way of life. But I also think it applies well to this article. If you narrow in the term country to community, and ask yourself what can you do for your community, a great answer would be service learning. To be able to give back to your community whether working at a homeless shelter or hospital is the least we can do to try to improve society. It will help your community become closer. "Service learning turns ideas into action."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JE_zmCUDtg

Becoming Something Different: Learning from Esme

Becoming Something Different: Learning from Esme
By: Fairbanks, Crooks, and Ariail



                                

I'm doing my blog on Esme off of Betsy's blog. Betsy posted a video called "Culture Shock". In this video many different people from places all over the world talked about their experiences when coming to America from different countries. Everyone felt culture shock and they didn't understand the new culture because it was so different from theirs. I feel it's important for people, schools, and teachers anywhere in the world to realize that when people change countries it's possibly very different from where they came from. That as Betsy mentions, Esme did better in school when she was one on one learning. It's not that she couldn't learn the material but maybe if the people, schools, and teachers applied different techniques in learning she and many people in her situation could adjust and learn better in the new cultures. It's important to talk to and try to understand the cultures people come from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckdtV6qEsDc

Literacy with an Attitude

Literacy with an Attitude
By: Patrick Finn


Teachers have one if not the most important job, teaching the upcoming generations their education. Whether a seasoned teacher or fresh out of college, the goal should always be the same:
                                                                TO EDUCATE.

In reading this article by Finn, I couldn't help but get angry with the things he was writing or work from others he was sharing. I wasn't getting angry because of the things he was saying but the truth behind it. When he was writing about what Jean Anyon studied with the five elementary schools, and the ways the teachers were educating their students, it made me feel so disappointed in the education system. That because of a designated "class" someone belongs to in society it is going to affect the type of education they receive, it just isn't right!


When teachers go through school to become teachers, they don't know what school district they will end up teaching in. Teachers need to prepare themselves for any school district. That no matter what school they are placed into they will teach the best they can. If the normal method of teaching is not working, it is the teachers job and responsibility to try something different. "If teachers who are transforming intellectuals are successful, the real-school model is established."

I also agree with Finn when he said, "First he created a positive atmosphere in the classroom through activities that stressed self-affirmation, mutual respect, communication, group decision making, and cooperation." I feel like teachers must have all of this in their classrooms no matter what grade level. They need to make learning fun for whatever group of students they may have. People of all ages want to learn, whether they come from a poor family or a wealthy family, whether they are five years old or eight-five years old. People are always striving to learn and it is up to the teacher to get them to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83DO0POacCE&noredirect=1


I wonder if teachers had to take a class with Finn's work or something similar to his work, if they would be better prepared to teach in any type of school district?

This weeks blog is on the video of Teaching after Brown v Board of Education. The video is of Michael Lomax, Gloria Ladson-Billings and Gary Orfield. They are discussing race, reform and right.

                           

 

The video first focuses on the race topic. One quote that I really liked from this video was from Gary Orfield when he said, "Colorblind solutions in a polarized country don't work." How true is that! How does anyone think they can better anything if they are not seeing what's actually going on? Another quote is, "education is the pathway from slavery to freedom." - Fredrick Douglas. The video wants the listener to focus that race still matters in schools. Also, I believe Gary Orfield said, "you need to focus on P-16 not just k-12". I agree 100%. People are always learning, so education is never ending.The video next focuses on reform. When talking about reform three points were brought up. First, The common core, where students should focus on advanced skills and everyone needs and deserves the opportunity to learn. Second, Teacher Prep. That it is not helping society grow by preventing students from different opportunities. Third, Close the School. When you take a school out of a community it's doing more harm to the community. The last topic the video focuses on was right.

This video was very informative. The three speakers did a great job at making the audience aware of the Race, Reform and Rights topic.