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.
