Blog Post #9: Teacher Story of Toni Billingsley

In my teacher story book See You When We Get There I was able to learn about the lives of five extremely dedicated teachers. One teacher's story that really stood out to me was that of Toni Billingsley. The school she works at, the Technology and Communication Arts Charter School in Chicago, has a very interesting philosophy on education. The school, which was only 5 years old at the time of this story, has a major focus on community and character. One of my favorite parts of Toni's story was the depiction of a staff meeting at TCA in which all of the teachers sat around brainstorming ways for the children to feel a strong and proud connection to their school. This is not how staff meetings work at most schools so this display of passion from all of the teachers was very intriguing. Another interesting aspect of this school is their implementation of a conflict resolution program. While Toni does not seem too fond of this program, it seems as if it is a promising start to stifling conflict within the school. The process begins by having the two children in conflict take a few minutes to write about the incident. I found this very interesting. I feel that if I were asked to do something like this while in conflict I would be able to write out a lot of my feelings and frustration and afterwards find myself in a better place to solve the problem. Personally whenever I am in conflict I really just need some time to think about the problem and before I know it I see it as much less of a big deal. I think this could be the case for students as well. After the students have written out the incident, they each have a chance to explained what happened from his or her own perspective without using "I" statements. I found this interesting as well because by eliminating "I" statements it prevents the children from throwing too much of their opinion into the story allowing for less bias in their explanation. The students then talk it out. With a teacher in the room many times the children pretend to make-up, which is a major flaw in the program but the teacher really does help to create a civilized problem-solving environment. I think this program can teach students to work out their problems in a civilized manner, which prevents violence in schools. While there is still a lot to work out with the program, I believe it is a good start and that these type of problem-solving skills should be emphasized more often in schools. Since TCA is such a new school they are still testing out many of their theories, but they are clearly very open to new ideas and ways to keep the children learning and growing, which is a mindset important for all teachers and schools.

Blog Post #7: Identity

When asked to pick words that I identify with myself, I chose woman, student, czech, and friend. All of these words describe me and I am proud to identify with them. First of all, I enjoy embracing my femininity. I am proud to be a woman even though I do realize that there are still many ways that women are treated unequally to men. I enjoy presenting myself as a strong woman and proving to others that women are not inferior to men. While at times I think that women feel the need to step up and represent the strengths of all other women, I think it is important to help all women to realize they can achieve all of their goals despite what men say. I am proud to be a woman and I acknowledge how lucky I am to live in a time when women are very close to being respected on the same level as men. Another word that I identify with is Czech. I was born into a 100% Czech family and I have been raised to embrace my heritage. I am a member of multiple Czech heritage based organizations that allow me to stay close to my heritage. I have often thought about what my life would be like if I was not Czech or at least if I wasn't so in touch with my heritage and a member of these groups. I have come to the conclusion that without the Czech influence in my life there is no way I would be where I am right now. My heritage makes up such a large part of my life that I could honestly not even imagine what my 18 years thus far would look like without it. My strong bond with my heritage allows me to proudly identify myself as 100% Czech and to continue identifying myself as this for the rest of my life. While being czech is something that I will always identify with, the word student which I also identify with will not always hold true. I am currently a student and have been for as long as I can remember but this will not always be the case. I have only ever known a life with school present in it and this should be the case for my future as well because I plan to be a teacher. The difference in my future though will be that I will hold a different role in education. Currently, my profession is learning and growing. I spend a majority of my time either in class or studying. Even when I am not doing these things, I am still labeled as a student because I live on a college campus. This identity will change for me in the future but I find it ironic to think that it will switch to the opposing role. Lastly, I identify myself as a friend. I think it is very important for me to always act as the best friend I can be to those close to me. I genuinely enjoy the company of all of my friends and I believe it is important to recognize these strong relationships often. I can never let myself forget that I am a friend to many people and they are also friends to me, so we need to feed off of each other and maintain our relationships. After my own analysis of identity I realize that the way I identify myself is probably much different from those around me. While I'm sure there are many people who have common identifications as me, no two people have the exact same identity. All of us have traits that come together to make a unique person. It is important to acknowledge these differences in identity when entering the world of education. As a teacher in the future I plan to take time to learn about the identities of all of my students and to put an emphasis on the similarities and differences of everyones identities and to treat all students as unique individuals.

Blog Post #6 Response to McIntosh Article

I found the article by McIntosh to be very intriguing and eye-opening. It brought up issues that had never occurred to me before and made me think about and analyze my own life. One of the points that really stood out when reading this was the one that said "I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group". This is something that I have noticed happens quite often in the classroom. I have been witness to many of my teachers asking any of the minorities in my class to speak of their experiences. I never really thought about it until now that I never really feel obligated to speak for a large group of white people. While there are teachers who ask students to represent all the people of their racial group, I have met many people who voluntarily do this on their own. The fact that a person might feel in a place where they need to represent an entire group of people that may only have the common bond of skin color with them is upsetting to me. This makes me realize that I have more White privilege than I ever realized. I never even thought about the fact that there are so many people that cannot actually match their skin color to what we refer to as "flesh" tone. I have now started to think about more instances when I have been at a racial advantage. As a kid I never had trouble finding a Barbie doll with the same skin color as me, television shows commonly featured kids who looked like me, and I never felt like a minority in my classroom. While I always befriended any of the minority children in my classrooms, I never really put myself in their shoes let alone examined how much easier my schooling might have been. I think this issue is something that could be contemplated for a very long time and I almost feel ashamed that I never thought about it much until now. White privilege is something that may be very hard to get rid of but I think it is possible for us to work towards leveling the playing field for all races. We need to act more aware of not only refraining from racial discrimination, but of not taking advantage of the privileges that are linked to our races.

Blog Post #5 Response to chapter 3 of Spring book

The discussion we had in class today sparked my thoughts for blog post #5. The issues of race, gender, and special needs in schooling are extremely important and have caused a lot of controversy in the past. When asked the question in class, should we do away with the recognition of race on testing and other types of surveys, I started thinking about what I truly thought about the issue. I believe that we should change the way that people are viewed because of their race. The options that people are given when asked to declare their race are very limited. How does one decide what race to be identified with when they come from a mixed family? It is possible to identify with whichever race is most dominant in one's blood but that doesn't mean the others don't exist. Also, why should it matter what race we are? If we eliminated this question all together I believe it could lead to a path of equality. While at first people would still be stereotyped and discriminated against because of their race, I believe that over time things might start to change. Currently, there are many statistics floating around linking minorities to poverty and stating other facts associated with race. These figures lead many people to stereotype entire ethnicities based on the lives of a few of the members. Once race association is eliminated, people may start to forget about these statistics, and possibly in a few generations from now individuals will be linked to lifestyles instead of entire races being linked to them.

Not only is there an issue with racial equality in schooling, but gender equality is not always existent either. Women have fought for equality for a long time and have come a long way but there is still progress to be made. I think that title 9 is still important for schooling and extra-curriculars so that we never have to go back to a time when women don't have equal rights to men. Student with disabilities have also faced struggles in the school system. In my opinion, disabled students should be given opportunities to interact with all students at school. I don't necessarily agree that all students with disabilities should attend normal classes just because of the distractions that may occur, but I believe that everything should be done to make their schooling experience as normal as possible. It is important to make an attempt at equal schooling for everyone no matter their race, gender, or mental capacity.

Blog Post #4: Intro to "See You When We Get There"

I have recently begun reading my teacher story entitled See You When We Get There by Gregory Michie. After only a few pages into the first chapter I found myself relating very well to some of the subject matter at hand. The first chapter begins by explaining the story of a new teacher who is teaching in the school she went to as a child. The school is in Chicago, Illinois, which is where I am from. While I grew up in the suburbs and was never exposed to Chicago public schools, all my life I have been told by others how bad the city school system is. In this teacher's story, it is explained that she grew up in a poor family and was the first in her family to attend college. She became a teacher so that she could go back and relate to and impact the students who were in similar situations as her growing up. I am fully aware of the poverty issues in our world today and how they affect schooling. While I don't necessarily have a background that acts as my motivation for teaching, I have still always taken these issues into account when thinking about what I want to do with my life. There have been many times in my life when I have heard people around me complain about the Chicago Public School System not being very good, and I have even heard from teachers who used to work for Chicago Public Schools how terrible of a work environment it is. I often think of it as the responsibility of teachers to take a stand and work hard towards bettering the schooling of the students around them but I know that as hard as they may try they may not even be able to make a difference due to the stubbornness of some school officials. When I become a teacher, I would be very interested in teaching in problem areas. I am already planning on later going back to school for a master's degree so that I can get involved in school administration, so I hope to be able to make an even bigger difference on the schooling of children less fortunate than us. I know this is going to be a long process that cannot be done alone, but I would love to dedicate my time to the great cause of schooling. While many who work in these problem schools do have backgrounds that have brought them there to give back, I still think my background of hearing about the problems in Chicago public schools is just as valid for motivation. I look forward to reading more of this book and learning about teachers working for change.

Blog Assignment #3 Response to "Why Teachers Matter"

One of the articles that I have read for this Education class which was most intriguing to me was the Richard Lederer article entitled "Why Teachers Matter". There were some very interesting statistics about the current status of education in America. It is very reassuring as an education major to learn about how many people in the U.S. are affected by education. One statistic that really stuck out to me was that, "Two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare. The fourth grade is the watershed year" (Lederer). This fact was very interesting especially considering I have always wanted to teach fourth grade or another grade close to that age group. I still think of my fourth grade teacher being the most influential and memorable teacher of my schooling so far. She is really the teacher who has inspired me to choose the career of teaching for my future. My fourth grade teacher Mrs. Mimlitz was one of the most positive people I have ever met which I believe is a very important trait for a teacher to have especially for such a fundamental grade as the fourth. I remember fourth grade as being a huge transition year. This is why when the article pointed out fourth grade as a watershed year I was not at all surprised. While I believe it is very important to not let children slip through the cracks in the grades leading up to fourth grade, fourth grade may me the last chance to play catch-up. After that point in schooling, if a student is falling behind it is much harder to bring them up to speed. They are soon moving on to middle school and then high school where it is less likely for teachers to have time to review the fundamentals. As an aspiring fourth grade teacher I truly appreciate the necessity for a focus on literacy and fundamental knowledge. I am eager to become a part of the teaching force and contribute to the schooling of a portion of the 73.2 million U.S. residents enrolled in schools. I have always thought that teachers really matter and have always had a great appreciation for those who dedicate their careers for the benefit of my learning.

2nd Blog Assignment: Warriors Don't Cry chapter 6 discussion question

Chapter 6 discussion question: With Melba's mother Lois being a school teacher, why do you think that she allowed Melba to stay out of school for such a long time in waiting to attend Central High rather than just sending her back to attend Horace Mann?

Melba's mother Lois was faced with many conflicts when it came to the issue of Melba attending Central High. Not only did Lois' thoughts represent those of a concerned mother, but her occupation as a school teacher must have made an impact on how she handled the situation in front of her. Chapter 6 of Warriors Don't Cry marks a period in waiting, in which Melba must sit patiently while the issues of integrating Central High are worked through. During this limbo period, Melba's family is caught in the middle of a tremendous amount of danger. Not only is Melba's family under constant threats, but Melba is missing many days worth of school through the entire process. It would have been very easy for Melba's family to decide to take her out of Central High and send her back to Horace Mann, but they rejected that idea. Many would think that as a school teacher, Mother Lois would be opposed to letting her daughter miss so much school, so she would enroll her back into Horace Mann just to keep her educated but this was not the case. Obviously a concerned mother would want to keep her child out of danger, but the strong personalities of this family would not allow themselves to give up in this fight. As a teacher, mother Lois understood the importance of education, and more importantly the importance of equal education. She knew that by sending her daughter back to Horace Mann, she would just be contributing to the halt in the integration process. While it must have been hard, mother Lois knew that it was important to allow her daughter to be the one to begin the wave of integration even if it meant danger to the family. This shows that mother Lois as a teacher truly values education. Much like many of the articles we read in class, mother Lois understands how it is important for teachers tho cater to the abilities and backgrounds of all students. It is not acceptable to let a student just give up if they don't quite seem to "fit in" with the rest of the class. It is the responsibility of the teacher to account for all the differences within the classroom and to accept these challenges as they come along. While mother Lois probably did not know if this would be the case for the teachers at Central High, she realized that integrating the school would be a good opportunity for this to start and that if she did not allow her daughter to take a stand, the quality of education for African Americans would never reach its full potential. Clearly, education was very important to this family and they were not willing to just sit back and allow African Americans to be provided with inferior education to whites. While mother Lois seemed to have received one of the best educations possible for an African American woman at that time, she knew there was still so much more to be gained in the schooling of African Americans. With education being so influential on the success of their family already, Lois as a school teacher had to put her concerned mother emotions aside in order to make an impact for all African Americans of the future.