https://stedwards.zoom.us/rec/share/6i69G3W6FuAb3I3Mw7AAuT5Oj0hmirFFNLFLB4CnW9305kgJRWB_kLQVJ9LXusk.CBCWJ6y3aYj7DTy8?startTime=1606206852000Let me start by saying I am not doing this book justly. There is so much to talk about, but I feel as though I would ruin the experience for you if I overshared. Therefore, please read this book if you want to relate to teachers committed to giving their students an environment of cultural-validation and critical thinking. I gained an understanding of social justice and how my experiences can reflect my motivations towards my future students. These educators have exhibited how to create an environment that educates and validates my students. It shows how I can help my students be a part of their community and not be a cog in the machine. The book acknowledges the educational inequities, and these educators are working hard despite the difficulties. I was a little disappointed that they did not have a math teacher, but I can semi-relate to Ms. Nambo because she is STEM. Anyways, Michie discusses his research method for this project. He explains they had one male candidate, but the principal at the school refused to let Michie entrance. Why would this happen? Why would a principal not allow one of his teachers the ability to be recognized as a “change-maker”? How different would his report be if he had male candidates? This book furthered the connections between my college career and my experiences. I was able to associate myself with each teacher or as one of the students in their classes. In Liz Kirby’s narrative, I see the debate in EDUC 1330 of being a cog in the machine (pg 28). I connected to Liz when she talked about how deeply white supremacy is in the minority community. I would not have seen the connection to the Latinx community had it not been for my Intro to Latinx Studies class (pg. 23). I cheered for Liz’s students when they had a conversation about slavery and religion that lead to a discussion about people's different perspectives (pg 32). When Cynthia talks about her father and family. I understand where her father was coming from due to the amount of intolerance against the Latinx community. However, I know how the effects of not knowing your culture can be disheartening (pg. 55). I related to Cynthia when she was talking about implementing changes in the education system. A lot of radicals—both academic and grassroots—say, ‘We have to overthrow this, we have to overthrow that,’” she said. “And I agree that we have to transform the system. As it is, I experienced overcrowded high schools like Freda’s students. It was disheartening to learn that Freda’s Asian Studies class does not have an Asian Studies textbook because it does not exist. I appreciate Freda’s desire to introduce her students that racism is not black and white (pg. 104). I was amazed by Toni Billingsley's determination towards her student to have an experience with Spanish (pg. 121). Lastly, Nancy Serrano, I related to her students when they discussed religion and marriage for women because I merely had a previous discussion on it (pg. 162-163). I relate to these educators because I'm still finding/learning about my identity. A quote that has been running through my head. This quote is a reflection of how my college career and experiences are going to interconnect. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. “- Steve Jobs
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I read the chapters of Toni Billingsley and Nancy Serrano. The theme throughout the book is identity, but it wasn’t apparent in these two chapters. These two educator’s stories reflected their expectation of students and the impact of the community. Ms. Billingsley is an African American middle school Spanish teacher at a charter school. Billingsley’s chapter talks about her expectations for her students and her impact on the school’s community. “The problem hadn’t been simply a difference in skin color, Toni explained, but rather a clash of expectations” (p 129). She goes on to say that, “you bring something different into the classroom as a teacher than I bring into the classroom”, however, emphasizes the point of being there for the students. Ms. Serrano is a Hispanic/Latina middle school language arts teacher at an inner-city school. Ms. Serrano’s story does reflect on her identity, but it’s mostly on her expectations and goals for her students. She wants students to take ownership of their learning and to be critical, thoughtful learners. “You know what you want to get across, but you don’t want to force it on them, she said. ‘You want them to bring things up themselves so that they could take ownership.” (p. 161) ![]() These educators are all women of color. Thus, they can relate or reflect with their students about their identities. These educators inspire their students to learn more about themselves through their eight identities. The eight identities being age, ability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion. The first issue of equity is race. These women are all educators of color. They use their identities to create a driven curriculum for students to make meaningful connections. Ms. Kirby uses The Autobiography of Malcolm X to empower students and their communities. Ms. Nambo decided to participate in this book to continue the conversation of the negotiating relationships imbalanced by race and power dynamics. Ms. Lin made antiracist teaching a priority in her class and took steps to make it more than a black and white issue. She believes Asians get left out of the conversation. Ms. Billingsley is trying to help students see their world with new eyes and look out for worlds previously unknown to them. Ms. Serrano provides lessons on race and power in school because racism and societal manifestations are rarely talked about explicitly. One issue of equity is socioeconomic status. All of these women have experienced socioeconomic status equity themselves or in their workplace. Ms. Kirby discusses the importance of credit with her students because she experienced the “trap” of credit. Ms. Nambo witnessing her students’ status and coming to terms with her newfound status. Ms. Lin’s school supplies for teaching come out of the teacher’s pocket rather than having a budget for these items due to poor leadership and test accountability. Ms. Billingsley’s school budgets scramble for money and her fundraising for a class trip to Mexico due to test accountability. Ms. Serrano’s experience from childhood to adulthood, plus her discussion with the students about the graduation ceremony. These educators are combating it by using their own experiences and expectations of their students to drive social justice learning. These educators inspire their students to take their own identities to fuel change in their communities. I see the themes of identity and representation so far in the stories I have read. I recently finished reading the chapters of Cynthia Nambo and Freda Lin’s story. Ms. Nambo is a Hispanic middle school science teacher at an all-girls school. Ms. Nambo talks about her own experiences of being refused her heritage by her father to assimilate. She talks about representation too. Michie talks about how Ms. Nambo was on the fence about signing up for this project because she was hesitant whether he would represent her story, despite his good intentions. She discussed how “progressive white educators” can publish a book on working with people of color and get recognized, while people of color who do the same are not. “I’m frustrated by the fact that you can do that, but we can't. It's a struggle every step of the way when we want to tell our stories” (Michie 66). Ms. Lin is an Asian high school U.S. History and Asian studies teacher at an overcrowded co-ed school. Her chapter talks about discrimination towards Asians and her experiences from grade school to college. She describes from grade school to high school that she rejected her Asian heritage until college. In college, she would gradually question her ethnic identity and learn more about discrimination towards Asians. As a teacher, she describes what she witnesses in the halls of Asian student's friends giving discriminatory “nicknames” to them. However, despite this Ms. Lin considers herself a role model to her students because “having an Asian American teacher they can talk to help with their identity development.” (Michie 94). Thus, Ms. Lin made it a priority to teach anti-racist teaching in her classroom and took steps to make it more than a black and white issue. I think people sometimes forget how important our identity is. For instance, these teachers have been talking about their identity issues in relation to their classes. However, I feel like I related the most to these chapters. For instance, I knew what made me stand out on paper when I applied for colleges and other opportunities. I called it the trifecta. I'm a Hispanic female pursuing a career in STEM education. While I knew these were qualities that would provide me an advantage for opportunities, I didn’t acknowledge why. However, the classes I have been taking throughout my college career I can recognize why. My language acquisition class and Latinx studies class have communicated to me the importance of identity in education and for the people. Identity is key in the classroom because a teacher is seen as a role model for those students. This doesn’t mean I necessarily have to have everything about me figured out. It just means I want students to question themselves and the society around them. It allows the ability for growth as a person and experiences that can be able to establish connections between other people. In these two chapters, I could recognize the issue of second-class citizenship, but also the issue of assimilation. In both cases, they talk about discrimination towards their race, which is sadly still around to this day. Both chapters discuss being seen as less, whether due to the language or the color of their skin. While assimilation is shown as having to deny their culture to avoid such intolerance from society, which is extremely disheartening.
I found it unbelievably that Asian studies textbooks for high school students were not available or yet written. I want to mention the representation of Hispanic/Latinx people, specifically in politics. I did a project on the importance of why the Hispanic/Latinx community needs to vote. In that research, I found surprising data. The data says there are 60 million and counting Hispanic/Latinx people in the U.S., but there are only 6,832 Latinx officials at State and Federal levels.
![]() I experienced a few pivotal moments; these moments were a connection to my Intro to Latinx/Chicanx Studies class. There is one point where Ms. Kirby talks about cross-cultural teaching for the first time. She talks about being nervous in her teaching and thinking about white parents monitoring her more closely as a teacher than black parents (p. 23). She describes this as showing how deeply white supremacy is in the black community in particular. This is true for the Hispanic/Latinx community as well. In our class book, Harvest of Empire, the author talks about Puerto Ricans and the story of “assimilating” in America. The author mentions a poem, ¿Y tu abuela, dónde está? by Fortunato Vizcarrondo. The poem reminds all Puerto Ricans that black blood runs through them; however, being in America, they began to develop antiblack attitudes. The author describes it as "some rite of passage to becoming authentic Americans”. Ms. Kirby talks about suffering self-identity crises, which is also very common in the Hispanic/Latinx community as well. In the Harvest of Empire, the author talks about how Hispanic/Latinx is a buffer to the black-and-white society. For Puerto Ricans, they possessed a racial identity of losing their culture and language to “assimilate” in a white or black world. For Mexicans, they face having roots in American soil before America existed but still having to battle being fully recognized and understood. These are some of the topics that we discussed in my class, but I can see the connections between the black and Latinx community. There is a sticker I have seen with the phrase “tu lucha, es mi lucha” which means your fight is my fight. Ms. Kirby mentions George Orwell to refer to something. I have not read his book but know of them. In my search, I found 1984 mentions cult of personality, which coincidentally is the title of a song by Living Colour. Through some quick google searching and deep-diving into the lyrics, I realized it wasn’t a happy coincidence, but intentional. ![]() See You When We Get There: Teaching for Change in Urban Schools by Gregory Michie is about five women of color educators, who are working for change, perspectives of their motivations and support. Their perspective includes the challenges and possibilities in public education. The educators explore the struggles of minority students and give hope to their students. However, Michie's experience is also incorporated into the book to illustrate different teachers of diverse backgrounds are fighting for the same thing. I selected this book because these educators are a representation of me. I am a future female educator of color who will be working for change. I reflected on my education. I have had a handful of women of color educators for teachers, but only two in the field of mathematics. Nonetheless, the book focuses on the issue of teaching social justice in the classroom. I would have never linked social justice and mathematics, but this has inspired me to pursue my research to imagine the possibilities. I developed a proposed timeline that is subject to change. The blue boxes represent the chapters to read; I will be strict with those. I want to read those chapters no later than the date I put. The green boxes represent the research I prepare to do. I suggest dates as a way to focus on narrowing down the articles I have collected throughout the process. I tend to collect many articles and realize they were not as connected to my topic as I originally thought. The red boxes represent the due dates for READ 4343 Book Study Blog posts. The reason I allowed 3-4 days in between the research and the blog post is so I can collect my thoughts. I have difficulty sorting through my thoughts about what I want to say and write. The orange boxes represent time dedicated to working on my reflection. This part is most likely subject to change because I will probably dedicate more time for revision or start later to map out my thinking. The purple box represents the time established for working on the presentation. Working involves writing a script, creating a PowerPoint, recording, and editing. I don’t plan to finish all in one day, but I would like to start by that date. Comments/Insights: I’m curious about how the Teachers College Press selects books for their teaching for social justice series. Gregory Michie is on the list five times! I reviewed the series board, and I’m glad to see people of diverse backgrounds. Surprisingly, only two people from the series board are a part of the list, William Ayers and Kevin K. Kumashiro.
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AuthorHello, I'm a senior at St. Edward's University. This blog is dedicated to Teachers College Press teaching social justice series. Archives
November 2020
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