Pedagogy of the Oppressed

I love Paulo Freire.  I just finished reading "Teachers as Cultural Workers," and it is fantastic.  This is the first time I have read anything out of this book, but I was definitely excited.  I think his work discussing the oppressors and the oppressed is absolutely necessary for educators to not only recognize and understand, but to act upon it.  I do not think there could be a time where there is no one being oppressed, but I think it is our job as caring humans to try our darnedest to get to that point.  It is absolutely necessary to be advocates for each one of our students.

For us to be powerful, exceptional educators, we need to be critical pedagogues, always on the forefront of activism for our students.  We must be conscious of the historical, social, and cultural implications for all students.  This is especially crucial for TESOLers.  We will have students coming from all over the world, bearing all kinds of stereotypes that could cause them to be the oppressed.  We must teach in a way that empowers them.

Kuma 13

I was really interested in the M&M observational scheme.  It takes observation to new heights, undoubtedly.  As a preservice teacher, it has definitely been drilled into my head that observation is crucial to the development of a new teacher, but it is not always perpetuated that observation is crucial to the development of a teacher at any level.  I believe this is why you always hear of old, cranky school teachers that are stuck in their old ways: they are not evaluative of themselves.  (Excuse the generalization.)

When I have observed in the past, I have not particularly become much involved; I usually just jot a few things down and tell myself, "I'll just remember this somehow in my wonderful, non-forgetting brain and use (or don't use) it later." Kuma has shown me how wrong I have been! Though I think the M&M method may be a little bit of overkill for the time constraints of an actual classroom, Kuma is right to say that there must be a deep observation of teachers if they are to really grow from their experiences.

I think the entire process would be excellent to do once or twice a year, but the rest of the time, I think it would be appropriate to choose a few of the steps that you may think need extra work and have a colleague look for those specific things.    

Social Relevance

I love that Kuma adds a chapter in about how necessary it is for teachers to be aware of the cultural identities of all of their students.  I think that we must be constant advocates for our students, and part of doing so is understanding where our students come from and how their previous societal qualities will transfer into the classroom.  Being socially relevant is not just about being aware of the students' previous situation though; as a socially relevant teacher, we must actively find ways to help appeal to the societal and cultural variations of our students by using relevant curriculum, textbooks and resources, and microstrategies.  When students' lives are reflected in the curriculum, it makes education meaningful for students.

Final Project Update

I now have all of the resources and information I want to upload onto my website.  Now I just need to actually buckle down and figure out the logistics of web development!

Time to Stop Waiting

I was very interested to see Waiting for Superman because I had heard so much controversy surrounding it and wanted to see what was up.  I was glad I had read a lot of criticisms before seeing the film, along with reading Shor's article, because the rhetoric involved in this movie is quite remarkable.  Most of the people I have talked to who have seen the movie and are not educators and do not know much about the true workings of public education are shocked and appalled at the films message and were fully in support of privatizing all education.  Without knowing much more than the film showed, this is a very appropriate reaction.  However, I do not believe privatization is the key to education reform.

Education cannot become a business; they are already so politically charged, it has stopped being about educating kids and started to be run in a way that is most beneficial to adults.  Kids have already had so much taken away from them for adult benefit (cue media, tv, etc), we cannot take their education too.  I agree with Shor in his stance that holding these lottery systems is a superb way to divide communities into the haves and have nots.  It is devastating that the future of some kids relies on drawing a name out of a hat.  I think it is deplorable to imply that a good and decent public education is not possible for students, and privatization is our better/only alternative.

I am not saying that charter schools are entirely bad, they very obviously give great opportunities to those who are lucky enough to win the lottery. The problem is that all students are not being served in a fair way.  It is my belief that progress in the public school domain can ACTUALLY be made, with the right resources, well trained teachers and involved parents.  Good education DOES happen, it is just a matter of finding models that work well for individual schools.  Why can we not take the model of some charter schools and apply them to public schools?  There are a lot of options apart from charter schools, and I believe they should be attempted before we resort to privatization.  You see, the thing with education reform is that people actually must TRY to reform PUBLIC education before there can be any progress.

Poetry

I have been to many poetry events before, even slam poetry, but none have been quite like the one we went to last Wednesday in the Prairie Room.  I am always initially interested in the difference between the host's upbeat, joking mannerisms and the serious, deep musings of the poet.  I am always excited to hear student's work.  I was really impressed with their work, especially the two students who had written their pieces that very morning.

I always think works about self are inspiring.  I think exploration of who a person is crucial to their development and their growth.  Whenever asked tough questions, my grandmother always says "Once you know, you grow."  Though simple, I think it is an important motto to keep in the back of your mind.

I think bell hooks would have really like the TESOL girls work because it was about how racism still exists today.  Though it is terribly sad, I am not surprised.  We must recognize that racism is very real and be as active as we can to purge it from ourselves and those around us to make our world a place where people are free to be themselves.

In-class Activities

Our group had the article by Tom Rosenberg “Changing My Name after Sixty Years,” which is about a Jewish man that had his name changed upon coming to America from Nazi Germany when he was a boy and his journey back to reclaiming his roots and his original Jewish name as he grew up.  This is basically what we came up with during class so far:

Have students observe how Mr. Rosenberg used the narrative to tell his story: what language he used, different words, tenses, viewpoints, etc that made it a narrative.

Students can then research their own names and heritage and write their own narrative about their family’s changing identity.

Students can focus on vocabulary words commonly used in social justice issues that are also found in the article, such as tolerance, exposure, discrimination, stereotyping, and initiatives.     

In addition to the written narrative, this may also be an appropriate time for students to practice oral story telling in front of the class.