Disillusionment

From this chapter “Disillusionment,” my own fears about teaching were confirmed within the pages. I worry about the economy and how it will impact my success at finding a job, getting the job I want, and keeping it, no matter how qualified and successful I am. After reading the Freedom Writer’s Diary, I had decided how I wanted to use it in my classroom, but after reading this chapter, I realize how many challenges I may face by doing so. I could not believe that a teacher was fired for using it in her classroom, and another teacher was attacked by parents and the community for having students read it, but in both situations the students had responded so positively to reading the book that the teacher deemed it worth it.

After reading the first story about Ema, the girl with dyslexia, I realized how little I know about accommodating students like her, just as her and her special education teacher/ case manager note about the general education teachers in her school. I feel like I will most certainly try my best to acknowledge and follow the modifications of each of my students IEPs, because I do not want to be another one of those general education teachers who seem to ignore IEPs.

Reading the story of the teacher who puts the students in his classroom first, and the other teacher who deems him or herself “undatable” due to their career as a teacher, I couldn’t help but ponder about my own future outside of the classroom. I hope to have a family someday, and I hope that I may have a supportive family that understands what it means to be a teacher, and that my job doesn’t end when I leave the classroom. I also hope that despite how it may seem that my students need me more, I always need to be a reliable and caring mother as well.

"The Story of Schools" 1950-1980

During the 1950s through the 1980s there was a tremendous struggle for equal opportunity among the sexes, races, and people with disabilities. In the 1950s there was no physical education for women and they were not accepted into prestigious colleges, 72 percent of disabled children were not enrolled in school, the average time for Mexican American children to be enrolled in school was a mere 5.7 years, and African Americans were segregated by law. Luckily activists, parents, and students crusaded to get all students in school and demanded equality. One of the places that led such crusades was Topeka, Kansas, were the infamous Brown vs. the Board of Education came to be. The N.A.A.C.P was gathering evidence to prove that schools were never equal, as segregation was legal as long as separate facilities were equal. Even in schools like the high school in Topeka where they integrated, there were still separate activities like sport teams and proms. Luckily at the schools that were still segregated, all-Black schools commonly had African American teachers who were highly qualified. Even so, African American students got the discarded books from the white schools and they were always outdated. The N.A.A.C.P. advised black parents to enroll their students in the white schools, and each of them were turned away, thus the Brown vs. the Board of Education case, in which sixty years of legal segregation finally ceased to be. Although a lot of positive outcomes stemmed from this, many schools struggled with integration, riots gathered against integration, and thousands of African American teachers were kicked out and principals were demoted. This was really unfortunate, especially because these teachers were so highly qualified.

Another important contributor to the improvement of schools and equity during this time was President Lyndon Johnson. He said that and equal chance at education meant and equal chance at life, and so true he was. Students across different races, social classes, and sexes benefited from his presidency. He helped with such things as Head Start and low cost college loans, and most importantly he helped start to ban discrimination in places like public school. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in which states and school districts could lose federal funding if they refused to de-segregate. He seemed to realize that unfortunately it would take the threat of money to really make people listen and change their discriminatory behaviors. He also signed the Elementary and Secondary Act that helped aid children who needed help.

Something the video brought up about the 1960s that is hard to listen to and not get angry over is the treatment of Mexican Americans. In 1968 approximately 75 percent of Mexican Americans had dropped out of school by eighth grade. They were forbidden to speak Spanish, textbooks were not written for Mexican Americans, and schools really pushed to Americanize them. Some Mexican Americans spoke out, wanting teachers to stop calling them names, and desiring an education that respected their lives as Mexican Americans. At one point 500 students stayed out of school on strike, and this eventually led to Mexican Americans taking up positions on the school board, with one even becoming the school board president, their culture and history were included in schools, Spanish was allowed, teachers were Spanish, among other things.

As far as the unfair treatment of women, they were seen as the lesser sex, discouraged from taking higher-level classes, and playing sports. Eventually, after such women as Dorothy Raffel spoke up about wanting to play basketball, unbiased textbooks came to be, 50 percent of women were earning their masters and 40 percent were enrolled in athletics.

By 1976, schools started to extend equality for students with disabilities, making them more accessible and welcoming. This time in history marked so many positive changes as the civil rights era. More were still to come, as segregation was still entrenched in certain places, but a lot had been accomplished in the 1950s through the 1980s.

Culture Identity Shield

Engagement

Chapter three of "Teaching Hope," was yet again a chapter that really seemed to speak to me. It is hard for me to grasp and come to terms with some of the experiences that these students have and relate it to the students that could potentially fill up my classroom someday. Also, the more I read from this book the more I note to myself how much potential having a journal in the classroom seems to have, and how I can't imagine not using one in one way or another. This seems to be the overarching reason for many of the students to confide in their teachers.

One story that particularly stuck out for me in a different way than some of the others was the story about Enrique coming in and crying to the teacher, confiding in them about a certain family situation. Another student comes in, also crying, and when the teacher expresses their puzzlement at what is going on, someone speaks up by saying, "'Miss, this is where we can talk about what's going on. Our friends are here and you're here. We know you'll listen and let us be ourselves'" (page 132). Ultimately, this is one of the most meaningful stories to me because this is how I want my students to feel. I want to be that teacher that they feel they can trust and confide in. I want my classroom to feel like a safe place for students. I want students to know that I care about them, not just as growing students but as individuals as well, even if that means setting aside my planned lessons to help students when they really need it.

“The Story of Schools” 1900-1950

In the early 1900s, American public schools were considered by some to be inhospitable to students. This was most likely due to their being dark and cold, but also kids seemed to stand more of a chance of getting ill, as illness was quite prevalent and contagious at this time in schools.

While on the topic of lack of hospitality in schools, immigrants at this time were treated okay as long as they accepted the idea of being Americanized. There was at least one instance of students being spanked and slapped for using their first language, like Spanish, and teachers telling them they must only speak English in school. Schools were started in part to help out in places where a lot of immigrants had come in. The Gary Schools, which sprang up in cities everywhere in 1906, stayed open weekends and nights, so it would be more convenient for those that needed to work. This seemed to be a good idea, especially for the incoming immigrants, except they had to accept that it would be an English-only curriculum, which was really pushed in 1917. German textbooks were thrown out and children were forced to read the Bible and acknowledge holidays like Thanksgiving. They had to study and practice patriotism. The schools seemed quite centered on making every student be American first and foremost.

During this time I.Q. tests were developed to assess ability and capacity school efficiency in the country. These tests were to determine the quality of people by race and class, and unfortunately this made non-White people do especially poorly. For instance, two-thirds of Mexican students were labeled as mentally retarded and/or were held back a grade, and in high school they were shunted, like other immigrants, toward vocational programs. There was a lot of race prejudice, sadly.

Overall, schools did progress during this time, with progressive schools changing from those having classes like animal husbandry, swimming, nature, and art, to just having the standard subjects. Many people supported one type of school system over another, and a lot of progress still needed to occur for children to be treated fairly, despite their social class, race and ethnicity.

Generation

In his article “Mixing and Managing Four Generations of Employees,” Greg Hammill discusses how four generations of employees have to work together. These would be the following: the Veterans, which are from 1922 to 1945, the Baby Boomers from 1946-1964, Generation X, from 1965-1980, and Generation Y, from 1981 to 2000. There are many differences among the generations, and these can have an impact on the workplace environment, as each generation has a certain way of approaching and dealing with work. Hammill mentions that everyone needs to be aware of the generation they come from and how it will impact their outlook on and experiences with such aspects of life such as education, family, core values, communication, approaches to money, and various dealings with and in the workplace. The boss especially needs to be aware of these differences in order to make it and efficient and successful place of work. He or she needs to be able to understand these differences and acknowledge them when approaching each individual employee.

Overall I thought this was an interesting and informative article. This might mainly be because this is the first I have heard of my being from Generation Y, and this is the first time I have actually considered the fact that they are four generations in the workforce today. I have always been aware, at all of my places of employment, that there are generational differences with how we approach work, but I never really thought of it in the sense of how we need to focus on understanding these generational characteristics when regarding how to be and maintain a successful working environment for each individual. One significant element of this article that I enjoyed was that it provided so many examples of generational differences and, with the workplace, gave instances where one could acknowledge these differences and ways to work around them or resolve them.
I could definitely relate to some of what was appointed to the Generation Y, what with such things like education being an “incredible expense,” communicating with use of the internet, and the interactive style at work being “participative.” I did, however, find myself relating to other generations over Generation Y in the sense of my core values and communication at work being more along the lines of the Baby Boomers.

Challenges

I had somewhat of a difficult time reading this second chapter “Anticipation” in Teaching Hope. So many of these teachers’ stories and the stories they told of their students were heart-wrenching and depressing, and in some cases it was hard to see the positive side or eventual happy outcome to the issues they had to deal with. While reading these stories I couldn’t help but think of the struggles, familial and financial, that I have had to deal with and confront in my life, especially some that are sprouting up now. With that said, however, I feel like I have lived a much more privileged life than so many of these students and teachers, and the issues that I have had to deal with seem like nothing in comparison to some of them.

One aspect that seemed evident about many of the stories in this chapter was that they were not taking place in rural Maine, where I plan to teach. I have never encountered someone who came from the projects or known anyone involved in shootings and gang-related crimes, and reading about these experiences made me stop and think about how I would react to having some of these students in my classroom someday. One of the most important things for me to do would be to show each student that I care about him or her, respect them, and value his or her presence as an individual learner in my classroom. I want my students to know that I can “get” them, and that I am someone that they can talk to.

Something I did while reading was to try and put myself in the position of one of these teachers; would I be secure enough to share my experiences with my students? So many of these teachers I admire for feeling safe and ready to share their past experiences with their students. I also am not a very affectionate person, and I cannot help but think that I will never be comfortable hugging a student despite the positive reaction the students in the stories seemed to have to their teachers hugging them when they were upset. I will always do my best in trying to console a child, and I never want to look back on my time with any of my students and regret not being able to connect and really get to know some of them.

Diversity

The article “Diversity, Learning Style and Culture, written by Pat Burke Guild, discusses how each student is an individual learner with his or her own learning style, background, intelligences, talents and abilities, socioeconomic statues and culture. All of this will impact how each student will learn and perform within and outside of the classroom. Part of the teacher’s main responsibility in the classroom is to strive to understand each student and be able to engage him or her in a meaningful way. It is important for the teacher to acknowledge that everyone learns in a different way. The goal is for all students to be successful learners and for each learner to have equal opportunities in the classroom. The teacher must be willing to teach to each individual learner and learning style to ensure that each student is reached.

One thing this article touched upon that definitely had me try to put into perspective for what I would do in my own classroom is concerning student files. If I had access to student files I would question whether or not I should look at them because, as the article discussed, I wouldn’t want it to form the basis of what I expect each student to be as an individual and a learner. But, one must also consider that this information could be useful in the sense that it is providing the educational history of each learner that could save a teacher a good amount of time when getting to know the students and deciphering each student’s learning style. Another topic the article discussed is that usually there is not only one way to learn. When teaching English/language arts, I can already see potential in being able to teach content in different ways for the individual learners I will have in my classroom. I realize how important it is for me to teach in a variety of ways so as to ensure that all learners can benefit and succeed in the classes I teach. I want to be able to teach to the multiple intelligences and engage students in different ways of learning. I would like for students to be able to have their learning styles accommodated in my classroom, but also for each student to experience trying to adapt to learning in other ways as well.

Anticipation

As I delved into this initial chapter of Teaching Hope I definitely had mixed emotions. Right away I started thinking of how I am so nervous and anxious about the first day of my student teaching and eventually actual teaching and as I continued reading my nerves were somewhat assuaged. These teachers felt just as I am feeling about the first day! The speakers were so surprisingly relatable and I did not want to stop reading about their hopes, dreams, and fears and their first day experiences. I loved reading about how some of these teachers were able to relate to their students and really get to know each of them as individuals. Each teacher seemed to make so many differences in his or her students’ lives and I strive to be able to do that someday. I desire the ability to be able to honestly get to know the individuals in my class and figure out who they are as people. Like each of the teachers in this chapter I want to show my students that I care about them and I want them to see my classroom as a safe and fun learning environment.
One thing that seemed to frequent more than one story within this chapter was the teachable moments, something I fear I won’t be quick enough to realize and take advantage of on the spot. I hope that I will be able to ease tensions and replace awkward moments with teachable ones, because so many of these teachers were confident enough in their classrooms to be able to make these moments happen and have the students learn from them, like answering personal questions or non-content-related questions. Honestly, I would love to meet any one of these teachers, but for now I will just strive to be like them.