Am I Just a White Female Teacher?

"This Wednesday was the 298th day of the year. There are 67 days left in 2017. If the current pace of killing keeps up, 2017 might close with 132 homicides. The city’s record, which came in 1991 when Columbus was in the throes of the crack-cocaine epidemic, stands at 139." -Decker (The Columbus Dispatch 10-27-17)

What is common about today & 1991... Racial tension, poverty, drug addiction, gun violence, homicides...

I have had so much weighing on mind over the past couple of years. Racism and prejudice is something I strive to be aware of and to not fall to everyday. I want to believe that I am colorblind and just see people, especially students, for who they show me that they are. The reality is that I have prejudices. It was so powerful on Tuesday 10-24-17, when Suzanne Roberts of Unifying Solutions, as a white women, who grew up in Bexley, Ohio said, "I am a racist." This was during a training meeting with fellow teacher's, who are apart of the "Social and Economic Justice" group. I began to think, well then we all are racist. 

I chose to be apart of this group because I am a survivor of poverty and the inner city, just like the students I teach. I really want to be involved with issues regarding the affects of social & economic injustices. I tend to follow my ideology that poverty is what connects us; us meaning all of the races; Caucasian/white, African-american/black, Hispanic, Asian, Native-American and etc. I feel that the media and people of wealth use our skin color & race differences, to turn us against each other. I have to admit that it is difficult to explain my thoughts to my white friends or any of my friends. I spoke in a group meeting that I feel that my white family and friends struggle to see "white privilege," because they are still struggling with poverty. The struggle is real. 

I work 2 jobs trying to make ends meet. I have applied and looked for 1 job that would pay me more, but I don't think it exist. My son attends a public suburb school and I have to pick up working events that puts funds in his account along with the booster's, because I can't afford to pay the "pay to play fees." If a scholarship was available, I probably just make a little to much for it. My white friends will say things well how much did they spend on entertainment... that tattoo...that vacation? Then I start to feel ashamed that I go on vacations or buy tickets to a concert. Does this really matter? Poorer than you or me people don't deserve to travel or take a vacation, to relax or enjoy paying to be entertained? If I can't help my white friends see that poor people deserve a life too, then how will I help them see white privilege?

I had no idea that states drew red lines, meaning banks gave home loans in certain zip codes to white families and then other zip codes of depreciating value to blacks. I had no idea that blacks were not recruited to fight in World War II which meant they were not recipients of the first GI Bill monies. I knew, from my urban public school 8th grade African-american history teacher, Mr. Milner, that a slave only counted as 3/5 of a person. Also, I graduated from East High School, located in a historical African-American neighborhood, because at the time I was white and got bused there due to the desegregation efforts of the district; meaning instead of walking to my neighborhood school, I got on a bus and went from the west side to the east side, so the school could be more equal of white and black students. Again, I learned that we collectively have more in common, mostly due to the struggles of poverty, than are uncommon factor, meaning the color of our skin. 

Another thing I know, is that my grandparents were born into poverty and 3 generations later that I am doing a little better then they were. My fraternal Grandfather enlisted in the Army during World War II at the age of 17. My maternal grandfather was Cherokee Indian, looked it and was a butcher in Columbus, he knew not to tell people that he was an Indian from Kentucky. Even my fraternal Grandfather, who I love dearly, said that my mom came form the other side of the tracks, from the hillbillies. In his time you married your own people, my Dad was Irish Catholic but didn't marry someone more like him. The fact is, my Indian Grandfather got paid a lot less in his lifetime compared to my white Irish Grandfather. I got the impression from my grandparents that we don't trust black people. Thus, in the 1990's when one of my white girl cousins got pregnant with a black baby, it brought some of this up. 

Prejudices and racism is always apart of who we are and it is around us. I do not have all the answers, but what I have shared today, is what is in my heart.

I had insulting racist comments said to me, from both white and black people, while I was a 16 year old carrying my 5 month old baby boy cousin, who is biracial but looks black, so is he just black? Today he is in his twenties and he has to face this world as a black man, I worry about that. I can't fully know what that is like. I refuse to just be another white female teacher, yes I am white and yes I chose to be a teacher but I question everything around me. I always think twice before I write up a student, is it because of a repeated behavior and does have to do with their color or if they are male?

I can see that the education system is leaving African-Americans out. How have I seen this? A few years ago, my teaching assignment including me reading test questions to students who was given this accommodation. I began to see that these students were mostly African-American males, next group white males, so mostly males and then a few African-American girls with a couple bilingual children. I began reading about the school to prison pipeline. I believe "white privilege," because I can see it year after year, in the number of African-American children retesting or having challenges to get to that Ohio High School diploma, this is just one of the main things I see directly. 

I will leave you some resources to reference. One is a quiz I took from Harvard that helps you determine your bias. I scored as moderate, "automatic preference for white over black images of people's faces. Also, I preference males with family and females with career. I was trying to not show any bias as I sorted face images to good or bad words and I have been told I am pro women, but my results showed differently. Thus, I have to own it. 

I will use my voice to provide equity of opportunity for all to eliminate division and promote coexistence. 

IAT test/s is available at;  http://havard.ed/implicit/takeatest.html 

Other sources; 

Elliot, Jane. "Blue-eye/Brown-eye Experiment" Retrieved 10-27-17 https://youtu.be/1CtrpLh6TKk

Green, Laci. "Is Racism Over Yet? Retrieved 10-24-17 https://youtu.be/h_hx30zOi9I

Johnson, Tracey D. (March 2016). Columbus Education Association, Community in Crisis Summit. 

Pinto, Erica. "The Unequal Opportunity Race." Short film for the African American Policy Forum" Retrieved 10-26-17 https://youtu.be/vX_Vzl-r8NY

NEA (2014) Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Realtionships & Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools."  Download toolkit: www.otlcampaign.org/restorative-practices 

Roberts, Suzanne and Erin Upchurch. (September 2017) Unifying Solutions in conjunction with Safe Conversation About Race. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center. Let's Talk! Discussing Race, Racisim and other Difficult Topics with Students. Teaching Tolerance. Retrieved tolerance.org/materials/orders 

White, Sr., James A. (October 2017) Performance Consulting Services. www.safeconversationaboutrace.com   https://www.facebook.com/healingtheSCAR

"I'm just a dreamer..."

Well everyone, I just did it, I entered @

https://bluechairbayrum.com/yearoff/

This is my 199/200 word essay…

I just finished my 18^th school year as a public school teacher, but overall I have 22 years’ experience teaching; my first 4 years of teaching was in the private preschool, Child Care Center setting. I started in High School as a Career Vocational Education student and was a non-traditional college student, meaning I worked full-time while earning my college degree. Currently, for the past 6 years of my career, I teach high school Career Vocational Education students. Just like many of my students, I have other passions and interest outside of teaching; for example, I love attending country music concerts and singing along to my favorite songs.

In high school I tried to write songs, as many great country artists do, but they always turned into becoming better short stories. I started writing a blog in 2015. I am a reader who knows the power of a story so I decided to write mine. I had 300+ views on 1 blog. Thus, with a year off, I would like to explore opportunities in the country music industry, especially being a part of beach country concerts or song writing. I would like to share my journey online and with the world. #workhard

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Kenny Chesney’s music. Secondly, I am a fan of all great music, especially that tells a great story of real life. I am not sure what journey God has for me next, but when I saw this contest, I just had to enter!

This essay contest was a great end to my school year and reminded me to take a moment and focus on my dreams. I always help guide my high school students with their dreams and goals. We discuss goals that will help them to make money while pursuing dreams. My students know that I want to be an author and after they graduate, some find out about my interest in music.

I try very hard to be professional and the teacher that the public says I should be. However, like everyone else, I have dreams and enjoy adult things, like drinking responsibly and attending concerts. I have made mistakes, like drinking a lil too much and let’s say, getting sick; but for the most part, I am sure that people who know me would agree that my image is that of a real teacher.

Lastly, I like entering competitions and contest. Why not, somebody’s got to win!

I was not selected for the NEA “Global Learning Fellowship.” I enjoyed expressing my interest on the subject. However, during that same time, the NEA asked me to apply for the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), who accredits institutions, which prepare future educators and I was accepted. “More than 800 educator preparation providers participate in the CAEP…” they say I may be attending training this July or sometime in 2018. I’m excited for this professional opportunity.

Summertime is here, I’m so ready!

Applying for the "Global Learning Fellowship"

1 *What motivated you to apply to the Global Learning Fellowship? 2*As an educator, how have you facilitated a classroom environment that allows students to engage in open, appropriate, and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds? (2000 character maximum for each answer, so I had to remove some details) My Response... As an early childhood educator who now teaches career high school students who are starting their career path in education, I feel that I need to be directly involved in activities that will instruct me on how I can teach tolerance of all and learn how to close the “global achievement gap.” Currently, I teach an urban class that includes 6 foreign born students, 2 are illegal immigrants and 3 are english language learners; somali and hispanic. I see first hand the challenges that they have and I really want to be able to support them through the process of completing High School and the transition to college and/or the workplace. They share stories of the lack of opportunities from where their from. I like to share stories of real life along with statistics regarding test like the ACT, but mostly I think “closing the global achievement gap” is accomplished by creating real world experiences for students, being a facilitator to them through the learning process and offering encouragement to them along the way. I have had students say, “Mrs. McGrath you do not let us give up, you keep asking us to do it.” I have learned that you have to be real with students and I explain to them that I am just that, a realist. You may not like it but I do not want you to be surprised so I do not sugar coat things, I explain that college is tough, but I know that they can do it and that I am here to help them complete the assignments that I teach that equals college credit.      My grandfather spoke adamantly about the horrible treatment of his parents as Irish immigrants. They came here with nothing and battled depression and issues of poverty. As the oldest child he joined the Army in World War II to make money and to get his family a better life. He talked a lot about President John F. Kennedy and what it meant to see an Irish Catholic elected. I grew up in a changing urban area. In 2nd grade I attended Catholic School and a new black family was moving in next door. I was confused by the adult talk, because a very nice black family lived across the street. I was excited because the girl was the same age as me. We still had a separateness about us, but we had mutual respect and we grew up together, often sharing stories and playing. Just being kids. High School started 7 years later, and I was unable to get out of being sent to the historic black high school in Columbus. In the 1990's Columbus Public Schools was part of a desegregation process, so some kids were bused to non neighborhood schools to create more equally diverse high schools. Many of my white friends found a way to get out of it, I didn't. My father mentioned paying for me to attend Catholic Schools, but I left in 4th grade because we couldn't afford it and I didn't feel like I fit it with other rich catholic kids, so I decided to get on the school bus and go across town. My High School was about 65% black, 30%white and 10% other. This taught me to find the goodness of others, sometimes we would see the bad sides of our indifference, however, we had more in common as we struggled to figure out how to become better than our parents and make money. I share my story with my Columbus students today, so they know that I really do know these streets because I survived them. I have seen friends and family members of mine go down a path that ends in the tragedies of addiction by being buried and/or incarcerated. I still check in, love them and offer them hope because we are Columbus. I feel that the NEA Global Learning Fellowship will help me to expand upon my teaching experiences and help me grow as a teacher who is passionate about social justice and opportunities for all students. I have gotten to travel a little and I always encourage my students to take advantage of opportunities to travel. For example, my class is connected to a Career Technical Student Organization, CTSO, that holds regional, state and national competition leadership conferences. Every year I advise students through this process and sometimes we get sponsored to attend the National Leadership Conference; this is held in a different city in the United States. My students and I have traveled to Orlando, Florida; Anaheim, California; Chicago, Illinois; Nashville, Tennessee and San Antonio, Texas. We get to see historical sites and attractions in each place, while attending leadership conferences and meeting other from all of the United States and Puerto Rico. I enjoy hearing stories of we are all more alike than different, but there's something about travel and meeting new people. I enjoy participating in the CAP Space Read Across the Planet event every year, since 2015. I have advised my high school students through the process of learning to read to young children by practicing and preparing props for a Dr. Seuss book. Then we have a web conference call and read the story to preschool class in South Carolina and West Virginia. The preschoolers teach us something too, like a song or about their art project. It is a great way to meet a teacher and students in a new city. I create a Google map to show the location of the children that we got to meet. I have to teach the importance of language and literacy so what better way than using the internet to connect to a new place. This is in addition to the preschool children my students work with locally while earning valuable internships. I start the school year off by giving multiple intelligence surveys. I like my students to know as much about themselves including new vocabulary to describe their strengths, like bodily-kinesthetic and interpersonal learning styles. Then I have them go around and interview each other to find out about others. Also, they complete career profile surveys. I discuss what the data means and how the information can help them in their career goals by writing back individual thoughts and explaining in class lecture. Howard Gardner is the theorist behind the multiple intelligences and I introduce his work with this lesson. I try to show how our differences help us to learn to work as team. In our class we work on a couple service learning projects in addition to our internship experiences with local preschool programs. I have students who sign up to be project managers as we tackle these task. Please see the lessons attached below.

Music in the classroom can be a powerful addition to any lesson, especially in the Early Childhood Education setting. This lesson is aligned to the Child Development Accreditation, CDA; Competency Goal  II; To Advance physical and intellectual competence  (Updated 8/27/12) Cultural and Linguistic Groups Identity (Bilingual appreciation) Assignment 1= Select 4 songs, finger-plays, word games, or poems that you can use to promote phonological awareness. Describe (means in 1 paragraph) strategies to promote phonological awareness among children whose home language is other than English. Clue; Refer to textbook definitions and lecture notes in regards to teaching phonological awareness.  For example, think about how you teach children to pronounce a word in English or the other language. ***Helpful Website; www.mamalisa.com/world Assignment 2= Create a song card collection of at least 10 songs for future use in your classroom; 4 songs have to have English words with translation of words in another language;. Spanish, Chinese and Somalia languages are often used by bilingual families in the central Ohio area.  Sign language explanation can be added to any song for your future use but does not meet bilingual or phonics requirement. Take notes below & make decorated song cards in preparation to Type your final essay response to this CDA goal. 1.       “Song Title”- country of origin. Why you chose this song and example of it’s use to teach phonics.

The last lesson I shared for the global learning fellowship was my work on project based service learning.

Why is Project-based Service Learning Important for 21st Century Learners?

Why is Project-based Service Learning Important for 21st Century Learners?

December 2016

Rebecca McGrath-Hinkle

I have always been an advocate for project based learning, quadrant d work, relevant and real-life assignments for students; regardless of the title, students need to use higher level thinking skills to become problem solvers and effective employees in our society. Teaching in a project based way has helped me learn the importance of building relationships with my students and other teachers.

Teaching in the urban setting and dealing with learned helplessness and depression has really taken it’s toll. As an alumnus of an urban public school setting, I want to offer students these “Aha” moments like I had, when I had teachers who took the learning beyond the pages in a chapter.

Therefore, I am a little biased but I truly believe that project based service-learning is the way to go. The bottom line is that most jobs require a service component.

It does take you out of a comfort zone and you end up assigning and/or reassigning parts as you go. Sometimes to points of exhaustion, but in the end it is a powerful thing to be a part of.

I am not perfect at it and feel like an alone outsider within my school teaching culture; however,  I really feel that a collaborative approach where all teachers in the school are involved would be ideal. Thus, I come to this question; How can I convince buy in?

In 2010 the “National Youth Leadership Council,” reported the following;

• “81 percent of dropouts felt that they would have been more apt to stay in school if their school had offered real-world learning opportunities…”
• “Low socio-economic status who participate in service scored higher in achievement, motivation, grades, bonding to school and attendance than similar students who did not participate in service.”
• “In a national evaluation of high quality middle and high school federally funded Learn and Serve programs, Melchior (1998) found that at the end of one year, service-learning students significantly outperformed comparison students in overall grades…”

I know that my transition from High School to college happened successfully because of the college credits I earned from my career center class. Today, twenty years later, as a career center teacher I see how my student’s GPA’s and attendance increase within the first semester of taking a career center class that is internship and project based. Service learning is connected to the school but in a voluntary way through a teacher on special assignment who assists counselors on helping students earn service hours to meet graduation requirements. Therefore, I agree with the evidence that academic achievement increases when students have these real world internship and/or service learning experiences

The National Service-Learning Clearninghouse, “Fact Sheets Why Districts, Schools and Classrooms Should Practice Service-Learning,” states that,”Studies show that service-learning has a strong effects on several areas related to character, reduction of risk behaviors and promoting an ethic service...Character development occurs because students are often given responsibility for outcomes in service-learning settings and are more likely to engage in interdependent tasks and joint productive activity (2007).” Also, they mention the improvement of higher level thinking skills that matches other research mentioned above. The one thing I want to point out is that students are given roles of responsibility if the adults, teachers and employees of the service business, facilitate the student through the process by asking the right questions.

The teacher needs to guide the students through the work and work alongside them but the teacher should not be taking over or completing the work. The teacher needs to schedule meeting times and facilitate to help guide the students through the process; however, the process needs to follow an organized method, such as;

-The Five Stages of Service Learning (Kaye & Connolly 2013)

-The FCCLA Planning Process (FCCLAInc.org 2016)

- A Planning Model for Learning with Purpose... Serving with Passion (Growing Together Service Learning Network, Partnerships Make A Difference 2016

Kaye and Connolly, from CBK Associates, explain how “The Five Stages of Service Learning” is aligned to the CCSS, Common Core State Standards. Ohio has adopted the common core state standards, so this aligns to teaching expectations for students in my district. Specifically, the CCSS expect students to be able to, “1. Demonstrate independence; 2. Build strong content knowledge; 3. Respond to varying demands of audience, task, purpose and discipline; 4. Comprehend as well as critique; 5. Value evidence; 6. Use technology and digital media strategically and capably; 7. Come to understand other perspectives and cultures.” (2013)    

The teacher needs to introduce the planning process, provide examples during meeting times that students can reflect upon while creating their plan. There are similarities to each of the plans but a major difference is that the FCCLA Planning Process doesn’t include planning of entry events or celebration which extends upon the follow-up evaluation into a more extensive reflection process, as explained in the other 2 plans listed above. I feel that the entry events helped me facilitate the students from the start while creating more reflection for students who were also excited about planning a celebration, this motivated my students in a new way.

I still have some students who participate minimally, but the ownership and connection with entry events that connected us with real business people, like social workers from Franklin County Children Services, was very relevant and eye opening. I tend to be a doer so I like helping create products with the students, but I try really hard to keep to their plan. I only share my expertise if I know money is an issue to carry out their plan and I know of something that is more cost effective. It is important that I do not try to control or push my ideas on them, I need to facilitate and allow them to problem solve as much as possible. I would love to collaborate with other teachers and share this amazing transforming process that happens as a result of project based service learning experiences.  

 

Works Cited

CBK Associates, C.B. Kaye and M. Connolly. “With Common Core State Standards, Why Service Learning Matters Even More.” 2013, 6 pages.

FCCLA Planning Process.  Family Career and Community Leaders of America,  2016

fcclainc.org/pdf/planprocsamplefilledinworksheet.pdf. Accessed 26 December 2016.

National Youth Leadership Council. “Generator School Network Service-Learning and Academic Achievement Research Summary.” 2010, 3 pages.

RMC Research Corporation. “Fact Sheets Why Districts, Schools, and Classrooms Should Practice Service Learning.” June 2007, 4 pages.