What Am I Willing To Do To Educate All Children?

 

As teachers, our job is to educate our students, but as individuals we have to be willing to educate all of our students no matter their race, beliefs, or gender. I want my students to feel welcomed in my classroom and not feel like they do not belong or are insignificant. In one of the videos I watched in this week’s module, the speaker presented a rap that a student had created and the student speaks about sitting in the back of the class waiting to escape, and that even when he does want to raise his hand in class, he knows it will go unseen. I believe that should never be case, a student should not want to raise their but shy away because the teacher does not acknowledge their hand. In order to help every student feel recognized, I will try and call on different students all the time and not call on the same hands. I will also occasionally call on students who do not have their hands raised because I know from personal experience that sometimes you have the right answer, but you do not feel confident enough to share it with the class. I also know that I may run into the problem of time and calling on each raised hand so my solution is to vocally acknowledge and thank them for raising their hands and ask if they have anything important to add before we move on since we have already answered the question. I will also mimic students’ own personal and cultural learning tools. In order to do this, I need to build a connection with each of my student so I can give them the kind of education they deserve. To make connections with my students, I can have my students create an “All About Me,” poster that will include insight on their home life and who they are and then be presented to the class. I could also send an iPad home each week with a different student and they will be tasked with recording a weekend in their life. By recording their weekend I can get a sense of their family structure and what they may deal with outside of school. I will also simply talk to my students and let them know I care for them and only want what is best for them. If the child feel cared for, they will feel safe and want to participate in the classroom. Another way of educating all my students is using parent involvement. Parent involvement helps me as the teacher get to know they family better and also builds a teacher-parent support system. Most importantly, classrooms should not be a place where discrimination occurs, every child deserves to be educated, and educated correctly based off each individual.

Until our next post readers,

 Holly. 

Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

 

It is 2021, we would think that by now, gender does not affect the teaching profession but unfortunately, it still does. While trying to find an image for this blog post, I typed "teacher" into google and all the images that immediately loaded were of predominantly white and female teachers. I think the stereotype and view that teaching is a woman's profession is still in place today. Throughout my K-12 experience I have had eight male teachers and four out of the eight were athletic coaches. The coaches always went by coach in the classroom, but the female coaches were never referred to as coach in the classroom, but why? The female coaches had step into the teacher role in the classroom, but the same standard was not set for the coaches, because they thought of themselves as coaches, not teachers. There is still a significant difference in the pay of male and female teachers. Even if both genders are coaches and teachers, the males still earn more. During my senior year of high school, I was given the opportunity to visit the admin building for our school district meet all the available staff members. I cannot remember her name or her position anymore but her job position was directly below the superintendent, and since my class was all girls except for two boys, she told us a secret. She said, "They don't want us to make it, they believe that we (females) should stay in the classroom and leave administration up to the "big guys" but that we could change that by never giving up on a position we want just because of our gender." She then explained that she had wanted her current profession for two years before she was even considered for the position and she said she was even overqualified for the job and they were still hesitant because a woman had never held that position before. Since were able to speak to her in office, it was clear that she had followed the advice she had given us. In The Teacher Wars, there was a statement made that woman should be teachers because they are motherly and should take care of and educate the children. That once again emphasizes the stereotype that woman should stay home and raise the children while the men went out and did the "real" work. I have had motherly teachers, but what is wrong with fatherly teachers? I have had male teachers who cared for their class just as much as my female teachers, does that make them fatherly? I also do not agree with the idea that mothers should be forced to just be stay-at-home spouses, while their husbands get to receive an education and be a part of the workforce. Also, with how sexuality and gender and becoming more open today, I think schools should be more open-minded also. They look down on teacher who do not dress "proper" but really, they mean "girly." Then we also have teachers who do not identify with a gender and I can only imagine all the struggles they face in the teaching profession. Although, we have made advancements for teachers, we still have a long way to go. 

What is the Purpose of Schools?

The purpose of schools has changed throughout history. In the beginning, school was primarily based upon growing the country economically and to promote democracy. When religion was big in the colonies, it was based around the church. Then, school moved onto purposely only focusing on educating the elite and leaving the poor to self-educate or learn through the clergy. Schools were not equally accessible, they often left out students who had to work and they also did not see a point in educating women. After awhile, views shifted on the education of women and they began to learn more than reading and writing to help raise moral children. Once again, schools focused on educating children to help them learn the foundations of democracy to be able to be knowledgeable voters. They also saw education as a way of creating bonds among the diverse classes and promote American unity. I believe the purpose of school is to educate the future and prepare them to not only be apart of democracy. but to also be kind, smart, and upstanding citizens to help society improve with each following generation.