First set of blog posts for text

Ahhhh . . . I just read the first set of blog posts for our common reading. I love hearing my students' perspectives. They ask great questions, too.

I have to admit, I took a long time to get motivated to read the blogs. For some reason, sitting down with a stack of papers or journals is much more appealing to me than logging in. I'm not sure why. Then, when I finally read and respond, it is a fun thing to do. I think I will check in with students tomorrow to see how blogging is working out for them.

Multicultural Education Tensions (and my smart students)

I just graded the first set of response papers. Several students highlighted a fundamental tension in the field of multicultural education:There is a tendency to think about diversity in a very limited way.

Indeed, I have struggled with this for years and it's one reason I've adopted the more sociocultural approach: it is more inclusive. So what's the problem? What's the tension?

The tension/controversy is that by being all-inclusive, we water down the very complex, meaningful, and relevant-as-ever issue of racism. It's more fun to talk about all sorts of diversity and inclusion and avoid the negative and difficult-to-talk-about issue of race. We also don't have to confront our own privilege if we are white. How do we acknowledge the history and current day meanings of race and still address all types of diversity? That is the question . . .

Teaching and More Important Things

Teaching:
Last week, I differentiated a lesson about classroom community. The EC/EL teachers viewed a video about classroom community, and the EL/MS and MS/HS teachers did some activities related to bullying. Today, they will each present to the other group their key learnings. I'm excited to see a) what they share and b) if this is an effective way to get the basics across to everyone with some specialization within authorization levels.

More Important Things:
Today my mind is really on my son. We'll call him "Boy" for the purpose of this blog (and "Girl" for my daughter). Last night, Boy was very emotional--irrational, really. I shot hoops with him and gently probed to see if something was going on at school. He said that no, he was just hungry when we got home so that was why he was so emotional. However, today, Dad took him to school and he cried the entire way there and wouldn't say why. I really just want to go pick him up at school and see what is going on. I emailed his teacher for a heads up--I'm sure she will let me know if he has a major meltdown. However, he holds things together really well at school and falls apart at home. My heart hurts to know he is suffering today, but I know I can probably wait and talk with him after school--six hours from now. Big sigh. It hurts when your children hurt . . .

Community Resources

What a great tour of community resources yesterday. Thanks to "Jeannie"--our tour guide. No matter what county/state you live in, you can look for these types of resources for your classroom. 

"But Divine Ms. Gen, how would I get the information to the right families? I wouldn't want to make assumptions." No, you would not. The easiest way to do this would be to make sure that either your classroom or your school has a place for brochures for all of the different resources somewhere prominent in the school. Because not all parents come into the actual school building regularly, you could also highlight a few resources at a time in a corner of your classroom newsletter, have a stack of brochures at conferences, post them at the school web page, and just send home a list of resources with brief descriptions and contact info. (in English, Spanish, and any other prominent languages spoken at your school) and send it home the first week of school.

Sometimes, you will become aware of a family's needs and that is different. You can sensitively work with the school counselor or social worker to offer information to the family. As our tour guide said, many families are served by multiple agencies and the school will just be asked to join the group as a matter of course.

We will debrief a bit in class tomorrow and then much more at a later date. I just wanted to have the field trip early in case you find some interesting places to do your hours.

By the way, one of your blogs could deal with our class field trip. Go ahead and mark down 1.5 hours. Be sure to make some connections to course goals. (See p. 6 of the syllabus.)

On a different note, check out this interesting link about Oprah's latest book club book: http://feministing.com/2011/09/06/not-oprahs-book-club-fatal-invention/

It deals with a topic we will most definitely address in class: the social construction of race.

Hopes & Fears

I just went through students' hopes and fears for the course. Two big realizations:

1. Most of these involve me as the instructor. No pressure!
2. It might make sense for me to share my own hopes and fears for the course. I always have concerns when teaching such an emotionally fraught subject area--and many of these concerns are support by research. I think I'll unpack that today.

Other than that, it was fun to meet my students, get to know them through their intersections of identity, and get started. I'm excited about another semester!

Fall 2011 Blog

Welcome to my blog, students--I will attempt to model how a blog might be used by a teacher for communication and record keeping. This is a 100% free tech tool, as will be most of the tech pieces we use in this class. Notice I won't be putting in any identifiers--name of college, names of students, etc. You won't want to do that, either--student privacy is of the utmost importance.

Soon you will create your own blog, including your posts about the Cultural Competence text. You will adjust your privacy settings, as desired: at minimum, I need to be able to read your posts. You may want to open it up to a wider audience.

I'm excited to work with you this semester.

Dr. DMG (Dr. Divine Ms. Gen)