Prompt #6: Carlson

The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to sociocultural and linguistic differences, using a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage positive social interaction and support learning in their classrooom.

* As you might have read in my first official post, the classroom I tutored in was pretty loud. There was certainly a lot of energy in that room! When the teacher needed quiet time, she would either turn the lights on and off once, or put one finger to her mouth in a "shh!" sign and hold the other fist in the air, which was the class' signal to sit and listen. Whoever followed her lead and did the same signal in their seats would get a color change on the board, which is always an appreciated reward. Once all the students were in their seats and quiet, my teacher had several activities that would encourage quiet interaction and learning.

* If quiet time happened closer to the end of the day, my teacher would have the students wind down by reading a book with a buddy or their table group. This gave students the chance of interacting with others and helping eachother with their reading skills. The bookshelves in the class were absolutely full of every kind of book, and when I looked through them one day while my reading buddy was making a selection, I noticed that the characters on the covers of the books represented every culture and race. And even better, I observed that the students in the class did not just read books about their own races or cultures. They appreciated the book for the sotry, not the kind of person it was about... which is how it should be! I thought this was a great example of my teacher demonstrating sensitivity to sociocultural differences while promoting learning of other cultures, as well.

* Another activity students could do during quiet time is sit down on the reading rug as a class and be quizzed with Fun Facts. My teacher had a stack of cards with questions about the capitals of States, animals, math equations, etc. and she would read one out to the class. Whoever guessed it right would get Kennedy Kash, with was fake paper money for the school store. Sometimes the students would have no clue what the answer to a question was, but were amazed when the teacher read out the answer and they had learned something new. The questions were really varied and focused on any part of the world, so the students were always presented with a new piece of information and their learning experience opened up even more. They were learning things together as a class, which also promoted positive social interaction.

* Throughout my whole tutoring experience, I kind of wanted to ask if my teacher had ever read Dennis Carlson before, because it seemed pretty obvious that she had his theories down pat. Carlson, the author of the article "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community", focused his writing on a "democratic, multicultural community curriculum". This curriculum centered around challenging essentialistic worldviews of fixed meaning and recognizing that students are made up of so many different factors, and helping young people build alliances across these different factors with other students. It is clear that reading time did exactly this, by providing the class with books about all different cultures. This way, students could realize similarities between themselves and children of other races, realizing that race itself doesn't define a person. With Fun Fact time, students learn information about places all over the world, information that anyone can learn, no matter what their race, gender, age, etc. I felt that both situations of quiet time were really opportunities to teach Carlson's multicultural curriculum.

* Overall, this tutoring experience has been amazing! I learned so much from my reading buddies, and it was incredible to watch their progress in their reading skills. This was a great experience for me, and it began to show me what kind of teacher I want to be... definitely a culturally competent one, that's for sure! I want to thank my assigned class for being wonderful to me and all the bloggers out there for sharing and commenting on their experiences, too! Good luck to everyone on the rest of their journey to teaching!

P.S. Really sorry this looks like one giant paragraph, but it won't let me indent or space them.. the paragraphs are there, though!

Prompt #5: John Dewey

The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students' learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community.

If I were the teacher of this classroom, the main challenge I would face is the linguistic differences and barriers among the students' families. Although all the students in my particular classroom speak English, I have noticed at pick-up time that many parents do not, which might be a problem when trying to collaborate together to talk about their child's progress in school. Another challenge would be that some parents work at different shifts and times, so after-school collaborations may not work for some. Of course, I would want to somehow work out solutions to these problems, because the concerns and contributions of parents are very important to me and communication between teachers and parents is key. So what would some solutions be?

Let's start with the linguistic barriers and differences. Although a solution could be to have the students translate at pick-up time between their parents and I, this might not be such a good idea, as the student might not be so honest about what I am saying, perhaps the parents do not want their child present, or the parents might be offended that I am not trying very hard to collaborate with them. I have noticed at pick-up time, however, that many parents speak Spanish. I took Spanish for four years during high school, and although I am not fluent, I would be comfortable to try to communicate with parents myself until I took some lessons to learn the language better. It would be a good idea for me to take lessons in a particularly popular language spoken in Providence if I were to work in a school in that area. Another solution may be to have a bilingual teacher present at pick-up time to help the parents and I understand eachother. Having another authority figure present would seem more respectful than having a student translate.

Being involved with parents and the community is essential for culturally competent teachers. Yet, as I have said before, this can be hard when parents work at different times during the day. That is why, to be sure that anyone could be involved, I would have Parent-Teacher Conferences and meetings at all different times throughout the year to be sure that a parent could make it. For example, I might have a conference at any time between 3 and 8 PM. To show that parents' contributions are important, too, I think it would be really fun to have a Parent Day, when parents can come and show the class what they do for jobs, or lead a fun craft or story time. It would be great to have a Culture Day, when parents and their children could bring in a snack or craft that represents their culture or family. This would involve parents in their children's education and show the interesting differences between different cultures and families in the class.

As John Dewey, author of the article, "The Democratic Conception in Education", wrote, there are many different societies out there, and communication and mutual interests are key factors in forming a society. He also argued that, unless people share the same experiences, they will have a hard time relating to eachother, and cliques or classes may form. I know that my classroom would contain many little societies of different ideas and cultural backgrounds. To involve the entire classroom in the community, I would have a fieldtrip once a month or so, for which, each student can write a story about a certain community service activity they have done before, and the whole class can vote on which one they would like to do for that month. Activities could be: working at a soup kitchen, having a winter clothing donation, or working at an animal shelter. This will give the entire class the same opportunity to share the same experience and maybe see a side of the community they have never seen before. This will open up communication between students, since they are all experiencing the same thing and becoming involved in the wider community.

Dewey said that, when different viewpoints come together, isolating barriers are broken down. That is why it is so important for culturally competent teachers to break linguistic and cultural barriers down by acknowledging the contributions and concerns of parents and including them in their teachings. Students come from all different backgrounds, and they should know where everyone else is coming from.

Prompt #4: Allan Johnson

The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.

If Allan Johnson ever visited Scituate High School, he would be shocked. As author of the articles, "Our House is on Fire" and "Who, Me?", both of which concern diversity and social systems, if he took one look around my high school, all he would see is residential segregation and a huge population of students belonging to the system of privilege. That is because almost every student going to my old high school is white and typically comes from middle class families. And that is seriously not a generalization. Scituate is an incredibly rural town with cute, country houses that come with a hefty pricetag. But this is where I grew up, it is my personal history and, consequentially, might provide a challenge for myself as a teacher in a classroom. To be quite honest, tutoring at my school this semester was the first time I had stepped into a classroom that had more African American students than it did white students. It worried me for quite some time that I may not be able to relate to a diverse classroom as a teacher, but, thanks to Johnson, I have an idea of how to handle the situation and maybe change it, too.

A common misconception country bumpkins sometimes have about non-white, city students, is that they are tough, "gangster", unkind or bad students. I certainly do not agree with this viewpoint, but it does exist. Yet, as Johnson argues, these associations only exist because non-white, city students do not appear to fit into the definition of the "dominant category" [white, country students] and therefore are illegible for the system of privilege. And by system of privilege, I am refering to "a social advantage that is both unearned and comes to people simply because they happen to belong to a particular social category". So in Scituate, while white students, born and raised in Scituate, have the privilege of being treated politely by some teachers and trusted by other locals, non-white, city students in this school system might not share this advantage.

Yet a culturally competent teacher would be aware that such systems exist and would work to fight against them. As long as the systems of privilege exist, it will have a positive influence on some students' learning and a negative influence on others. So how would a teacher fight such systems? After a few weeks or so of tutoring, I noticed that, once the bell rang at the end of the day on Friday, several students would run over to my literary coach's room. I soon learned that, on every Friday, my literary coach hosts a reading and snack time for students after school. There is a bus that takes students back home afterwards. This is an example of a teacher who has recognized a sociocultural factor, such as: some students may have working parents who are not able to pick them up after school, and has integrated this knowledge AND fought the system of privilege simultaneously by providing busing so that any student could go! Now any student has the opportunity to continue their learning after school and this opportunity does not depend on any sociocultural factor. I believe Johnson would give a round of applause to that.

After tutoring at my school, I have witnessed several teachers who are clearly aware of the sociocultural factors affecting their students' learning. That, and reading Allan Johnson, has really provided me with the encouragement I needed to realize that I will be able to handle a diverse classroom, no matter my personal history. Yes, there will be challenges, of course, but all I need to keep in mind is that, in the long run, every student is simply a student. It is society that has marked each student of a different race with different privileges and stereotypes. And as we work towards fighting these set systems of privilege, we will, as teachers, become culturally competent.