Concluding Post: Culture in the Classroom is Simply Precious

We live in a world where academic differences are acknowledged on a daily basis. These recognition’s can be intentional, such as when comparing and contrasting district, state, and national data in professional development workshops. They can also be unintentional which can commonly be seen by two teachers talking informally, perhaps when engaging in a casual conversation in the teacher’s lounge that involves sharing the days stories. However, what most people do not realize is that occasionally, the intentional and unintentional forces couple to create a glamorized, dramatic, and realistic portrayal of the way students, school, and relationships are in various cultural settings.

I know you are questioning how I can be so bold as to describe such a serious topic of interest as “glamorized,” “dramatic,” yet somehow still “realistic.” Let me explain, through the affects of mass media, education of various cultures has, in my mind, been GLAMORIZED. Think of popular films- the teacher comes in trying to be superman. Then ask yourself, is the teacher taking time to get to know the students’ individual interests, needs, desires, expectations, goals, and most importantly stories. Now, yes, most of these stories are based on true events, making it very REALISTIC (we as teachers know that in order to build the relationships mimicked on the big screen, all of those things had to happen) but could the trials and tribulations that teacher and those students experienced together really be captured in a 120-minute film? To think the viewer has an accurate portrayal of what those 180 days looked like in 120 minutes is absurd, that means, on average, each school day would only receive a minute and a half of airtime. Face it, if you want your major motion picture to go to the big screen, you’re not going to include a lesson on Christopher Columbus that lasts forty minutes, nor are you going to show the fifteen minute differentiated center rotations, or even the nightly homework regime. You are going to show the hardships, the victories, the moments that cast incredible amounts of empathy, fear, anticipation, and excitement among the viewers. How do you do this? By incorporating DRAMA.

Which leads me here, recommending a movie to you that does, more or less, glamorize the world of education; that does tell a story many individuals have lived, and that reels viewers in with the dramatic hardships and triumphs of the main character: Precious.

Precious, directed by Lee Daniels, is a movie with nearly a two hour run time. It shares the story of a young girl from Harlem. She is African American, overweight, and illiterate. She has been abused multiple times by her own mother and even her mother’s boyfriend. She is pregnant with her second child when she enrolls into an alternative school in an attempt to provide a better life for her and her family in the future. During the two hours, Daniels is able to capture something amazing that not many directors (at least not in my opinion) can do. He is able to capture the culture of Precious’ childhood. He is able to portray schooling, cultural assimilation, and social mobility in a way that stays true to the era the story takes place in. Furthermore, he was able to mimic the relationships between schools and homes often seen in an inner city setting.

Before I jump into breaking down these three key components, I want to share with you a little bit about myself and why I feel so passionately about this movie. My blog so far has consisted with little snippets of who I am and how I was raised. For 22 years, I was the Macedonian girl with old-fashioned parents growing up in a rural country town. What you may not know, though, is during those years, I so badly wanted to live in the city (my dad moved us out of Detroit when we were barely walking). In college, I specialized in urban education with hopes of one day teaching, and living in a big city. Movies like Precious, Boyz in the Hood, and most popularly, Freedom Writers, further motivated me, and in 2013 I found myself teaching on the south side of the nation’s third largest school district. During my three years there, I started realizing all of the things previously mentioned. I started seeing how media glamorized inner city education. I was experiencing the dramatic events (students getting shot, block to block violence, drug abuse, and so much more). That is when I started realizing how real all of it was. This wasn’t just a plot of a movie, for children all over inner cities, this was their reality.

My personal reality has been enlightened thanks the readings and discussions we have had during the course. While I understand the point of the concluding reflection was to try and address one of the topics throughout the course, I found it important to look into all three. I am able to see not just the glamorization, drama, and realism of education and culture, I am better able to understand where it stems from: the culture of childhood, school cultural assimilation, and social mobility, and the relationship between schools and homes. Instead of sharing my realities with you (although snippets are included), as they are not truly my own rather that of former students, I will share with you the story of Precious- the illiterate, pregnant, aspiring and inspiring teen from Harlem.

Although we do not see actual clips of Precious growing up, there are flashbacks Precious has throughout the movie and stories that are shared in confidentiality between her and her teacher that help the viewers better understand her culture of childhood. In the movie, we see Precious being verbally, and even physically abused, by her mother on multiple occasions. She gets hollered at for not making dinner to her mother’s standards, and for having high hopes for her future. It is clear to see that not only is Precious very independent for a teenager still living under her mother’s roof; rather, she is also very mature in the way she takes care of her dependent mother. Despite this film being released in 2009, it is important to remember that it takes place in 1987. Thus, this behavioral norm for both children and parents was significantly different.

Overtime, the way parents interact with and look after their child has changed drastically. Furthermore, the culture of the environment plays a significant impact in this as well. In my cycle one post regarding the culture of childhood, I look deeper into this through the use of a course reading by Pamela Druckerman entitled “Bringing Up Bebe.” Druckerman looks in depth at parenting in the French culture. Parents there are strict while still remaining low-key and calm. This was exactly the opposite of how I grew up with my very traditional Macedonian parents. They were just downright strict. Rules were enforced heavily and picking up sticks in the yard was a common form of discipline. It seems quite opposite for Precious (as well as many of my students on the south side). There are no clear definitions of the rules, rather just consequences and punishments for not meeting expectations. For example, Precious was once pushed down the stairs by her mother for being too busy with school and neglecting her house duties (which are still unclear to me as the viewer, even). While nothing this extreme ever happened with my students, the overall message of consequences without clear expectations is something that resonates with me as a teacher. One specific example stands out: a student had been receiving 4/5 on his sight word tests (this was still passing) yet when the mother saw the score upon pick up one day she had embarrassed him in front of his classmates for it not being up to her expectations (which obviously was 5/5). However, the five year old did not know this. The embarrassment caused will last a life time all because of a single moment of miscommunication between the mother, child, and even myself at the teacher. The culture of learning is set at a very early age, and what I have learned is that it is important for everyone to be on the same page.

Druckerman does a great job of stating her observations, but one thing I am still unclear about even upon concluding this course is why do these differences occur. In my first post, I ask “Who do we adapt these behaviors from? Where do we get our discipline techniques? Most importantly, how do we embrace these differences in the classroom?” – the last question weighing the heaviest on my mind.

I think one of the ways to better understand how to embrace these differences is to look at schooling, cultural assimilation, and social mobility. Cycle two brought us a very interesting text entitled “Hunger of Memory” written by Richard Rodriquez. In the text Rodriquez looks at bilingual and monolingual education and poses the idea that students cannot accept learning the public language until they feel they belong there. Although the movie Precious does not provide viewers with this idea of monolingual and bilingual education, the idea of schooling, cultural assimilation, and social mobility is still there through the use of language if we look closely enough.

Similar to the popular story of the Freedom Writers, Precious’ teacher encourages her students to write. This in and of itself is a very special language. Now, some of you may be saying how can it be a language when it is in fact their native language (that is, they are being asked to write in English and they speak in English). You see, you have to remember these students in the alternative classroom are illiterate. Yes, they are able to speak English, but there are several scenes in the movie that imply they are unaware of entry-level phonics (take for example the scene where the class is going over letters of the alphabet and using phonetics to spell words). Writing, although in English form as the case may have it, is a very complex language. Words are not always spelled how they sound and some letters make more than one sound.

Going back to the point Rodriguez makes regarding students being unable to accept a given language until they feel a sense of belonging, there is a scene where Precious refuses to write. She simply “wasn’t feeling it.” That is a feeling I most certainly can resonate with on both a personal and professional level. In my cycle two post, I mention a student who was having a hard time learning math. I soon realized that was because she felt more comfortable using her native language of Spanish. Thus, I chose to integrate both languages in our daily math lesson. By doing so, I think I was able to make her feel more comfortable with the environment. She was, all of a sudden, a part of the crowd because I incorporated her private language into the whole group lesson. This was an opportunity I never had growing up. Similar to my student, I struggled with math. My parents would show me concepts and ways to solve equations that were acceptable to their time. Yet, these were often refuted by my teachers, as I recall one day I confidently went to the board to solve a problem. Despite getting the right answer, my work was wrong and the teacher just couldn’t wrap her head around how I came to such a conclusion (and fifth grade me did not really have the means to explain it the same way my father did). After that, I kind of shut down- I just “wasn’t feeling it.”

I think when analyzing these experiences, reflecting on the movie, and drawing conclusions from Rodriguez’s piece it is important to realize that although my personal example and the example outlined in Precious do not necessarily involve a foreign language, they do in fact represent an academic language that, I feel, far too often gets forgotten about. For someone illiterate, like Precious, or even someone who may lag behind in math, such as myself as a child, academic language can be extremely hard to understand and even produce. I withdrew after my experience, and if you are familiar with Precious’ story she did to- that is, until her teacher did something none of my teachers ever took time to do (something I did with my five year old student when she wasn’t understanding mathematical content) and that is by making them feel like they are apart of the crowd.

So, how do we do that? I think that comes from the importance of tying in the home and community with the school. Cycle three provided us with the opportunity to read a book that examines development of the “whole child” and Montessori education. In cycle three I pose the question of what would happen if educators incorporated students interests and needs into the core curriculum. I ask readers what would happen if educators allowed more choices for students to express themselves based on these interests or even learning styles?

The story of Precious shows potential ways for these questions to be answered. For example, the idea of an alternative school itself shows a sense of choice. Precious was not forced to go there after being kicked out of her other school. Rather, it was a mere suggestion she took to heart and looked in to as a way to better herself and her soon-to-be developing family. By making sure the audience knows that this was Precious’ choice rather than something being forced upon her we can see that Precious is intrinsically motivated by something, although at this point of the movie we are unaware of what. While the movie shows other strategies to build home/school connections, I struggled to find tactics I could implement in my classroom given I work with a much younger age.

As previously mentioned, I understand the point of the concluding reflection was to try and address one of the topics throughout the course, I found it important to look into all three. Why? I did this because I firmly believe each and every one of these concepts build off one another as outlined in my analysis of Precious and through the reflections of my own experiences and practices. We cannot have a relationship between home and school without understanding the culture of our students and how we can better assimilate culture and promote social mobility in schooling. Furthermore, we cannot have cultural assimilation or social mobility in the classroom without understanding the various cultures of childhood. Let’s, again, look to the movie. Before Precious’ teacher could be successful, in any regard, she had to understand the culture of childhood in Harlem (more specifically, in Precious’ home in Harlem). Once she understood that Precious was verbally abused, illiterate, and even pregnant, she could better assimilate her. One way this happened was acknowledging the complexity of writing in the English language by going back to basic phonics lessons and encouraging the daily use of phonetic spelling rather than correct spelling. Through writing, the teacher was better able to establish a relationship between home and school. The relationship, although rocky at first, eventually leads to a confidence that allows Precious to leave her abusive home and pursue her vision of providing and caring for her two children. She was able to carry out this vision for a new home thanks to the coping, academic, social, emotional, and physical skills reinforced by the school. In other words, the school took into account this idea of the “whole child” and created an environment where the whole child could develop and flourish.

Developing the whole child is something extremely important and something I hope to do through my teaching practices. While the movie Precious focused on the concepts of culture in the classroom needed to aide this development, it failed to provide me with age appropriate techniques to use in my classroom which was one of it’s downfalls. On the upside of things, the movie did cause me to react in a very personal way. Although Precious is older, her situation is one many of my students experience. It was quite heart wrenching in the beginning while the foundation of her story was being laid out, and refreshing when the issues and tribulations were resolved. Throughout this whole post, I have given personal examples of a few of the things I have experienced in a neighborhood quite similar to Harlem. However, these are just a few stories. The experiences I had personally were very different. My parents didn’t have to worry about a bullet going through my arm or head when we were at the park. I didn’t have to worry about being severely punished for not meeting my parent’s expectations. I didn’t have to worry about other adults in the surrounding communities viewing me as incompetent and my dreams unreachable. It has been a culture shock all the way around, and in a positive light as well. I was able to see the hardships outlines in the story, and I was able to see the outcome. I do wish; however, the movie provided me with more steps to take in order to help my students achieve the desired outcome.

I think that is where the course discussions and readings really helped me reflect on my own practices and personal experiences from growing up to better see what I need to do to meet the needs of potential future students. Through the first cycle I was ale to better understand a little bit more about my background and how experiences and expectations do reflect a child’s behavior. The second cycle taught me the importance of assimilation. While the third really helped me realize how important integrating home and school is. In order to better build this connection, I have to start from the beginning. I think to better understand the culture of childhood; I would like to send out a survey to parents and students. This will help me better understand in home practices and expectations. I can also better learn student interests, learning styles and needs. By doing this, I can lay a foundation for better allowing assimilation and mobility within the classroom. I can do this, similarly to how I have in the past (as stated with the non-native speaker previously) by incorporating various languages, learning styles (such as flexible seating), and centers that are catered to student interests. Lastly, I hope to further connect the home and school. I am still not one hundred percent sure how to do this, as I have taught the past three years in a very structured environment that follows strict curriculum and schedules. However, come fall, I am going to be working in a school that takes more of a Montessori approach and emphasizes the importance of the “whole child.” I hope to take my reflections from my past experiences, analysis from the movie, and material gathered from the course to better develop as a professional. In turn, helping students to develop wholly and sufficiently in order to be the best possible version of themselves that they can be!

 

Cycle Three: The Schoolhome-Rethinking Schools for Changing Families

One of the things that, I think, make me unique in a district with 64,000 other teachers is my approach to recognizing the growth of the whole child and the home and school connection. I am not saying I am the only one in the district who takes this approach, but I tend to go against the very structured norm and offer a Montessori approach to teaching and learning.

This idea of independence, freedom with limits, and respect of overall development stems from early in my life; however, I wasn’t really aware of this until later. In high school, I thought all of the electives offered were so cool. I was the girl who wanted to be in dance, band, choir, and Spanish all at the same time. Unfortunately, due to core requirements this was completely impossible. In fact, the most I could do was take one elective all four years, and one additional elective my junior and senior year. Thus, there would be two, no matter what schedule I concocted up with my advisor, that I was forced to give up.

The decision was always heart wrenching. I desperately wanted to partake in one of the fine arts because it was so important to either my mom or dad. Music is extremely important in Macedonian culture. If we don’t play or sing the traditional songs, known as “oros,” we dance them. The fact I couldn’t do all three was disheartening, so I chose the one that would best help me embrace my heritage. That is, I played the clarinet in the school band (my dad played the clarinet in his Macedonian band, my grandpa played the clarinet in his Macedonian band, etc. – I am sure you notice a pattern). As soon as I started playing, my dad started teaching me some of the oros so I could play in his band. I remember practicing these traditional folk songs as warm-ups before the director got to class. That is neither here nor there. Fast forward to college during my practicum.

My first semester of college, I was placed in a high school setting to complete my service learning. I attended an after school program three times a week to work with children whose parents aren’t home often (for various reasons). This included the tutoring and mentoring of juniors and seniors. I had declared my concentration as Elementary Education, so I was unsure why I was working with students one to two years younger than me, but because of the minimal difference in age, it was extremely easy to relate to the students. Towards the end of my placement, when students were trying to schedule their courses for the following school year, I noticed they were having the same problems I did a few years prior. That is, students wanting to try new things or explore topics of interest in great depth but being unable to because of core requirements.

As a mentor, I found the same core requirements I once viewed as gruesome in high school to be of great academic importance all of a sudden. That is when I realized the problem does not lie so much within the requirements but more so in the approach to learning. I started reflecting on my own experiences. What would have happened in my teachers incorporated songs into the classroom (for math equations, or literary analysis, etc)? What would have happened if teachers introduced material in another language in addition to the native language (as I mentioned in a previous post)? What if educators recognized these interests and integrate them into the core curriculum? What if educators allowed more choices for students to express themselves based on these interests or even learning styles?

While I don’t think this is the exact point Martin is making in her book, it is an experience that allowed me to create text-self connections and further draw upon these connections. More importantly, it speaks of a reform I was just starting to touch on as a freshman in college (and longing for as a freshman in high school). You see, it wasn’t so much about electives as it was this idea of the “whole child” and integrating various aspects of personal lives into the learning objectives. Going back to the questions, let’s just say my teachers incorporated options for songs into learning- perhaps I would have been more engaged and even eager. Perhaps if my teachers incorporated other cultures (whether languages or customs), I would have been more competent of these differences and a higher level of respect and rapport in the classroom would have been created. If educators had recognized various interests and learning styles and provided various activities that catered to such, I truly believe a higher sense of intrinsic motivation would have been present. When all these ideas are coupled, not only are student’s learning the academic concepts and standards, but they are learning moral characteristics as well, again, leading back to the development of the whole child- something Martin advocates for in her book.

Additional Reading Resources:

http://www.ascd.org/whole-child.aspx

http://livingmontessorinow.com

Cycle Two: Schooling, Cultural Assimilation, and Social Mobility

Richard Rodriguez has an extremely powerful voice in Hunger of Memory. As I was reading, I kept stopping and reflecting on my experiences and how they tie into the words written within the book.

During my internship year, I was fortunate enough be selected to complete my coursework in the city of Chicago. There, I worked in a bilingual school where over 96% of the population was Hispanic. Each grade level had two teachers in two classrooms: one for the bilingual students and one for the monolingual students. Although I was placed in the monolingual classroom, my mentor was Hispanic and did her best to bring in the culture every day to her lessons. She interacted with the students in Spanish every day, sent notes home in both Spanish and English, and celebrated special cultural festivals like Dia De Los Muertos and Cinco De Mayo. The children were proud of their heritage and eagerly shared their learning objectives for the day with their parents. It wasn’t until I left this particular classroom and entered my own that I realized by creating this classroom of respect and rapport for one another and the culture it further allowed students to ask questions, discuss material, and practice their heritage openly and freely.

Fast forward to where I have been working for the last two years. The school is located a little farther south and shows much contrast in terms of demographics. Over 96% of the population is black. Chicago, while very culturally diverse and enriching, tends to have noticeable segregation patterns throughout the city. I cannot speak for other areas around the country, perhaps it is like this is most urban settings, but I only feel comfortable making observations I have witnessed myself. Back on track, this past year, I had 27 students, three of which were Hispanic. There was no offering of a bilingual classroom due to enrollment rates, but we did have access to a translator for parents only, typically. Thank goodness for her, she spotted a problem in my classroom that I was completely unaware of.

One day the translator pulled me aside and informed me she had met with one of my students’ mothers. She told me mom was concerned because the little girl didn’t want to come to school. When asked why, the little girl explained that she does not like math. Now, I had noticed two days prior to this the little girl using the class washroom excessively during math time and was going to bring it to the attention of the nurse when she came in on Friday (she works one day a week at our school and is the person who calls home if there is a medical concern before the teacher directly contacts the parent). All of a sudden, it clicked. There wasn’t a medical issue, rather this psychological fear of mathematics. I then had the opportunity to meet with mom and the translator, as I was a bit confused since she was doing so well on homework. You see, numbers are the same regardless of where you are at in the world. One will always be one, two will always be two, so on and so forth. However, how those numbers are verbalized or represented can change drastically. Slowly, I began shifting my instruction to incorporate a little bilingualism in the classroom. Some may say how the students’ work ethic changed was the most rewarding; some may say her increase in test scores was most rewarding. None of those things meant anything to me. What was most rewarding was her face when she saw me say “uno” as we did our daily counting. Her eyes widened, her head popped up, and her mouth hung open in a half smile-half “did this strange white girl who dances to Hit the Quan with the rest of the class REALLY just speak in Spanish” face.

After I modeled how to count in Spanish, I slowly let the class count with me before explaining that sometimes, we can speak in different languages. As to not single out my Hispanic students, I told them that my parents spoke in Macedonian (Naturally, they asked if I could say something in Macedonian, so I told them “te sakam means I love you and proceeded to sing the whole patty cake song in the language of my great grandmother’s Macedonian village.) They were so intrigued by these cultural differences, so I had the class take a vote: would we like to continue doing math in Spanish? Everyone said yes. So, that is how it went for the rest of the year. If we were doing addition, I would say it once in English, once in Spanish, and another time in English and the students would do the same. The small incorporation of what little Spanish I did know made a significant impact on not only the girl (who perhaps was feeling a little bit of shame, as mentioned in the Texas Observer when reviewing Rodriguez’s piece) but opened up the eyes to 24 other five year olds that there was this whole other word and multiple cultures outside of the classroom walls (which even encouraged some to research their own heritage, we even studied Kwanza extensively because that was the holiday two students celebrated).

My point here isn’t to refute Rodriguez’s coming out against bilingual education, but rather to reflect on how my experience may in fact be different from Rodriguez’s. I have never been considered a minority. Despite my heritage, I have always been classified as white, by my teachers, peers, parents, etc; each time I filled out a scantron to take a test I circled “Caucasian.” Which lends itself to the point in his book of a black and white country. In today’s society, especially in education, we are either this, or we are that. We learn about this specific content matter using the Common Core from this point of the year to this point of the year to insure all students have covered the same material, whether it be for testing purposes or to insure a student moving from Oregon to New York picks up right where he left off. We are molded to fit educational objectives and standards so much that we forget about who we are as individuals in the process. We forget about “our people,” “our traditions,” “our culture,” and sometimes (in my cause even though I’m not a first generation,) “our language.” It is almost like it is give and take. We take away studying our customs in the classroom to learn about standard learning objectives that are important across our specific grade level. We take away native language (Spanish, Macedonian, Chinese, even the use of Ebonics) in the classroom to deliver in one unison language- English. As an educator, I understand why it is important to have uniform policies and instruction; however, would incorporating a little bit of culture into the curriculum every once and a while really hurt—or would it make children feel as though their education is more relevant as to who they are in terms of their agency, their authority, and, most importantly, their identity?

Additional Reading Resources:
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/AAVE/hooked

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/education_futures/2014/11/6_ways_teachers_can_foster_cultural_awareness_in_the_classroom.html

 

 

 

Cycle One: The Culture of Childhood

I always knew I was different growing up, but could never really figure out why. While all of my friends were riding their bikes around the neighborhood, I was stuck riding from the big tree at the start of our driveway to the little tree at the end. When my friends were getting to stay up late on Saturday nights, going to the mall, I was tucked into bed with my cellphone turned off. When my family friends were all doing pizza Friday’s, we were having some form of manja (or Macedonian soup). Perhaps the biggest difference I noticed, though, was the discipline. When my peers would sneak out, earn an unsatisfactory grade, or talked back an adult, nothing happened. They got to keep their cellphone, go to the varsity football games, and hang out at the 5^th Quarter Bonfire. If I did any of that, my life was as good as over (well, for a teenager): no cell phone, no after school activities, no leaving the house period. Back then, you could say I was bitter. I didn’t understand why my life was different, and I most certainly didn’t think it was fair.

If I’m being honest, to this day, I still don’t understand why. The closest I’ve chalked it up to was cultural differences. I come from a very old fashioned Macedonian family. There are certain expectations that Macedonians hold, which can be deemed a tad, bit out of date living in the United States today. Even though I have grown up some, I still notice these differences.

I have been fortunate enough encounter multiple opportunities to build professional relationships with students beyond my grade range. I have coached middle school students from fifth grade to eighth grade. Coincidentally, this is the same age as my three younger cousins (one in sixth, one in seventh, and one in eighth). I have found that, even fifteen years or so later, not much has changed. If one of my students fails a test, nothing happens. If they get their phones taken by a teacher, they get it right back after school upon their parent retrieving it from the office, and if they show disrespect to an adult (of which I can only speak on behalf of the staff members), they still show up to after school activities. Meanwhile, my cousins’ consequences would entail extra study hours, no cell phone, and being in the house (and even in bed) prior to ten. I should clarify that this isn’t all my students, there are a few outliers; however, I would say over 50% fall into this category that I would view, as a twenty something year old Americanized Macedonian, as the non-existent definition of “normal.”

As I’ve grown, the bitterness has subsided. However, curiosity is on the rise. It appears that there are cultural differences that do in fact lie within the disciplinary techniques of various parents/ guardians, but I am more so curious as to how each culture responds to those disciplinary techniques. Pamela Druckerman’s excerpt from Bringing Up Bebe really got me thinking about the way children act in different cultures, how parents respond in different cultures, and how that is received by, again, the children.

There was one thing I was weary of while reading her piece and I was really trying to be cautious of while I was writing my own (as I could tell she was, too,  while writing the excerpt). That is, this definition of what the behavioral norm is. I don’t think the cultural differences surrounding behavior or discipline should be compared in a negative light. She did an excellent job of just stating her observations, something I worked hard to do in this post. However, when looking at those observations, it is very clear there are differences—but my question still remains—why?

Who do we adapt these behaviors from? Where do we get our discipline techniques? Most importantly, how do we embrace these differences in the classroom? I was misunderstood growing up. My friends couldn’t understand why I couldn’t go out, why I was grounded, or why I ate certain things. As a teacher, I have worked hard to get to know my students and their families’ backgrounds. For example, we have celebrated Cinco de Mayo, created bulletin boards revolving around black history, conducted author studies of famous Polish authors, and even looked into Irish astronomy. However, as an educator, the work is never done. Creating an environment of respect and rapport is something that we must work on year round, and a key part of that is understanding where students come from. By doing so, we can better understand behavior, anticipate responses to discipline or praise, and openly create and mbrace a culturally diverse classroom.

Additional Reading Resources:
https://blog.nationalequityproject.org/2012/08/22/5-ways-to-create-a-culturally-responsive-classroom/

https://expatsincebirth.com/2013/08/11/about-how-parents-discipline-their-kids-across-cultures/

Introductory Post

Good evening fellow TE822 bloggers,

My name is Allison Pargoff. I graduated from Michigan State University in 2013 with a degree in Elementary Education and a specialization in Language Arts and Urban Education. Recently, I have taken on the task of enrolling in graduate courses. I am working on my Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum with specializations in Mathematics in Education and Educational Psychology– which leads me here.

After graduating, I moved to Chicago to complete my fifth year internship in one of the largest school districts in the nation and have been out here ever since. For the last two years, I have taught kindergarten on the south side of the city. Over the last two years, I have gotten to know each of my students and their individual academic needs and interests. I try my hardest to show students connections between content and the real world by going on field trips. Some of the class favorites have included: the aquarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute, the roller rink/ bowling alley, and the zoo. I have also gotten to know some of the middle school students, as I coached Boys Volleyball last spring and Girls Cheer/ Pom for the past two years.

When I am not in the classroom, I strive to grow professionally. I have been fortunate enough to receive extensive training in the Common Core State Standards, data analysis, and school wide technology programs specific to our math curriculum. After my first year teaching, I was invited to become a teacher leader in two separate forms. The first allowed me to become a Network E11evator which enabled me to work with other teachers in the area to provide professional developments surrounding CCSS practices and teachers as writers. My second invitation came in the form of becoming a Math Facilitator. In this role, I worked with other teachers in the area, and across the district, to deliver professional developments to other teacher leaders after receiving extensive training from the Erikson Institute.I was able to use what I learned throughout my training to develop a presentation which I presented at the District level during the Summer and Winter Office of Early Childhood’s Ready… Set… Teach! Institute. Professional development is something I am extremely passionate about, as it allows me to grow which, in turn, allows my students to grow.

If you have not guessed already, teaching is not just my career, it is my life. It is my passion. However, I do allot for downtime. In my free time, I find peace in scrapbooking, writing, and signing. I also like to visit home and spend time with my family and friends. Regardless of who I am with, or what I am doing, my beach is the favorite spot. I am a Pisces so I am drawn to the water, there is something about it that is very peaceful. I also like to kick my feet up and wind down.

I have to admit, I do not watch television often, but I do have a few guilty pleasures. I have seen every episode of One Tree Hill (multiple times), and make the hit show Empire a weekly ritual. One of the reasons I love Empire is because it constantly reminds me to keep working- whether the characters are facing an obstacle, or whether they feel like they have finally reached their goal- they find a way to keep pushing themselves to reach  maximum potential. This is how I view teaching. There is always room to grow. More importantly, this is how I hope for my students to view learning. That is, there is always something to learn. There is always another goal to strive for, and that success is never too far out of reach.