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I believe that being a teacher advocate is about regaining the pride within our chosen profession and giving our students a voice.. We work in a very under appreciated, misunderstood, and devalued education. In order to prove ourselves to the country that we life in, it is our jobs to be the speakers and advocates for this profession.
It is so important that we are advocates for our students, in a teacher role. When teaching minority groups those students and their families also so not have a large voice in political situations. This is a time to use our education background and majority "membership" to improve the lives of our students and their families. We, as educators, have such a powerful position and are able to get the ball rolling in a community/city over big issues. We do not have to save the day, but we definitely can get peoples ears perked up, just as they had done in the Rethinking Schools article about the Black Lives Matter movement. It strong effects of teacher advocacy and the power we hold is stated clearly in the words, "Everyone was there in celebration, loudly proclaiming that, yes, despite the racist and right-wing attacks, despite the official cancellation, and despite the bomb threat, the community of John Muir Elementary would not be cowed by hate and fear." (Wayne Au, 2017). All because of teacher advocacy, the entire community was coming together to gain pride in who they are and begin to stir up conversations about the issues our country faces today. Being a lifelong advocate should be the real goal, not just an advocate your first year teaching or once you feel like you have more experience. It should be a commitment, something that is worked at every day, and something that forces you to put your students lives before your own. This is a responsibility we have as educators, and a support our students deserve to have.

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I believe collaboration is necessary when discussing the importance of becoming a part of the community your students resides in and associate with. Collaboration in this sense would go towards the meaning of learning from one another and being comfortable with compromise and differing views/practices. By using students, local businesses, sporting events and community events as a tool to get to know the culture your students participate in can make you an even more effective teacher and allow for facilitating the creation of a culturally relevant class community. Collaboration allows for the connection or students and teachers, that can in turn be applied to the classroom. I mentioned above that the knowledge you gain can be used towards creating your classroom community. They discuss this in
In page 152 in the
Another component that collaboration with students and their community can bring forward is to better direct your lessons. If you get to know your students and the norm for interaction in their daily lives, you are able to direct your instruction based off of this and better create activities for student to model these traditions.
On page 52 of "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood" they are talking about understanding the lessons that are carried out in the Black Church. It is not so much religious rules, but down to the fact that students know their expectations at church and have their way of learning that material. If this is  such a large part of their culture, who would we not collaborate and bring this method to the classroom. Emdin states, "the ability to guide without controlling, to create the best context, to be flexible, and to make the crowd move is found in both the black church and hip hop" (Edmin, page 52). Although this is discussing two specific pieces of black culture, it is so important that we bring these expectations and collaborate with the culture students live in to create the most productive and inclusive classroom community.

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I believe community/family is an amazing tool to enhance student learning. The community, no matter what the state, has a lot to offer in a student's education. Each student has a certain set of knowledge and experiences to build off of based on the communities they have lived in. Even further than that, their parents all have something important to offer into our classroom and curriculum. In the article Decolonizing the Classroom by Wayne Au, he reflects on the missed opportunities of his high school World History course. He felt that if his teacher had used the different students knowledge and insight, that there could have been some transformative multicultural lessons completed. He states this directly by saying, "Again, Mr. Anderson was contemptuous of student knowledge and he disregarded the importance of building from kids' lives and prior experiences" (Au, 2008). This article was particularly about multicultural lessons that could have taken place, however, I believe this extends into every subject. Once you consider what the student knows from his/her community or family, you are able to have a new insight and exploration on every topic. This is why I believe that community/family is a powerful tool to further a students understanding of all subjects.

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I believe my students learn best when I allow them to explore content and build off of their current personal understandings and viewpoints of the world. Similarly to Teaching From Student's Lives, the students were not necessarily exactly represented by the students in the stories, but they were able to make their own personal connections to the experiences (Osorio, 2015). This is when I believe the most amount of truly authentic learning happens within a classroom. Not only are we able to learn about our students from listening to them bring up personal connections to the material in class, but we know they are making meaning. It is also extremely important to show them various cultures around the world. This gives them the ability to compare it to their life to gain understanding, but also have a greater understanding for those around them. Knowing all of these perspectives allows students to dive deeper into various topics along the day.

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I believe students learn best when contributing to the learning experience and have their individual beliefs challenged and used to promote educational outcomes. What I mean by this is that the students need to see that they are a crucial component to education, in order for learning to happen. One effective way to approach this would be incorporate CRCM by creating a caring classroom community (Weinstein, pg 33). Weinstein states that students "influence classrooms events as much as they are influenced". This is absolutely correct! In order for the best student learning to take place, it takes other students. The other component I mentioned was showing students that they are valued and important to each classroom they walk into. To make sure this is truly happening for all students, it is important that we are aware of our biases and preconceived ideas (prejudices) towards other racial/social/political groups. This makes sure that students feel they are in a safe space and can test/discuss concepts and topics they are unsure of or uncomfortable with (Weinstein, page 29). With students recognizing their importance, and then the ability for students to feel safe and as if they are growing, students will become sponges waiting to fill with knowledge.

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I believe all of my future students have a unique perspective and set of knowledge to bring to the learning environment of my classroom. Prior experiences, home lifestyle, friendships, previous learning environments, and observations all combine to make each and every student that walks through my door. It does not matter how I set up my classroom or how I envision the daily routine. I could do it the exact same every year, and something different would come of it each time. Carol Weinstein makes a wonderful comment when addressing a teachers commitment
to building a classroom community by saying, "they influence classrooms events as much as they are influenced" (Weinstein, pg 33). I feel that I can work as hard as I feel necessary, but without my students and their classmates, their  educational experience would not be as wonderful as it is. My students really have a unique perspective and skill set to contribute to the classroom, and absolutely have their special space in my class.

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I believe that the purpose of schooling is to prepare and encourage students to be ready for their lives once they leave the mandated education we have in our country. I know that this does not agree with the majority of the Goals of Education (Spring, chapter 1-2) that we have discussed in class, but I feel like education needs a major turn around, our motives included. If I had to choose one goal I semi-agreed with, it would be the social goals of education (Spring, page 35). Although I feel that many of these goals need to change dramatically, I agree that schooling is largely social. I do not necessarily agree that it is to teach values or reduce crime, like Horace Mann. I do feel that it is school and the teachers jobs to aide students in developing the skills to be successful in whichever path their choose. If school is able to become successful at this, we will officially be able to begin dismantling the cradle to prison pipeline. As they talk about on page 20, it only takes a little bit of effort to distrust the current system that we have developing (Children's Defense Fund, 2005). The purpose of school should be to break this for students and allow all of them the opportunity to success.

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I believe that teaching goes beyond teaching facts, formulas, and historical dates. Teaching is about creating students who have develop the sustainability, curiosity, common sense, and work habits needed to make their world the world they would like to live in. It is about teaching students to change the things they do not like about their life or world. It is creating citizens who feel connected enough and intelligent enough to the community they life in to stand up for themselves, and those that do not feel that they can. Similar to the teaching beliefs of Howard Zinn , we should be giving students prime examples of those who stood up for themselves in their own unique ways. Teaching students the real world around them, not the textbook version or "nice" version will, will get them much further in life and create students who can stand up for themselves and others. Teaching is more than following a high-stakes testing model, to create students who can pass a test and those ones will be successful (Spring, page 75). It is about meeting students where they are at and expanding their knowledge and confidence to allow them to make a different in the world.

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I believe that learning in schools is not about gaining factual information. In school, learning consists of gathering skills or a "toolbox" to gain information later in life that pertains to your interests and choice of career. At one point, I felt as if learning in schools was about teaching students information. However, students have access to so much information from technology that it is no longer our job to feed them information. We have to teach them how to navigate their learning materials. I feel that tracking in school systems will inhibit learning of all students (Spring, pg 86). Instead of all students being given the same schooling opportunity and same “toolbox” for learning, the students are given different skills in a predetermined sense. This also continues a generation of people who struggle to defend their children and themselves in the working/living world. As the American Education textbook states, we “should be aware that “education” does not always benefit the individual or society” (Spring, pg 5). This made me very frustrated, as the school system does not allow all students to learn. Like I said, learning is all about giving students the tools and mindset to navigate and determine what information is true and valuable.

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I believe that my responsibilities as a teacher are as follows;

1.     Be a guiding, positive, and inspiring role model to my students each and every day. As a young child I was inspired by a specific teacher I had who was transparent, entertaining, passionate, and just down right wonderful. She instilled a value for education within me and helped me through a very difficult time in my life (a move to Indiana). As a teacher, we spend lots of time with our students and have a duty to be a good example and connect with our students.

2.     Create a safe and engaging learning community that makes students excited about learning. All kids love learning when they enter school, it is what happens to them while they are in school that destroys that love. I want to show students that learning is fun to do, and lead them to a lifestyle of being lifelong learners.

3.     Teach to the needs and interests of my students and understand the community in which they come from. It is crucial that educators go beyond their personal biases and truly get to understand the needs of their individual students. This includes reflecting upon the ideas of “white fragility” (DiAngelo, p 54). Educators also need to be adaptive and open minded to meet the needs of their students each and every year. This begins by knowing who your students are, their goals/aspirations, and the community they come from.

4.     Become a disruptive innovator/student advocate to the current underserving education system that is in place. As an educator, my job goes beyond the four walls of my classroom. It is my job to stand up for those who are spoken over or forgotten within our system. Within those four walls, however, it is my job to combat biases/racism/common misconceptions about the world we live in. This could even including having to push the boundaries given to me by my school administration, principal, fellow teachers, etc. (Capellaro, ReThinking Schools- A Pedagogy of Resistance) Eventually, leading my students to be better and more open minded future leaders.