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Chapter 7: "From Pledging Allegiance to Your Flag to Sharing Beignets" touched on the significance of calls and responses in the classroom. Jones introduced this with an anecdote of Antoine, a student in Angela Dean's class, who kept adding "your" during the Pledge of Allegiance. Antoine's perception of the symbolism behind the American flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the U.S. differed from others because he was marginalized and therefore not typically engaging in school. Angela Dean and researcher Dawan Coombs kept notes of their observations in journals and determined that calls and responses were essential in critical pedagogy and for every student to be participating. Calls and responses are techniques used to grab students' attention in fun ways that will help teachers manage the classroom better and allow students to feel connected with their environment. The author notes “In fact, we argue that approaching teaching through a call-and-response interaction pattern in the classroom— including non-verbal calls and responses — was the key to opening up a critical space where a marginalized young person could move him - or herself into the center of classroom activity” (Jones 101). Calls and responses allowed Angela and Antoine to recognize each other and participate in dialogue which improved his academic performance and established critical connections between the teacher, student, and school environment.

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In chapter one we learn that the goal of this novel is to look at ways in teachers have been able to successfully engage students through writing. A major conclusion the authors of this book come to is that "there was no one "pedagogical" approach - or even one way of thinking or seeing - that defined the critical nature of the teachers work."

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Chapter 8: Freeing Ourselves and Others Out of Binds Through Writing

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Chapter 8: Freeing Ourselves and Others Out of Binds Through Writing

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Chapter 8 "On Writing Selves and Other Selves Out of Bindedness" is the final chapter of our PDG book. The author refers to bindedness in multiple contexts but the main one emphasized is the restrictive and oppressive assumptions placed on teachers.   Jones explains that writing could free educators out of these binds by speaking about personal experiences and encouraging themselves and others to learn from their mistakes as well as open their eyes to what improvements could be made. She states that “The making and remaking of things: events, places, interactions, feelings, words, and relationships through writing is simultaneously a making and remaking of ourselves. We come to something new, we think something different, we learn something about ourselves and that learning opens up a line of sight closed to us just yesterday” (Jones 126).

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One of the important lesson Mack's teacher learns through her relationship with Mack is the idea that children are not "empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge, nor are their brains full of contaminated contents that must be dumped out, screenced, and filtered before being replenished" rather as teachers we must use the stories and experiences these students come into school with and "hear them, using these experiences to strengthen, improve, and even reinvent existing school curriculum". Moreover, she explains that we also must stop passing blame from person to person. That you could be doing everything right to "be a good teacher" and find ways to blame curriculum, parents, principals, etc but at the end of the day, it's important to reflect and recognize what you could do better, regardless of anyone else.
In doing this self reflection herself, Ms. McCreight finds that she can connect and engage with Mack through his storytelling. He loved sharing his experiences with the class and he loved talking about his family. It was this discovery that allowed Ms.McCreight to help this vulnerable student. The rest of the school year still a challenge ensuring Mack is engaged and learning but Ms.McCreight walks away with the lesson that there is no perfect classroom or no one way to be "good teacher" rather it takes constant effort and reinvention to help your students the best you possibly can.

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Two major themes that have emerged in these two beginning chapters focuses around the ability of being open and open specifically to the unpredictable nature of the classroom. The text urges us to remove the idea of limitations, standards, preconceived notions of what should happen with a student or in the classroom in general. In doing this, we allow ourselves to move forward without leaning on any preconceived ideas that could be holding us back. "For it is not in the sheer will of one individual subject to make change come about - it is both individual actors and the ways they come into being with others."
Moreover, the author finds this willingness to be open so essential to our understanding of teaching, she defines critical pedagogy as "a willingness to lean over the edge of predictability and be open to what might emerge beyond what has been in the past".

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Chapter 3: Allowing Our Wounds to Breathe

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Chapter 3: Allowing Our Wounds to Breathe

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In chapter 3, a teacher named Jaye interacts with a 3rd grader in her class. By using critical pedagogy and emotions she learns to understand the importance of emotion and the need to listen/share personal experiences in the classroom. She claimed that her schooling or lesson plans never prepared her for the moment where she needed to reach a child and their wounds they carry with them. She often felt uncomfortable and foreign but she formed a shared safe space for her class instead of a room with guidelines and pressure.

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I choose this quote as the highlight of both chapters 1 and 2 because often I find that, as the text states, many people are playing "the blame game" in this profession. It's a constant cycle of the hierarchy blaming each other, instead of taking individual responsibility for the roles we play. It helps remind us that a certain point it's important for us to self reflect and spend more time focusing on what we can do better and less time on what others can do better.

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Frontera is Spanish for "border, boundary, or frontier" (pg. 49). In chapter 4, a teacher named Daphne Hall has to tackle the relationship between a Mexican immigrant family and herself. She finds herself lacking connection with this family and reflects on her own inner struggles to relate to this family but makes sure to balance a personal and professional relationship. She talked about the struggle it was to balance this relationship but also the fear of over-stepping. Due to this, sometimes she had to hold back while forming this relationship. Oftentimes, she felt alone but after-all she stated that this family "has helped me debunk or deconstruct any stereotypical image I might have had of compliant Latina mothers who unquestioningly agree with whatever decisions we educators make about their children’s schooling" (pg. 60).

Jones, Stephanie. Writing and Teaching to Change the World: Connecting with Our Most Vulnerable Students (Language and Literacy Series) (p. 60). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition.

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Theme: Emotions and Personal Experience in the Classroom

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Theme: Emotions and Personal Experience in the Classroom

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I chose emotions and personal experiences in the classroom as my biggest theme that I took away from my two chapters because both of these teachers found the importance in expression. In chapter 3, Jaye had loosen her strict guideline run classroom and turn it into a safe space where students felt comfortable to share their personal experiences and work through their wounds. In chapter 4, Ms. Hall had to work with an immigrant Mexican family. She  had to respect their feelings towards schooling and they had to respect her suggestions as a teacher and professional. Ms. Hall had to dig deep within herself to find her struggles and help this family.

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"In the classroom, there always seem to be unspoken rules of behavior for teachers and students, a Foucauldian self-governance (1977/1995), keeping our emotions and our feelings at the entrance of the school building, like an abandoned backpack ditched at the door" (Jones, pg.39). I chose this quote because I believe it beautifully sums up my theme from these two chapters of the importance of emotions and personal experiences in the classroom. How does this quote make you feel? Do you agree or disagree?

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Hi Guys and Welcome to Our Padlet Presentation!

For our presentation, we broke down our PDG book into two chapter sections, one section per group member. Our book was for the most part, broken down into chapters which detail an interaction between a vulnerable student and teacher. The chapter then dives into how this teacher was able to reach the student and find success both academically and in a student-teacher relationship.

In each section you will find two short chapter summaries about that chapters teacher and student, followed by a section dedicated to important themes, and a final section with an audio recording of our favorite quote out of the two chapters.

For you guys, we ask that you participate by ...
- Choosing your favorite quote out of the four sections and replying with a comment describing why you liked this quote and why it stuck out to you.
- Choose another aspect of our presentation to comment on. This could be replying to another quote, one of the theme sections, or one of the chapter summaries. This comment can be anything you like, whether it is just sharing your thoughts about that section or making a connection to your own PDG book.

After you've read through every section and left your comments, please don't forget to go back and fill out our google form again!

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Chapter 5 introduces the reader to middle school teacher Allisa Hall and one of her students Ray. We first learn about the struggles that Ray faces both in and out of a classroom setting. After becoming aware of these difficulties, Hall develops and incorporates the use of "poetic inquiry" in her classroom. Hall even tried to conduct classroom research during this time but was shocked when denied by the school district. Luckily, this denial did not discourage Hall. She continued to incorporate the use of "poetic inquiry" in the classroom. Hall ultimately found that poetry provided her students, especially Ray, with a much needed outlet. Students were able to express their feelings, thinking, and questions like never before. On the other hand, Hall gained a better understanding of her students as individuals which positively impacted her future instruction.

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Chapter 6: Killing Giants and Critical Pedagogy

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Chapter 6: Killing Giants and Critical Pedagogy

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In chapter 6, the reader is once again introduced to a student struggling both in and out of the classroom setting. Phineas was dealing with issues in his personal life that negatively impacted his motivation in school. He was absent from the classroom physically, mentally, and emotionally. This ultimately led to poor grades in many classes. However, upon learning about these difficulties, high school teacher Becky Hasty updated her instruction in an effort to a form pedagogical relationship with each of her students. More specifically, a relationship that motivates students to feel empowered in the classroom.  Hasty shares that the experience "...taught me the most valuable lesson of all: caring about students even when they don't do the work and even when they don't care about school, schoolwork, and school success is imperative". Through this, Hasty was able to provide her students with the resources necessary to best express themselves.

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Theme: Rethinking the Meaning of School and Education

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Theme: Rethinking the Meaning of School and Education

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"Our schools, which should equip kids with tools to conquer the giants of life, don't often offer such empowering possibilities. Instead, school becomes another giant to confront...educators often believe we offer students the necessary weapons for a successful future...most of the time we provide only indoctrination into our way of believing and behaving".

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"More courageous acts -- both tiny and grand -- are still fictions waiting to be determined in future interactions, but our willingness to be carried away by them -- through looking or not looking -- presents us with infinite opportunities to write ourselves out of bindedness and toward beauty and grace in the complicated world of critical teaching not yet known" (Jones 128-129).

I feel that the theme for the last two chapters is that there is not one correct way to teach. As educators or future educators, it is our responsibility to adapt our curriculum to suit our students' needs and establish a solid rapport with them. There is no one correct way to teach students but rather a combination of elements that encompass what teaching should be. Critical pedagogy, which motivates students to question and develop a critical consciousness, is still being discovered. However, implementing practices like calls and responses and keeping up with how we handle students' behaviors and academic success emphasize that education is constantly being reformed and that all our actions and words impact it. The beauty and grace of critical pedagogy is that it is still a learning progress and that trying new practices in the class will benefit our understanding of it.

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"Damned if they do act as if they know a thing or two, and damned if they don't" (Jones 125). I chose this quote because I believe teachers are judged for every little thing that they do or don't do due to the high standards set on them. This is a challenge many educators face and illustrates how there are more responsibilities beyond teaching the curriculum so that students are meeting grade level expectations. The only way to achieve this is through incorporating critical pedagogy and going the extra mile to make the material that is presented creatively, relevant to the students so that they would retain the information and be actively engaged in their learning process.

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"For now, though, no matter what I do, my 9th graders continue to be a part of a system that focuses on domesticating them, not empowering them in ways that make sense for both their present  and their future. And too far often teachers are also domesticated in this system, sticking to rules and teaching practices that are meant to "manage" students rather than look closely at, and learn about, students".

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This quote really captured my attention. School can quickly become a place with so many rules, regulations, and guidelines for students that it becomes more about behavior, and less about their growth and learning. If we stop trying to "manage" students to elicit certain behaviors that they may not be performing, and instead provide them with proper practice and support to empower them, there may not be such a need to "manage".  The classroom should be a place for students to flourish as both a leaner and as a person. Depending on the students, the practices to do that may change with each year of teaching.

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Chapter 4, which discussed an immigrant family and developing connections within the classroom, made me think of my book which was Translanguaging for Emergent Bilinguals. Our book discussed how important family connections can be within the classroom, how a parent-teacher connection is beneficial to the student, and how to achieve that as an educator. It seems like some of these topics may have also been mentioned in your reading of this chapter.

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Taylor b's response: I really enjoyed this quote because students should always be celebrated for their contributions. Connecting the ways we try to "domesticate" our students to how that dims their lights or lessens their potential, we're sharing them for the outside world but in what way? I always wondered why students we don't empower students and tend to give them the "reality" of their futures. Instead of telling students what they're capable of or not, give students the opportunities to learn, grow, and share in an environment that helps shape them into a decent human. Empowering students shouldn't be frowned upon to "humble" them but rather to encourage them to reach for the stars, even if they're let down. Everything they experience and learn in and out school is important and needs to be recognized in the classroom.