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I believe being a teacher-activist is...

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I believe being a teacher-activist is...

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I believe that being a teacher-activist is standing up for your students no matter what. Also a large part of being a teacher-activist is to teach other teachers the issues surrounding our public education system and how to stop them/ prevent them from happening. Sometimes to stand up for what is right you are going to make others angry but teacher-activist do not pay any attention to that because they are too busy serving their students. Sometimes being a teacher-activist in an urban education setting is hard work. "While the tyranny of high-stakes testing has made life difficult for teachers from the tiniest towns to the toniest suburbs, teachers in big-city schools often face additional hurdles and hardships. They must navigate added layers of administrative nonsense, do more with fewer resources, create community in buildings where alienation and anonymity are accepted elements of school life." (Rethinking Schools; City Teaching) This section of this article really spoke out to me because it is so real. If you are going to stand up for what you believe is right, you are going to have obstacles in your path, but a teacher-activist does not stop fighting.

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I think that collaboration allows students to share their thoughts and opinions with their classmates and their teacher. It allows students to be the teacher for once and most of all it helps build important social skills that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Collaboration also provides for engaging learning that is more than just learning the content. Collaboration allows students to hear from multiple perspectives and learn to defend their own thoughts and opinions. "The purpose of the selection of students who are opposites or who represent the diversity of the classroom, is to allow for different voices to be heard." (Edmin, 2016) When placing students in groups it is important to choose students of different backgrounds so they are getting to hear different perspectives!

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I believe that community and family are the most impactful influences on student's lives. I have learned that teachers need to let the students' home and community backgrounds guide their instruction and influence their classroom management plan. When building a classroom community and deciding how I want to run my classroom I have to take a lot of things into consideration.
"They can

begin to appreciate the importance of conduct-

ing home visits and consulting with parents and

community members." (Toward a Conception of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management) This quote from this article demonstrates what I want to do as a teacher. I want to go out to home and out to the community so I can better incorporate what I find into my classroom. Family and community are everything to students and I need to make sure I recognize that and use that to best serve my students.

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I believe my students will learn best when I...

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I believe my students will learn best when I...

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I believe my students will learn best when I take into account their cultural backgrounds and use them to guide my instructions. My students will learn best when they see themselves reflected in the curriculum.
I believe my students do not learn best when they are labeled and tracked because of standardized testing scores. Just like the rethinking schools article "Activism is good teaching" I want to be an advocate for my students who do not benefit from standardized testing.
I believe my students will learn best when I take historical things into consideration when teaching. In the American Education text we learn so much about historical events that have lead to the inequalities we seen in today's public education system. In order to best serve our students we have to understand these events and understand how they still effect our student's learning today.

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I believe my responsibilities as a teacher are....

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I believe my responsibilities as a teacher are....

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Create a classroom environment that allows students to thrive.
Get to know every student; their backgrounds and interests, and use them to guide my instruction.
Have "difficult" conversations with my students about issues happening all around the world, and provide them a space to ask questions and talk about them.
Provide my students with many different ways of learning.
Create a classroom community where  students are able to collaborate with one another and work together to solve problems.
Allow my students to use inquiry-based learning to discover more than just the right answer.

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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Great teaching seems to have less to do with our knowledge and skills than with our attitude toward our students, our subject, and our work.

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I believe that learning takes place when students inquire about something. In literacy, math, science, and history we can provide inquiry based learning to our students we just need to be willing to try.
""How do you feel about this?" When students respond to those questions, then dialogue begins and if the questions are important ones then what will come out of the discussions will be very valuable education." (Zinn, 2006)
"Every where we look we see our racial identity reflected back at us." (DiAngelo, 2011) It is important that students see themselves reflected in the curriculum. Students learn best when they can make connections between the content and real life. I want my students to see themselves reflected in the curriculum so they can see themselves reflected in the world.

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I believe that teaching should benefit every student from every background from every part of the world. As a future special education teacher I believe in inclusion. I support IDEA and the fact that it requires the federal government to give money to public schools to support inclusion for students with disabilities. (Spring, 2018)
I believe that teaching should relate to every student. "As educators we have to find ways to be their allies and be sensitive to how our work in the classroom affects them." (Tolentino, 2007) Teachers should design lessons around their students unique cultures and backgrounds. I believe in student centered learning and that teachers should take the time to design student centered lessons.

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I believe that the purpose of schooling is... 

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I believe that the purpose of schooling is... 

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I believe that the purpose of schooling is to provide every child with the opportunity to learn, I believe that every student does not learn in the same way and every child deserves to be treated equitably. I believe that schooling does not follow the "equality of opportunity" notion that is discussed in chapter 3 of American Education. Instead of "giving all members of society equal chances to pursue wealth and enter any occupation or social class" (Spring) I am able to recognize the fact that every student comes from a different background and therefore needs different things to succeed in school. I believe that schooling should prepare students for the world around them including the good, the bad, and the ugly parts about the world. Overall, schools should provide students with an equitable education that prepares them for their future endeavors

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I believe that all my future students are...

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I believe that all my future students are...

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I believe all of my future students are; smart, capable, independent, talented, and most importantly, worthy of a good education. I believe all of my future students deserve my time and energy to attend to their academic, social, and emotional needs.
I believe that all of my future students should be given the chance to work out their issues and collaboratively come up with solutions to their problems by practicing restorative justice practices.
"We need to advocate the essential values of restorative practices. That includes fighting for schools that meet the needs of all our students and the communities they serve. The healing that lies at the heart of restorative practices must include healing the wounds from the kinds of miseducation that oppress children and teachers alike." (Rethinking Schools) Students can not learn when they are suspended or expelled from school, when they are, they are getting behind which will just increase their negative behavior that got them suspended in the first place. I believe that students should not automatically be suspended or expelled.

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I believe that my students learn best when they...

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I believe that my students learn best when they...

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I believe that my students learn best when all of their needs are met. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is an idea that a certain need needs to be met until you can move on to the next level of needs. It starts with physiological needs, such as food and water. Next is safety, students need to feel safe in their environment before they can achieve love and belongingness, which encompasses friendships and a relationship with the teacher. Those relationships help build their self esteem which in-turn will lead to self-actualization.  So, if my students have not eaten that day how am I supposed to expect them to fully understand a concept when all they can think about is when they are going to eat next. I believe my students will learn best when I can create an environment where they feel safe, so they can foster positive relationships and build their self-esteem. In chapter one of American Education, we learn about the creation of charter schools and how the current legislation thinks that the schools should "operate as they wish" this could lead to the creation of a school that could not provide the students with these basic needs that need to be met.