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pg. 156 - "...somehow, education could make their dreams a reality."  The belief that there can be great opportunity, through educating one's self, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or college sports team affiliation, is what needs to be nurtured.

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pg. 156 - "...somehow, education could make their dreams a reality."  The belief that there can be great opportunity, through educating one's self, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or college sports team affiliation, is what needs to be nurtured.

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I found the discussion of "subversive pedagogy" particularly engaging. Obviously, we have to teach within the standards created by the state, and we have to follow district mandates.  But, how do we encourage our best teachers to reach for what they know works with students?  This is a balancing act, admittedly, but I think it is one we need to think about.  How can we get our best folks in the classroom to be creative?

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Most teachers decide to become teachers because they "love kids and want to make a difference." They have every intention of making a difference when they begin their career. However, like the author says, the student teaching experience is too short. Beginning teachers do need to have more time in the classrooms of successful veteran teachers so they can see how they interact and work with students throughout the school year. They need to have time to work with a variety of teaching styles. Once they become teachers, they need to feel supported and have a true mentor they can confide in without fear of repercussion. Students need a safe learning environment and so do beginning teachers.

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It is important teachers believe students can learn.  Students are very perceptive and know if their teachers believe in them.  Just because a teacher knows a child's living situation, and has donated needed items to a child, does not mean they believe in them.  When teachers create a safe culture for students to learn, and hold them to high expectations, then students will reach those expectations.  HPS data shows, and has shown for some time, that teachers do not believe all students can learn. That is unfortunate.

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In this chapter  lack of parental involvement is discussed as a block to teaching African-American students by some teachers.  I think the teacher who is with the student 6 hours a day has a direct and substantial impact on a student's desire to learn and success in school.  Most troubling is a teacher who makes a child leave an instructional activity because he/she may be distracting and sends him/her back to their seat with the assignment.  This is used as a form of punishment and demeans the value of learning. We need teachers with better classroom management and can keep students engaged.

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“Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.”

- W. Edwards Demming

We see this quote a lot in education. If this is true, what are we doing to change the design of our system? If so, is it working?

Throughout this book the author walks us through her research studies providing a range of CRT examples. There are very clear guidelines for recruiting teachers in Chapter 7. Are we using this information as we recruit? If so, is it working?

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One of the ideas in Chapter 7 that stood out to me was the idea that CRT is about questioning. Over the course of my time in HPS, the teachers who seem to find the most success with our children of color have a natural ability to ask the deeper, higher order question. That type of thinking is inherent in their classrooms, embedded in processes, and metacognitive tasks are emphasized and valued. In turn, the students ask deeper questions of themselves and others. The teachers I am thinking of also practice that subversive pedagogy referenced on page 140.

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Pg. 144 The book talks about a statement made by a participant in a staff development session, “Parents can also be roadblocks to their child’s education. They move a lot, they lack interest in the child’s education, they don’t help with homework or supplies, they don’t come to conferences.” In the book the statement is deconstructed to provide reasoning behind the assumptions. I found this interesting as I did not always think of it this way. My family moved a lot, didn’t help with homework, and didn’t come to conferences much. Not because of the reasons stated in the book but because they just didn’t want to. So I guess I would have viewed this the same way as the participant in the staff development session.

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I like the idea to systematically require teacher candidates to have prolonged immersion of A.A. culture and to provide adequate opportunities for observation of culturally relevant teaching.  My undergraduate field experience and elementary student teaching in Ohio, required something very similar. We were required to complete a set number of hours in designated school districts that were predominantly African American. Requiring the assignment reflects some degree of awareness, but no preparation, study of CRT or anything of the nature, nor the opportunity of a reflective component seems like a missed opportunity now that I look back. Preparing our teachers with effective strategies to build relationships, establish open lines of communication and how to employ CRT strategies would certainly serve students and teachers well. Frontloading teachers with such knowledge and experience may be a key factor in addressing teacher turnover.

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WE are very fortunate to have LRU near us. For many years, I have opened my doors for observations and student teachers. The process that LRU implements in placing student teachers has evolved over the years. The fact that we can take the time and interview candidates before they start student teaching and then place them with teachers that want to host student teachers and match personalities is a huge plus. The issue that we have is similar to what Adam (Steele) has stated . . . we are battling a time in which our state does not value education (public) and is not looked at or respected as it once was. That makes our jobs even tougher, but more meaningful. It is crucial to form the partnerships with colleges/universities and get the education majors into our schools as early as possible in order to grow our teachers. We should also look at these colleges/universities as a way to help provide some trainings/discussions for all of our teachers.

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In chapter 7, Ladson-Billings stated that we need to help our African-American students understand and deal with the realities that they face in society.  We as educators play a critical role in equipping our African American students with the skills and knowledge to overcome the obstacles they face.  Ladson-Billings stated, “If students are to be equipped to struggle against racism they need excellent skills from the basics of reading, writing, and math, to understanding history, thinking critically, solving problems, and making decisions; they must go beyond merely filling in test sheet bubbles with Number 2 pencils.”  The educators in the book had the courage to implement alternative approaches that worked for the students they taught.  We need to be willing to try alternative approaches and strategies until we find what works for the students we serve.

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My takeaway from this chapter is based on pages 142-149.  The author discusses ways to  help beginning teachers and teachers who are not from the same culture as their students.  I know the state of North Carolina does not provide payment for mentors, but I believe our efforts as a district to get the Educational Foundation to help with this is important.  The new teachers need to know they have someone they can talk to and discuss things openly.

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Dream Keepers Chapter 7: Making Dreams into Reality

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Dream Keepers Chapter 7: Making Dreams into Reality

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"If we really care about issues like student achievement and new teacher retention, we must organize the school in more supportive ways" (Page 149). As the CTE Coordinator for HPS, student acheivement and new teacher retention are extremely important in my area, as they are in all areas of our system. We need to continually strive to find ways to increase student acheivement and to reduce new teacher turnover. In this paragraph, Ladson-Billings suggests ways to make improvements for new teachers first year of teaching, such as allowing new teachers to have smaller classes and to work in teams. If we can retain teachers, we can help them continue to grow and find ways to better support our students while they learn. They must learn the students' home culture and learn to honor and respect it (page 151). Most new teachers are not going to know the home cultures of all of the different cultures represented in HPS. In their first year of teaching, many teachers are focusing on learning their curriculum and classroom management. Learning culturally relevant teaching strategies and activities will not happen overnight. Professional development needs to be on-going, and in order for teachers to master these strategies, we need to retain them.

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“Most teacher candidates are young, white, and female and would prefer to work with students with backgrounds similar to their own.  Further, even if we were to convince all of the current minority collegians to become teachers, we would still have a shortage of minority teachers.  Thus the pool from which we select must necessarily include whites.  Still, we must encourage those who really want to teach African American students.  We must also look for more innovative and nontraditional ways to bring the right people into teaching.” (p. 143)  This seems like it’s going to get worse as we move forward w/ changes to education testing and standards, pay and benefits, and racial tensions.

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“Most teacher candidates are young, white, and female and would prefer to work with students with backgrounds similar to their own.  Further, even if we were to convince all of the current minority collegians to become teachers, we would still have a shortage of minority teachers.  Thus the pool from which we select must necessarily include whites.  Still, we must encourage those who really want to teach African American students.  We must also look for more innovative and nontraditional ways to bring the right people into teaching.” (p. 143)  This seems like it’s going to get worse as we move forward w/ changes to education testing and standards, pay and benefits, and racial tensions.

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Of the suggestions to create a more culturally relevant school, I really like the idea of "providing opportunities for observation of culturally relevant teaching." (p. 147) I think the more that we can provide strong examples of what good, culturally relevant teaching looks like to novice teachers, the better. It is easy to read a book or listen to a professor's lecture, but the observation of a Master Teacher in action is invaluable, as it both guides the novice teacher and validates the experienced teacher-leader.