Course Readings:
New Teacher Book- Creating Strategies for Equity and Social Justice
Preparing Teachers for Uncertainty.
I really enjoyed the chapter reading from The New Teacher Book. I grasped a couple excellent takeaways pertaining to the opportunities we have in our classroom to gain a glimpse of the type of society we could live in. I especially liked the quote by Paulo Friere where he spoke of educators being able to “live part of their dreams within their educational space”. Personally, I have the same types of dreams as the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King. So I really appreciated that frame for creating a space of hope and equity.
I also am thankful for the practical, tangible outline of creating a classroom rooted in social justice. These eight components were very simple yet effective practices that I know I will employ in my classroom.
Thirdly, although the concept of a hidden curriculum is not new to me, I deepened my understanding through the language of intentional and unintentional lessons and how a students lense determines what they may learn from each. As the reading says, “what students learn depends significantly on their unique lenses they use to make sense of their experiences”. Because of this, “we should expect that there will always be more to our teaching than we intend”.
A significant connection I made to the reading, Preparing Teachers for Uncertainty, occurred within my EHE class this semester. The first class we had, the teacher asked us to do an activity which she began by separating boys from girls. I had and still have an issue with this. For a faculty that is priding themselves on their anti-oppressive pedagogy and practices, I found it very surprising and hypocritical to begin an activity this way. The relates to the reading as it states “the intentional lessons on gender stand little chance in countering the unintentional ones”. Due to the knowledge I’ve gained over the past semesters, I found this practice offensive and contradictory. I would expect this classification by a teacher in the system who has been teaching for 20 years and not apt to the new philosophies, but not from a current professor in our faculty. However, I will use it in the future as a “what not to do” lesson for my classrooms.
I made a connection to our chapter reading when it spoke of teachers who teach students whose lives differ vastly from their own. As an educational assistant, I loved contracts with community schools, because this is the world that I can relate to. I remember one conversation with a coworker who was upset because she didn’t feel like she was making meaningful connections with the students. This teacher grew up in a community that was on the other end of the spectrum. I appreciated that she recognized her differences and was seeking guidance on how to break down the barriers that came from growing up with a different lense.
My wonder is, how we can make the hidden lessons more transparent, and also what an appropriate way to approach unnoticed or unchallenged oppressions in our school community would be.
Keilyn Howie 