What a semester this has been. I do enjoy our class meetings and figuring things out on the fly with our technological glitches as they arise has become a highlight of each session.
This class is a learning opportunity to see through different lenses and to consider perspectives other than our own and to begin to negotiate our world view with n understanding that there may be multiple perspectives operating at the same time. That is, multiple truths coexisting with ours just one of many. Barnga and Nacirema articles were learning engagements to reinforce this awareness exploring the components of culture with our beliefs and values.
It was also important to acknowledge, distinguishing between what we know and what we have heard. The example from Marian McPartland, was used as an illustration. I will also in future meeting address why it is important to let someone finish their own sentence or thoughts without the need for someone else to fill in the word(s). The patience of the listener to be able to respectfully wait for one to choose their own variety of word choice is a small, yet significant act of kindness, emotional sensitivity, and awareness of wait time.
This course is different from other courses you may have experienced because of the independence I entrust you with as a student. Your learning is for you-not for me. This power of learning for yourself is significant. There is personal power when you are directing the direction of your own learning. That is why it was important for you to read my philosophy of learning and teaching so you would understand where I was coming from and not misinterpret me or my practice.
There is so much more that we could do in our class: guest speakers, happenings, etc. I hope you have a sense of not being afraid to enter into seemingly difficult or uncomfortable dialogues about race. Perhaps you are able to think to say to someone: “I don’t know but I would like to hear more about that. What are your experiences?” or “what is your story;” or “I don’t know how you feel but could you help me understand your experience.” As teachers we do not always need to come from a place of knowing. One of our greatest teaching strengths or assets is to ask students their stories and use their funds of knowledge as the content and context for teaching. Thus way we are learning together, as Seymour Papert suggests.
This time of exploration is exciting to me and how to deliver these happenings and experiences to you is just as exciting as the content itself. PART one of our text established a vocabulary we can use to name things so we can collectively talk about them. The newspaper articles were a practice in identifying the cultural lexicon and opportunities to talk about them and process them with a partner. The Jeopardy Game was the assessment and a fun way to see what you remembered. Multiple resources were included in the presentation: Catherine Tate stereotypes, Dr. Ford on Cultural Differences, CNN Kids on Race, among the other web links provided. I would like to still talk about Institutionalized Privilege (also see White Privilege and Jose Vargas) before the end of our class.
A courageous dialogue with one student in the early class meetings proved to be a rewarding conversations where we were able to come together in understanding of our cultural differences and provided a healing space to communicate and move forward together. I celebrate that student and the opportunity to communicate with such honesty.
Assignments- Teaching Tolerance and IRIS Modules are valuable resources you can use as teachers. Make sure that you request your own Film Kits from Teaching Tolerance. Exploring them is an opportunity to become familiar with them. Community observation is a way to hone in on a place-familiar or foreign-to learn more about or delve into a deeper level of understanding or awareness.
Your Roots Project is significant because everything starts from the center and moves outward. We need to know from whence we came so we are grounded in and of ourselves to guide others to explore their own learning. I thank you for the earnestness and personal attention in which you are owning this assignment.
Textbook presentations are a chance for you to share your conceptual understanding with others. You are given much leeway in how you do this and a guiding rubric has been provided. We appreciated the effort and delivery of chapters presented so far.
Circumstances involving attendance for several students have been unusual for me in one semester. I have tried to be judicious while at the same time honoring and respecting the integrity of our course and other students' regular attendance.
I feel I am letting you down as students when I do not read your webpages until now. I deeply apologize for what I have not accomplished in your best behalf this semester. I can only promise to continue to listen to you better, to negotiate our class time wisely giving you opportunities to be heard and to share so your peers and I can learn from you. This is how we can become better culturally responsive educators. Knowing we don’t know and preparing opportunities to learn along side our students recognizing voices and experiences that have been marginalized historically. When we acknowledge someone, we can come to know it again. This is the power of history and of story. If there is anything you take away from our class, I hope it is the significance of story as a strategy for learning, for building relationships, for being human, and becoming a master teacher.
Frances Vitali (November 7, 2016)