Ella's Blog

  This week we were asked to read multiple articles, journal entries, watch TedTalks, a read excerpts from books. As I was reading each piece of work or listening to each story my drive to be a better teacher grew with each piece. The common denominator between each literary sample given was simple: People of color are constantly treated differently in the classroom. It is crazy to think that this treatment is still going on in 2023 and we are still having discrimination occur in classrooms.  One of the most important things I was able to take from the material given was in chapter 3 of Teacher Wars a quote from W.E.B. Du Bois and he said "In the Black World, the Preacher and Teacher embodied once the ideals of this people- the strife for another and a juster world , the vague dream of righteousness, the mystery of knowing." This quote comes after learning that white women were taking teaching jobs to promulgate Protestantism and give women social alternatives to marriage. Du

How Does Gender Affect Teaching? Teaching is a very obvious majority women profession. For example,    Early in American history, most school teachers were white men, but as Dana Goldstein (2014) details in chapter one of  The Teacher Wars , the profession was feminized both because of the (sexist) arguments of reformers Catharine Beecher and Horace Mann and the reality that women could be paid less (tax money) than men. Is the fact that teaching — still a primarily female p rofession — often accorded less respect and pay than other professions a legacy of sexism? Personally, I think since teachers are majority female it is easy for society to look at us as "caregivers" or "babysitters" instead of professionals. Since this is not the typically male job it is viewed as not important. Which is so crazy to think about considering how much teachers endure and have to help with, but only teachers know the true depths of how challenging yet regarding this profession is. 

  Educational equity is the measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunity in education. This is a concept that should be a no brainer for all educators. Personally, I read this definition and thought yes that sounds right all schools should have equal opportunity and equal treatment no matter who is in the classroom. However, that is not the reality of this situation. The reality is simple; kids of color are treated differently. Whether they are always the ones taking the heat for problems in the class or they are criticized at for being "too crazy", kids of color are constantly under scrutiny. According to scholar Subini Ancy Annamma, who researches how schools contribute to the criminalization of Black youths, "schools create a culture of punishment that penalizes Black children more harshly than their white peers for the same behavior. Her work also shows that youth of color are more likely to be closely watched, over-represented in special education, and reported

  As a future teacher one of the most important things, I can learn is how to have those important uncomfortable conversations. Certain conversations for kids can be confusing and complicated if an adult is not there to guild them through it. For example, as a kid they are exposed to so much so quick with how much media influences our lives. A student could be watching the news one night and see something they have never seen or heard before. For a child that can be very overwhelming and scary if they aren't able to conversate what they saw on the tv. As teachers, that is where we come into the picture. We are able to talk through problems in the classroom and help answer our students' questions.  My golden line this week helps further my point on why talking about important issues is crucial for the classroom. I said, "how we talk about things matters" and the reason it matters is because our words have power. In a classroom we are the most influential person to thos

  Why Teach?                                 I feel like every future teacher gets the question why do you even want to teach? Are you sure you can handle being around 20-30 kids for 7 hours of the day? It's difficult to be in charge of so many kids do you think you can handle it? Well, when I first got these questions thrown at me, I thought there is no way I could possibly do that to myself.    I have grown up watching my mom be a teacher and now my sister is one too, so after seeing what they have to do and hearing all these questions about how hard it is I told myself I would never go into this profession, and I would just do business or real estate instead... However, that obviously did not happen, or I wouldn't be in this class writing my blog post. My teacher journey is because of one kid I met my senior year of high school. I needed some extra cash and I have always been good at English in school so when my mom heard one of her 4th grade students wanted some extra help