Promising Practice

Fourteenth Annual Multicultural Conference and Partnership Expo

Promising Practices

Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching

With Marco McWilliams.

Those of you who don’t know of Marco, you are missing out. I first heard him speak at one of my classes at RIC last year. He is a vibrant, committed, passionate, and very current speaker and educator. I was very happy to walk into this workshop and see him at the podium. However, he didn’t stay at the podium; that is not his style.

I was instantly reminded of Gerri August when Marco spoke about the importance of dialogue. This dialogue, especially in a room full of learners is extremely important.  What I understood from this is that our classrooms do need to be one of equality when it comes to teaching and learning, equality in the sense that everyone needs to be heard.  Not just the ones who want to be heard.  We all have those kids in our class, some do not even have anything important to say , but they need to be heard. That’s OK.  We need to incorporate dialogicality into our teaching. We learn from each other and although it is difficult to get that shy kids to talk, we  (I) need to find a way to help he or she understand that what they say is valuable and that this dialogue is a tool for learning.

Marco also discussed how many of our young kids today are” historically illiterate.” I found this very interesting.  Unfortunately today’s youth are not learning. When he gave a simple history quiz to a bunch of teenagers most of them failed.  What  happens if kids today do not know their own history? Well, history can repeat itself. I guess the big question is why are kids are not learning, or retaining their own history. I was waiting for an answer but Marco did not give us one.  He did hint to the fact that kids today do not understand its importance.  His passion is apparent  when he talks about his own teaching and the words he uses when speaking to his own students.“You don’t have the luxury to not have knowledge!” Delpit, Johnson, and Kozol came to mind when Marco discussed  the privileged one percent of the country and the rest of us, the 99%  who do not have that luxury to sit around and not have knowledge.   His lecture was very passionate and heartfelt. He understands and he wants to make a difference. 

Slammin’ for Social Justice: 

Teachers and Students Talk Back

This workshop was a lot of fun. It was interactive and inspiring. We listened to some teachers and students perform their own slam poems.  They discussed that this is a great tool for students to learn. I agree.  Last year I incorporated this into my classroom  and I was astonished how open and honest my students were. Many of them didn’t want to perform their own poems but were very happy to have someone else read them for the class. What I love, and the kids love about slam poetry is that they can  write  about anything .  It always surprises me when kids are not inhibited to write about personal and social issues. It is really a wonderful release for many of them. I have imbedded two of the slams I show to my class. They are only a few minutes long but all are very powerful.

"What Teachers Make"

   

"Knock Knock"by Daniel Beaty

Teen Empowerment
“Empowering Youth and Adults as Agents of Positive Change”

As teachers what is better than being an agent of positive change.  I was inspired from the stories I heard from the presenters. Each of these kids had to overcome major obstacles in their lives and they all discussed the fact that this Teen Empowerment has helped them on the road to success.  These three young people opened up my eyes to understand more fully how teenage brains work. The presentation helped me realize how important a classroom teacher is and how we need to be more aware of each and every student. Kids get bored in the classroom and I learned three new strategies ; Stand up and Move, Wind Blows with Words (can’t wait to try this out), and Bean Bag Toss.  I learned that many youth are rebellious by nature and we as teachers need to work with this natural instinct to create a classroom where the students feel like they do have some power and that the classroom isn’t a power struggle for authority. 

The presenters were not against teachers at all and I know that they wanted to teach us a little better way to teach them. I appreciate that, however the young lady on the stage did say something that stuck out to me. I wish I had asked her about it during the question and answer portion but I didn’t. She was asked by an audience member how she felt after doing the Te Wind Blows with Words activity. She said,  “ I feel safe because I won’t be graded for my words. It felt good because I wasn’t being criticized.” This bothered me because I wondered at the time, and I still wonder if kids take our input and suggestions as criticism. We all know that we are simply trying to teach. Do our students think we are criticizing them when we conference with them about their writing assignments? Do our students take it negatively when we tell them what they did wrong but show them how they can learn from their mistakes? What would Delpit say about this? This really has me thinking about the way I conference, grade and teach my students.  II need to be mindful of what I say and/or wirte and how I say it.  Perhaps my words come out as criticism. I never want a student to take my “teaching” as a negative connotation about their ability.