Instilling Confidence

In today's session we revisited our childhood to examine our initial reading experiences. This was a pleasant journey for me. As I shared in class, as a child my brother and I attended an Afrocentric kindergarten called Kuumba House that stressed academic development heavily. The school would organize Recitation Days where parents would come and we would stand up individually and read various works we had created. It was a very empowering and supporting environment and as a result, I left kindergarten a pretty confident reader.

But what of the student who has had the complete antithesis of my experience? What of the student who instead of existing in an empowering and supportive environment, is educated in one in which they are constantly told that they do not measure up? What of the student who is in first, second, third grade with a flashing neon sign inside their heads reading "YOU ARE THE POOREST OF THE POOR READERS"? What of the student who the antitheis of a confident reader? Although it was many moons ago I still remember a Swahili word we had to learn at Kuumba house, Ujima. The translation of Ujima is collective work and responsibility... but what it really means is that I, as a member of that child's community have duty, a responsibility to give him/her access to that which has been provided to me...academic confidence.

The Impact of Phonics

Today I received my school placement. I must admit I am excited to begin; excited to meet my students and begin building an empowering relationship with them. That being said, I was at the same time struck today by the task before me. For some reason as we were discussing phonics and the in’s and out’s of reading…a feat I usually accomplish without thinking…I thought to myself “oh crap, this is no joke!” We are not going simply to read to a child as perhaps I thought upon applying, but to TEACH READING! You know how you know something but then something happens and it sinks in and then you KNOW it? That’s what occurred for me today. Although I have taught before, my prior students were teenagers, individuals who came to me with their educational foundation already laid by others. This will be a new challenge for me and much is riding on my performance. And by much I mean, six individuals, six children, six students who are in essence, the future of my community.

Freedom Summer

Today we discussed the book Freedom Summer and Its appropriateness for the age/grade levels we would be working with. The book was very complex and gave an account of a historical event but did so utilizing the present tense. Furthermore it did left a great deal of initial ambiguity as to who the heck is actually telling the story (when the reader in my group was going through the book I played it off like I knew who was narrating the story…but I didn’t).
Although I had a problem with the structure of the book, I was ok with the subject matter. I think it important that we teach children, particularly minority children, about their historical past. For a wide variety of cultures here in the U.S. and around the world, the process of educating a child is one that runs parallel to, and in fact complements, the developing a strong sense of cultural self. These two processes are not seen to be mutually exclusive for it is understood that a strong sense of cultural self, is inherently tied to high self-esteem, high levels of self-efficacy and enhanced academic performance.

Child Abuse Training

I’m sorry today’s training was problematic on SOOO many levels! I guess I could start with the manner in which the presenter pathologized the parents of her entire audience. Apparently not only were their parenting skills sub-par, they were in addition, ignorant and less refined then today’s generation. Wow, really? Imagine that. I don’t know, guess I always believed that the elders that raised my generation, my parents and my parent's parents...that “Grand Mamma an ‘nem” were the backbone, the sentinels the strength of our community. That they were so bad, so strong, that they could raise us into self-assured, self-confident individuals in the face of a society that hated us and do so while raising/nanny-ing someone ELSE’S children to boot! Well I tell you what, YOU go tell Grand Mama an ‘nem that they were bad parents. I dare ya.

That being said, let’s move on. The speaker also had this painful tendency, to classify students into categories of “winners” and “losers” even more agonizing was the fact that even the casual observer could identify the fact that these classifications were drawn along lines of socioeconomic status. Without fail, each and every example she provided of “bad parenting” were individuals from low-income communities in New York. When it was pointed out to her that her examples smacked of classism, she became indignant and utilized the “mistaken opinions” of the dissenter as fodder for the rest of her presentation. Shall I continue? Shall I speak on the plethora of illogical assumptions and irrational suppositions that were made? (i.e. teenaged baby-sitters inevitably molest their charges, that black men who are spanked as a child end up in jail) Shall I discuss the frequent use of the phrase “those people”? Or perhaps the blanket generalizations that peppered her presentation? No I don’t think so. Instead, I shall just thank the presenter for my Child Abuse Training Certification and pamphlet on the associated New York State Laws which I shall kindly review on my own.

SHARK ATTACK!

Today’s training focused upon reading the book Shark Attack to a partner and identifying where we would stop the story in reading to a child. To be honest I felt kind of silly reading a children’s book to another graduate student, (especially when in a child’s voice, she started saying things like “Ooooo!” or “OH NOOO!”) but after a while it became fun and to be truthful…it IS a really exciting book! I think I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book in my younger days…ok I actually was enjoying it pretty much in my not so younger days as well. The important take away lesson for me was the importance of stopping to discuss the book and in so doing allowing a child’s imagination and appreciation of reading to flourish.

Training Day 1: Who am I...Really???

On the first day of training we were asked to take the Meyers-Briggs examination and were told that it would be able to to give us an an accurate assessment of our personality. I must say I approached this test with a great deal of skepticism. As I filled in the little bubbles all was thinking was "so you tellin' me that by filling out these little bubbles you can figure out who I am? Yeah ok riiiiight!" I just figured that there is no way a silly little 20 minute scantron exam could detangle the complexity of my personality because to be honest...that's a knot I'm still working on myself. But upon completion and scoring...I'll be doggoned if that silly little 20 minute scantron exam didn't hit my nail squarely on the head! I'm not saying that it completely painted an accurate picture of me...but you could sure use it to pick me out of a line-up!

Participating in this experience helped me appreciate the variety of personalities that make up our society. In all areas of human interaction, including education it is important to understand the personality relationship that exists between interacting entities in this instance teacher and student.