This year has been full of such rich memories- some good, some bad, all learning experiences. I am leaving the University of Pennsylvania as a better person, a better teacher, and a better scholar. The road to get to this point has not been easy. There have been some days when I just felt tired or overwhelmed with all of the work that I had to complete for this program. Those moments are very real- but they remain as real as the positive learnings that I am taking with me or the insurmountable friendships that were formed. From my experience as a student teacher to my experiences as a member of the Penn GSE classroom, growth has been cultivated within me and members of my cohort.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Farewell!!!
Tomorrow, I am graduating and it feels surreal. I can not get over the fact that I am actually about to leave the University of Pennsylvania and enter the real-adult world. Apart of me is very happy and excited to explore this next phase in life. Another part of me is ridiculously nervous about leaving Penn and having to go into the next phase of life. I do not know how to feel right now. Honestly, I have been looking forward to this moment for sometime, but right now I am not so sure if I am ready.
This year has been full of such rich memories- some good, some bad, all learning experiences. I am leaving the University of Pennsylvania as a better person, a better teacher, and a better scholar. The road to get to this point has not been easy. There have been some days when I just felt tired or overwhelmed with all of the work that I had to complete for this program. Those moments are very real- but they remain as real as the positive learnings that I am taking with me or the insurmountable friendships that were formed. From my experience as a student teacher to my experiences as a member of the Penn GSE classroom, growth has been cultivated within me and members of my cohort.
It has been a great pleasure to have been apart of Penn GSE classroom and professional groups. I look forward to future interactions and engagements with these people that I now consider to be apart of my family.
This year has been full of such rich memories- some good, some bad, all learning experiences. I am leaving the University of Pennsylvania as a better person, a better teacher, and a better scholar. The road to get to this point has not been easy. There have been some days when I just felt tired or overwhelmed with all of the work that I had to complete for this program. Those moments are very real- but they remain as real as the positive learnings that I am taking with me or the insurmountable friendships that were formed. From my experience as a student teacher to my experiences as a member of the Penn GSE classroom, growth has been cultivated within me and members of my cohort.
Inquiry Question: Overview and Inspiration
As I mentioned in earlier posts, each student in the Teacher Education Program pursued a research question that could help advance his or her practice as a teacher. I thought long and hard about my inquiry question and often changed my questions, but I finally decided upon the follow question for my research and it was as followed: How can I, as a controversial teacher, foster a classroom of respect and care. It was, without a doubt, an incredibly valuable experience and I want to share what motivated me and (to the extent to which I can), my findings.
Like many people who enter the field of education, I have always envisioned myself as the “transformative,” dynamic teacher who does more than regurgitate information from a textbook to students. Before even stepping into the classroom or familiarizing myself with education theory, I felt that there was something exclusive and fundamentally discriminatory within most mainstream classrooms and I wanted to change that. My own personal experiences of exclusion in the classroom made me feel this way. Without having the language to discuss this feeling or even knowing how to address it, I simply knew that it would take something- or someone- bold and radical enough to make sure that other students do not feel this way.
I consider my own educational experiences as a child to have been tainted by biased textbooks and Eurocentric modes of thought. The history books and curriculums of my memory told me that people who looked like me did not contribute to any historical happenings. Despite attending a predominantly Latino and Black high school of 3500 students, I only had one teacher of color for all four years of high school and I was usually one of two Black students enrolled in honors or AP classes. Because of aforementioned details and my strongly substantiated belief that all of my classes promoted white middle class norms , I wanted to run every time I stepped foot inside a history class. While I enjoyed reading historical novels and visits to museums, I felt excluded, unwanted, and unappreciated in most of my high school history classes.
Despite harboring very negative feelings about history and social studies as a high school student, I loved launching historical inquiry on things that connected me to my community. When I took African American history classes as a sophomore and junior in high school, I realized that history had many functions that extended far beyond my honors world history textbook which my then-teacher used to tell me that Africa was of little significance. When I became a student at Yale University, I finally realized how diverse historical exploration could be. As a freshman, I was introduced to inquiry driven instruction and learning. In my African American Studies and Comparative Politics courses, for example, I was able to build upon my own understandings of the world, demonstrate my intellectual prowess, and perhaps most importantly, feel a sense of belonging.
In order to honor the inquiry question at hand, I relied primarily on differentiation with regards to content and instruction. Differentiation allows for controversial and innovative teaching; through varied techniques and instruction, students have the ability to establish their individual identity and role in the classroom. Using a variety of differentiated methods, I have employed strategies such as the following:
• Socratic classroom discussions
• Co-planning and coteaching with students
• Large classroom debates
• Small group discussions
• Stimulations
• Social Media
• Technology (Youtube, Video Clips, Outside Blogs, TedX Talks)
• Art: Music, Hip Hop, Spoken Word, Student Performances, s
At the “conclusion” of this project, I realize that I have more questions than answers and I suppose that this is a desired outcome. Because my inquiry question is quite situational and dependent upon my students and their backgrounds, I will never had a set outcome to look forward to, even if I replicated the same instructional methods or classroom management strategies a billion times! In fact, as I pursued and concluded this research, I continued to think about the following questions:
As I continue to teach, I anticipate exploring these questions (and the question that I initially set out to explore ) with intention.
Like many people who enter the field of education, I have always envisioned myself as the “transformative,” dynamic teacher who does more than regurgitate information from a textbook to students. Before even stepping into the classroom or familiarizing myself with education theory, I felt that there was something exclusive and fundamentally discriminatory within most mainstream classrooms and I wanted to change that. My own personal experiences of exclusion in the classroom made me feel this way. Without having the language to discuss this feeling or even knowing how to address it, I simply knew that it would take something- or someone- bold and radical enough to make sure that other students do not feel this way.
I consider my own educational experiences as a child to have been tainted by biased textbooks and Eurocentric modes of thought. The history books and curriculums of my memory told me that people who looked like me did not contribute to any historical happenings. Despite attending a predominantly Latino and Black high school of 3500 students, I only had one teacher of color for all four years of high school and I was usually one of two Black students enrolled in honors or AP classes. Because of aforementioned details and my strongly substantiated belief that all of my classes promoted white middle class norms , I wanted to run every time I stepped foot inside a history class. While I enjoyed reading historical novels and visits to museums, I felt excluded, unwanted, and unappreciated in most of my high school history classes.
Despite harboring very negative feelings about history and social studies as a high school student, I loved launching historical inquiry on things that connected me to my community. When I took African American history classes as a sophomore and junior in high school, I realized that history had many functions that extended far beyond my honors world history textbook which my then-teacher used to tell me that Africa was of little significance. When I became a student at Yale University, I finally realized how diverse historical exploration could be. As a freshman, I was introduced to inquiry driven instruction and learning. In my African American Studies and Comparative Politics courses, for example, I was able to build upon my own understandings of the world, demonstrate my intellectual prowess, and perhaps most importantly, feel a sense of belonging.
In order to honor the inquiry question at hand, I relied primarily on differentiation with regards to content and instruction. Differentiation allows for controversial and innovative teaching; through varied techniques and instruction, students have the ability to establish their individual identity and role in the classroom. Using a variety of differentiated methods, I have employed strategies such as the following:
• Socratic classroom discussions
• Co-planning and coteaching with students
• Large classroom debates
• Small group discussions
• Stimulations
• Social Media
• Technology (Youtube, Video Clips, Outside Blogs, TedX Talks)
• Art: Music, Hip Hop, Spoken Word, Student Performances, s
At the “conclusion” of this project, I realize that I have more questions than answers and I suppose that this is a desired outcome. Because my inquiry question is quite situational and dependent upon my students and their backgrounds, I will never had a set outcome to look forward to, even if I replicated the same instructional methods or classroom management strategies a billion times! In fact, as I pursued and concluded this research, I continued to think about the following questions:
As I continue to teach, I anticipate exploring these questions (and the question that I initially set out to explore ) with intention.
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