Monthly Archives: April 2012

Thinking About Student Work

My school recently hosted the NCISR New England Cluster Meeting. One of the sessions I attended in-between teaching and other duties was “Looking at Student Work.” One of the things I took away from the exercise was that I need to provide more opportunities for my students to play with the language they are learning. While I provide my students with a good structural base via a more traditional and direct approach to teaching, I also need to provide opportunities for collaboration, critical thinking, choice, and creativity.

So, in these final weeks, I am going to strive to provide more opportunities for the student to create with the language. To that end, I just ordered a bunch o’ materials from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Cosmic Zombie

I assigned a webquest on “La Semana Santa” to two of my Spanish classes last week.  The day was 11 April, which, incidentally, was my birthday, for which I took a personal day.  Although La Semana Santa had already taken place, the webquest was worthy enough to be completed post-holiday.

The students, for the most part, thoroughly read the information contained in the various links provided.  They also answered the questions thoughtfully and with sufficient detail.  However, one student provided a response to the first question which was just wrong.  Actually, a colleague alerted me to the fact.  The webquest responses had been printed using a printer next to her desk.  As the documents emerged from the printer, the responses of one student in particular captured her attention.  The student wrote, “Jesus Christ was a cosmic zombie.”

The colleague remarked that the student’s response was disrespectful; I agreed.  Moreover, I seem to remember a brief conversation about Easter in the class in which the student in question is enrolled, and one student made the comment (not the one who wrote the comment) that Jesus Christ was a cosmic zombie, since he was resurrected.  The comment wasn’t made with malicious intent, but, it was an ignorant comment, nonetheless, and I needed to remind the student who made the comment about respect for different beliefs, and that equating Jesus Christ with a zombie was equally disrespectful.  Well, it seems that the student who typed a similar response on his webquest seemed to believe that despite the conversation, it was appropriate for him to reiterate the same.

I happened to catch up with the student in question on Friday afternoon, just as the 2:45 pm bell rang.  I pulled out his paper, and showed him what he had written.  He was contrite, and apologetic.  I said to the student that writing what he did was inappropriate and disrespectful.  He apologized.  I added that even if this is what he believes, it disrespects a religious faith that many hold as dear and true – Yours Truly included. The student apologized again.  I told him to take his paper, and to write an appropriate response. He did, and emailed it to me that very afternoon.

Sadly, there are colleagues at my place of employ who would have given the student in question a pass.  Anything goes in their mind, even disrespecting religion.  After all, it’s a liberal school, and, affronting anything viewed as conservative is allowed to be attacked.  Well, even if I weren’t a Christian, the student’s actions would not be okay.

Having turned 47, and, being three years from 50, I’m less tolerant of such buffoonery.  That said, I’m also dealing with my own reactions to such in a more controlled and detached manner.

Do White Folks “Get It”?

This is not a post written with the intent to turn off my White readers.  However, I hope they will read.

The longer I live and work in majority (White) environments, the more I wonder: Do White folks get it?  What is it that they don’t get? In my workplace, they don’t get issues around race.  In fact, we cannot talk about the issues in an open and honest way.  Perhaps its collective guilt, collective shame, not wanting to say the wrong thing, being ignorant, being fearful, not giving a flying hamburger, all of the above, some of the above, none of the above?

However, I WANT my White colleagues to say something, ANYTHING, to get The Conversation started.  After all, The Conversation is as much about them. In fact, in many ways, is more about them than it is about me.  Moreover, my White colleagues, moreso than me, can be greater instruments of change, given that we work in a majority environment.  However, the silence amongst them is indelible.

There are more meetings at my current workplace than there were at any of my previous places of employ combined, most of them about nonsense, and yet, I have had not one substantive conversation with my White colleagues about the Trayvon Martin case.  On the other hand, I have had several conversations with students about the same.  We work in an educational institution, a place of learning, and yet, the unwillingness to engage on any level does the students in our charge a huge disservice, and is morally reprehensible.  But, do my White colleagues CARE?  I honestly don’t know.

My Dear Brother related to me a recent segment on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” Show.  He had convened a group of guests who, when presented with the topic of Trayvon Martin, their discomfort and unwillingness to engage was palpable.  Bill Maher, subsequently, called them out.  This is precisely what occurs at my workplace.

One thing is certain:  People of Color cannot shoulder the brunt of the Race Problem in majority settings.  After all, the environment is what it is precisely because of the silence of White colleagues.