Reflection: Preparing Teachers Who Can Teach Everyone's Children

           This article discussed specific characteristics that describe effective teachers who can teach students from all backgrounds. It was interesting to read the article written from the perspective of higher education programs and their role to teach teacher candidates. While reading, a few key points stuck out to me: culturally responsive teaching, using self-knowledge to change, communication and collaboration skills, and management skills.

            Culturally responsive teaching believes that all students can learn. I really appreciated how the article defined culturally responsive teaching. The author said that teachers must hold high expectations for all students and believe that they can all learn; teachers must also be able to connect to the families and build a community of learners in the classroom; teachers must continually be learning and change their approaches to instruction in order to meet all the needs in the classroom; teachers must know students’ skills and use them in teaching; and finally teachers must be, “introspective about themselves,” and monitor their beliefs and actions in the classroom. I want to be culturally responsive and make sure that I am always evaluating myself and making sure that I not only believe but also take action on what makes a teacher culturally responsive.

            A teacher also needs to be able to understand how their knowledge and beliefs impact their teaching. I need to know how my ethnicity, language, and culture influence how I teach and are able to relate to my students. I need to make sure that I can still communicate and reach students despite differences. The article says that this can be done by making sure that teachers are open-minded about their mistakes and are willing to learn from them to become more effective, and that teachers need to be responsible in holding themselves accountable for their teaching.

            Communication and collaboration skills are key to build trust and commitment despite ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, or language differences. I naturally was able to easily collaborate with my colleagues but it was much harder to communicate and collaborate with parents and guardians. In the future I want to be able to build a close partnership with families so that we both may have the students achievement as a goal.

            Management skills are key to have a successful learning environment. The article states that management skills are developed during field experiences. During my student teaching I learned many management skills but this is an area that I hope to improve in. The article says that teachers with good management skills have the students involved in learning and in the decision making process; the students ideas are used in order to create a democratic classroom. 

"A View from the Bridge"

Assistant Professor of Theater, Tamara N. Izlar, directed the drama, “A View from the Bridge.” The play told the story of two brothers, Marco and Rodolpho, who emigrated from Italy and arrived in New York to live with their cousin, Beatrice, until they raised enough money to return to their home country. The brothers lived with the Beatrice, her husband Eddie and their orphaned niece Catherine, but it led to many tensions in their home. Catherine and Rodolpho are attracted to one another and Eddie does not approve. Eddie is very protective of his niece; after Catherine and Rodolpho fall in love, Eddie is determined to end their marriage. His anger towards Rodolpho leads him to call immigration services to arrest the two brothers.

The play was dark and when it ended, I was not quite sure what I was feeling. It took me a little while to reflect and process what I had experienced through the drama. Unlike the people that I watched the play with, I did not have any background knowledge about the play or the playwright, Arthur Miller. I was not prepared for the play to end in a murder, especially when I was expecting a different outcome. The whole story was an unfortunate situation where character flaws of selfishness got in the way, and resulted in an awful ending that could have easily been prevented. I was very emotionally drawn into the drama and the whole time I wanted to intervene.

During this fall semester I have experienced particularly challenging months that have been full of learning but draining in the same time. Many of my friends are also in academically demanding classes. We are all very tense and consumed with our schoolwork that our stress levels have been very high. When we interact with one another, we are often very short, and say things that we end up regretting. There have been many times when I have wanted to jump into situations and intervene conversations and interactions between friends. They have wanted to do the same with me as well. In many ways, our lives have been very similar to the lives represented in the drama. The characters were also very tense, consumed in their own problems, and they often said and did things that they ended up regretting.

No matter what stage in life we are living, we will always be in tense situations, be stressed, and may do things that we will regret. How we let these situations impact our professional lives will be very important. I admire people who have very busy, stressful life but they still seem to be able to not let their circumstances impact how they perform in their jobs. Many older adults that I look up to have this trait; I would love to gain their wisdom. Ultimately, I will be in the professional field as a teacher with the ultimate goal of educating students, I cannot allow circumstances that occur in my personal life impact how I perform as a professional.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." -Mark Twain

“My goal is to equip people to be able to talk easily about race,” stated Regina Shands Stoltzfus. This was her opening line at the anti-racism training. The training began with Regina Shands Stoltzfus giving brief background information about herself and explaining why anti-racism is important to her. Shands Stoltzfus explained her, “obsession” with this topic, as a result of leaving home for the first time and realizing that most churches were not diverse like the one that she was raised in. She continued the presentation by defining the terms: race, ethnicity, prejudice, and stereotype. Shands Stoltzfus stated that the primary purpose of race is to divide people on a hierarchy. The training continued by watching a short film that was titled, “Danger of a single story.” The video was about an African woman who came to the United States to study; upon her arrival, she faced many people who only had a ‘single-story’ in their mind about where this lady was from and what her life was like. Her roommate assumed that she had grown up in a hut and was experiencing the advanced world for the first time. Regina Shands Stoltzfus immediately had us work at our groups of table as a time of reflection and discussion based on the video. The rest of the training consisted of discussions around the table.

I did not know what to expect from the training, I knew that it would include some discussions but I did not have any specific expectations. The training was really wonderful and time well spent. I have previously heard the term, ‘single-story’ but after watching the video, it hit me at how important this training would be. We are all guilty of only having a ‘single-story’ of a person or situation. The discussions around my table were so intriguing because everyone had a different view and experience with ‘single-story’. It was also really fascinating to hear if racism was talked about with parents while growing up. A new concept that I have never really pondered until the training was segregation represented by where people live. People tend to live in locations with people of their own kind. In the training we discussed how laws often cause the segregation of where we reside.

When hearing the different experiences or times when ‘single-story’ was used by one of the members at my table, many memories rushed to my mind. I am an immigrant. My family is from Argentina, and people often combine all Spanish-speaking countries into one category. In their minds, people relate Argentina to Mexico even though the distance of my home in Pennsylvania is closer to Mexico than Mexico is to Argentina. Throughout my school years, I would hear comments like, “Melina, we should have invited you over because we made homemade tacos last night. You would have loved it.” I also remember my mom getting upset every time she would receive salsa as a gift. Spicy foods are just not our thing. I do not blame people, but they were victims of only having a ‘single-story’.

It is very important to make sure that we do not have a ‘single-story’ of any of our students, whether they are from this country, or what their cultural background may be. We need to make sure that assumptions are not made about our students and colleagues. It is a big danger to only have one story about a person. I want to make sure that I am willing to hear out a person and get a well-rounded understanding of a them or a situation before assumptions are made in my mind.

"Never believe that misery and despair have the last word."

As a college, we were privileged to have had Anna Deavere Smith come and present excerpts from her tour: Glimpses of America in Change. This tour is a compilation of 14 short plays; Anna Deavere Smith plays each of the main characters. Each play is about one character that Smith has interviewed. Anna Deavere Smith chose to present six out of her 14 short plays. The ones chosen had very diverse characters: a man from Chicago, African Americans and Jews from New York, a Jewish family, an Asian woman from Los Angeles, an immigrant from Colombia, and a doctor from New Orleans. Smith presented these stories in a captivating manor; the stories were intriguing and unique in their own way. Between each story, Anna Deaveare Smith spoke of the importance of listening. She said that it is important to listen to the people around us because everyone has a story. She described listening as, “The music of silence,” and that it is, “About looking and feeling.” Anna Deaveare Smith finished her presentation in an encouraging way; she said, “Never believe that misery and despair have the last word.”

I was engaged throughout the entire time that Anna Deveare Smith spoke. She was a captivating speaker who spoke straight from her passion and heart. Anna Deveare Smith found it important to seek out for the truth; she also demonstrated how important stories are through her short plays. Even though I personally was not able to relate to the stories told, they definitely made an impact in how I was able to connect to them. The short stories told, were mostly of trying times. The stories covered topics like the relationship between races, struggles of immigration, and being forgotten in the midst of a horrific natural disaster. These topics were heavy but Anna Deveare Smith spoke of them in a way that told the story in a light that I had not heard and allowed my horizons to broaden.

My dad has always told me, “All people have on this earth is their story.” This statement has always stayed with me. While hearing Anna Deveare Smith speak, my dad’s words kept running through my mind. Here at college, so many people surround me; there is hardly a time when I am all alone. Even so, I have not taken the time to hear any of their stories. The stories spoken by Smith were powerful. It would be amazing if we would take the time to hear others’ stories and be vulnerable to share our own. I want to be able to make it an importance to be a listener.

During some practicums and tutoring opportunities in the local schools, I have already experienced students making remarks about their home life, or of how they moved to Goshen. These stories are still being shaped but what is important is that the students were sharing them in hopes that someone would be listening. I believe that a teacher’s role is to be a supporter by being a listener. In the future, I will be presented with many situations that involve a student sharing their story. I want to make sure that I am able to give each individual student my time through listening. During this time, student-teacher connections are made and that trust is a result of a having a listening ear.