All posts by Darcy

Playing Favorites vs Playing to Win

Creating Classroom Community, Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

“It’s not as important for a teacher to like the students as it is for the students to think the teacher likes them. Students feel more comfortable and motivated in classes where they think the teacher likes them.” – Daryl

“I would rather not know if I’m a teacher’s favorite. It puts me in a weird position. When we’re having a test or something, other students will come up to me and say, ‘Why don’t you ask if we can not have it – she likes you.'” – Tiffany  (Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness, Cushman)

It’s important to praise students for their accomplishments and push them to their highest potential. But what’s equally as important is that teachers do this for all of their students, not just the ones who are easy to praise and immediately responsive to encouragement and challenges.

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The Silencing of Sexuality in the U.S.

Friendship, Love, & Sexuality, Urban Adolescents

“…instead of encouraging adolescents to avoid sexual intercourse, the new definition casts a much wider net of proscribed activity: ‘Sexual activity refers to any type of genital contact or sexual stimulation between two persons including, but not limited to, sexual intercourse.’ Apparently in responding to criticism that abstinence previously had not been adequately defined, this updated version creeps into the territory of all things ‘stimulating.’ This broad definition of abstinence removes any possibility for sex education curricula to mention how teens might engage in non-intercourse behaviors, even in an effort to remain ‘technically’ abstinent.”

–Sexuality Education and Desire: Still Missing after All These Years, Michelle Fine, p.308

“At a dance I was at when I was a freshman, one of the chaperones felt she had to have a word with several girls about grinding. ‘It’s like you’re giving the boys a lap dance,’ she said. ‘They’re just using you to rub up against them. What’s in it for you? It’s demeaning and very inappropriate. It’s like sex with clothes on.”

-Eliza Appleton, Red, p.152

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Let’s Talk About Sex (and gender in relation to violence)

Gender Socialization & Identities, Urban Adolescents

“I think boys on average are predisposed genetically to patterns of behavior and arousal that make then more vulnerable to learning aggression it it’s taught. The fact that boys are more physically aggressive than girls in virtually every culture in the world suggests that boys are more ready than girls to learn and demonstrate aggressive behavior.” – James Gabarino, p. 112, Adolescents at School

“…girls are also able to hear, smell, and feel tactile sensations better; have better overall verbal abilities; and are better able to control their impulses than boys because of differences in the ways their brains are wired. …those differences result in girls being less likely to take risks and cause boys to show a tendency toward aggressive behavior, both of which greatly affect how they see themselves and interac with others in the school context.” – Michelle Galley, p. 87, Adolescents at School Continue reading Let’s Talk About Sex (and gender in relation to violence) →

The Adolescent Church of Self: Faith through identity

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line, Urban Adolescents

“Getting youth to share their narratives of meaning is not hard. ….This is because stories are how adolescents transform fantasies and experiences into convictions that orient their lives. And, because narratives shape adolescents’ life-orientations, they can be understood as expressions of faith. Even when narrative themes are drawn from ostensibly secular as opposed to religious sources, the stories adolescents tell of themselves (either internally or conversationally) convey a faith that there is indeed meaning in one’s life, that there are morals to one’s stories.” (Adolescents at School, p.197)

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Instagram: Likin’ Pics, Crossing Cultures

eLiteracy and Social Media(tion), Media and Technology Critiques, Urban Adolescents

Teachers probably don’t think very highly of Instagram in general. You hear about students going viral for all the wrong reasons. One glimpse of someone’s personal life can be taken completely out of context and become fodder for gossip and social drama. We already know that today’s learners are technologically savvy and spend a good amount of their free time in front of screens navigating various social spheres. But what if we challenged them to peer outside of their chosen surroundings? What if we could implement Instagram as a tool for promoting intercultural learning in the classroom? Continue reading Instagram: Likin’ Pics, Crossing Cultures →