All posts by Crater Morgan

I hate that I’m white

Creating Classroom Community

Teachers are often White women whose own educational and life experiences are considerably different from the students in urban schools, and teacher education may not include developing skills that prepare them for racial and cultural diversity (Wiggins, Follo, & Eberly, 2007).

Cited from Yull, Blitz, Thompson & Murray, 2014, pg. 13

I read this particular quote, as I have read many others of a similar nature, and I just feel so crushed. I am a White woman whose personal and educational background, in many ways, should “disqualify” me from being able to educate brown children. I didn’t grow up in an urban community and my parents admittedly sheltered me from any diversity they could. “On paper”, so to speak, I have no reason to possess any skills that empower me to teach children from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds. However, somewhere along the way, Continue reading I hate that I’m white →

When are they going to believe us?

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

Some kids are so dysfunctional…it takes all of our efforts and I don’t see it getting any better. That’s why people don’t go into teaching. They are not paid well, they’re not appreciated, and it’s stressful.
(Weston, Ott & Rodger, 2018, pg. 108)

When it comes to the profession of teaching, people have many opinions about our jobs. It’s known that we aren’t paid well, but people tend to obsess over our schedules, specifically our summer breaks. If you’re focusing on just one component of the teaching profession as an isolated entity, you’ll miss the point completely. I think this quote sums it up perfectly. Sure, we aren’t paid well, but we also aren’t appreciated. That’s obvious in how people simply discredit our complaints about our deficient wages with the argument that we have multiple days off. They are unable to factor in what our day even consists of, nor what our free time requires of us in order to get everything done to continue providing learning opportunities for all students. Continue reading When are they going to believe us? →

I may not know what it means, but I’m on board.

Friendship, Love, & Sexuality

“Providing professional development for school staff to improve rates of intervention and increase the number of supportive teachers and other staff available to students;”
(GLSEN, 2016, p. 14)

A couple weeks ago, we had to look up the terms Gender, Gender Socialization, Cisgender, Transgender, Intersexed and Gender Non-Conforming for homework. In the following class, we then watched a portion of Growing up Coy and had a really interesting conversation; however, I must admit, all the terminology, at the end of the day, is slightly overwhelming. Some of the notes I jotted down included:
– Genitalia does not equal sex.
– We can’t see gender, only gender performance/identity/expression.
– Sex refers to hormones, sexual organs, genitalia.
– Gender – our societal role.
– Male/Female are adjectives, not nouns (scientific).
– Cisgender = consistency of sex and gender.
– Queer = non-binary
– Fem = performance
– Masc = butch
– Intersexed = sex of both Continue reading I may not know what it means, but I’m on board. →

History is repeating itself.

Gender Socialization & Identities

“Certainly, there is the potential for all transgender students to feel isolated or insecure in their school environments. This is concerning in that isolation impacts student emotional wellbeing as well as academic and, ultimately, professional success. These issues can be exacerbated when transgender-specific issues come to a head and school officials are forced to make choices regarding the accommodation of not only the transgender student, but all students in the building. Continue reading History is repeating itself. →

The Perpetual Foreigner

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners

I liked that this article focused on racism very specific to an ethnic group — South Asian Americans — and not a collective whole of racism towards all minority groups. First of all, I think when people hear the term Asian, they think Chinese, Japanese, and maybe Thai, but South Asians are not that. They are from India, Nepal, Pakistan, etc., and they are commonly perceived as terrorists by very ignorant people in this nation. They look like the extremists that conducted 9/11 and so this nation continues to perceive them as dangerous. As I read the article, I actually learned that South Asian Americans have essentially always been recipients of racist tendencies in this country, even before 9/11 happened. I, ignorantly, thought this was only a new concept since then… I should have known better. Continue reading The Perpetual Foreigner →