All posts by Rudy Allison Rodriguez

The Lines are Less Blurry if you Find a Connection

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line
“As a  1.5-gen-eration immigrant, I was able to connect to the students and their families in many ways. I speak Kreyòl without an accent, I have lived in Haiti, and I could relate to students’ stories about their parents’ values and criticisms of U.S. mainstream culture. In these ways, participants saw me as an insider and assumed I understood their experiences.”
Although Doucet’s study, (Re)Constructing Home and School:Immigrant Parents, Agency, and the(Un)Desirability of Bridging Multiple Worlds, focuses on the boundaries immigrant parents place between home and school, I found her reflection on her bias to be my MVP for the week. Continue reading The Lines are Less Blurry if you Find a Connection →

Creating Dynamic YouTube Learners

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

Much has been written about the value of Youtube as a teaching tool in the classroom, however, I have found that there is so much power in using Youtube, not only to provide visuals for students, but as a means of creation for students. Once concepts have been taught, creating content is a nuanced way for students to apply their learning.

Creating Youtube videos can be a valuable tool for many reasons: Continue reading Creating Dynamic YouTube Learners →

Making Connections for All Learners

eLiteracy and Social Media(tion)

“This phenomenon has important implications for students’ engagement with reading graphic novels with complex themes because reader ‘ownership over meaning making is clearly one of the appealing facets of comic book reading” – Chun, 2009

I found this to be one of many important points Chun makes in his argument for graphic novels as a useful tool in literacy skills for English language learners.  The phenomenon referred to is the idea that Continue reading Making Connections for All Learners →

A Classroom full of identities

Culturally, Linguistically, and Socioeconomically Diverse Adolescents in Urban Contexts: Framing the Conversation

“If you clamp down on the social impulses of your students, you are pushing against a force of nature: the momentum of early adolescent development. Yet if you passively accept them, your classroom lapses into chaos.”

I chose this as my MVP for the week because it really resonated with me and my experiences of teaching 5th graders.  One of the biggest challenges I found while teaching was in learning how to balance both structure and spontaneity in a classroom where my students were all at varying in the process of identity development. The students in my 5th grade classrooms ranged in age, and consequently, maturity across a wide spectrum.  By the time we reached the end of the year, my students often ranged fro 10 to 13 years old. While some of the girls were still interested in imaginary games, others took interest in makeup and dating.  I noticed boys become particularly interested in maintaining an image and all students seemed to place big importance in forming friendship circles.

As the authors pointed out, many of my students did seem to be using the school setting as a way to test out their identities. One of the most valuable lessons I found was one that allowed my students to really feel out their strengths, as well as represent and form their identity.  Each year my students created a video project led and designed mostly on their own.  As a class we would decide on a theme and collaborate to create guidelines and assign roles to make sure everyone was included.  They would then work in small groups to create their own segment that would contribute to the class project as a whole. One year they created a news show with each group being responsible for a different segment like Sports, Entertainment and Local News. The following year they did a Songs in Real Life recap of our school year.  The projects were always a huge success and I believe this is largely in part to the ability they had to represent their own personality. They were able to use their own unique interests to create a product they could take ownership of.

One of my former students left a comment on his classes video that reaffirms the impact teachers can have by recognizing and helping students figure out who they are. He wrote, “I love this video. I did not have a lot of friends, but this makes me happy because it shows I am a funny guy. I’ll never forget it, Miss Rodriguez!” 😆

Middle Schoolers are people too!

Biological & Cognitive Development in Adolescence
MVP: “Teachers have a responsibility to guide students through adolescent years. If it sounds as if we expect teachers to be more like counselors instead of merely teachers, then you are beginning to comprehend the role of effective  middle level practitioners.”
“I don’t know how you do it! They’re so hormonal!”
“It takes a special kind of person to teach middle school.”
These are conversations I’ve had plenty of times with my 7th grade science teaching mother.  The article from What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know made me self aware in how I, an educator myself, often perpetuated the stigma of how troublesome middle schoolers can be. I found the article to be valuable in allowing teachers to reflect on the reasons behind middle school behavior and our role as educations in this setting.
I think it is common in many cases to find teachers of middle school students to be seen as victims who have to put up with these students, however this article made me very aware of how much students are victims of puberty and continuous changes both mentally and physically.  Rather than the same tone of fear I am guilty of taking with adolescents, the writers showed compassion by dissecting the many things students in this age group are experiencing. By being more considerate of the changes such as growth spurts, physical developments, and cognitive developments, educators are in a better position to put themselves in the shoes of their middle school students and react in ways that are proactive and accommodating to their needs.  After reading this article, I hope to be much more like the teacher who responded to his students constant trips to the bathroom as an obvious sign of self examination and act proactively in solutions rather than in consequences.