All posts by Shirlyn Liu

You have to let them know that you care about them

Urban Adolescents

“For many teachers, being positive means putting on a smile, pretending to
like a particular student, or going through the motions of using strategies
purportedly designed to enhance the classroom environment. In contradistinction, by assuming the best about our students-particularly in situations in which that assumption seems most implausible-we exercise a muscle that is real and lasting.”
—–Smith and Lambert, 2008

I think people can not be good teachers if they don’t have a truly kind heart. Some people are able to identify a situation where they need to smile, careful, act like having empathy, but not from their heart. Students are actually always smarter than we thought. They can identify the fakeness. Also, if you are a person who is dying to want your students to become the best person they can be, you will find a way to engage with your students and build a mutual trust with them even without any training.

I remember that when I was shadowing my focal learner, after observing her had a great debate with peers, I gave her a lot of compliment, she was very excited and gave me the biggest hug at the end of the day. I feel like if you can truly happy for your students, you will make them better people. Teachers’ social-emotional intelligence is as important as students’, it is so sad we did not have that training in teacher training programs.

Marketing mental health is as important as knowing mental health

Urban Adolescents

“Thankfully, in the current push to increase high school graduation rates and equip students
with the twenty-first-century skills, education leaders have come to realize that the workforce
demands for today’s students include not only high-level cognitive skills but also noncognitive
or “soft” skills, which cross over into the social-emotional skills domain”
——————————————Weston, Ott, & Rodger, S

In the past October, I was lucky enough to attend an academic conference with the topic of character development. I can tell how scholars are dedicating themselves to promote social-emotional wellness in schools and classroom settings. However, what I see in the classroom is still we are putting academic success and classroom management as our priority. I had a conversation with one of the scholars about this issue and asked him how do they think about this issue. He stated that besides we did not promote social-emotional wellness that well, the authorities does not put this topic as their priority.

I am grateful to see in this article that there is more and more advocacy in this field. I am thinking that besides educators, we might also need to be “business person”, who knows how to market our belief—that mental health is so essential of a person’s overall wellbeings.

Vesely, A., Vangelis, E., Saklofske, D. H., & Leschied, A. W. (2018). Qualities of teacher effectiveness in delivering school-based mental health programs: The relevance of emotional intelligence. In A. W. Leschied, D. H. Saklofske, & G. L. Flett (Eds.), Handbook of school-based mental health promotion: An evidence-informed framework for implementation, (pp. 167-184). Cham: Switzerland: Springer

Let’s talk about the hardship of being a (teenager) mom

Urban Adolescents

“A best friend or a boyfriend who are invested in them making it. Teen moms need that. That’s one spot that a family member can’t fill”
—–Elizabeth Chase

I myself is a mom of a two-year-old boy. Before went back to grad school, I was so hesitated to make this decision because I was afraid of taking care of a baby and doing school work at the same time, and I was also afraid of feeling isolated among my peers–not that they will treat you differently because you are a mom, but being a mom means that you have to balance your own life and your life as a mom. To be honest, there is basically no balance. You will have to have someone to help you out, but you will still worry about your baby every day and there are a million things to worry about in a mothership. I was lucky that my husband and my friends from grad school are very supportive and understanding, but I can definitely understand how hard it can be for a young mom. People at their young age might have a hard time understanding a mom’s life, and in the culture where sexuality sometimes equals to shame also make young people get away from teen moms, even it is unconscious.

And no, at this point, I don’t believe the community can afford all the resources to young mothers because that’s going to be a huge amount of all the resources. What we can do is to acknowledge them how hard it can be, helping them to protect themselves from being a young mom that can not afford their life in every aspect (including mentally).

Reference:
Chase, E. (2017). Beyond the diploma: Dimensions of success for teenage mothers in high school. Educational Review, 69(4),

Is LGBTQ education mean to be a margin?

Gender Socialization & Identities

I noticed that the group of students they interviewed were from EVC after school program. It sounds so similar with East Village Community School–The school that shares the same building with my placement. If it is this school I am very shocked–East Village is such an inclusive community and that school is pretty progressive. And they are still experiencing harassment and bullying. Then what about the rest of this city? What about other places? It’s sad to think about it.

I also believe that it might be too late to start the gender/sex education in middle schools. If children can get this idea earlier in their life, at least get the idea that some people may not identify their gender same as their physical genders, they will be more open-minded on LGBTQ and they will be fewer issues going on in adolescents’ community. However, I see the major challenge of implementing this sex education are from parents. I have a classmate trying to implement a gender unit in the student teaching placement but ended up by getting a complaint from parents. In Canada, the Ontario school district decided to put sex education in their learning standards but got huge protests from parents. It is extremely hard in real life to practice an education that advocates for LGBTQ groups.

“Intentionally creating LGBTQ-inclusive curricula helps queer students feel safer, more connected and more visible in our schools. Conversely, gaping holes in the curriculum with no LGBTQ inclusion or representation serve to silence and alienate them.” (Goodman, p90)

Goodman, S. (2018). It’s not about grit: Trauma, inequity, and the power of transformative teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.

Reaching out undocumented families

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners

“When my brother and my mom came here, they didn’t know anything. That my brother could go to school, That my brother could get insurance until a certain age….” (Goodman, p75)

This passage saddens me. However, the worse thing is that those families do not want to connect to schools or other information to know better about their rights. I totally understand them and I exactly know their feeling. As an international student in America and an Immigrant in Canada, I spend so many years to adapt to the culture that people need to stand out for themselves to get their rights. This is not only a matter of language barrier. As educators, I don’t think it is a perfect idea to call families to the school and tell their rights. From my experience, I believe sending newsletters or brochures in their native language that tell what can they do might be a better way.

I also noticed that in Fabienne’s article, she mentioned that while Mexican families may send their children back to their Country as long as they are very unsatisfied about their school, Hetian families usually decide to stay where they are in the States. I am thinking whether or not it is because of the physical distance between the States and Haiti is more far away. Because it is the case of Asian families. It is hard to get here from Asia, and once they arrive, they may never go back. I found it is interesting that what Haitian families worried about is exactly the same as what Chinses families worried about. What a dilemma of those parents! I am willing to know more about how to help with those families.