“No one said a teacher was his favorite because she or he was easy”.
– Harper et al., 2014, p. 22

This study on black on latino male high school achievement in NYC resonated a lot due to my student teaching placement. I am in a charter high school in the Bronx that is 60% Latinx and 40% black. I am very familiar with the deficit model thinking in regards to latino and black males due to media and unfortunately adults at the school. While many teachers work extremely hard and set high expectations for their students, some I have heard say “We just have to accept that some of our kids won’t get into college”. Continue reading “Teachers here really care” →

“The greatest risk factor in school violence is masculinity.”

Writing about school shootings, Kimmel underscores the fact that all the school shootings in the U.S. have been committed by male students. This uniformity, Kimmel explains, cuts across all other differences among the shooters – they come from different backgrounds, such as from intact families, single-parent homes, violent homes, or what appears to be happy families. Yet, the one thing all the school shooters have in common is being male. Kimmel urges us to consider what this means about masculinity in school and how it can manifest into school violence. Continue reading Creating safe spaces to challenge pressures of masculinity →

“To queer is to venture into controversial, intellectually complicated, nuanced terrain with students. It requires faith that middle school students in a public school such as mine not only can, but must, learn to grapple with complexity if their education is going to provide opportunities, rather than impose insurmountable limitations… A queer methodology […] encourages criticality and considers inquiries about identity as crucial to the act of teaching, rather than material to be covered on one particular day and checked off a “to do” list. In a middle school English classroom, queer pedagogy pushes conversations about characters and identity beyond simplistic observations and into an exploration of power dynamics, social issues arising in texts, and character experience.” (p. 2-3)

Reading Loren Krywanczyk’s piece on queer pedagogy introduced me 1) to a new term: to queer; and 2) to a form of education, focusing on identities, we should implement in our classrooms. The author uses the term “queer” as a verb, signaling a method of teaching where teachers create forums for students to debate, learn, and share about diverse topics concerning identity. It is meant to make students question their current mindset, feel uncomfortable, and ultimately learn about each other in a safe setting. Continue reading How to queer your class: 101 →

“Three weeks ago I made the choice to come out as transgender and as queer to one of my sixth graders. This student has demonstrated a consistent, pointed interest in trans issues and has raised unprovoked questions about transsexuals on at least three occasions. He (or she?) is sometimes teased by other students for “acting gay,” wearing sweater-vests, and borrowing pink highlighters from the girls in class to decorate his notebook. Without assuming anything about this student’s identity, it is clear that gender and sexuality are important for the student to think about and work through right now.” (Krywanczyk, 2009, 5)

The fact that this teacher came out to his student is powerful. While I try to keep my personal life and teaching life completely seperate, I feel that this teacher made the right decision in telling his 6th grade student that he was transgender and queer based on the situation.  Continue reading Sometimes, your personal life is important to your classroom →