Knowing Students

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Knowing Students

• Cross-school groups -- on your name tag

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• You really affect kids when you just do your job
  day in and day out, do it welland everything
  doesnt have to be about bonding with the kids
  and changing their lives. The bond will develop
  on its own if you just do your job well.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• I wouldnt even think I could do some-thing and
  my teacher would push me farther and I would
  succeed and do really well. In those first two
  months we did tons of work, and at the end we had
  a big project to do. I couldnt believe all the
  work I did.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• They shouldnt expect me always to do good.
  Sometimes you go through lots of stuffif
  something happens in your family you might not be
  going to schooland you dont know when that is
  going to be. Its important for a teacher to let
  you know that even if you dont do the very best
  this time, they still expect that youll be able
  to do in the future.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• In our math class the teacher expected us to
  present our answers on the board. One time I
  wrote the wrong answer up, but I still felt safe
  to participate because he found a way to turn it
  into a correct answer.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• We had to make a ten-minute play about if Antony
  and Cleopatra were in these days. It was the
  ghetto version, Tamika and Pookey. I was Tamika.
  There were seven scenes. We had them die in a
  car accident. They went back in time and we got
  a scene from the real Antony and Cleopatra and
  put it in there.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• My math teacher kept trying to connect to me
  using formulas and problems and to be honest, I
  dont care enough about math to respond. Maybe
  its wrong, but I need something personal to
  motivate me. If he could connect geometry angles
  to my interest in art or being an actor, that
  would work. Just saying you need to pass math to
  get out of high school isnt enough. Show me how
  knowing pi is worth something.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• You pay attention if the people you are
  identified with are represented. All my life I
  have been studying what Europeans and Americans
  do, but not Africans. So when we studied the
  Cold War, she gave us an article from an African
  textbook and we saw how differently they learn
  about it there. It gave us a sense of how
  different studying history could be.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• When I first came to this country in middle
  school, I had science and the teacher gave tests
  for everybody. He said, You can write? Then
  he gave me the answersthis and this and this. I
  felt bad because I didnt do the test, he did my
  test.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• My first year in science class. The teacher gave
  me a test and he said, I think you cant do this
  test because you dont speak English, but anyway
  I will give you a B if you come every day. I
  started to cryhe assumed that I couldnt do it,
  and I felt really bad. Because I feel
  comfortable when I study and take a good grade
  and say, I did this.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• Its really important the teachers know their
  students as individuals. You need to know, not
  to lower your expectations but to be realistic.

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Voices from Fire in the Bathrooms

• The mark of a good teacher is that no matter how
  weird or boring you might think their subject is,
  their love for it is what pushed you to learn
  something. It could be rat feces or some nasty
  topic, and the fact that their eyes are glowing
  when they talk about it makes you want to know
  something about it.

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• Affirming Diversity
• Sonia Nieto
• Clock hours
• Survey
• Reconvene in school groups

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Teaching for Equity
Front Center

• Promoting
• democratic
• classrooms

Inclusive teaching
Racially diverse classrooms
Teaching diverse learners
Lisa Delpit on Ebonics
Standards for effective pedagogy
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(No Transcript)
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High School Meeting January 13-14, 2004
What knowledge, skills, strategies, and
structures do we need to work in ways that close
the achievement gap and serve diverse learners
well?
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Looking at the Gap

• School Group Preparation
• What data does your school have?
• What does it tell you?

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Looking at the Gap

• Cross-School Discussion
• Share each schools data sources and what it
  tells you
• What other data would be helpful?
• What qualitative data .?
• What classroom data ?
• What data might students collect or provide?

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Looking at the Gap

• Share ideas from other groups
• How could we get this data?
• What is data telling us?
• What are implications for our behavior in the
  data?
• What kinds of data will lead teachers to change
  their practice?
• What strategies have you tried to address your
  schools gaps?

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Looking at the Gap

• School group discussion
• What did you learn you know you want to use at
  your school?
• What did you learn worth considering for your
  school?
• What ideas would be more do-able if
• your teaching load was 80 students?
• you taught the same kids for two or more years?
• you had collaborative planning time w/
  colleagues who teach the same students?

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(No Transcript)
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Information and Reminders

• Breakout session list at registration table
• Humanities Summit Jan 20
• Unions conversions Jan 21
• SSP Website

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Break-out Job-alike sessions

• Topics on handout will meet at corresponding
  table number move to other part of room as
  necessary.
• 23 Achiever Schools Student Leader Summit

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Looking Inside Ourselves

• Of all the things you might have done, why
  teaching?
• What frightens you most?
• What are your highest hopes for this?
• What are the gifts you bring to your school,
  colleagues, and students?

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Reflections

• Student case studies
• Teaching for equity
• Legal/Bureaucratic issues
• Identifying gaps data use
• Strategies for addressing gaps
• Job-alike/Breakout discussions
• Looking Inside Ourselves

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Survey Results