Final Thoughts

ETE 663 has been an amazing class for me. I enjoy the online format, especially the Panopto lectures and materials, and how it enables me to learn at my own pace and schedule.

I feel as though I’ve gotten more out of the discussions in this class than I have in many others that meet in person for a few hours a week – my comments are more thoughtful and I don’t feel “forced” to participate in a discussion after a long day at work. (I talk all day … I just want to sit back and listen sometimes!)

The text was informative and easy to read, and I would recommend using it again in future ETE 663 classes. Thank you to everyone in the class for doing their part in posting (mostly) on time and for bringing topical and intriguing thoughts to our discussions.

Special thanks to Dr. Cantu for putting so much work into the materials and providing items we can use in our own classrooms. Excellent class!

Chapter 12

Religion is yet another prism through which we view the world, and one that seems to be evolving each day. I was not raised with religion, never attended church, and was not educated about the Bible or any other religious texts until I attended college and was enrolled in a mandatory course about the New Testament. (Ironically, my lack of religious experience made me a better special education teacher – I could totally understand how my students were lost when it came to certain subjects in class.)

As such, I was extremely naïve when I became a teacher and realized just how much religion impacts a school culture. I taught high school in two rural districts, both of which had clubs for Christian athletes, allowed team prayer before sporting events, encouraged youth programs at area schools through daily announcements, and discouraged any extracurricular events on Wednesday evenings (a popular church attendance night).

My students didn’t have issues with the religion that was emphasized in the school setting, but I did. I was the only divorced member of the faculty at one school, and was literally the only one who didn’t attend a church in the town. I did my best to keep these facts under wraps … not because I felt ostracized, but because I literally didn’t want anyone to know that religion wasn’t important to me. I didn’t want anyone to think that the unimportance of religion would rub off on my students. I wanted to fit in, and just let everyone assume I attended church in the town in which I lived (35 miles away from the district).

I know I felt awkward at baccalaureate and graduation, when prayers and Bible verses were referenced, but I hope that feeling of not fitting in didn’t impact my teaching in the classroom. In fact, I like to think I learned a lot from my students in this aspect: the majority of them had been attending church their entire lives, and helped me understand the importance of faith and how it brings a community together.

My question for the class is: I know I was fortunate in that I didn’t have any negative experiences regarding religion in my classroom, but would like to know how others handled it in theirs.

Chapter 11

Sexual orientation and its impact on school climate is the most challenging diversity issue I have experienced. For many years, I operated under assumption that sexuality shouldn’t be an issue in the classroom – what people choose to do in their personal lives should not affect how subjects are taught and how the curriculum is approached. That viewpoint was obviously a result of my upbringing and personal experiences; it wasn’t necessarily wrong, but it was naïve and closed-minded.

I soon realized that my viewpoint was acceptable as a student, when I wasn’t in control of the classroom atmosphere, but not so much when I was in the teacher’s role and was responsible for the climate of my room. That’s not to say that I did a 180 and suddenly took interest in and focused on the sexual orientation of my peers and students … instead, I realized that when you are responsible for providing an atmosphere of understanding and comfort and safety for your students, you need to understand their backgrounds, interests, and skill levels. This understanding, of course, includes their home lives, circle of friends, and triggers that impact the classroom. Eventually I came to realize that a GLBT student experiencing bullying because of his/her sexual orientation has the same impact on my classroom as an LD student experiencing bullying because of his/her special education placement. I was a mother bear when protecting my students when they were mistreated, and I had to change my viewpoint on the importance of sexual orientation when it became apparent that this issue was as prevalent as other common classroom issues.

In all, by not burying my head in the sand and approaching sexual orientation as just another facet in my students’ myriad of issues, I feel as though I was more able to give them the freedom to be themselves in my classroom and be a sounding board for their problems.

My question for the class is: as an educator who has not been in a classroom for nearly three years, I would like to know how my peers are telling their students why it’s not okay to say “that’s gay” or “you’re retarded” ….

Chapter 10

As noted by Dr. Cantu, the gender stereotyping legacy of the 20th century is still affecting students in 2011. My post will focus on the intriguing attribution of success and failure in males and females: ability vs. effort.

Taylor referenced several studies, including one by Sadker & Sadker (1994), that illustrate overall how males view success in terms of effort and females view success in terms of ability. For instance, if a male student receives a poor grade on a math test, he will see that failure as lack of effort on his part. He will not necessarily question his ability in the subject. On the other hand, a female who receives a poor grade tends to question her ability, not effort. Taylor implies that this difference in internalization of success/failure is a factor in the consistency of females dropping courses and not entering fields related to STEM.
It pains me to acknowledge that this is the first time I have heard about the affective variables approach. Unfortunately, I am no longer in the classroom and am unable to use this knowledge to guide my students around this issue. In my opinion, if I could have told the students how males and females tend to view their successes and failures through this prism, it may have given them more opportunities to experience success.

My question for the class is: how can high school teachers help students tackle gender stereotypes? How can we help students see themselves in a different light, despite years of little or no intervention in elementary and junior high school?

Chapter 9

As evidenced by the information in this chapter on exceptionality, special educators need to be knowledgeable of not only multicultural trends, but a wide array of legal, social, emotional, and physical issues that relate to their students. From the goals and objectives on Individualized Education Plans to the three-tiered approach of Response to Intervention, the legal implications of IDEA to the eligibility process and continuum of placement, special education teachers are expected to be up-to-date on the latest issues and trends that affect their classrooms.

These added expectations, coupled with the increased numbers of practicing special education teachers who are not fully licensed, frame the thesis about burnout in special educators: the less preservice experience, the more likely it is a teacher will leave the profession within five years.

Why are special educators so prone to burnout? Let me list just five reasons:

1. Certification requirements
2. Expectation of legal knowledge
3. Implementation and documentation of RTI interventions
4. Creation and upkeep of IEPs
5. Maintenance of educational standards for varying levels of achievement

My question for the class is: what can we, as experienced teachers, do to help new special educators understand the expectations, requirements, and demands of the special education classroom that aren’t necessarily taught during preservice teaching?

Chapter 8

My reflection for Chapter 8, Poverty and Socioeconomic Class, will be written from the point of view of a 17-year-old male student living in poverty.

According to the World Bank, I live in poverty because I go without food a couple times a week. Because my mom can't afford medical bills, so I don't go to the doctor when I'm sick. Because my next-door neighbor, who is 8, can read better than I can.

My dad is out of the picture, so my mom has to support me and my three little sisters with her part-time job at the local gas station. I don't know how much she makes, but it can't be that much because we get money from the government each month and we have to use a Link card at Walmart. We live in the big apartment complex in town, but let's be honest: we live in the projects. It's cold in the winter, hot in the summer, and it's impossible to chill because I share a room with my sisters.

If the dimensions of poverty are material, psychological, political, and social, I fit the bill. There's never enough to eat, I wear clothes we get at free church events, I don't trust or respect adults because they can't be counted on, I don't have any say in my future, and I'm a failure at school.

According to Ruby Payne, I have a lot to offer the other kids at school. I can show the rich and normal kids how to have street smarts, how to protect themselves, and how to survive without getting everything handed to them by their rich parents. Apparently they can show me how to make good decisions, be thrifty, and how to use my education to better myself. I don't see this happening, though.

As part of the hidden rules of poverty, the odds are stacked dramatically against my high school graduation. Let's not even talk about the odds of me going to junior college or university. Six percent chance of me graduating college ... I don't see this happening, either.

My question for the class is: how can you, as my teacher, make me care about school? Why should I bother? How can you give me hope for a better life than the one I'm living now?

Chapter 7

In this chapter, Taylor describes the importance of and relationship between culture and language. The definitions of culture vary, but I believe James Banks' components of culture is one of the best models educators can use as a starting point: values/behaviors, language/dialects, nonverbal language, cultural cognitiveness, perspectives, and identification. The intertwining of cultural and language is somewhat obvious: they are inseparable!

In this post, I want to focus on the chapter's information about E.D. Hirsch and his cultural literacy theory. His cultural literacy test, as well as the topics covered in his core knowledge sequence, simply blew me away. For some reason, I have no recollection of reading his book or studying his theory; the simple guidance of "giving everyone the same starting line" is something I strived to do in my special education classroom. At times it was nearly impossible, however, because some students could barely complete mathematical computations, while others could barely read at a second grade level.

I did, however, do my best to encourage the students to have a more rounded world view by introducing them to various references and experiences that were often foreign to them. Despite their various learning disabiltiies, they were exposed to Romeo and Juliet with a lesson on fighting and jumping to conclusions ... they learned the science behind levers by building shoebox castles with catapults ... they learned to write introductions to essays by discovering idioms and metaphors. I hope that through these efforts, my kids have some ability to recognize references in their everyday lives.

My question for the class is: what kind of lesson plans would you design in order to incorporate difference orientation in your classroom?

Chapter 6

In this chapter, Taylor provides an overview of race and ethnicity, how they affect a student's identity, and how educators can play an important role in embracing ethnicity as change agents.

As Dr. Cantu noted in his lecture, the United States Census Bureau now lists 15 separate racial categories. Fifteen! While these categories are probably needed for accuracy in the count as they relate to the varied immigrants residing in our country, I believe it is also indicative of today's politically correct society. Instead of denoting oneself as white, black, or Asian, we now have a multitude of choices.

Of course this is affecting our students in various ways -- in my experience in rural settings, the students would ask why African Americans include "African" in front of American. "Does that mean I have to say I'm American American?" they would ask. I attempted to explain that technically, they could say they were Irish American or Italian American, or any other category that described from which their ancestors came. The inevitable response? "I'm from Delavan. My parents are from Delavan. My grandparents are from Delavan. My great-grandparents are from Delavan. Why can't I just say American?"

Naturally, this would evolve into a lively debate about immigration, ancestry, and cultural heritage. If I were still in the classroom, I would pounce on this opportunity to engage the students even further by encouraging them to research their ancestry and use the social action theory to advance their knowledge by partnering with an urban school and comparing our findings via websites and blog posts. By doing this, I believe I would be following Cornel West's advice to end the truncation of race discussions ... and emphasize how we're all Americans now.

My question for the class: how can we as educators take off the color-coded prism through which we view our students?

Chapter 2

The second chapter of the textbook describes on the current state of education for diverse students in the United States, including various reports on the progress (or lack thereof) of fourth and eighth grade math and reading scores and the gap in scores in diverse populations. Taylor also provides his four causal aspects of those gaps: high poverty schools, ill-equipped schools and teachers, inadequate facilities, and tracking of students.

My reflection on this chapter will focus on the utilization of Bank’s four approaches to curriculum reform, Gardner’s multiple intelligences, and de Bono’s thinking hats to develop a culturally diverse classroom.

As an educator, I strived to incorporate multiculturalism into my high school special education curriculum with both the additive and social action approaches. I would make efforts to provide different perspectives of issues, and encourage my students to discuss and analyze those points of view. I would also incorporate real social action into that discussion and analysis by assigning and encouraging community involvement as a culminating unit activity.

For example, I had a 17-year-old junior who had become enamored of Adolf Hitler after watching several programs about the dictator on History Channel. This student would frequently quote Hitler in classroom discussions, draw swastikas on his notebooks, and make non sequiturs in conversations about the German “genius.” In an effort to use his fascination with the ruler as motivation to learn, I wrote several stand-alone units about the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel’s “Night,” and genocide.

When this student realized that not only Jews – but also people with learning disabilities -- were exterminated, I saw the proverbial light bulb shine over his head. He continued to show interest in the Hitler topic, but instead began writing his essays from the other point of view – the victims. The culminating activity was participation in the reading of names at the Holocaust Memorial at Grand Prairie; I’m proud to say my student participated and wrote an article for our classroom newsletter about his experience.

This anecdote illustrates how an educator can provide develop a culturally diverse classroom with various curriculum approaches, utilization of a student’s specific learning intelligence (in this case, verbal/linguistic), and a thinking hat (in this case, green for alternatives and new ideas).

My question for this class is: how can we better utilize the transformation approach in the curriculum when dealing with cultural, racial, and other diversity issues?

Chapter 1

The first chapter of the ETE 663 textbook focuses on the changing pattern of immigration in the United States and provides context for upcoming discussions of multicultural education. Taylor dutifully reports a wealth of statistics and facts regarding national legislation, illegal immigration, and current issues facing our country. Rather than commenting on these statistics, however, I will instead focus on the historical assimilation of immigrants and how it relates to my educational experiences.

As Dr. Cantu noted in his video presentation, America is a land of immigrants; as such, it is a land of diversity and varied cultures. This melting pot of citizens historically assimilated (gave up their original culture’s characteristics and adopted those of their new country) as they immigrated to America. One of the most intriguing parts of this chapter is the quote from Horace Mann, who declared that public schools were “necessary, above all, to ensure the assimilation of immigrants.” Taylor also notes that these settlers were expected to learn English, take pride in American identity, and live by the Protestant work ethic in order to “be welcome as full members of the American family.”

In my opinion, this pattern of assimilation continues in public schools today. In my six years of teaching experience (all but one year in a rural setting), I observed new students in the district conform to the “norms” of their new community in a variety of ways (socially, academically, emotionally, and even physically).

For instance, the population of Delavan, a small farming community in rural southern Tazewell County, Illinois, is comprised of mostly Caucasian, working class families, the majority of whom were born in Delavan and stayed to raise their own families in the town. Most students in the K-12 school building literally grow up with the same classmates year after year, receive an intensive curriculum of vocational courses, and participate in the few extracurricular activities offered by the school (cross country, basketball, church-related youth groups, and Future Farmers of America, to name a few).

Many of the new students I encountered were teenagers who had been placed with foster families in Delavan. The majority of these students were African-American boys who had previously attended Peoria School District 150, and were accustomed to much larger classes, varied extracurricular opportunities, and multicultural peers.

As these students attempted to fit in at Delavan High School, they invariably began to change their appearance (most notably by wearing hooded sweatshirts instead of the dark polos – a nod to the lack of school uniform), choice of classes (study halls were replaced by the elective agricultural science class), and after school activities (joining clubs or sports – perhaps because the majority of their peers were in these groups).

Behaviors also changed; urban slang became noticeably absent after several weeks and talk of friends “back home” significantly decreased. These kids were doing everything they could to fit in, despite the 180-degree difference in culture. Looking back, with what I am learning about multicultural education, I’m sure I could have made more of an effort to acculturate these students and help their classmates dispel myths and stereotypes about the “new kids” in town.

As such, my question for the class is: how can teachers be encouraged to promote acculturation instead of assimilation when new students join the class? How can we help the new students realize that their backgrounds and culture are assets, not liabilities?