Wednesdays are by far my least favorite day of the week. I have to leave my students at lunch time and head to campus for my seminar. Not only am I frustrated with the content of the seminar and lack of community discussion, we talk about the edTPA for the first half hour. Every time I go to seminar, I change my whole TPA schema. I rethink everything I've done and it's absolutely tiring. So, while I was gone, my CT and my students had a discussion about culture. What is culture? Where do we come from? Can someone really be American? They had a lively discussion around the fact that most of the people that live in America have relatives that were born somewhere else. She mentioned that the kids might want to ask their parents where their family comes from.
Today in our morning meeting circle, our share was telling the class where your family comes from (or saying that you'll ask your family and let us know later). So many kids were excited about the conversations they had had with their family the night before! It was awesome to hear. What I learned from the circle is that we have students who are Cambodian, Puerto Rican, Polish, Irish, Dutch, Yugoslavian, Filipino, etc. Kids said that they were "a little bit Polish, a little bit Irish" or "I am half Cambodian and half American." This conversation has always been a hard one for the black students in my classroom. Because of the history of African Americans in our country, most of the kids I've worked with can't name a country that they call their own, other than the United States. It's a powerful conversation to have with students and to reflect on as a teacher. One of the boys in my class raised his hand in the circle. He said, "I know that I'm a little bit Atlanta."
I was awestruck. He was totally right. When we asked him about it later, he said that he talked to his dad (who lives in Chicago currently) on the phone last night and his dad told him that he was born in Atlanta. While most of the discussion was centered around a country of origin- coming from Chicago and Atlanta IS his culture. He was totally on-par with the conversation and had no idea that his answer was so different from the rest. I was so thankful that none of our smarty-pants students said, "Hey! That's not a country!" and made him feel bad. Although, I would have relished in the opportunity to have a discussion about culture and what REALLY makes us who we are, instead of just where our ancestors came from.
This discussion was really a precursor to the whole day. Things went much more smoothly than they had previously this week and I was so grateful. I am halfway through my TPA writing lessons now. I had a breakthrough with a couple of students that feels amazing!! I re-worked my standard so that instead of making every student have 1) an intro 2) facts 3) definitions and 4) a conclusion, I am letting them have more freedom. After all, the whole reason why I wanted to teach informative writing is because I know that these kids are experts on things. Some of them are more knowledgable about things than most adults I know. The point of me teaching them is for them to feel like strong, powerful writers- not someone who can fit the mold. They are still writing informatively: their books are on one subject, contain real information, and teach someone something. The beautiful part is that they get to do it on their own terms. :) More on this later, but I'm feeling good!
I'm spending the evening at my brother's house. It's been awesome to chat with them and play with their kids! They are a blessing in my life.
So much love today,
Ms. T
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