What Makes Great Teaching?

     All in all, what makes great teaching is being able to make at least a small change in a student's life. To be able to offer a safe space where they feel welcomed and not judged for who they are, where they come from, their financial status, or anything of those sorts. Being able to teach students a variety of different subjects and not exclude any curriculum. To help your students understand, one could use these five strategies. I also included what they are and how they personally helped me!

1. Blogging with other educators

-This consists of posting your perspective on a site called Blogger and commenting on other educators’ posts to communicate.

-This strategy really helped me because I got to learn new strategies, lessons, and ways of thinking from different sets of minds.

2. Selecting Golden Lines

-Selecting golden lines is reading the text and choosing which statements really stood out to you.

-I enjoyed this strategy because it got a bit personal, and it reminded me of what is important to me.

3. 3-2-1 Research Reports

-3-2-1 reports are three things you found out, two things you’ve learned and one question you still have from the lesson or reading.

-This strategy is good to help students set in their mind what they picked up from the lesson, what stood out to them, and questions they may still have.

4. DO’s and DON’Ts

-DO’s and DON’Ts are lists of what to do and what not to do in certain situations.

-It helped me visually sort out the acceptable things to say/do and the ones that weren’t. Writing them down helped my mind remember them for the future.

5. Black-Out Poem

-A black-out poem is when you write down the words that stood out to you in a reading and input how many times that word was said. The more the word is used, the bigger it is. This could also be for important words that stood out to you.

-This strategy is by far my favorite because the poem doesn’t actually need to flow. It just needs to be words that stood out to you and correlated with the lesson. It helped me memorize and understand the subject more.

What Is Worth Learning?

 Black Out Poem:

Racial Trauma

Reflected

Curriculum Violence 

Emotional Destruction

Harm

Educate 

    Although this poem does not flow properly, these words stood out to me the most. Most importantly, the emotional destruction and harm that curriculum violence has on these students. It is so wrong for teachers to avoid teaching Black, or any other history that highlights the minorities, for fear of perpetuating curriculum violence. Remaining silent or choosing to omit certain elements of history has the same impact. As future teachers, we need to educate the future generation so they do not make these mistakes. We cannot keep letting this history of curriculum violence continue and the racial trauma that is instilled in these children. 

What Does Money Really Have To Do It With?

     Students that come from an underfunded school or a community with high levels of poverty have always been misunderstood. There are so many stereotypes that stem from this environment that tie their financial status to their personality. Even worse, they compare how "smart" students from well funded schools are versus students who are not so lucky to have that type of funding. Paul Gorski stated, "Believing that poor people are different from those with higher incomes is dangerous and wrong." To believe that someone who's school is not funded enough money to be different is unacceptable. Though they may not get the same opportunities, supplies, or materials as others, it does not put them on a lower pedestal. 

There are plenty of myths of the culture of poverty. It is assumed that poor people are lazy and have no work ethic. Parents of these poor children are uninvolved in their education. Lastly, they tend to abuse alcohol and drugs. Addressing these myths in order, people of low poverty are not lazy or lack work ethic. Eighty-three percent of children from low-income families have at least one employed parent; close to sixty percent have at least one parent who works full-time and year-round. Low-income parents are less likely to attend school functions or volunteer in their children's classrooms, not because they care less about education, but because they have less access to school involvement than their wealthier peers. They are more likely to work multiple jobs, to work evenings, to have jobs without paid leave, and to be unable to afford child care and public transportation. Finally, research has shown that someone from the upper class is more likely to abuse alcohol or drugs. 

It is unfair that money defines who you are, what you "look" like, or your intelligence. Not everyone is given the same opportunities but that doesn't mean they don't have the same capacities as others.

https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-myth-of-the-culture-of-poverty

How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

     This profession does not have to be closely observed to see that most educators are females. Rarely, there is an older white male who is a coach that teaches a certain class. If there is a male teacher, they're located in the secondary level of education. Most female educators are seen in elementary schools. In my opinion, I feel as though others see female elementary teachers as mothers. That is why people expect them to always clean the classroom, pick up after children, and go as far as babying the students. Since this is "expected", this does not affect a woman's pay. I strongly agreed with a quote from Weiner and the4 explanation given after in this module. '“We've had a highly feminized profession, but feminized means both that women do the work, but also that it's devalued because it is women's work,” Weiner says, pointing to many issues that exist in education, such as underpaid teachers, buildings in disrepair, and even an “inverted” pyramid where men hold far more leadership positions than women.'

    The gender wage gap has been present as far back as the 1860s. It has been more than one hundred and fifty years since then, and there is still a gap in the wage between genders in mostly all professions. How much more can a man really do than a woman? How are women not being presented the same opportunities or rules as men are if we are all equals? Women have so many strict guidelines they need to follow, especially in the school environment. I have experienced this throughout my whole education. Specifically, a dress code that is placed. Girls are told, "Do not show your shoulders, no holes in your jeans, no piercings anywhere other than your earlobes, nothing too tight, cover up, don't be a distraction!" Meanwhile boys only had to worry about picking up their pants if they were falling. This has been carried out to the profession itself and female teachers are expected not to wear heals that are too high, skirts that are way past the knees, loose pants, etc. There always has been a difference in genders when it comes to a profession, and I just hope as a society we can change that perspective instead of just mentioning it or ignoring the problem.