I’ve taught the Korean Fulbright teachers three times now (two separate groups). I am impressed at their self-discipline and curiosity. Despite jetlag and overall fatigue from the rigors of the program, they are in class, on-time, every day. I find myself enjoying the teaching (and the professionalism and insights of the other staff at the institute) a lot.
But I struggle with the classic question–what do I teach them? Before their arrival, I wrote a set of US student identities (including immigrant students as well as black, white, Latino, and Asian students from varying social classes). Each teacher receives an identity, and each class the teacher learns a bit more about that person’s identity. This was to solve the question of how to help the teachers understand the diversity of students in US public education as well as the challenges we face in attempting (not so well, oftentimes) to educate all students. So far the feedback from the teachers is that they like learning these identities; as one put it, “I feel like I’m getting to meet many Americans this way.” I hope I have not essentialized identities based on race and class, but I have tried to create these personalities based on demographic trends I know in the US.
Yesterday we did the classic K-W-L activity (what do you “K”now about US public education, what do you “W”ant to know, and what have you “L”earned?”). I wrote down their questions to help me guide the course–including: What is the role of unions? How is curriculum established? What and how are teachers paid, and what is their status in the US? What is homeschooling?
Nonetheless, I still wonder what kind of picture is forming in the minds’ eyes of these teachers of US Public Education. I’ve had a lot of guidance from a former (and current) teacher of the course, but I can’t help but wonder.
Today, Saturday, I will attend a University of Texas men’s basketball game. It’s not school pride; it’s an outing with the Korean teachers. My husband will come along, as will a couple other staff members. Hook ‘em Horns!
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I spent most of yesterday morning at the middle school. I met with those famed counselors I have previously mentioned who do such good work with kids that is empowering and relevant. We talked about how we could use advisory around several upcoming issues–the Presidential Inauguration and President-Elect Obama’s call for community service, considering love and how we express it as Valentine’s Day approaches as well as thinking about respect (including self-respect) as state standardized tests approach, too. Meeting with those counselors is always a sort of blessing–they bring such good energy and ideas, and they are so good at caring.
One very cool moment during that discussion was a graduate school to middle school connection I made. One of those counselors is developing a unit in working after school with kids in community service about violence and the outcomes of violence. Part of that project includes having her students discuss films about genocide, including the World War II Holocaust, as well as reading a Guatemalan Civil War testimonio, the famed, “I, Rigoberta,” by Rigoberta Menchu. Several of the students will go to Houston in March to hear this Nobel Prize winner speak. We plan to have these kids produce some educational materials they can share during advisory. But the graduate school connection was related to discussions I had last semester in my Narrative and Oral Traditions class where we talked about Menchu’s work several times and reflected on individual and collective memory. I shared a bit about that discussion in light of the criticisms Menchu’s work has received.
I’m a little worried that one of next week’s advisory activities won’t go over very well. Each advisory is to write a collective poem, one line from each student, based on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I’ll update later.
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