mathmcmatherson.wordpress.com interesting math teaching strategies and
reflections
mathequality.wordpress.com
interesting first year teaching reflections
mathteachermambo.blogspot.com good experienced teacher information
In the Perkins Gomez article we
read about a teacher who was reflecting on her interactions with two African American
students. With the first student the
teacher addressed his difference in skin color by parading him in front of the
class and interrogating him about his life as an African American. The teacher then over compensated by making
the next student stand out by doing a class project on African Americans. This teacher did not seem to have any
perspective on how to not make a student stand out. As our group discussed this portion of the article
I was reminded of an incident in my daughter’s class. She had a new classmate who joined her class
a month ago. This child is originally
from Haiti and on his first day the teacher asked him if he was there when the
earthquake happened. She thought it
would be interesting for the other kids in the class to learn about this but
she did not stop to think how he would feel to discuss what surely was the most
traumatic event in his life. The teacher
should have put aside her curiosities and thought of how this student would
feel, if she had done that she would hopefully not asked him anything related
to the earthquake.
This same student has had his
parent request that the teacher not expose him to anything cultural including
birthdays or holidays. The mom did not
say why this was but as our group discussed this we agreed that it was
important to respect this family’s request.
What we could not come up with was a way to do this without excluding
the child. This particular teacher has
her whole classroom built around cultural exposure with the kids with the kids
learning to count in Japanese, German and sign language. If the teacher accommodated this child then
the kids would have to stop counting in these other languages. So it seems that it would not be fair to the
other kids to cease this activity.
However if they just asked him not to he would be visibly excluded. So should he be given other activities when
they do valentines activities or do they cancel those activities for the rest
of the class. I hope some of you have
some other ideas because I think we would all benefit from figuring this out.
I love that you love math so much. I am the worst at math and it is the subject that I am looking least forwrd to teaching my students. When reading about that teacher's problem I can see how including this child would be tricky. My favorite part of school was having birthday and holiday parties. It gave you a break from actually learning and gave you a chance to socialize with your peers. If this child is not allowed to participate then the blame is on the parents for not wanting to expose their child to other cultures. If it comes to it I would send that child to another class or somewhere that they can work on something else but I would not punish the whole class for one child's parents decision.
ReplyDeleteI find it odd that this student’s parents would impose so much constraint in what their child is exposed to. I’ve always understood how religious activities may not always fit in the classroom but expanding that same view to limit cultural experience will only limit the child in the end. However, the wishes of the parents need to be respected and, although problematic for the teacher, the teacher needs to become more flexible and able to adapt. This would have to be done in a way that doesn’t exclude this child or limit the class. The best way to mend a situation like this would to discuss the teacher’s curriculum and activities with the parents and principal to understand reasoning and potential options for those involved. By the way I found some useful strategies in the math blogs you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how some things get over looked. The things I am talking about is how the teacher did not take into account the student's feelings when she asked him if he was present when the earthquake had hit Haiti. It seemed as if she was looking at the bigger picture and that was the students in her classroom hearing first hand about the earthquake rather then from a text book. Before he made too many friends in her classroom I would see about getting him transfered to another class since it seems that her classroom was built around cultural traditions.
ReplyDeleteWow. Great blogs. By the way, I also think math is awesome (I'm not patronizing you I really do love math!!). Anyway, I will definitely be using those. Fantastic resources. As far as the other part of your post goes...yikes. That's a tough one. I agree with Alejandro. The teacher does have a responsibility to adjust (within the bounds of reason) to the requests of the parents. I just don't know that eliminating birthday/holiday celebrations altogether is the right answer, although neither is removing the student from the class. I think that this is such a unique situation that it should be addressed individually with the parents (and principal, if necessary, as Alejandro said) in order to work together towards a solution that is acceptable to both parties. But still, tough. I hope you will bring this up in class tomorrow so we can get Jesse's opinion. Thanks!
ReplyDelete