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The Journey to Whole Child Valuing

10/24/2019

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On Monday Nakia Hood from ex Fabula returned to our classroom for another storytelling workshop.
I loved watching the students relax and open up when they talk to Nakia. His stories are a great illustration of the ex Fabula mission to build community through storytelling. On their website Rae Johnson says, "Ex Fabula facilitates brave spaces to be heard and seen. Their work is liberating for the larger Milwaukee community so that we all may show up as whole humans with dignity and value.”

I know the students will learn more about the craft of telling a great story and hopefully will be inspired to tell their own story, but one of our biggest objectives in my classroom is to grow empathetic students. Storytelling has an amazing ability to create connection. People relate to personal stories.

Welcoming Nakia to my classroom has opened my eyes to other ways to build empathy for my students - exposing them to talented community members who can be role models. Wisconsin has a diversity problem in its teacher population. According to a Spring 2018 report, "Same-Race Teachers and Students in Wisconsin: Exploring Academic Achievement and Disciplinary Outcomes" by Carl Frederick, students achieve greater success when they have people of color as their teachers but this does not happen often enough in Wisconsin.
I'm looking into other ways to develop community partnerships to ensure that students see themselves represented and reflected in the role models and educators they interact with at school.

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Brave spaces start with being vulnerable

10/12/2019

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I'm beyond excited that ex Fabula, Milwaukee's non profit storytelling organization, will begin workshops with my students on Monday.
Our goal is to help my 8th graders find their voices. Step one is to create a brave space together.

On Friday I decided to take a risk. It only makes sense to me that I should be brave if I'm asking my students to be brave. I shared the essay I wrote to serve as my platform as teacher of the year. In many ways this move seemed an obvious one. Every Friday we do some reflection and on this Friday I wanted students to know that I see them as more than a grade and more than their reading level. My students were preparing to evaluate their cometency as communicators, collaborators, readers, writers, thinkers and makers. To lay the foundation for their work, they might as well know what my philosophy of education is.
I asked each student to follow along as I read the essay. They were to annotate or make edits, ask questions or clarify. I asked them for feedback. I was brave. They were generous and thoughtful.
Only one student told me it was "cheesy," so that's a win!

Is it really brave to tell students that you want to see them a whole person and you are trying to push against a system that wants to quantify them as data? If you don't follow through on your words and they think you are not true to your word then it isn't brave at all. The brave comes after. The brave is now.

Yesterday was Eleanor Roosevelt's birthday and if I could tea with anyone in history it would be Eleanor. Her bravery inspires me. Her dedication to human rights inspires me. Her willingness to carry on and get things done while also pursuing her happiness inspires me as well.

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Global citizenship starts with curiosity about the world

10/8/2019

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My students come from around the world. In our 21st century global economy the diversity of my classroom is a major asset to everyone in that classroom.

Currently we are studying geography. As a student teacher the world of designing learning around a big question first came alive for me when Colleen Perry shared her big geography question with me, "How does where you live affect who you are?"

Today we used tourism videos from many of the countries my students feel a connection to as a tool to help us understand the 5 themes of geography. It was so much fun finding these videos and sharing them.

Be a wonderer. Be a wanderer.

Check them out. (But also be a critical thinker because a 3 minute video about a country is NOT the whole story. Of course.)

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My classroom has flags from around the world hanging in the windows. They bring color and life and joy to my room. (I originally got them to filter light through the windows so I could keep the blinds open and let more natural light in.) This year I decided to let students vote to determine which 2 flags I should add.

I, of course, learned a lot from this exercise.
My focus this year is listening to my students more. So when they suggested we needed a Pride flag I thought, "Of course we do. No vote needed." When students who were born in Serbia, Peru or Iraq saw their flags defeated in our Flag Faceoff votes, I knew that the $15 I would spend on ensuring each of their flags also had a space in my classroom was absolutely worth it.

My Iraqi student audibly gasped when I showed her that the Iraq flag had arrived and would hang in our classroom.

Our Pride flag is up and the joyfulness of the rainbow lifts my spirit. "Just one supportive adult cuts the chance an LGBTQ youth will attempt suicide by 40%0ver 1.8 million young LGBTQ people considered suicide each year. Any supportive adult can make a difference - not just a parent." This headline from lgbtqnation.com ensures me that this flag was long overdue.

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Collector of Untold Stories

The Journey to Whole Child Valuing

Storytelling Breaks Barriers

Brave spaces start with being vulnerable

Global citizenship starts with curiosity about the world

Representation Matters

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