Maria A. Raspallo

Teach Out

FNED 502: Social Issues in Education

Dr. Lesley Bogad

July 17th, 2018

When I began to think about the topic that I wanted to further explore for this project, I know immediately that I wanted to address the topic of racism and how it has personally touched my life.

I am a certified early childhood/ELL  educator, teaching kindergarten in an urban district in Rhode Island. The majority of the population I work with are families of color, many are newcomers/immigrants, and most live at or below the poverty line.  I would like to first share with you an experience that has affected me in ways that are still revealing themselves to me.

One afternoon last year, close to dismissal time, we had a fire drill.  What made this drill different from other drills, is that it was not planned.  As kindergarten teachers, the practice was that we would get some prior indication that a drill would be happening.  For this drill, we were instructed that this ‘was not a drill’. As I ushered my students out of the building, we encountered many parents waiting to pick up their children.  Remember, this ‘drill’ occurred just prior to dismissal. One particular parent was trying desperately to enter the building. As protocol dictated, we were trained to not let anyone in the building during any type of evacuation.  This mother was insistent that she was going to enter the building. I was just as insistent that she was not. At this point, I should note that this mother was Black; I am Caucasian. While I understood her frustration and her fear, for at this point she did not know where her child was and I, nor anyone, could tell her with any certainty why we were evacuating.  This mother charged at me, calling me racist and that if she were white and her child was white, I would have no problem letting her in the building to find her son. I was stunned; then sad; then I became angry. At the time, I really did not see her color as a reason to not let her in the building. I was lost in trying to make sense of being accused of being a racist.  

And, I remained dumbfounded, angry, hurt, and quite offended. HOW DARE SHE CALL ME A RACIST…..

Then, I took this class.  In this class, I learned about the word privilege and how it is defined as,”There are some things I will never have to think about or worry about because of who I am”,(from the video: 5 Tips for Being a Good Ally).  Privilege is the fact that I have rights that others do not because they are identified as being a member of a marginalized group.  I am a straight, white, middle-class, well-educated woman who identifies as she; I am married, live in my own home, and professionally employed.  My sons will never be pulled over in a traffic stop and risk being killed because of the color of their skin. I have never felt judged by the color of my skin walking into a store or high end restaurant; I have never had incidents of micro-aggression due to my appearance, my spoken language, or how I am dressed.  

In the article, ‘ “Ever Been Told to Check Your Privilege?” Here’s What It Really Means’ by Sam Dylan Finch, (July 27th, 2015), Finch admits he was offended, angry, and defensive when he was asked to check his privilege.  Sound familiar….just like I was when I was called a racist. This resonated with me on such a personal level. I was angry and offended as well. I had no real understanding how my privilege affected my life since I defined privilege in a completely incorrect way.  

Yes, I do have privilege.  As Finch goes on to write, “..we may, unknowingly have certain advantages over others”.  This is what Allan G. Johnson wrote about in his book, Privilege, Power, and Difference, (2001).  Johnson brought the words racism, sexism, and homophobia to the table.  He states that ‘people can’t help fearing the unfamiliar..”

To the mother that called me a racist, she fears for her child’s life everyday because she lives a reality that I can never know.  My professor, Dr. Lesley Bogad of Rhode Island College made a statement that I will carry with me for the duration of my teaching career.  When I was called a racist, my knee jerk reaction was to be defensive. What I could have said, was, “I hear you. I do not think I am racist, let’s talk about it.  I hear you. I see you. I believe you. I am sorry”. To have that hard conversation, to say the words racist, to acknowledge that I will never know what her reality is, would have gone a long way to understanding, from her seeing me and me seeing her.

In Lisa Delpit’s Other People’s Children: The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children (Culture and Conflict in the Classroom) (1995/2006), she discussed the concept called the Culture of Power.  She listed the following five aspects of the culture of power as it pertains to the classroom.  They are as follows and taken directly from her book.

-Issues of power are enacted in  the classroom.

-There are codes of rules for participating in power; that is there is a culture of power.

-The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power.

-If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of power, makes acquiring power easier.

-Those with power are frequently least aware-or at least willing to acknowledge-its existence.  Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.

For my TEACH OUT Project, I had originally set out to interview a colleague on the subject of racism and privilege in the classroom as well as taking a look at this from the perspective of two children; one Black and one Caucasian.  Due to time constraints, I needed to make adjustments as to how I was going to gather information. Due to scheduling issues with the two children I had planned to interview, I was unable to secure those interviews. My goal with interviewing a colleague was to bring to the table for discussion, how we, as white teachers, may not be fully addressing the issue of racism within our classes.  As I have discovered in this class as well as in Digital Media/550, we are surrounded by images, books, digital media, movies, and curriculum that promote racial stereotypes and prejudices. As members of society that are not marginalized, I wanted to learn more about how my colleague viewed the subject of racism in her classroom. Since, this topic enters every aspect of the classrooms we teach in, from the curriculum, to the assessment tools for data collection, to classroom libraries, to interpersonal relationship and classroom dynamics, I need to narrow down my objective.  The area that I narrowed my research on became what my colleague’s classroom library looked like. My colleague works in the same school, teaching kindergarten. Her classroom is made up of 22 students; nine girls, four of whom are children of color. Of the female children of color, all were born in the United States. There were 13 boys. Of the the thirteen male children, ten were children of color. Of the ten male children, all but two were not born in the United States. For the purpose of this project, I concentrated solely on the races of her students. However, there is more to them than race: many are from families who are living at or below the poverty line.  There are children in this class who are from non-traditional family structures. There are three children who are homeless. Looking at the concept of intersectionality where there are many facets that make up the children, race is just one of those factors.

As we looked at the books in her library, my colleague became physically uncomfortable.  It was noted that there was not ONE book that showcased a family or child of color as the main character(s). Nor did she have any books that showcased other nationalities or ethnicities.  However, it should be noted that she did have books in her library that showed differently-abled people, children and adults. My colleague also had books that told stories about kindness, addressed bullying, manners, inclusion, as well as various picture books, story books, and simple readers.  

Since I was upfront about the nature of this project and how children of color are included in the culture of the room, I asked her why it was that there were no books depicting children/families of color or any other race other than Caucasian.  At first she became defensive, explaining that the books she has are the one that came with the room; and that she did not have the money to buy books out her own pocket. When I suggested getting books from the school library or the public library, she said she didn’t have the time.  It was becoming obvious that my colleague simply did not grasp the importance of addressing this issue head on.

So, I put the spotlight on me.  She was not aware of the incident that had occurred last year during the drill at out school.  I shared with her the story and how it had affected me. I further talked about how a shift in my perspective, looking through a different lens if you will, guided me to  better understanding of the power I held simply because of the color of my skin. I then asked her about privilege..and sure enough, she had the same reaction as I did, as Finch did: she became defensive and QUITE offended. Then I showed her the video, 5 Tips to Being A Good Ally.  What she took from this video is what I had hoped she would: a better understanding of the word privilege.  After seeing the video, we further discussed our privilege and how it affects the way we teach, the way we interact, and the way we discipline our students; do we interact differently based on the skin color of our students; do we hold all our students to the same standards of what is or is not acceptable?

The discussion that came about was eye-opening for the both of us.  For positive changes to take place, we must recognize we have privilege.  Once we do that through meaningful, honest, and humbling reflection, then we can take the steps needed in our classrooms that will insure not only equal but equitable experiences and education for all our students.

Follow-Up to this project:  I will be working with my colleague to build a library that showcases various races, ethnicities, and family dynamics to address the many facets that make up each of our students.  

Intersectionality

Teaching at the Intersection: Honor and Teach About Your Students Multiple Identities by Monita K. Bell (2016)

Intersectionality refers to the 'social, economic, and political ways in which identity-based systems of oppression and privilege connect, over-lap and influence one another'.

As I read this definition, I immediately thought about not falling prey to the single story of any one of my students.   Christina Torres goes on to state, " Everything in classroom is dictated by me. Everyday, kids enter our class, there is an opportunity for them to be empowered or oppressed".  As a kindergarten teacher, I truly have the power to squash the natural enthusiasm that children bring to the classroom.  Working in an urban district, with a diverse population, in which many families are at or below the poverty line, I must make a conscious effort to get to know my students beyond first impressions.  Many of my students from last year had the only two meals they would have each day at school.  If a child came to school late, there was a better than 90% chance that he or she would not have had breakfast.  Being hungry is a great detraction from being able to focus on the academics of learning.  

Torres goes on to state, "When I don't consider intersectionality and what they might need, I run the risk of oppressing my kids".  If I fall prey to the single story of any one of my students, I personally run the risk of not seeing why  a student is struggling.  When I was a child, I was fortunate enough to come from a home where my brothers and I had food on the table for breakfast. We never needed to worry about where or when our next meal was going to be.  I could focus on school and not worry about the clothes on my back or if my parents were going to take care of me.  Many of the children in my district not only live in poverty, many are newcomers; the majority are children of color. 

Finally, Torres goes on to say, "When we stop seeing our kids as whole people-as whole, nuanced people with context to gender and race and class-we stop seeing them as real people". WOW! What an eye-opening statement! Our students come with stories, with real life circumstances that children who are privileged seemingly never have to worry about!  The child of color and the white child, everything being equal except the race of the child, the child of color is already oppressed, simply because of the color of his/her skin.  If, as an educator, I fail to recognize this and not do everything I can to be an ally, then I am fully complicit in allowing racism to be a part of my classroom. 

The word ally is defined as, "to fight for the rights of a marginalized group that you are not a part of".  This is from the video, 5 Tips for Being a Good Ally.
The five tips as discussed in the video are: 
-Know your privilige
-Speak up, not over
-Apologize when you make a mistake
-Do your homework
-Ally is a verb; do the work

As an early childhood educator, I feel that not only is it my job to teach academics, it is more important to model and teach compassion, understanding, tolerance, and kindness.  It is not okay in my classroom to ridicule a child who makes mistakes in work and it is not okay to engage in racial, religious, or homophobic slurs.  By acknowledging that there are many overlapping layers to my students, I am able to recognize that academic ability and behavior are influenced by factors that include race, gender, and class.  How race, gender, and class affect each of my students, is the first step in seeing each as whole, real people...even at five years old!
https://www.care2.com/causes/what-is-intersectionality-and-why-is-it-important.html 

Safe Spaces

Safe Spaces: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGTB Youth
by Annmarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megan S. Kennedy

Talking Point #1:

Fifteen year old Justin Aaberg died by suicide after being bullied because of his sexual orientation.  His mother, Tammy, pinpointed the problem, stating,"Most of the teachers and principals...mean well-they want to intervene.  But the teachers still do know what they can and can't do".  The text goes on to read that "LGTB students need advocacy and protection, not neutrality".  (pg. 84)

Talking Point #2:

Integration and interpretation are strategies of LGBT experiences and contributions, that if used used across all disciplines in education, can transform our classrooms into safe places.  The text goes on to acknowledge that as teachers, we have no control over what curriculum we are required to teach. However, we can integrate and recognize 'teachable moments' where we can interpret the LBGT community for our students. (pg. 90)

Talking Point #3:

"Language is a tool...speech is performative-it does things". The authors of Safe Spaces go on to write that, "Words invite or exclude, recognize or erase, empower or intimidate, examine or assume".  Powerful in and of themselves.  Now, apply this to the student in your classroom who is the child of a gay or lesbian couple; or a student who is gay or lesbian.  Words from peers can be damning or bullying.  Justin Aaberg is just one example of what word can do: cause a young person  to die by suicide.  Imagine if the language had been changed, if teachers and administrators were empowered to do than just stand by?  Imagine a classroom, school, community where tolerance and acceptance was the norm?  (Those are my thoughts). (pg. 95)

The authors, Vaccaro, August, and Kennedy, argue that more work needs to be done to insure that our LGTB youth are represented in curriculum.  

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/17/08/confronting-racism-early-age

Confronting Racism at an Early Age by Jill Anderson

Article was published on August 28th, 2017

“Kids get it, even as little as the first grade. They are more likely to understand than most adults, especially white adults, where the socialization has been that if you mention race, it might get you in trouble.” 

As a (white) early childhood educator working, in an urban district with many children from many different cultures and races other than white, this topic has become quite important to me.  Early on in this class, having read Lisa Delpit's article, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children", and learning about the five tenets of the culture of power, opened up a discussion on power.  I am part of the group, in this society, that has power.  I am an educated, white woman teaching in a classroom where the majority of my students and families are People of Color and not native born.  

In this article, Jill Anderson offers five suggestions to those who want to bring a curriculum about racism to their school.  Below comes directly from the article and credit goes to Jill Anderson.

• Begin with your staff and yourself. Before bringing lessons about race to the classroom, Anton and her staff focused on creating a more diverse staff and understanding different cultures. “You don’t want groups of people who haven’t examined their own bias to go off and do this work without being able to think about their own power in the situation,” she says. Educate yourself and the staff on the cultural groups within your school. Understand how culture shapes learning, and how discourse can shape or shut down lessons in school.
• Assess. Assess. Assess. Conduct an assessment to discover what you and your staff already know about race and culture. Notice staff’s response — what's the energy like, who is reluctant, and who is ready for the work. Consider consulting an organization like RIDES, which offers tools of assessment to determine where your school may be in this work.
• Identify the materials that you’ll use. Determine whether your school will use a curriculum that already exists or craft one around your specific needs.
• Consider the terms and definitions you’ll use. A big decision for elementary-aged children is around language and word choice. The Bowman School decided to use real vocabulary terms, since staff concluded that if students can learn complicated concepts like "metamorphosis," they can also learn "race," "power," and "oppression." Still, she advises figuring out a kid-friendly approach.
• Designate support staff. Remember that not every teacher will be comfortable implementing such a curriculum or determining the right words to say to students. Support staff within the school can be called upon to help when needed.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ787759.pdf

Confronting Prejudice in the Early Childhood Classroom

by Luisa Araujo and Janis Strasser

Article published 2003

"When teachers confront prejudice actively in early childhood settings, the classroom can be a place where children celebrate diversity".

How do we address prejudice in an early childhood classroom?  As we talk about tolerance, understanding, and address stereotypical comments, it is imperative to first acknowledge that young children can make damning comments.

Where do children pick up on such racist  comments like, "Black people are bad".

As educators we need to recognize racist comments when we hear them and then learn how to to address them in a meaningful way.  It is not enough to say that is 'not a nice thing to say'.  As educators we have a great responsibility to show children why that statement is wrong.  We also have a responsibility to help children understand what they are saying and show them a different way.  

For my TEACH OUT Project, I would like to explore this topic of racism in the early childhood classroom.  In the early stages of planning out this project, I am considering interviewing an educator in an urban district as well as a a student from an urban district as well as a student who is in a class that is not culture or race diverse.

It will be interesting to see the varying perspectives of those I interview regarding the issue of prejudice in the classroom and how it is addressed. Once those interviews are conducted, I would like to discuss with our class the findings and possible course of action moving forward.  

As I have mentioned, I teach kindergarten in an urban district.  My school, my class, and the district as a whole, serve a diverse population.  Most of my colleagues are white.  I am very interested to see if the person I interview recognizes the culture of power and her place in it.  

As for the children I will be interviewing, I am eager to learn of their impressions of racism and prejudices in the classroom, both from classmates and from the teacher.  

Rodriguez, Collier; Videos Bi/Multi-Lingual

Aria by Richard Rodriguez, 2004

" It would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered a room. I would have felt much less afraid...I would have trusted them". 

As a young child, Rodriguez 'wrongly imagined that English was an intrinsically public language and Spanish was an intrinsically private language'. He went on to recall how he noted the difference between classroom language and the language at home. 

Rodriguez recalls a home visit from his teachers in which the teachers suggested to his parents that it would be better to  have the children practice English at home.  As Rodriguez and his siblings spoke more English at home among themselves and with his parents, he began to notice that there was less communication and conversation between the children and parents.  

Once Rodriguez "confidently spoke in English at school, the calming assurance that I belonged in public had taken root".  As he gained the feelings of being an American citizen, it cam at a cost.  That cost was the closeness of home.  He noted that as the children learned more English, the private, the conversations of home, became less. 

He concludes the article with this: "...while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into a public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality". 

This article tugged at my heart.  In an effort that Rodriguez succeed, his teachers impressed on his parents that he should practice/speak English at home. In suggesting this to the parents, they gave the parents that the L1 should not have been valued in the pursuit of their child(ren) succeeding in school.  That their private (home) language should be spoken less in order that English could be mastered.   

Teaching Multilingual Children by Virginia Collier, 2004 

"The key is the true appreciation of the different linguistic and cultural values that students bring to my classroom".   There are seven guidelines put forth by Collier to teaching English to L2 learners.                                                                                      

Of the seven, I would like to focus on the third guideline that she puts forth.          Collier states, "Don't teach a second language in a way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the L1".  The most important goal is to help students master the                 language used in formal schooling, academic language proficiency, and to give   

students the language tools to use in all contexts in the outside world".   This is where Rodriguez's teachers did a huge disservice to him and his family.   

In a bilingual classroom, bilingual pedagogy research indicates that teachers should ' clearly separate the two languages of instruction'.   In a bilingual classroom, code-switching should not be forbidden.  In addition, when children are learning an L2, translanguaging should be recognized as a tool students are using to make sense of the L2.  In a bi-lingual classroom, it is imperative to make the 'teaching of an L2 as well as the learning as culturally relevant as possible for students'. 

The above example is what should not be hanging in a bilingual, multi-lingual, or ELL classroom!

Videos:

Number 1:
Teaching Bilingual Even If You Are Not One
Students should not be punished for using words in their L1 while learning an L2. 
Translanguaging is critical and intentional when learning an L2.  It also shows the ability to attach meaning in one language to meaning in another language. 

Number 2:
Knowing your students:
Empathy: even if you can not speak the language of your students, you must still build a relationship with the. By observing body language, facial expressions, and modifying work.  In addition, create scaffolds using cues that go beyond language.

Number 3:
Advocate for bilingual students
Learn about the languages of your students
Find resources that celebrate bilingualism
As the teacher, allow yourself to become a co-learner.  In this, your students can teach you some words or phrases in their L1 as they are learning an L2 from you.  
The culture of inclusion is a long term goal of the emergent bilingual.

Going back to the article, Aria by Richard Rodriguez, he felt that his L1, was a language to be spoken in private; in public, to be accepted, he had the sense he had to master the language that was public, English.  In mastering academic and conversational English, while he gained a public identity, he lost his private closeness within his family relationships, especially with his L1 speaking parents. 

I wonder how different his relationships would have been within his family had Rodriguez's teachers encouraged the use of both languages in the home? I wonder, if when he used the tools of code-switching and translanguaging, if his private, home conversations would have been enhanced rather than become less frequent?

https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137385758        

Hi Everyone, 

This is my second attempt at this post.  I tried to delete an image from my original post and somehow deleted the entire post.  After spending an hour or so trying to recover the original post, I gave up and created a new one.  I hope it makes sense and I apologize for it being late to post.

I will revisit this post tomorrow.  I hope it makes sense!

See you Wednesday!

Maria

                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                               

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/17/08/confronting-racism-early-age

Confronting Racism at an Early Age by Jill Anderson

Article was published on August 28th, 2017

“Kids get it, even as little as the first grade. They are more likely to understand than most adults, especially white adults, where the socialization has been that if you mention race, it might get you in trouble.” 

As a (white) early childhood educator working, in an urban district with many children from many different cultures and races other than white, this topic has become quite important to me.  Early on in this class, having read Lisa Delpit's article, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children", and learning about the five tenets of the culture of power, opened up a discussion on power.  I am part of the group, in this society, that has power.  I am an educated, white woman teaching in a classroom where the majority of my students and families are People of Color and not native born.  

In this article, Jill Anderson offers five suggestions to those who want to bring a curriculum about racism to their school.  Below comes directly from the article and credit goes to Jill Anderson.

• Begin with your staff and yourself. Before bringing lessons about race to the classroom, Anton and her staff focused on creating a more diverse staff and understanding different cultures. “You don’t want groups of people who haven’t examined their own bias to go off and do this work without being able to think about their own power in the situation,” she says. Educate yourself and the staff on the cultural groups within your school. Understand how culture shapes learning, and how discourse can shape or shut down lessons in school.
• Assess. Assess. Assess. Conduct an assessment to discover what you and your staff already know about race and culture. Notice staff’s response — what's the energy like, who is reluctant, and who is ready for the work. Consider consulting an organization like RIDES, which offers tools of assessment to determine where your school may be in this work.
• Identify the materials that you’ll use. Determine whether your school will use a curriculum that already exists or craft one around your specific needs.
• Consider the terms and definitions you’ll use. A big decision for elementary-aged children is around language and word choice. The Bowman School decided to use real vocabulary terms, since staff concluded that if students can learn complicated concepts like "metamorphosis," they can also learn "race," "power," and "oppression." Still, she advises figuring out a kid-friendly approach.
• Designate support staff. Remember that not every teacher will be comfortable implementing such a curriculum or determining the right words to say to students. Support staff within the school can be called upon to help when needed.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ787759.pdf

Confronting Prejudice in the Early Childhood Classroom

by Luisa Araujo and Janis Strasser

Article published 2003

"When teachers confront prejudice actively in early childhood settings, the classroom can be a place where children celebrate diversity".

How do we address prejudice in an early childhood classroom?  As we talk about tolerance, understanding, and address stereotypical comments, it is imperative to first acknowledge that young children can make damning comments.

Where do children pick up on such racist  comments like, "Black people are bad".

As educators we need to recognize racist comments when we hear them and then learn how to to address them in a meaningful way.  It is not enough to say that is 'not a nice thing to say'.  As educators we have a great responsibility to show children why that statement is wrong.  We also have a responsibility to help children understand what they are saying and show them a different way.  

For my TEACH OUT Project, I would like to explore this topic of racism in the early childhood classroom.  In the early stages of planning out this project, I am considering interviewing an educator in an urban district as well as a a student from an urban district as well as a student who is in a class that is not culture or race diverse.

It will be interesting to see the varying perspectives of those I interview regarding the issue of prejudice in the classroom and how it is addressed. Once those interviews are conducted, I would like to discuss with our class the findings and possible course of action moving forward.  

As I have mentioned, I teach kindergarten in an urban district.  My school, my class, and the district as a whole, serve a diverse population.  Most of my colleagues are white.  I am very interested to see if the person I interview recognizes the culture of power and her place in it.  

As for the children I will be interviewing, I am eager to learn of their impressions of racism and prejudices in the classroom, both from classmates and from the teacher.  

I believe:

...that students are more than their written history, more than a learning disability, more than a behavior.  Last semester, I learned about falling prey to the 'single story'.  With this knowledge, I vowed get to know the families more in depth of two particularly demanding students.  While I had read the family, school, and social histories of all of my then incoming students, I wanted to take the time to get to know more about two children whose family dynamics were truly heartbreaking.  Due to confidentiality concerns, I will not go into some of the horrific details.  However, in taking the time to get to know the parents and what their lives were like, I developed an understanding and deeper compassion for the children.  We are more than our past, we are all more than just the mistakes we make; we are a combination of life's joys and sorrows; mistakes and right choices; failures and triumphs.  It is so easy to judge a student by the comments of the child's previous teacher; it is so easy to judge the parent who sends a child to school wearing the same clothes, day, in and day out. I will make the time to get to know more about my students and their families, more than just what central administration deems important for a school record.

...that all students not only deserve an equal education but an EQUITABLE one as well!  As I continue on my journey working with ELL/EB young children, I will continue to research interventions that make success attainable for all my students.  I will provide supports that insure that not only my native speakers but my ELL/EB students have multiple exposures to the tools and supports that will allow them to reach and surpass their potential.

...that family/parent involvement and engagement is one of the keys to student success.  Last school year, I had 23 students, with 20 children that were with me the entire 2017-2018 school year.  

Every week, I would sent home a 'newsletter', detailing what we covered in literacy, math, journal/writing, science, and enrichment.  I would include a personalized note for each child. Of the 20 students that I had for the entire year, only three parents would engage in dialogue on a regular basis; in other words, 15% of my families were actively engaged with their child's teacher.  I had one student whose folder that would go home every day and whose work was never looked at.  I know this to be accurate because every month, I would clean out his folder.  Notices were not looked at, progress reports were not signed (or even taken out of the envelope); neither parent came to any requested conference or formal parent/teacher conference.  Not only did I reach out multiple times, I enlisted the help of social workers and administration.  The year ended with our kindergarten celebration and neither parent of this child attended.  Throughout the year, this child would light up whenever a success was noticed; my heart broke for him because, while my praise was welcomed and received well, I can only imagine how it would have impacted him if his PARENTS would have shown any interest in any part of this child's kindergarten year.  

Next year, I am in the process of developing my family engagement agenda.  In addition to formal conferences and meetings due to academic and/or behavior concerns, I am creating a calendar of opportunities for parents to visit my classroom, enjoy refreshments while being able to see their children's work and successes.  In addition, I will be inviting families to come read to the class in home languages, to share teaching of a letter, a number, or a tradition.  

I would love to have 100% parent involvement; however, I need to be realistic.  Coupled with not falling prey to the single story of my students and working towards more family engagement, I will continue to provide equitable opportunities for all my students to reach and surpass their potential.

Lesley....I think this belongs in the other blog!!! Ugh...can you show me how to get this entry into the Digital Media Blog....