EMS Friday Focus
January 4, 2019 #17
EMS 2018-2019 Goals
ALL EMS students and staff will feel connected to our school community - safe, respected, seen, heard, and valued.
All EMS students will find meaning in the work they are tasked with.
Weekly Message
Team -
The situation I shared with you in my last Friday Focus was an example of explicit racism - sadly this is a reality in our community - but so is implicit racism. In the workshop Robyn, Antony, Jeremy and Jane did in December we began to hear and consider how our implicit bias’ affect our actions as educators and thus impacts our students.
After that workshop many voiced a desire for more time to discuss and process what was shared by Jeremy, Antony, Robyn and Jane. Additionally, the overwhelming feedback after Mercedes workshop in October was the desire to discuss action. What can we do as educators and as people working in such a diverse community to truly create a community where all feel safe, seen, heard, understood and respected?
In the coming weeks we will have time to collectively process and consider this question - first in circles next week led by your colleagues and later this month with Mercedes. In the meantime consider Pedro Noguera’s suggested actions for seeking Pathways to Equity.
“Some of these are things we need to speak up about,” says Gonzalez, “some are shifts we need to make in our own mindsets, and others are changes we can implement in our own practices.”
• Teach the way students learn versus expecting them to learn the way we teach. “Kids learn through experience,” says Noguera. “Kids learn through mistakes. Kids learn by asking questions, through interaction.” Teachers need to get students actively involved, closely monitor their learning, and constantly improve teaching practices.
• Focus on day-to-day teaching practices. “I think it’s a mistake when we put equity under this kind of rubric of addressing implicit bias,” says Noguera. “That’s not to say that we don’t need to do that, but if you don’t connect that back to what teachers do on a regular basis to teach their students, then you’re not going to see a change in outcomes, and changing outcomes ultimately is what this is about.” We know more than ever about what works in classrooms, and the focus should be on making sure teachers are using the most effective practices in every classroom every day.
“There are lots of examples of schools that are serving kids well, all kids,” concludes Noguera. “And the existence of those schools is the proof that the problem is not the children. The problem is our inability to create the conditions that foster good teaching and learning.”
• Challenge the normalization of failure. Some schools have come to accept that students from certain backgrounds will underperform and be disproportionately disciplined and assigned to special education. One way to push back, says Noguera, is focusing on students in these groups who are beating the odds and seeing what’s different about them, “because those outliers will tell you what we need to do more for the other kids.”
• Embrace immigrant students and their culture. This means giving these students access to a rigorous curriculum, school counselors, and other resources, with language never acting as a barrier.
• Tell students the secrets of high achievement. “We have to demystify success for kids,” says Noguera – study skills, note-taking, organization, time management, and other strategies can make all the difference.
• Get parents on the same page. “Partnerships have to be based on respect, trust, and empathy,” says Noguera, “– not pity, but empathy.” Parents need to know how to reinforce at home what educators are doing in school, including staying in touch with teachers, giving kids a place to study, asking about their work, and getting them to bed on time.
• Align discipline practices with educational goals. “We’re much more likely to punish the kids with the greatest needs,” says Noguera. “And how do we punish them? Typically by denying them learning time… There must be consequences for inappropriate behavior, but the consequences need not involve not learning. We have to be much more creative” – using restorative justice, community service, and other approaches that address relationships between students and adults. (“10 Ways Educators Can Take Action in Pursuit of Equity” by Jennifer Gonzalez in The Cult of Pedagogy, December 2, 2018)
In partnership and with gratitude,
Meg
TASKS
In addition to watching the documentary Race: The Power of Illusion - check out the live streaming option on January 8th - see above Or use this link to access through YouTube.
Mercedes as asked us to complete an implicit bias survey we’ll discuss and consider on 01/16.
Announcements and Logistics For the Week
6th grade band, orchestra and chorus have their concert on Thursday 01/10 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Below is the rehearsal schedule.
- 2nd period - 6th gr. Band
- 3rd period - 6th gr. Chorus
- 7th period - 6th gr. Orchestra
Wednesday's Faculty Objective
SWBAT: Understand how our implicit bias' and actions as educators impact the experience of our students each day.
Calendar:
Connecting To Best Practice
Link to the EMS Blog: This week's entry- "EMS Goal: All Students Finding Meaning In Their Work"
Do you have a tool, lesson plan, idea, video, article, or something else that directly connect to one of our our "EMS goals" and to our "indicators of success"? If so, please let us know using this form. Compensation will be as follows: Blog Contribution- $25, Teach Meet presentation- $25, workshop presentation- $100