#justteach 4/11

I have spent the last two Saturdays at education conferences, the Blended and Personalized Learning Conference at the Rhode Island Convention Center and the Rhode Island Writing Project Spring Conference at Roger Williams University.

Blended Learning Conference

The BPLC was huge. Walking into the registration area, surrounded by the vendors who had set up in the hallway, showing the new technologies to make teaching and learning more streamlined and effective, it felt more like a tech conference than a teaching conference! I went to five breakout sessions and sat through an inspiring keynote address at lunch. I learned about personalized learning, about project-based learning, tools to gather data. But for me, the most rewarding session was the first one I attended that day. Hosted by LeeAndra Kahn, it was called "Infusing Equity and Cultural Relevance in our Learning Environments." She told us to "lean into the discomfort" that inevitably comes with conversations about race and privilege. We participated in something called a "Privilege Walk" and I'd love to talk some more about that with our class, see how they might incorporate that into their classrooms, or if they would. One of the most meaningful comments came from a teacher who noted that "race and class issues have somehow melded into one common issue," and we talked about ways to separate the two and recognize the obstacles that each one creates.

My favorite practical teaching advice: "If the answer is google-able, you're asking the wrong question."


I was REALLY looking forward to this conference, not only to meet and hear Linda Christensen speak, but because I am fresh off of observing and teaching in the classroom of Aimee Marsland, one of the co-chairs of the RIWP. I was also really excited about being at a conference with some of my teacher-friends! :) 

Linda Christensen did not disappoint. I was moved to tears a number of times, first by the Denice Frohman video, by the video of her class speaking about their identity, by the exercise about learning the way that language is so inherently tied to a person's identity. I had to check my own privilege there--I hate to admit that I have not given equal importance to a person's accent. Some I have thought I would seek to change, to make them sound not so obvious. That seems so foolish now. It's not like I have ALWAYS thought that accents were always a deficit--I wear my Boston accent with pride...I just need to keep reminding myself to honor where my students come from. There will be times when they will have to code-switch between different ways of speaking--we learned this in a simple exercise led by Rachel Toncelli in our 407 class: she had me ask the person next to me to go get a coffee, then she asked me how I would ask my professor for coffee, then how I would ask the Queen of England for coffee. Clearly, there were different ways of speaking depending on the audience! I want to teach my students to be able to work within those roles and yet stay true to who they are.

For many years, the notion of "assimilation" has bothered me greatly. The art that Linda showed from her classes, of brown bodies entering a school and coming out white is exactly what makes me so uneasy about the concept. Amazing that kids get it. If there's a recurring theme this semester, it's got to be recognizing when students are the experts. Linda seems to be especially astute at that!

The two breakout sessions were okay. NOTHING like Linda's keynote. But I really love the Writers Project, and I am very much hoping to attend one of the summer sessions, and I'd very much like to be a continuing part of it in years to come.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 11, 2017 at 10:26 AM

    Please let me know when you go to other conferences, I am interested in tagging along if you don't mind!!!

    ReplyDelete

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