Full Circle

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

#bestThe end of the school year is always hectic and this year proved no different. Negotiations between our association (union) and district resulted in a school calendar in which the last day of school for the students was also the last day for teachers. I say this because in the photo, I’m sure our smiles cannot hide how tired we were and I’m also using that as a reason for the delayed post since the last day of school for us was June 15.

I write this blog with both excitement for the future yet also a bit of sadness. You see, in the photo, is our history department (Vo, Lauren, me, and Sanchez). The photo tells the story of a long journey that begin in the spring of 1998 or maybe it was 1999 when a student teacher from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) approached my principal to ask if he could do some observations as part of his credential program. It was a serendipitous meeting that ended up with him connecting with me after I moved to a different middle school (within the same district) to be my student teacher. That student teacher is one on the left in the picture (Vo) and his two master teachers are on the right (Sanchez and me). At the conclusion of his student teaching semester, one of the history teachers at our school chose to retire which created an opening for a new teacher.

As the master teachers, Sanchez and I sat on the interview panel of history teacher after history teacher who applied for the full-time world and U.S. history position. If you are familiar with the history teaching profession, then you know that it’s hard to find a full-time history position. After the last candidate left the room, we had a pointed discussion with our administrator who wanted to hired a seasoned teacher. We fought to hire our student teacher. As you can see, we won because remember, he’s the one on the left. =)

Fast forward to fall 2016. Because all of us are graduates of the credential program from CSULB (#gobeach), we tend to get our share of student teaching candidates who request to observe our classrooms. Lauren (@Ms_ltnle) and her friend (another student in the credential program) spent several days observing all three of our classrooms. I didn’t recognize her at first, but Lauren eventually revealed that she was a former student of mine 11 years ago. Come to find out, I also had her little sister and brother. Yikes, I’m old. But I digress.

Come fall of 2017, Lauren contacts Vo because she wants to student teach at our school. As a former student, this puts her in a good place because our district is all about the home-grown aspect of former students coming back to give back. As in the past, Sanchez and I took the lead as master teachers for Lauren with Vo providing much needed personal and professional support for her.

It was a fun-filled, crazy busy semester. In fact, I wanted to blog about our experience (e.g., the laughter, growing pains, misunderstandings, epiphanies, puns), but I just didn’t have time. I posted pictures and tweeted things out here and there, but that’s about all I could do during the semester. But long story short, Lauren rocked her student teaching semester. She was responsible for teaching two world history classes (mine) and one U.S. history class (Sanchez). And I’ll be honest, she rocked it. Lauren brought with her the passion for helping children and the love for creativity in the learning process. Make no mistake, this was not an easy teaching assignment. The three of us are on top of our game. Our department is highly collaborative; we have strong personalities–basically we’re like a tight-knit family. On top of that, our department has been 1:1 (student-to-iPad ratio) for many years now, so we offer our students a blended approaching to learning with technology playing an integral part of the process. So Lauren had to quickly learn how to juggle classroom management, content attainment, and sound technology pedagogical practices basically from Day 1. She approached those challenges head-on (it helped that she subbed for us quite a bit the semester before so she was familiar with how we use technology). And I’m proud to say that she is ready for her own classroom as well as the challenges and joys that come with it. Unfortunately, we don’t have a history position at our school to offer her because Sanchez and I would fight for her like we did for Vo. So, alas, Lauren has to expand her search for a full-time history position. We look forward to seeing which district will benefit from all that she has to offer.

In closing, I want to bring it back to why this post is both exciting yet sad for me to write. It’s exciting because what you see in the photo is a legacy of what teachers do and who we are. And it’s sad because we’re going to miss having Lauren around. Having said that, I’m excited that this photo represents a department that boasts two master teachers, two home-grown student teachers, one former student, and better yet FOUR history teachers.

We’ve come full-circle, my friends.

#gobeach #csulb #ggusd #lovemymiddleschoolers #bestprofessionever

A Look at Diversity Wheels

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

Being a culturally responsive educator includes the practice of introspection. In fact, it’s important to consider to what extent does your classroom or teaching practices reflect culturally responsive teaching? The five essential components of culturally responsive teaching are as follows:

  • Developing a cultural diversity knowledge base,
  • Designing and incorporating culturally relevant curriculum & strategies,
  • Demonstrating cultural caring & building a community of learners,
  • Fostering cross-cultural communications, and
  • Cultivating cultural congruity into instructional practices (Gay, 2002)

Part of the introspective process regarding the development of a cultural diversity knowledge base can include the consideration of visuals such as the diversity wheel from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine’s Diversity Leadership Council. “The center of the wheel represents internal dimensions that are usually most permanent or visible. The outside of the wheel represents dimensions that are acquired and change over the course of a lifetime. The combinations of all of these dimensions influence our values, beliefs, behaviors, experiences and expectations and make us all unique as individuals” (Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council, n.d.).

DiversityWheel_Small

Though an argument can be made as to whether some of these dimensions belong in the center or outside of the diversity wheel. Other perspectives might include the notion of how some of these dimensions are, in fact, fluid and thus, can belong at some points within the center and at others in the outside.

A quick Google search produced many examples of diversity wheels from different types of organizations (e.g., schools, churches, private companies). Consider the one from Northcentral University (2018):

PrintThis diversity wheel aligns with Bronfenbrenner’s (1977; 1994) nested model of the ecological systems approach. In this case, the individual is the focal point from which radiates the varied types of influences upon the individual organized in concentric circles (from narrow to broad).

Another example of a diversity wheel comes from the Cultural Competence Learning Institute (2018):

Dimensions-of-Diversity ASTCv2.png

This diversity wheel also begins with the individual as the focal point with concentric circles representing the broader influences on one’s personality.

The point of displaying these types of diversity wheels is to show the various ways one can look at diversity. To bring the point back culturally responsive teaching practices, what this means is that we, as educators, need to take time to consider who we are and how that affects what we do in our respective classrooms. We cannot deny the fact that an increasingly diverse student population walks through our doors each and every day. Thus, it is important for us to develop explicit knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity so that we can better meet the needs of our diverse student body (Gay, 2002).

References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513–531. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.32.7.513

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecology models of human development. In T. N. Postlewaite & Husen, T. (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 1643-1647). Oxford, England: Elsevier.

Cultural Competence Learning Institute. (2018). Group activities. Retrieved from the Association for Science-Technology Centers website: http://community.astc.org/ccli/home

Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53, 106-116. doi:10.1177/0022487102053002003

Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council. (n.d.). Diversity wheel. Retrieved from from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Diversity Leadership Council website: http://web.jhu.edu/dlc/resources/diversity_wheel/index.html

Northcentral University. (2018). Diversity wheel. Retrieved from Northcentral University website: https://www.ncu.edu/about-ncu/who-we-are/diversity

 

Melting Pot or Salad Bowl?

/ Catherine Cabiness-Atkinson, Ed.D. / Leave a comment

If you were a product of the 70s (and now I’m dating myself), then you are well acquainted with the School House Rock series that were part of the Saturday morning cartoon line-up.

When I taught U.S. History, I used this video as an introduction to get my students to think about whether they viewed our nation as a melting pot or salad bowl. My teaching positions have afforded me the opportunity to work with a diverse group of learners based on race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, disability, and giftedness*. As such, I was curious as to how my students viewed the interconnectedness (or not) of our pluralistic society.

In fact, Banks (2016) calls for educators to consider the fact that schools today exist “within a pluralistic democratic nation [and] should help students develop clarified, reflective, and positive cultural identifications” (p. 28). To begin this process, teachers need to determine the lens through which students view themselves and their role at school and within the larger community. One way to start the conversation might be to play this video and give students a graphic organizer with which to organize and justify their perspectives. In the past, I have used the Big Idea template where students would write the generalization at the top and then including supporting details/statements in the pillars below.

This type of activity may be a good way to discern students’ perspectives on the make-up of this great county we call America. To make this more relevant and personal, I think another good option is for students to take this activity home and complete it with their parent/guardian and even siblings. This way students would also begin to have conversations with their family about who they are, where they come from, and how they view their role in the family and larger community. And no, this type of conversation doesn’t only apply to the history classes. Each and every teacher has a duty to ensure that the education we provide to our students is culturally inclusive, meaningful, and engaging. But that’s a topic for a different blog post.

*The terms used here are defined in Banks, J. A. (2016). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching (6th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.