Action Research Essay

“It’s not what you say or how you say it.” This is something we’ve all heard time and time again, and while it’s typically brought up to talk about situations in the past, I wanted to apply the concept to thinking about the way I engage people - specifically my students.

The first stage of my action research was to make myself personally aware of tone. I decided to focus on the way people were talking to me to think about my relationship with those people and what that relationship meant to me. The best way for me to explore this was to write out my thoughts on my relationship with that person before having a conversation where I put this exercise into practice. The results weren’t terribly surprising - but it was interesting to see how those things lined up. The hard part was that while it ‘made sense’ to me, tone of voice was a very very difficult thing for me to describe.

One example was when I started thinking of my boss. This is a direct supervisor who I respect, and when I communicated with him the next day I paid attention to how he spoke. It was thought out, confident and sure.  If he wasn’t sure or didn’t know about something he didn’t get timid about it. He is able to say “I don’t know” or “Let’s figure it out.” in a way that makes not knowing feel okay.  

This was something I definitely wanted to bring to my students. Taken a step further I believe it can be the type of thing that can make the difference between looking up an answer feeling like a chore, and feeling like an exciting thing we are doing together. If I tell a student “You have to go find that answer.” or if I tell them “I don’t know the answer either but I bet we can figure it out!” I can expect very different results.

After some discussion about teaching’s relationship to acting I was able to get a good resource from my boyfriend in the form of a book called “Directing Actors.” This was a book specifically for directors, but it talked a lot about the acting process and something called “the internal monologue.” This is essentially the thought process that a ‘character’ goes through that the actor attempt to experience to create the emotions and tone. So in my above example, it isn’t so much important the way I phrase the question, but how the question is phrased in my head. If I am annoyed, frustrated it’s going to come out the first way as opposed to the engaging way.  This helped me come to realization that “tone” is about much more than the sound of your voice, it’s the entire context of your mindset.

When I first started applying this to my 5th grade group I immediately noticed a difference in the level of engagement. Once I actively became interested in the different topics that they would stray to I could find connections to build with the students and consequently ways to bring it back to the lesson plan. The children were often talking about different games and pop culture figures. Pokemon were a big one that came about. When it came time to talk about our project I would use an instructional tone when teaching them about processes and information, an empathetic tone when relating to the kids about the their concerns or difficulties, and an assertive almost parental tone when they were simply straying completely from the tasks we needed to focus on.

One of my big revelations that, while the context of my mindset was important, the context of the situation was important to. And in most cases the biggest piece of context was: loud classroom. This meant that my volume had to greatly increase when I was attempting any kind of tone - but obviously I didn’t want to appear as though I was yelling.  This was difficult for me as a naturally quiet person, but I feel like I found a good balance of volume that reads as “excited” and “enthusiastic”. In this particular case - addressing a small subset of the class in a loud classroom that I don’t have authority over, participating in the ‘noise’ by being as loud as I needed to be heard (while still trying to respect nearby groups of course) was the best course of action.

Overall tone feels like it’s own entire art form, and just taking basic steps towards implementing it in my group has lead to some pretty good results even if it is something that still needs a lot of work. It’s important to me that I don’t get lazy with it and keep learning how to use it as a tool - because like any tool it’s going to help me get the job done with more quality and efficiency. So while it’s going to take work learning how to use this tool to begin with, I know it will make me a better teacher and be well worth it in the end.

Videotaping Myself Teaching

Video Taken on: 4/22/16

Well it was definitely hard to watch myself over and over. I’m a little fidgety with my hands in the video, but I know that’s something I naturally do so I try really hard to keep my hands still and clasped and not moving all over or playing with things. I’m not sure if it’s super noticeable but I can tell what I’m trying to do. I also can tell the point where I became aware of trying to speak louder and use a clearer tone, it was when I had students write down what they’re excited for on a post it. Being loud has been a goal of mine, because of how quiet I am as a person and especially after watching the video it’s made even clearer that it’s important because of the loudness going on in the rest of the class. My students are very drawn to it, particularly Asia because of her naturally loud tone, so I think continuing to work on that will be beneficial for me. Also I think working on my body language will help a ton and engaging myself more. I come off disconnected a little in the video and not super excited? I think just overall being more engaging will help the students want to listen to me and help when I’m instructing them into different transitions.

In the shorter video I noticed I was a little better when it came to having an assertive tone, I was able to practice it at one point when one of the students got off track and wasn't putting his token shells in the box when he talked. It still isn’t super assertive, but I can tell my practice helped because the student listened and responded to me right away.

In terms of transitions, I think the lesson flows well and that there’s not too much distractions and not any silent spaces or disconnects because of that so I feel good about that part.

All things Action Research!

Starting point: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cnaBCWZvcHsoP0tgDN-WVOz2AEYJW1Q4_03IOoEYhxI/edit?usp=sharing 

1st data entry: 4/8/16

I’ve been using some different tones and gathering the students responses to them. It’s hard for me to break out of using more than an instructional tone. I noticed that the volume is also important to the tone. If I say things louder or clearer I think that could help add to the effect my tone is having on my students. During my last lesson for the warm up the students played a round of getting to know you Jenga. They absolutely loved it but it was tough transitioning to using the shell tokens and then to assigning their roles. The students have been struggling with doing their roles and I think it will help if I smoothen the transition to a clear/firm instructional tone right away after their warm ups. I also think making it clearer of what's expected of them for each role will help them. If they have all their tasks in front of them I think that will help them focusing on doing their role.

More Data:

I've been noticing that my body language is very important because even when I use a tone that I have practiced and feel is successful my body language makes a difference. It's also really tough to do much with my body with where I sit with my group. We have a weird table where I'm positioned in a cut out part of it and the students surround me, facing me. Kristy has mentioned moving spots and putting the louder student at the head of the table creating a role for him to lead. 

I've come to a conclusion that it just doesn't work for me to lower the tone of my voice, I struggle with talking a deeper tone. Instead I am really just trying to put energy into focusing on how I say things and having a very clear and loud tone because I'm naturally a quiet person. I get really nervous but want to sound confident and thing speaking louder will help.

One of the students called me "teacher". It was the quieter student, and it was at the end of our lesson. I immediately became concerned about why he would call me this but after thinking about it for days and then having the last lesson plan, in which the other students all said "bye Mandy" at the end of our lesson, I realized that it wasn't necessarily something I did. Because the other students do know my name. So I think it might be something I need to do to better connect with the quieter student. Or perhaps he just doesn't like connecting with adults or authoritative figures, because I've always had that problem and can understand it. None the less it's hard to draw a conclusion, but I think my goal is really just being as empathetic (by using that tone) as possible with the quiet student and trying to connect with him and keep continuing to encourage him to participate and talk in our group.

Choice Project: Podcast on Ch. 3 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed

https://soundcloud.com/raquel-arismendez/educ-podcast

Dialogue, Respect, Love for Humanity, and Praxis (Blog #7)

Every time I understand a new concept in teaching it's like lifting up a mysterious drain cover to find a large dark abyss underneath. This time the idea revolved around history and it's connection to culture, identity and engagement of students in the classroom.

There is a typical way of teaching that I grew up experiencing for the most part, and that I think people automatically recognize or conjure up when they think of teaching. It's become almost stereotypical at this point. Expected.
As described by Paulo Friere:
"[This way of teaching]... turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teachers she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are."

Hearing this articulated so well strikes a deep chord in me, and really sets up what I hope I am able to accomplish as an educator. I know that as a kid I was never very engaged by the memorize, repeat and forget technique of learning facts. Dates, locations, names, all with very little meaning. I know a lot of people can relate to this and it's a growing topic in progressive education reform.

My question comes when I start to think about the fact that these students really truly are individuals, and there will be no one way or one subject matter that will speak to all of them. I start to wonder if it's important for students to know when the civil war started and began, and the names of the generals who were involved. I don't think storytelling like this does anything beyond filling their heads with useless facts and imparting them with a possibly unjust positive view of militaristic actions.

Taking the example of the civil war, which is the epitome to me of "Facts I know I amassed in school but have all but forgotten" I wonder if there is a better way to broach that subject. It scares me to think about, but I believe a better thing to try would be letting the students learn about wars in their own historical timeline. Let them discuss what it meant for their ancestors and really try to humanize each side.

As mentioned in the texts below, one of the big issues is the dehumanization of cultures. I know when the Native American Indians were introduced to me in elementary school they were a funny character that I had a hard time even imagining as real.  Marginalizing actual people for the sake of making facts easier to memorize is dangerous.

When we start looking to war as adults, in our current world, we still see that attitude. The muslims. The Middle East. Terrorists. Jihad. ISIS. All things that are used to scare and justify military actions that may not be the best course of action.  There are whole groups of people that get characterized and stigmatized. Of course some specific political organizations and terrorist groups might require some action of force, but when we can justify entire wars and strikes to our country simply by putting a specific type of face or skin color on it, it means we aren't looking at the bigger picture. When we are at war with a country they are at war with us. Just like we seem to believe of them, they view us as not being human enough to understand their point of view without the use of deadly force. If we can begin to demystify people who are different and introduce the idea that it is not required to hate your enemy or opponent, then maybe we can feel more confident in our ability to resolve our differences without bullets and drone strikes.

Maybe it's really bold or naive to believe that changing the way we teach our kids about the civil war could have a great impact on our country, but I know it can have a great impact on the way they relate and interact with each other. I'd be willing to bet it's at least a great place to start.

In reference to:
http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire-2.html

http://www.practicingfreedom.org/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-what-is-it-and-why-its-still-relevant/

Mastering the beginning stages of the Ukulele (Final update on the Radical Learner Project)

Mastering is a strong word for where I feel I'm at now, but there is definite progress. I can play several chords and parts of songs, as well as strum a few tunes that just sound pretty good. I really feel like I've conquered the feel of the Ukulele, and it took mostly a lot of dedication and focus.

One of the hardest parts was using online resources to gather my information. Parts of it were great, such as being able to reference videos of people performing the task and searching for different instruction sets that gave me different techniques to try. One of the techniques that was the most difficult for me to learn was 'chucking' or 'muted strumming'. This is when you get a sort of harder scraping of the chords, and it acts as more of an accent than a specific note. There are a couple ways to do it including hitting the strings with your palm as you strum and lightening your grip on the strings with the other hand.

This technique was difficult because it dealt specifically with the physics of the ukulele and how the sound travels. It was one of the moments where I really could have used an instructor to explain it to me because it was simply baffling at first. I could hear it, and I could see it, but it was so hard to understand exactly what was happening. Eventually it just clicked.

One thing that this highlighted for me in particular was the relationship between practice (homework) and learning (class time). When I would practice without any resources it would have to be things that I understood fully how to do and were fairly easy. I might not have been great at it, but I fully understood what it was I was trying to do.

I've uploaded an audio file of me playing, and it's still not perfect but you can at least get a feel for the progress. From here the next thing to do would be to continue learning chords and to start putting them together to learn to play full songs. There are a couple of these that came from pieces of song tutorials, but I haven't fully been able to put the chords into practice because learning chords and learning a song are two very very different things. 

Lobby Day for Racial Equality for Educators and then some (bonus blog)

Advocating for change! I can’t seem to think about it enough simply because there’s so many injustices that need attention and how else is anything going to get accomplished if we don’t make our voices heard. It’s so simple to me-and I see it pretty clearly despite not being a fan of the messy side of politics. Even if you can’t articulate the substance of the issues at hand in our political system, you can show up. You can make your face seen. Actions often speak louder than words.

However this is something that I struggle with communicating to fellow individuals my age. SO often do I hear people say they’re opting out of politics. Of course they have their reasons, and no matter the logistics of them, I can’t help but think they’re nothing more than excuses built on what though? Fear? Discomfort? Lack of desire to put in the extra work? Lack of passion for the things that need attention?

The importance of making your face seen and your voice heard is becoming so much more relevant to me with each step closer that I take to my desired profession. As a future educator not only am I going to be affected by social justice, but so are my students! And I can’t live comfortably knowing I’m not doing some small part to fight for the things that need attention.

I’m so early in the process that I often become paralyzed by fear, but leaving by 8 am to attend the lobby day for racial equality in the classroom had a huge impact on me. It reminded me that I’m not alone in this, that when we come together we can get so much more done. Before the lobby day I knew that things weren’t black and white but I still at a different notion of what a good educator is. Now I see that you can be a good educator and not participate in our civic process but you can be a kickbutt Leslie Knope style educator by participating in the civic process. And I truly think there’s so much more fulfillment in not just knowing the process and the issues/conflicts at hand but standing up for change and participating in the process. And I don’t even fully understand it-but I feel so much more a part of the collective of teachers that want racial equality in our schools than I did sitting at home reading about it.

I had a similar experience when caucusing till 10PM. I was glad to be in a room with others that wanted similar changes. My main concern with this experience was that most of the individuals in the room were white. The age range was dynamic but otherwise everyone looked middle class or higher white folks. And all of the things we addressed as notions to get passed in our city affect more than just the white middle and upper class. So why is it that way? Why mostly white people? It’s not that they care more. I think it ultimately comes down to not enough access to the caucusing locations as well as lack of education on what they are and how they affect us.

I think the times for caucusing are ridiculous. 6-8 that’s a very unrealistic time frame for anyone working those hours or at home with kids. I’d like to see it become an all day thing, but I’m also curious if there’s any hope for child care to be made available for families that need a place to safely take their children while they participate in the civic process. Another thought is the city pairing with metro transit to get people to their caucusing locations for free. I know they do these sorta free bus ride days on holidays such as New Year's or St. Patrick's day or even free rides to the Twins game. I don’t really know the process behind implementing this sorta thing but it seems like just one idea to push for diversity in our civic process and perhaps our political system.

A couple quotes from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed that stood out to me:

“Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in "changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them," (1) for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated.”

“The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not "marginals," are not living "outside" society. They have always been "inside" the structure which made them "beings for others." The solution is not to 'integrate" them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become "beings for themselves."

In regards to both the lack of racial diversity when caucusing and lobbying for racial equality amongst teachers in our classroom, oppression is a very clear (yet hidden) cause. I think right now with Black Lives Matter having such a huge presence in MN, there’s so much tension to fight for a shift in our society. In a way integrating African Americans and other teachers of color into our education systems as teachers and other even stronger forces is a good first step to addressing the oppression in our society(focusing on the educational system)and it’s not the end solution however I think when Freire talks about needing to transform the structure that this is a huge step that will have a chain effect for so many students. Simply having a good teacher of color in the classroom can greatly benefit students perspective and create conversation to shift the status quo.

Last thought:

Serious shout out to Maria for being a part of the lobby day. I was so glad to see her there. She sparked a lot of my conversation I had with my boyfriend about the lobby day.(just about the importance of participating in these important processes and steps for much needed positive change and the value it adds to an educator) I have no idea what time she must have had to get up to leave to take the bus and light rail from where I live in south Minneapolis to get to the education building, and then she said she spent a while walking to find the right building. My first thought was “you go girl”

In light of A Barrio Pedagogy (Blog #5)

Culture is married to history and there is no getting around that. For a long time I struggled with the idea of creating anti racist curriculum - specifically having difficulty understanding the difference between an “Anti Racist” lesson and just a “not racist” lesson. Culture is similar, in which it’s essential to encompass compassion and understanding in order to achieve relevance. You can’t simply celebrate a culture, you have to encompass it in the learning. I believe a successful teacher needs to understand the culture in order to become empathetic of the students. It’s important to become tied to the culture in some way. Not simply an outsider. As a teacher the connection is going to start with the students. Learning what they know, what their history is, what their daily lives look like in order to connect with them on more than a superficial level.

The one sentence in A Barrio Pedagogy that struck me as so obvious, so important yet so overlooked was when Tina said “ Looking at our own history and culture was really important, it gives you pride and makes you feel like you belong.”

It’s really hard to put yourself in the shoes of a different culture, especially when you don’t know a lot about it. I think my best resource for learning about those other cultures is going to be my future students, but as they did in the reading, it’s going to be so important to establish trust and a safe space. The more I think about it and the more that I recognize the systematic racism that these children go through in their young lives, the more I start to understand just how challenging it will be to provide that.

If a student doesn’t feel like they belong, or have had instances of racism that made them feel unwelcome, it’s going to be uncomfortable for them to present information, history and background on those things one on one, let alone in front of the entire class.

As I read the “I Am” poems I also wonder what it was exactly the teacher wrote and shared with the class. I’m trying to imagine what I might share to put kids on the right path and to open myself up to them as a person.

I would need to write something age appropriate that they could relate to on a basic level. I might include something silly like I like bees, hopscotch, chips and salsa, etc.  but I also need to include deeper things so the students can begin to feel comfortable and interested in sharing things about themselves. For me as a future teacher this already feels like it’s going to be one of the hardest things for me but I also know it’s going to be one of the most important. Opening up and sharing with the students. Connecting with them, so they can feel safe connecting with me and with each other.

"Our praxis helps us to understand that the opportunity to create a picture that is representative of the students' interpretations of the concept, theory or key word is the opportunity to construct new understanding and add meaning."

It took a while to decipher the meaning of this particular quote but my interpretation is that this practice helps you realize that by having the students illustrate their understanding of a concept and discuss it, it opens up the chance to offer them new understandings of those concepts. When the student gives you insight into their understanding of something, that's when the teaching and deeper learning begins.

Community Research #2

Let’s talk animal rights! 

Animals Rights Coalition: http://animalrightscoalition.com/ 
Largest and oldest animal rights organization in MN. They do a lot of events and advocating centered on animal rights. 

On their main page they list events and news: This story is recent and struck me as concerning:
“ 4 out of 6 Paradise Car Washes in the Twin Cities surrounding areas keep a Macaw as a resident “pet”. The birds live at the Savage, Apple Valley, Eagan, and East Bloomington stores. Their names are Ruby, Peanut, Speedy, and Rainbow. According to employees, the birds are in the car wash 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have been for their entire lives. Knowledgeable observers say the birds show signs of stress, exacerbated by being handled by the public (despite signs asking they not be handled) and by the exuberance of children and dogs who come into the car washes. Issues range from behaviors demonstrating depression to excessive feather plucking (sometimes down to bare skin). There appears to be little to no enrichment such as toys and activities provided. Macaws live in their natural habitat for around 70 years, and they mate for life. These birds deserve a better life, and the companionship of others of their species.” 

Vice President: Angie Chesney-Mattison 
President: Charlotte Cozzetto-Worked on the campaign that led to the abolition of the U of M’s live dog lab for medical student’s 

Contact: Animalrightscoalition@msn.com 317 W. 48th ST. Minneapolis, MN 55419
Phone: (612) 822-6161

The coalition owns the Éthique Nouveau boutique which is attached to their office. 

Éthique Nouveau: http://www.ethiquenouveau.com/ 
Cuddle coats is also based out of this store. They have the same contact info as cuddle coats and the Animal Rights Coalition. A boutique store in Minneapolis with ethical standards that include only selling products without the use of animal testing, ingredients, skins, or furs. All purchases made at their store help fund animal advocacy program 

Hours: Sun-Tues: closed. Wed: noon-8 Thurs and Fri: noon-6 Sat: noon-5 

Cuddle Coats: http://www.cuddlecoats.com/ 
An organization that collects fur coats or other fur products from people, and sends them out to organizations that utilize them in the rehabilitation process for animals such as raccoons, squirrels, rabbits and chipmunks that are being released into the wild. They’re Minnesota based and have a store in Minneapolis called Éthique Nouveau and the main contact info for them would be the same as the Animal Rights Coalition. Their organization simply gathers fur products and sends them to the appropriate organization to benefit animals. 

Forgo Foie Gras: 
Is a movement that the Animal Rights coalition participates in and is responsible for talking to local restaurants to ask them to pledge to not serve foie gras. The problem with Foie Gras, is that the ducks that are killed for the dish endure lives filled with suffering. Part of the process to prepare the duck for the dish foie gras includes overfeeding the ducks with a feeding tube which allows for the ducks livers to expand up to 12 times their normal amount, this creates a lot of pain for the ducks and they have a much shorter life when having to endure this terrible process. The ducks are also in a lot of pain throughout their lives, panting from being overweight, and not being able to move around.

Minnesotan’s Exposing Petland: 
They don’t have an official site but they do have a Facebook page with around 2000 followers. This group is dedicated to exposing the store Petland(located in St. Paul) for its practices of purchasing dogs from overpopulated dog breeding mills that are known to prioritize financial income over the dog's health. The Animal Rights Coalition supports this group and works with them, on the Animal Rights Coalition Page is info listing official documents exposing the source of where the dogs being bought by the store Petland are coming from.

Chicken Run Rescue: http://www.chickenrunrescue.org/ 
A nonprofit organization based in North Minneapolis. Did you know there’s tons of chickens that need homes? No? Me either until now. Many owners don’t care for them properly or abandon them after a short while. I spent quite a while exploring this website, too many cute pictures of chickens, but also a TON of information on chickens and roosters-which are a lot harder to find homes for. I think many of us think of chicken, and think food, whether that be the actual meat or eggs, chickens are viewed as a means to fulfill hunger. From the website I learned that they make great pets when cared for right, they love people, and are very loving animals that are often neglected, mistreated, or live very inhumane lives. 

This bit of info really says a lot: “Chickens...coexist happily with compatible dogs and cats and have life spans of 12 -14 years. Chickens are better adapted to living with us as companions than their exotic kin, parrots, who suffer terrible physical and psychological stress in captivity. A shift in critical thought about who is “food” and who is “pet” could mean a less violent world for the chickens and other animals trapped in a food production hell hidden from view (“free range” and “cage free” birds meet their factory farmed cousins at the same slaughter plants). Each year in the US, over 10 billion chickens suffer from intense confinement, cruel handling and painful terrifying deaths. Although they represent over 95% of the animals raised for agricultural and other purposes, chickens are excluded from protection of anticruelty laws, humane slaughter laws and laws that regulate experimentation.”

Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota: http://www.ragom.org/ 
An organization involved in rescuing and relocating golden retrievers. They save Golden retrievers from animal shelters. They’re involved in Minnesota as well as the neighboring states. 
Contact: 5800 Baker Road, Suite 120 Minnetonka, MN Phone: 952-946-8070 rescue@ragom.org 

Feline Rescue: http://felinerescue.org/ 
An organization focused on helping cats in need find homes. They also have a foster program for animals that need extra care such as mother cats and cats with illness or disabilities 
Contact:593 Fairview Avenue North, St. Paul, MN Phone: 651-642-5900 outreach@felinerescue.org 
Hours: Monday-Friday: 10:00 a.m-Noon; 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday:10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Compassionate Action for Animals: https://www.exploreveg.org/ 
A nonprofit organization focused on educating people on the suffering of farm animals. Their ultimate desire is to encourage people to go vegan as a compassionate way of eating because of this they have a lot of events that include tabling, cooking classes, potlucks, food giveaways, film screenings, etc. 
Contact: 2100 1st Ave S, Suite 200 Minneapolis, MN Phone: 612-276-2242 info@exploreveg.org 

Pet Project Rescue: http://petprojectrescue.com/ 
A nonprofit Minnesota organization that helps homeless/abandoned cats and dogs in need of adoption by taking them into foster care until they become adopted. The organization also provides spraying/neutering services as ways to reduce overpopulation of cats and dogs. 

Contact: Pet Project Rescue PO Box 582861 Minneapolis, MN 55458 Info@PetProjectRescue.com 

People and Pets Together: http://www.peopleandpetstogether.org/ 
Located very close to Bancroft Elementary school, this organization helps gather/provide pet food to send to local food shelves, they also hold vaccination clinics for pets, and help to provide resources on reduced pet vet care. 
Contact: 3755 Bloomington Avenue South Minneapolis, Minnesota 55407 peopleandpetstogether@gmail.com 

Pet Haven Inc of Minnesota: http://www.pethavenmn.org/
Another organization devoted to helping dogs and cats find homes. This organization takes them into foster homes until they can be adopted, the pets are also sprayed or neutered before being adopted and sent with a cage/kennel, food, leashes, etc. 

Contact: Pet Haven, Inc. of Minnesota P.O. Box 19105 Minneapolis, MN (952) 831-3825 

Secondhand Hounds: http://secondhandhounds.org/ 
An organization based out of Eden Prairie, that rescues dogs and cats from shelters where they might be killed, or from homes that can no longer care for them. They then send the animals to foster homes while they wait adoption. 
Contact: 10100 Viking Drive Suite 100 Eden Prairie, MN 952-322-7643 

Hours: Monday-Friday: 10am-4pm, 6 -8pm Saturday: 10am-2pm Sunday: 11am-2pm 

EAT WILD: Farmer’s directory: http://www.eatwild.com/products/minnesota.html  
I found this very nicely laid out directory of grassfed meat, dairy, and egg farms in Minnesota, or close by. I know a lot of these farms are a good distance away but there’s quite a lot of them, perhaps one would visit the students at Bancroft. Otherwise their contact information is all listed in the directory and they list information about what each farm is. I should also point out that all the farmers are committed to ethical standards, such as allowing the farm animals to graze in low stress environments without the use of antibiotics or hormones. There’s a whole list of the standards these farms are held to: http://www.eatwild.com/criteria.html 

Animal Humane Society of MN: https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/ 
The animal humane society is involved any many ways of helping animals such as adoption, taking in animals that can no longer be cared for by their owners(surrendered), providing resources to care for animals, dog training classes, behavior information for pets, providing spay/neuter clinics, helping owners reunite with lost pets, and following up on inhumane pet care investigations. 
Contact: There’s a few facilities devoted to adoption(the nearest is in St. Paul) but the main administration building is located at: 845 Meadow Ln. N. Golden Valley, MN 55422 
763-522-4325 

Recap: I think there’s a ton of ways this information I’ve gathered can help! I’ve learned a ton, and feel confident in the resources I’ve found. I’m just very eager to see the direction in which my students took their research and what they discovered. I feel like I have a ton of knowledge on pets, and resources for farm animals. I couldn’t find a ton on animal testing since the U of M stopped that, so I’m hoping my students stray from that path but we’ll see. I’m really liking the farm animal angle, I was pretty into learning about chickens! But ultimately my students will be deciding where they want to focus their lens. I’ve also learned a ton about veganism, lots of organizations support veganism as an ethical way of living and a way to take a stance against killing animals inhumanely for food.

Evidence of Meeting MCTC Standards

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_WgXO5cuJ-T5VVTAgip-A6TRwpHPg4dHlh5XGM51rzU/edit?usp=sharing

Radical Learner Project Update

I’ve spent around 3-4 hours getting to know how to play the ukulele so far, and at the beginning it felt absolutely hopeless. I thought getting the hang of notes and learning chords was the meat of the requirement, but even strumming the guitar takes finesse and practice. I had trouble adjusting from wanting to strum with my thumb to strumming with my finger, and I kept catching on the strings when I’d try strumming with any speed.  Also strumming down vs. strumming up was difficult to adjust to. I’m still intimidated by the realization that there are more complex strumming patterns - down, down up, (pause) up, down, down, down, down, up...etc.

Most recently I stepped a little bit away from actually playing it and have been on an information search. I managed to learn to do a simple tune that I really like (Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes) but am trying to learn the basic fundamentals so I can be thinking of them as I practice. The realization that I knew so little about what goes into the instrument makes me wonder if there are any other huge glaring chunks that I simply haven’t even thought of yet.

A lot of the success from this particular project is going to come from practice - and specifically focused practice. I need to learn about a specific chord, or pattern, and practice that until I get it down. Each little bit is like a tool, so the more bits that I learn the more things I can build.  

Overall it feels like there is a lot that I am missing, and the learning curve is steeper than I expected. I think if I’d learned an instrument when I was younger I’d have a lot of this knowledge already, but I simply don’t. So right now the goal is simple: Continue to learn to comfortably strum up and down. Once I can confidently do that I will move on to learning different notes and chords, and a couple more complex techniques that I only recently heard of - but I won’t get into those here.

For now I’ll leave you with this cover that I’ve been practicing of Seven Nation Army:

Dissecting Standards

Understanding an Anti-racist Pedagogy

I really enjoyed the readings for last week and feel like there’s SO much more I want to expand on and 300 words might not cover it. Not only were there a ton of moments that I found myself saying ‘YES’ or ‘Exactly’ in agreement with what the authors or persons being interviewed were saying, but I also found moments where I just wanted to hear more, or wanted to visually see what their ideal anti-racist school system, or classroom system would look like.

I’ve come to realize along my journey towards becoming a teacher just how nervous I am to be a first year teacher. The multicultural and anti-racist approach is something I want to fully engulf right from the get-go, but I worry that my lack of experience, nervousness, and potential need or desire to satisfy my principal, or any other administration’s expectation will limit me. I spend a lot of time worrying about whether people like me, and that’s my own internal struggle that I’m trying to take on this semester(that I need to take on before becoming a teacher), but what has me even more worried is will students like me? Will they feel comfortable opening up to me? How can I create a classroom that is more than just a surface level of encouraging inclusion? A classroom that truly has no political, racial, or economic preference-that teaches to the academic standards but doesn’t hold students to any other standard of culture.

‘First there is a surface stage in which people change a few expressions of culture in school. They make welcome signs in several languages and have a variety of foods and festivals. My problem is not that they start there. My concern is that they often stop there.” I drew some of these thoughts from this quote by Enid Lee.

I think Endid Lee is speaking to current teachers in her quote on changing classrooms to model an anti-racist pedagogy and feel like I have an advantage as a first year teacher to walk in knowing exactly what I want. Each and everyday I’m crafting ideas of what I want from myself, what I want from my students, and how I plan to get there. And I am so incredibly excited to get there. (Going off topic from multicultural edu, and thinking of my capstone course) In Understanding by Design the idea of backwards learning has been churning thew my mind in so many other elements of my life. In my steps towards learning the ukulele, in my plans towards becoming a teacher, in my advancement at my part time job, in so many aspects of my life I’m trying to start with understanding the big picture, figuring out what I know, what I need to know, and how to get there.

From Chapter 2 of Rethinking Multicultural Edu, this was one of the quotes by Lisa Delpit that I marked while first reading: “The more disconnected the content we teach-the more teachers try to teach skills out of context-the less likely students are to make sense of it. So we have to talk about the big picture....”

The big picture can sometimes be incredibly tough to find though! And as a future first year teacher, that plans to go in with a big picture, a plan, dreams, and realization that the dreams might not happen the way you expected, and that my future student’s happiness and learning might not happen the way I planned but that the environment and situation I create for that happiness and learning is what ultimately matters.

Alright, I feel like I should wrap up there but I also feel like there’s so much more I want to expand on from the readings but I’ll narrow it down to just a small section.

“Another thing we run into a lot is young African American students who have learned what some people refer to as a street sense, but their language might seem more mature in many ways.”

“The norms of regular classrooms are often so restrictive that any deviation suggests a pathology. So you get more African American children whose cultural norms may be a little different being directed into special education. Often teachers don't know how to best reach these kids, how to connect to what they know, how to connect to what their interests are, and what plays a part in it too.”

I could quote Delpit all day. After my experience observing in a FAIR first grade classroom, I feel like so much of what she touches on has given me a new lenses and way to understand what I observed.

I had such a hard time grappling with what I observed, and trying to figure out if it was ‘normal’. For context, the classroom I was in I would estimate had around 95 percent African American students and a first year white teacher. I did witness numerous attempts at bringing in African American culture but I don’t think it was incorporated into the learning nearly enough. I also think there was a disconnect from the teacher’s experience and expectations, and the student’s experiences and expectations.

What I write a lot about in my observation blogs, and what stands out the most is the ‘behavioral issues’ the students had, and the teachers attempt to overcome them. Reflecting now, I do think there were a few students that may have had actual behavioral issues or outside influences affecting their learning but for most of the students they just seem overall distracted. They had a hard time focusing. And I’m guessing that’s normal for 6 and 7 year olds but the learning still has to happen. And it can be done not only through an anti-racist lens, but in a way that incorporates the students interests.

Delpit has given me a couple ideas of how, she talks about focusing on students positive traits and noting how their negative traits can actually be positive traits in disguise. The example she gave was of a student that is constantly disruptive and that all the other students always follow in their lead, can be looked at as a student that’s a natural leader with a strong voice.

I don’t fully know how to construct an anti-racist classroom, but I do recognize that there were problems in the classroom I observed. The students in the 1st grade classroom at FAIR were coming to class with so much outside knowledge, but what was being taught in class didn’t connect to that. I think it’s easiest to engage students in what’s culturally relevant to them but also important to not dive too far into any one culture.

Bancroft Neighborhood Exploration

Last Friday I got to spend my morning exploring the Bancroft neighborhood of south Minneapolis. I was completely unfamiliar with the neighborhood before my exploration but after spending some time in the area, and talking to members of the community I definitely feel as if I have a stronger sense of the Bancroft community. My exploration began by observing housing and local businesses in the area. Many of the houses in the neighborhood stand out as appearing run down. I was unable to tell with a few houses if they were simply not being taken care of or abandoned. I also noticed a lot more houses as opposed to apartments or other forms of living.

 

I spent a big chunk of my journey inside Seward Community Co-op which is one of the locations for fresh produce and healthy food. It’s only been open a few months, and it wasn’t very busy inside, but the store definitely seems to add a lot to the community. The produce section is very well stocked and there’s plenty of staff about at all times to help. I did notice that a lot of the products stocked in the co-op tend to be a lot more expensive than those you’d find in a Cub foods or even a Target. The co-op has primarily organic or natural products which I love, but I’m curious what percentage of people living in the community can afford it on a regular basis.

While I was in the Seward Co-op I talked to a man that worked in the Wellness department of the co-op that had a very positive things to say about the neighborhood and was able to recommend quite a few restaurants and coffee shops in the area. He also mentioned Little Box Sauna coming to the neighborhood, which is a traveling sauna that residents have free access too.

Another stop on my exploration was Blue Ox Coffee Co. I took a quick peek at the bulletin board there and sure enough there was the Little Box Sauna posted! I immediately wondered what drew the traveling sauna to this area, especially since it appears to be a very family centered neighborhood.

Overall I enjoyed the neighborhood a ton and can't wait to learn more with each visit.

Checkout more info about the Bancroft community here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VN2tJnNNbocKixZkiMi9E8kfJo1htApHTPCbwsWfKjw/edit

Radical Learner Proposal

I arrived at the decision to learn to play ukulele through a number of steps and considerations.

This project is titled the “radical learner project” meaning I need to demonstrate an impact in the fundamental nature that is learning. Both as a learner and a designer of that learning. With that said, I don’t know anything about playing musical instruments, none the less the ukulele. I am a lover of listening to music but not by any means a musically gifted person. I anticipate that this task of learning something so entirely new to me is going to be difficult. I have zero knowledge behind playing musical instruments, and as a learner to will need to push myself to stay motivated. I am taking this Multicultural Approaches to Education course with the intent to become an exceptional elementary school teacher. I want to learn how to learn something with little interest and lack of previous knowledge because I imagine my future students might be starting at this point before a lesson. The big objective for me is to be able to understand my future students needs as learners. Learning the ukulele might not benefit me practically in life, will take up some of my time, and require me to focus both mentally and physically but these are expectations that I need to be able to empathize with if I’m to expect them of students one day.

For the sake of this project only spanning a couple months, I hope to have learned a short song or half of a longer song on the ukulele as a measure of my goal as a learner.

Three ways in which I plan to this:

Observation through the use of tutorials:

Learning the cords of the ukulele is going to require visually seeing the different cords being demonstrated on the ukulele. There’s a few different ways in which I could have this info visually taught, but I think the best method for me is going to be through online tutorials. My hope is that seeing the instrument up close with the ability to rewind and pause the video as needed are going to make this step of the learning process a lot easier. I also will be seeing an actual person demonstrate the cord, and hear what it sounds like so I can compare my own finger placement and be able to mimic the sound the tutorial instructors ukulele makes.

Application through the use of tutorials:

In this step of my learning I will be following along more intently with the online tutorial instructors and watching their steps to showing different chords put together to form a song.

Practice by means of repetition:

At this step my goal is ultimately memorizing chords and the order they go in to learn a certain piece of a song.

The steps in which I planned to achieve my learning goal were thought out in way that I thought would spark the learning the quickest. For example, my source of learning comes from online tutorials and not from books or an in person instructor which I think would require more of my time and energy. As a very observational learner I don’t think books give me enough of the reassurance I need like seeing a demonstration of the skills and in person lessons would hold too much pressure for me. The online tutorials are very convenient, and are a good way to visually see the skill I’m learning, and also hear how the music should sound.

I didn’t decide to dive into music theory and understand why the notes I’m learning sound good together. I’m diving into something without understanding what makes good music. I also don’t plan to learn to read music. I feel a little guilty  because I don’t want my future students to ever walk away from a lesson not understanding the why of what they’re learning. However, since my ultimate goal is to understand learning the basics of the skill and not to understand the concepts behind music, I don’t think those concepts are what matter.

Retracing the Pedagogy of the Past

One of my favorite courses during my senior year of high school was Environmental Science. The teacher always had unique ways of keeping us engaged. For example, one of my favorite lessons of that course was identifying Minnesota native trees. We were not only required to memorize and describe characteristics of different native trees but also had to identify those characteristics when looking at the tree. One of the memories that stands out to me the most was taking a mini field trip with my class around my high school’s neighborhood. We walked down a walking trail and along sidewalks of the neighborhood observing the characteristics of trees and identifying them. The teacher led the way, eager to get to a certain tree he knew about in the neighborhood and then we all followed as students with our notebooks ready to take notes and draw pictures. He’d then see if any student could identify it based on our in class notes, and then point out the different characteristics of the tree.

To this day I can still identify trees when I’m out and about and I truly don’t think I would have been able to do so if I were sitting in class looking at slideshows or pictures of trees instead of seeing them in person. Of course it didn’t hurt that the weather was nice! It made for a fun learning experience, I think that also contributed to my ability to memorize different native trees so effectively. Typically whenever I’m told by a teacher that I need to know something because I’m going to be tested on it, I forget it almost immediately after the test. However this wasn’t the case for me, and I like trees and all, but not as much as anyone else I know.

I definitely think that the teacher planned this lesson well. I remember that the course was only offered during the spring semester, and based on the fact that we had a lot of outdoor lessons I think this could be why. I also think that the teacher knew this was a harder lesson to grasp from simply taking notes and looking at slideshow images of trees. It would have been much easier for the teacher to keep us indoors, in our assigned seats, but instead he chose the harder task of managing a bunch of 17 year olds in an open public space. We were later tested on what we had learned that day, and despite some serious senior slacking I remember doing well on that portion of the test.

I definitely think the teacher chose this hands on approach knowing it would work better for students. I think it was well thought out and well executed and I think that the fact that it stuck with me all these years is proof of that.