Trick or treat tell me how you would teach? 🎃🖤

 Trick or treat tell me how would you teach?  If you would , would you dare to teach within your heart and care? HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2K21!!!!  

Parker J. Palmer is a well known pedagogical writer known for discussing how instructors should teach through heart work. Heart work is defined as teachers aligning their actions and meaning behind their actions within their teachings. It is when teachers move past what an institution is telling them to teach. It is when an instructor cares for an educational reform movement in change and in their students lives. It is done by both loving the subject and loving the students from an inner and outer scale.  (Palmer, P. J., 2017, The Courage to Teach Guide for Reflection and Renewal)

Within the classroom setting, I chose to both love the subject I teach and incorporate my students lives because they matter!!!!! In one of the classes I teach, Communication 1010, I always incorporate a reflection of my students in each lesson. I have done the second day of class. Music is a great way to get to know each other right? On the second day of class, I had the students create a playlist on Spotify so that we could have a playlist that incorporates them through the choice of music. I had to explain to them that all genres of music were welcomed including music that had profanity in it. I think music is a great way to show off who we are both culturally and lyrically. It is a great way to #diversifyit. They were so shocked that I gave them the chance to add ANY song of their liking. The playlist that we created gets played 15-10 minutes before the start of class and during group work time in class as long as it is not a distraction to them. Whenever we are at the bottom of the playlist, I either ask groups to give me a new song to add whenever they finished before other groups have finished with the classroom’s group activity. (We usually do an activity in groups. They get broken into groups and accomplish whatever is asked of them such as creation of a social movement that they would campaign for it and other questions related to lesson). If I have downtown, I will add a couple songs on there myself but I am careful not to overpower the music selection. I have added 6 songs so far this semester. Our playlist should consist of 40+songs now as we are entering the fourth quarter of the semester!! (ALREADY). This in my eyes, allows them to feel more comfortable in our class and it allows them to be heard. 

When it comes to the course, whatever the lesson of the given unit is, I am sure to be inclusive of the students. This allows them to be heard educationally as such topics may have never been addressed in an educational setting. This definitely allows the students to be felt,seen and heart.For example, they had to write a paper that discussed an important social issue to them. A week prior to taking them to one of the Univeristy of North Texas’s student computer labs,

 (Yes I spent the entire class week with them there in order to ensure that EVERY student had access to a computer because you never know a student’s financial background meaning, some students may not own a laptop and or have limited access to using the school’s computers. Spending class in the lab for two course periods, allowed them to spend their time on their assignment. I wanted them to all feel like they ALL had access. No student left behind!!!:) 

 I discussed a few social issues that I would want to write about it if I had to write about a social issue that mattered to me #DiversifyIt. I discussed the mass incarceration disadvantage that African American people face compared to Caucasian people. I also discussed that my hometown, Peoria, Illinois has ranked in the top 5 for the past 5 years as the worst place for African-Americans to live in. This allowed them to understand where I stood with the African Community as well as where I came from and the things that I some of the injustices that I have witnessed the African-American Community go through. Mass incarceration is ONE OF MANY SOCIAL ISSUES that the American American community face. Being an ally, it is my due diligence to advocate the injustices that the A.A community faces. By discussing the unfairness of incarcerated American Americans, I hope I showed students compasssion and understandable as I may have spoken to some of them directly. There NEEDS to be a reform within incarceration and badly!! Sooner rather than later. SO With that being said, maybe some of my students had or currently have their uncles, cousins, brothers and other family members or close family/friends who got falsely charged with a crime and sentenced to prison. I let them know that I am sorry and that there needs to be a major reform. Although my apology won’t free their person/people, I hope that it did show some type of compassion. I Incorporated the topic so that it would allow me to show the students that I truly care about them outside of the classroom. I care about them from a systemic view. This system is so unfair towards minorities it’s sickening. It’s BEEN time to switch it up and cater towards EVERYBODY regardless of their skin tone.

 The revolution beings within the classroom whether people realize it or not. Inclusiveness can be discussed throughout the entire semester. Inclusion shows that you care beyond the subject. You care to discuss current social issues and allows you to advocate for minorities who are in dire need of advocation. Inclusiveness of topics may allow for  conversations to take place.  By strategically discussing that as an example, I snuck that fact in there and hopefully allowed for some new thoughts to enter my students minds. I hope this allowed them to do their own research and discuss the new information that they learned to their friends and family members. Being an advocate for a social issue starts off with the awareness of an issue. Then, you advocate it. How? EASY.. You make people talk about it, you inform them about the issue. Within this issue, reformation goes outside of just talking about it, but we as the people (citizens of the United States), are the reason why laws occur and how and why they should occur!! Teaching our students goes outside of the subject. We must show them how to be advocative citizens. For the people, by the people. The people shall not be silenced and the revolution shall be televised. (I love saying the last part because truly us millennials are onto something. I love us for real.) 

Sources:

Palmer, P. J., & Scribner, M. (2017). The Courage to Teach Guide for Reflection and Renewal (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

**YES, YES I KNOW I GAVE YOU A BAR AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS BLOG SO IMA GO AHEAD AND CREDIT MYSELF CYNTHIA GOT BARS OLIVEROS!!!!! *Drops Mic*