Teaching Digital Literacy

 In a modern world teaching and technology go hand in hand along with other aspects of life. But how do we as teachers help our students prepare for this integration and help them use the technology to the very best of their ability while keeping in mind all of the fake news that is out there and keep them as non-bias and as open minded as possible when it comes to day to day research on topics. The webinar "Teaching Digital Literacy" goes into how we as educators can make these things happen for our students.

The Webinar goes into discussing how there are many types of bias that can happen in the world especially on the internet. We as humans have cognitive bias and also confirmation bias. Cognitive Bias is what our brains will do by default. We will do things on impulse or without really thinking to much or at all about the situation we are in. Confirmation bias is when believe things that further confirm something that we already thought or believed in. So for example on the internet, students, teachers and everyone are more likely to click on a link to say a news article and believe that article to be true if we already have some prior knowledge of the situation and the article just further confirms that idea that we had beforehand. Another way that confirmation bias is shown is on social media. We are more likely to react to a post or like a post if we already have previous knowledge on the situation and the post further confirms what we were already thinking about or have previously believed.

We as teachers also often want students to make connections to patterns that aren't completely obvious. Apophenia is seeing patterns where patterns are not normally to be seen. Our brains are wired to make meaningful connections to things that are around them. However, we as teachers want to make sure students learn to not confuse understanding with familiarity. So in other words make sure our students are comprehending something say when we repeat instructions everyday and not just completely getting used to the prior knowledge that they have been given.

We as teachers also need to educate our students to know that the first result that they yield from say a google search may not be the correct answer and may in fact be bias and skewed in some sort of way. People have discovered how they can manipulate the situation in order to yield certain posts, links, articles, videos and pictures to come up first whenever people search for related things. So we as educators need to inform our students that the first thing that the search results yield is not always the most accurate information.

We as educators need to think of the internet as a potentially dangerous place for our students to be on. The internet has the potential to be full of things like hate speech, vulnerability to conspiracy theories, and information inequality. Information inequality meaning that some students have access to less platforms of media then others and can't take in a wide range of news media and can only take in what they are exposed to.

As educators we can recognize and decode bias in our students. We can look at our own teaching sources closely with students to determine if they are bias or not. We can also find websites and resources to create our own fake news articles for students in order to help them better detect and recognize what fake new sources look like. By doing these things we can allow for our students to be more open minded in a society that is fueled by the online world.

LGBTQ Inclusion in the Classroom and Being an Ally as an Educator

 What does it mean to be an LGBTQ ally? What does it mean for us as educators? The webinar "LGBTQ Best Practices: Classroom Culture and Curriculum" it goes into discussing what it means to make students who are in the LGBTQ community to feel more included and let them know your classroom is a safe space for them to be themselves.

How can we do this? There are a number of things we can do as educators to make our LGBTQ students feel included and allow for their ally peers to become even more of an ally.

• Start the class by sharing your pronouns and also having students share their name along with their own pronouns
• Ask for students and anyone else in the classroom what their pronouns are (Don't assume pronouns)
• Use they pronoun when when addressing all students (everyone is included where as things like boys and girls may make some students who don't identify with either feel left out)
• You can even ask pronouns in a student survey at the beginning of the year
• Representation of what you are reading, writing or discussing (either the character or author) in the LGBTQ community
• Posters around the classroom can also help with the representation of the LGBTQ community
• Create ground rules when talking about the LGBTQ community (Such as no negative comments or statements) (Can also, create a student signed contract to enforce this policy)
• Give students proper language to use when they may be confused about certain things such as pronouns
• Never let a homophobic or transphobic remark go uninterrupted
• Never present someone's identity as up for debate
• respond to myths surrounding the LGBTQ community with facts about the community

By doing these things students who are a part of the community feel more included and will be able to recognize your classroom as being a safe space for them. Also, by doing this you are allowing for other students to grow in their understanding  of the community, stay respectful of peers and create allies to the community.

What Happens when we miss gender someone, witness someone else miss gender someone, or a homophobic/transphobic comment is made? These issues may come up in your classroom and the webinar also goes into discussing what we as educators can do to correct the situation.

• If we miss gender someone: Apologize and correct yourself but don't over apologize (if more needs to be said it should be done as a one on one with the person and not a public issue)
• If you notice someone else miss gender someone: You can correct the pronoun in the moment (by rephrasing or repeating what the person said but using the correct pronoun), or continue the conversation and use correct pronouns
• If a negative comment is made (Transphobic/homophobic):  Never let it go uninterrupted (even if it is just a brief interruption to signal to the person that the comment was not okay)
• If religion is brought up: make sure students understand that religion is not an excuse to harass someone else

Overall, by using these tools we can make for a more inclusive classroom setting when it comes to LGBTQ communities and being allies. We as educators can model correct and positive behavior surrounding this topic and also have the tools to correct any negative (intentional or unintentional) behavior that may come about in the classroom. 

Student's Mental Health Matters

 The Webinar  "Student Mental Health Matters" goes into discussing students and how their mental health can affect them in not only the classroom but also in the world. The webinar also, discusses the ways in which we can be more responsible as educators and how we can help take care of our students mentally and provide them with resources that they may need.

The first big and key takeaways are how common mental health issues are in the students that we are teaching. The webinar discusses that one in five children, ages three to seventeen, have a mental, emotional, or behavioral disability. There also, is the discussion of how students of color have suicide rates that are twice the amount as their white peers. This shows that students who struggle with their  mental health is something that is very common to have in the classroom.

But what can we as educators do? We can educate ourselves as educators and provide other educators with mental health first aid training. We can make sure schools have unified mental health teams featuring a school psychologist, school social worker, and the school's counseling staff to work alongside the teachers. We can work to educate ourselves, educate the families in the schools, and work to remove the negative stigma around one's mental health. We can also give students of all ages the frameworks and language to discuss their mental health in a safe environment.

What we should not do as educators: We should not be trying to diagnose our students with different mental health issues. We should not be generalizing students problems. We should not be comparing one students problems to another student and or another students problems.

Together by doing things and not doing others to better our students health we can see a more positive change and provide students with what they need in order to be successful in not only the classroom but also, in the future when they are out in the world.

Racism, History and Teaching Today

 The film "I am Not Your Negro" discusses several aspects in regards to racism, history and in particular the racism and history in regards to people of color. This film overall further enhanced what I knew about the racism and the history of people of color but also led me to take this information, new and old, and implement it into a classroom setting, no matter what the integration rates are at the school. 

"The moment a negro child walks into the school, every decent, self-respecting, loving, parent should take his white child out of that broken school." (5:49). This was the first quote of the movie that stood out to me as being important. It is a statement that even though happened years ago still contributes to the structural racism that is seen in todays society. This statement is inaccurate because just because a child of color enters a school, it doesn't even begin to correlate with the school being broken or not. Students of color can be the brightest students nor should the fact that they are a part of a certain school system determine their intelligence or not. Nor as individuals who are white be told that the school that they attend is broken because a student/ students of color attend there. This creates harsh stereotypes toward not only the individual students of color but also to the school district itself.

It also, allows for stereotypes and harsh discrimination to be cast upon the individuals who are white and are accepting of the fact that students of color attend a school. The film brings to light a teacher Bill Miller who taught at a school that had students of color. "She too anyway, was treated like a N*****, especially by the cops, and she had no love for landlords" (13:05) This goes to show that people standing up and acknowledging that people of color too deserve equal rights, such as education, politics, trial by jury, and fair and decent treatment, will face discrimination and judgement from others. This still happens today. People who are out and protesting police brutality and are white are often hearing the phrase "Why are you standing with this movement you are white?" I know this first hand because it was said to my sister and her friends as they were attending a peaceful protest a few weeks ago. Individuals also had called and made fun of my sister and her friends for standing up for the movement and being white along with several others at the protest. This overall, just brought to light that there always have been people who have been brave enough to stand for equality regardless of their race throughout the generations.

Another problem that the film brings to light is the representation in main stream media. Things like movies, television shows, books and advertisements have often used individuals who are white to create their content, or have given small roles to people of color and called that representation. It leads for children and older people of color to think "Heroes from what I could see were white..." (15:38). This sort of representation can discourage people of color for thinking that they can never be any sort of a hero based upon the color of their skin. I personally had known that in the past people of color didn't have any representation in the media, but never had thought about how when they were being portrayed they were minor characters who were not the forefront of the story. This has changed some in more recent years with movies such as Black Panther or books such as Attika Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, but still isn't what it should be in my opinion. 

Where do these ideas leave me as a future educator? How as a future educator can I make a difference in the right direction? These things can come from acknowledging that even though some of the discrimination people of color have faced in the past is less main stream and have changed for the better, still realizing that a lot more needs to be done. This can mean discussions among the classroom in regards to current events going on such as the murder of George Floyd and also Breonna Taylor and discussing the #SayHerName movement. It also can mean reading from more authors of color such as Lorraine Hansberry who wrote "A Rasin in the Sun". To just overall being an advocate for students of color or who have parents who are of color. It also can mean fighting for integrated classrooms and that an integrated classroom is not a broken classroom and that an integrated school is not a broken school. It means standing up for people of color no matter the negative comments that will be received.  As an educator representation in the classroom matters no matter the ratio of integration because as an educator I want to teach love not hate especially when it comes to one another's race. 

Education System Flaws

The first thing that stood out to me was how standardize testing doesn't necessarily meet all standards or prove that standards are met. I think this really is something that needs to be brought up upon the education world because students may meet the standards but not perform well on standardized tests. There are many reasons for this. A lot of times students are pressured to do well on a standardized test and can let that judgement cloud their opinions and performance of the specific knowledge.

    I also like the point that she brings up how these standards were set into place by white people and didn't take into consideration students of color when these standards were formed. I think this also plays a big role into a lot of the inequality we see in school systems because they don't cater to the abilities and differences that students of color face. This feeds again into the structural racism that is found in society when it comes to schools and school systems.

    The podcast also brings up the redoing of the common core with new approaches. These new approaches would cater to the students of color who are affected by the common core because when it was written students of color were not taken into consideration when it was written. This is the call for change that we need to see when it comes to improving the structural racism that we see in the world. 

    I also really like the idea of questions and when writing and exam or formal assignment, not asking "Is it tough?" but instead asking "Is it possible?". I feel as if with this then you are creating a more positive mindset for all of the students because they won't have questions that are not attainable and will be replaced with questions that you as an educator know that they should be able to do instead of really drilling into their head that the material is difficult and that they need to worry and stress about the exam or whatever is being given as a summative assessment.

    These points that are made I think help contribute to ending the structural racism that we see in society especially when it comes to the education system. We as educators should be more aware of standards and how they contribute to the structural racism that is built into society and how that affects our students. We need to be more mindful also about the way that we create summative assessments to where we are using a more attainable mindset for the assignments to better cater to the needs of all of our students. For example by using the question "is it possible?" we are basing our questions, as educators not on the difficulty of a question but if the question itself is something that the students would be able to answer based on what was taught to them in class.

The speaker goes into discussing there are four key components to this breakdown. The four key components are identity, skills, intellect and criticality. Each one is explained as follows:

Identity- Helping students discover who they are in regardless to race, gender, class and religion along with other aspects. By using materials of a wide range of identities it allows for students to feel a sense of pride and acceptance not only in the classroom but also in the world and with themselves.

Skills- We as a society find it of importance to test students ability to do things, do them well and do them correctly. We do this to determine not only the success of the pupil but also the educator.  The speakers suggests that we use skills supplemental to other important lessons to measure students success. 

Intellect- This is what knowledge and skills are when put together. With all of the knowledge and skill students will be able to build upon the prior knowledge and expand what they know. This helps to develop certain things like critical thinking and also the ability to formulate strong opinions and questions.

Criticality- This will allow for students to see the truth, lies and injustice that is in the world around them. It will also allow for them to be able to do something about it. It will allow for them to make each day a little better and push for reforms and change. It will allow for them to see and determine what they can and can’t believe in the world around them.

Systematic Racism and The Coronavirus

 There is a lot to say about how Coronavirus has impacted all of us but what does it mean when we take into account its relationship with systematic racism? First, we have to establish what systematic racism is. "Systematic racism in the U.S. is the normalization and the legalization of an array of dynamics- historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal- that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic and adverse outcomes for people of color." (Rose, 4:05)  This basically in a short term explains how racism is worked into our everyday society sometimes without any of of us even realizing that it can be found in basically everything in the world around us, from school, to housing, employment, income and health care. Also, unfortunately all of these things play into one another.

    But how do these things play into how the world is dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic? It actually plays into a lot as to who gets it, who is at risk and who can receive treatment. "Public health officials say Latinos may be more vulnerable to the virus as a result of the same factors that have put minorities at risk across the country. Many have low paying service jobs that require them to work through the pandemic, interacting with the public." (Jordan and Oppel) This exposes these minorities along with others to the public and also to the virus making it more likely to catch the virus through exposure. They then become more exposed and also can easily spread it to coworkers as well due to the fact that they can't afford to take time off to recover or seek proper medical attention. "A large number also lack access to healthcare, which contributes to higher rates of diabetes and other conditions that can worsen infections." (Jordan and Oppel) The article doesn't mention that with a lack of access to healthcare this leads to other issues as well. If someone who is affected by the virus and catches it they may not have access to appropriate medical care and also working low paying jobs may lead to not being able to afford any sort of medical related expenses especially those related to COVID-19. This unfortunately will lead to overall health issues especially if medical treatment can't be afforded by those in these communities. 

In order to see changes in these issues set forth by structural racism ""We must change the way we inhabit the planet." If we don't Covid-19 wont be the last pandemic we see in our lifetimes. And it may not be the worst" (Smithers). This calls for a change in the way that we are handling things that are going on in regards to the pandemic but also in how we better prepare ourselves for the future. A good part of what is happening is due to the structural racism that is so much built into the culture that is today. There needs to be reform in this so that way everyone has equal opportunity, weather they choose to or not,  to protect themselves in any way possible, even if that means to quit a job or take a leave  of absence, and also not have to worry about any sort of financial hardship that it may bring. Also, healthcare and medical related expenses shouldn't be a worry for anyone either. The option of seeking medical care should be equally available to anyone who may need it without feeling like they can't get help because the cost is way too much for them to be able to afford. Overall, this pandemic has affected everyone and still is affecting a lot of people. However, there are people who are suffering more and struggling more than others and a lot of that can be seen as coming from the structural racism that has been incorporated into society.

Response to Episode One Unnatural Causes

 1. The main ideas of the film are that everything a person has access to  plays a part as to everything else that goes on in their daily lives. This includes a persons health, overall life expectancy, income, education, and career. The film goes into discussing  how if one of these things is not doing well or isn't of easy access to the individual that that individual overall will see a decline in the other factors mentioned before. For example if a student doesn't have a ton of money they may not have the resources to get an education or a higher paying job. The lack of money can lead to food insecurity. Food insecurity can lead to a student not preforming well academically and may develop health complications from that as well. Then with the lack of money may not have health insurance and could end up owing a lot of money and going further into debt or not getting proper treatment and suffering with the illness for awhile which can lead to the loss of a job or loss of education. Everything would end up spilling into another category and making it more stressful for the individual. The film goes into detail about how this has a long term affect on those in different classes. The film discusses how people who are wealthier, can afford the more expensive homes that are located in nicer communities. These upper class families can also afford more organic food that provide more nutrients to those who are consuming it. The film shows one woman of a lower class who is going grocery shopping and is buying a family size meal that costs very little because that is all that she can afford. She lives in a lower income community and shops on a very strict budget because that is all she can afford. This problem leads to food insecurity and other health issues from lack of resources that are needed to stay healthy.

2. Capitalism plays a lot into this because they don't provide adequate resources to those who need it. With capitalism not everyone is able to afford healthcare, healthy nutritious food, clean water, or even sustainable housing. Never mind, have basic luxuries such as a TV or internet connection which gives people who can afford it the upper hand when it comes to obtaining nicer jobs to make more money or to be able to afford an education or having the resources needed to at least get a high school education. Chibber in his article says "How can it be that in a society with such enormous resources and weath, a thin layer of the population at the top gets to have everything, while millions upon millions experience life as a daily grind, a struggle to make ends meet?" ( Chibber 3) This just barely touches upon how a capitalist society contains all of the resources needed but they are not accessible or affordable to everyone and only a small percentage can actually afford and have access to the resources that they need in order to prosper in every way possible. With being part of the overall top percent which leads to the access to healthcare and nutritious food, overall stress is decreased and that creates more positive  mental health and as mentioned in the video allows for the average life expectancy to increase. On the other hand, as the video showed, the lack of resources in a capitalist society leads to a shorter life on average. In order to change this Chibber suggests that we come up with solutions that "reject the ideas that people's fate should be left to how well they do on the labor market". (Chibber, 39)

3. This means that we as ELA teachers need to consider that during the pandemic not every student may have connection to the internet. Not every student may have the ability to order needed books to read or even have a computer. The students during the pandemic may be high risk and may not be able to leave the house and that can take a toll on a students mental health as well along with if a student gets sick or has someone they know get sick they may need to miss classes due to other obligations. They also may be facing food insecurity and when students are hungry it becomes harder for them to focus and also for them to concentrate on tasks that need to be done. If students become sick and can't afford healthcare or proper treatment they can be out of school for some time which may lead them to falling behind or simply not being able to continue their education.We as educators need to really be mindful in what we are assigning, provide accommodations where needed, provide resources and help students in any way that we can.