By: Echo Gates Hello everyone! I am writing the blog post this week to give an over view of what I learned at the White Privilege Conference over Spring Break. While there were many things that I took away I am going to share just a few of the “gold nuggets” that I took away. One thing that the “hype” guy in the morning (because 8 am on Spring Break was a tad early) said as a group of students got off the stage was, “Our students have voices, we just need to give them the chance, space, and empowerment to use it.” This was something that I thought was very interesting and really challenging. I found myself questioning if the things I am doing in the classroom are empowering my students to use their voice or stifling it? The next thing I am going to talk about was my all-day institute that I took part in. The title of the session was, “Teaching While White.” This session focused on how teachers, specifically white teachers need to be aware of their own implicit biasis that may come into the classroom as well as those of our students. The session started with talking about us first. In order to become an ally, we need to be aware what biases we are bringing to the situation and do work on us first. They recommended talking this test (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html) to see what those may be. Once you are aware you are more likely to make a change. “A consistent predictor of academic success is teacher expectation.” The two ladies that ran this session have a blog that they post to (where you can access podcasts, articles and many more wonderful things), a Twitter, and a Facebook page. Check out their blog here: teachingwhilewhite.org/blog and find more links to their resources on the "Podcasts and People to Follow" page. This session was packed full of wonderful things that were said and shared. A statement that really has stuck with me is, “A consistent predictor of academic success is teacher expectation.” We as classroom teachers need to make sure our expectations are the same for EVERY STUDENT that comes in the door. I assume some of you reading are saying in your head, “they are the same, so what do you mean.” This goes back to knowing yourself and those implicit thoughts and feelings you may have and not even be aware of. When you are not aware you can not change. Another thing that the ladies talked about is how sometimes in our classrooms things come up that we as teachers need to get the whole story of or that are a sensitive subject and we need to set up that conversation. When this happens, they mentioned having a response ready to use so our students know we WILL address it at another time. They suggested saying “I’ve heard it, I’ve marked it, and I will address it.” These three little statements then let our students know that what is happening in the room has been heard and that when time allows you will come back to it. After this statement is made we then as the teacher NEED to come back to it. Sitting on the statement or the action and doing nothing may come across to the students it offended that we do not care, and we must stand up for them! We must be an ally and make sure that those students in our rooms know it will not be tolerated. Finally, a blog post that Teaching While White posted in January entitled, “What if Being Called “Racist” Is The Beginning Not the End, of the Conversation? Learning What it Really Means to be A White Teacher” has some very good insights. This particular post is from January, but I encourage you to read through some of their other posts as well-- SO MANY other great reads along the way! An overview of the post is that a white female teacher put herself in situations that involved race and then when it was brought to her attention she did not address it. This happens in classrooms all over. So what if when we are called racist by our students we explore that with them what was done to make them feel that way -->ask them what needs to change. Doing this not only allows us to have conversations with our students and to hear them out. It also allows us to be real which in turn allows them the space to be real with us. It also provides us with a learning opportunity and a chance to change what we can in regards to our biases. There is so much more that I could write and I have MANY notes! Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions! Thank you, Echo
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