Cultural Responsiveness Starts with Real Caring
If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit. --Ralph Ellison I’ve...
Beyond Flesh-Colored Crayons: The Four Components of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
This is the second in a four part series on culturally responsive pedagogy. The first post looked at the myths around culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). This one looks at its key components. I’ve always been an equity-focused, social justice educator since I cut my...
Strange Bedfellows: Hip-Hop, Vocabulary Development, and the Common Core
As a former English teacher and a forever writer, I love hip-hop lyrics. Don’t get me wrong, not the gangsta rap full of gunplay, misogynistic images and fowl language. (Remember when a hoe was simply a garden tool?). No, I’m talking about real hip-hop – consciousness...
5 Common Myths about Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
This is the first in a series of posts demystifying culturally responsive pedagogy. This past school year, my colleague and I spent one day a month with a group of BTSA (Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment) support providers at one of our local county offices of...
Building Our Muscle to Be Culturally Competent — What Does It Take?
Despite that it was a mild summer day outside today (I found this out when I left the office for lunch), I spent the morning with four of my fabulous colleagues (brilliant coaches every one of them) huddled around a white board designing a new program for...
True Grit: Can We Teach Students to Be Persistent Learners?
When I think of Alvin Toffler's quote, it reminds me of Briana, a 4th grader living in the predominately African American and Latino low-income community in East Oakland. Her grandmother asked me to come over and help her with her reading. I could see that she had a...
Connecting Teaching and Learning
home based jobs I love this cartoon because it highlights the disconnection between teaching and learning that some times happens. I remember when I was in my first year of teaching back in the day. I taught composition to high school juniors and seniors. I remember a...
Brain-based Learning vs. Kidney-based Learning: Which is Best?
I know. You read the headline and thought, what the heck is this “kidney-based” learning? Kidney-based learning. It sounds silly. Well, I think the term “brain-based” learning” sounds just as silly. Come on. All learning takes place in the brain, right? There is no...
Three Ways to Improve Reading WITHOUT a Book This Summer
It’s summer time. Soon children are going to be signing up for summer reading programs at the library. Here’s a radical idea. Let’s work on improving low-performing students’ reading skills without a book this summer. Here’s why I say this. I was watching The Secret...
Three Reasons Why Getting Urban Students Ready for Rigor is Critical to Common Core Success
Wow. It’s my first blog post. I wondered for days where to start. So I’m starting with the why. Why is getting students in our lowest performing inner city schools ready for rigor important? Seems like a no-brainer. You might ask isn’t a rich curriculum and strong...