Teaching

A spotlight has been shined on the treatment of Asian Americans for the worst possible reason. Hate crimes against Asians have risen since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Teacher Appreciation Week has always been one of those annual celebrations where I’ve questioned how much love people really have for teachers. I know there are some folx who truly appreciate the work that we do and are genuine in their expression of that appreciation, but that’s not the case for most folx.

Around the country, from Pennsylvania to Texas, white parents and groups like Parents Defending Education, are flexing their caste-given societal muscles against anything that looks remotely like anti-racism, culturally responsive teaching, or diversity, equity, and inclusion. Republicans smell blood in the water, creating campaigns designed to support so-called “parents’ rights” banning lessons they find divisive or political. Meanwhile, more than 20 HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) have received bomb threats in recent months.

Early on in the pandemic, the hope for “reimagined” education and an overdue acknowledgment of teachers’ heroism dominated narratives about schools, yet the empathy expressed for educators has seemingly waned.

Stop what you’re doing and go thank a Black teacher. Whether online or in-person, take time out today to thank a Black teacher.

It is no secret that there is a widening diversity gap between our public school students and our public school educators. Public schools enrollment is now majority-minority, but teachers of color account for just 21% of the educator workforce, with Black educators making up just 7% of that total. Black and brown teachers have a profoundly positive impact on not only Black and brown students, but all students. A great body of evidence shows that Black, brown and white students alike see positive academic benefits when they are taught by diverse teachers.

The Minneapolis NAACP wants to unveil “the truth behind the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) deception” concerning the recent teacher strike.

“Ms. Avalos, tell me I’m right!” Darrien and his lab group crowd my desk. “But it doesn’t make any sense,” argues Jocelyn, “Why would it go up?” My students are in the middle of a physics lesson on graphs of motion and are using sensors to act out the graphs they see on their handheld screens. I am following their every move, recording the class for my submission for a teaching award. Six weeks later, I got the good news: I’ve been named my district’s secondary science teacher of the year.

When my colleagues and I asked a group of pre-service teachers to graph and make a claim about data, the response we got surprised us.

“Data exploration is completely new to me,” said a college junior studying to become a K-6 teacher.

It immediately became clear we needed to back up a few steps. How can we expect our future teachers to teach their future students data skills they themselves never learned?