Teach Out Article Summary

Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference.

A central component of this article is the idea of privilege, and how privilege (or lack thereof) affects an individuals relationship to power. Johnson paraphrases McIntosh in his discussion of "unearned entitlements" (i.e. working in a safe environment) versus "unearned advantages" (when that safe environment is only guaranteed to one identity). I find this to be a major hurdle for those entering into discussions on race and identity. I intend to using Johnson's article to help in my Teach Out assignment based on LGBTQ identity markers, and hopefully by creating a LGBTQ club at my school next year. By having students interact with others that share the same identity, they can hopefully begin to make sense of the world and their own relation to the power systems at play.

Safe Spaces: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth
I was hoping to use this article as a main piece of my teach out project. As a queer educator, I have often thought about ways in which I can help students that may be struggling with their identity, similar to how I struggled in middle school and high school. In Safe Spaces: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT youth, the authors discuss ways in which students have not been made safe in their own schools and lives. I hope that by utilizing the lessons taught in this piece, I can better support my students with colorful identities. I intend to utilize their work as a framework for creating a club at my school for the LGBTQ+ community. By integrating students identities, educators have the ability to transform education, according to the authors.
Vaccaro, A., August, G., & Kennedy, M. S. (2012). Safe spaces: Making schools and communities welcoming to LGBT youth. ABC-CLIO.

Comments

Digital Native or Not?

I was born prior to most of the modern day technology youth have access to today. Although I was not born into this technology, my early childhood years saw the transition into today's modern technologies. Due to this, I think of myself more as a digital native than a digital immigrant. Though I was born in a time when cellphones and laptops were not quite as ubiquitous as they are today, I spent most of my time with the forms of technology that were available to me. As a 6 or 7 year old, I would play Nintendo 64 or Playstation or Gameboy, which were new and advanced for the time. By the time I was in middle school, I was spending a lot of time on the desktop computer, on websites such as Myspace (shoutout to Tom !). I developed the 'native' skills of twitch speed or parallel processing while going down Wikipedia rabbit holes while playing flash games in another tab.

Turkle & Wesch

In Turkle's article "The Flight From Conversation", she shares her perspective on the technological universe that we live in today. She discusses that in our current society, we have sacrificed conversation with each other for simple connection (in the form of our communicative technologies). Though we are all connected together through our cellphones, we are not interacting in the same ways we have in the past. This has left us in a 'Goldilocks' zone according to Turkle, in which we use our technology in order to not be too close and not too far from others. In this zone of disconnection, we can be left feeling alone, with our technologies acting as a crutch we use to fend off the feelings of loneliness while only continuing the problem. She ends her article with a quote that succinctly summarizes her stance on new technologies, "If we are unable to be alone, we are far more likely to be lonely". In Wesch's article, "Anti-Teaching: Conf...

Quick Key Tutorial

One of the most important aspects of being a teacher is assessment. Assessments, whether formative or summative, are integral to effective teaching practices. As teachers, there are countless items on our To Do Lists, and often, the collection and analysis of classroom data is timely and easily neglected. Here to the rescue is Quick Key! Simply put, Quick Key is like the familiar Scantron test forms used throughout colleges. Unlike Scantron, Quick Key does not require any fancy forms (or even a number 2 pencil!), and as long as you have a smartphone, you are capable of quickly collecting and analyzing assessment data in your classroom. In order to get started, follow the short tutorial below! 1. Access the Quick Key website (or app on your phone). Click on "Teachers" on the homepage, and follow the "Sign up for Free" prompt. 2. Input the necessary personal information to create your account. The site offers 3 different account options, but you simply ne...

Collins Compositions

Search This Blog