Recognizing Power and Privilege

It is the case that most teachers are white and predominantly female. With this being the case, many teachers encounter difficulty when teaching young, African American male students. However, many white female teachers do not recognize that white students and white people are privileged. Often times, since this can be the case, many white female teachers unintentionally undermine multicultural education by doing a flash card misrepresentation of different cultures. How can this be avoided? Do you believe teachers need to stay abreast of multicultural issues in addition to his/her roles as a teacher? Can a teacher teach effectively without considering the background of his/her students?

Dialectal differences and considerations

It is no debate that an average classroom in the United States will be highly diversified. We also know that certain standards and curricular goals are set in place and are to be accomplished. It is the teachers job to ensure that those goals are being met, but some debate that it is not within the teacher's job description to meet the unique cultural needs of those highly diverse students. Why should we make allocations and considerations for our highly diversified students if the system in which we teach makes no regards for those individuals?

SED-555 Discussion of Youtube Videos

I believe Ladson-Billings has hit the nail on the head with cultural competence. We should all consider who our students are and what background they come from. In fact, not considering these items will almost certainly lead to failure to reach students. It should be noted as well that the other videos had some key points. White culture and definitely different than black culture and we should realize this on all levels. Many educators teach to the predominant white middle-class and this is problematic for most. So, to look upon a classs of students, we should value and explore what they bring to the table and utilize the opportunity to help them see their full academic potential.

P.Kupfer

Open Discourse in Secondary Classrooms

Welcome to Mr. Kupfer's Blog. I am delighted to communicate with all of you through this technology.

The purpose of this Blog is to serve as a course activity in Blog development. Blogger.com is a fantastic tool to exchange ideas quickly and efficiently. Being that "blogging" is user-friendly and available anywhere a computer with internet is located, this facilitates effective discussions. Blogger.com is a great source of technology to use in the classroom because it is free. However, there exist many other organizations (i.e.-professional environments) that may be able to profit from utilizing a blog. Hopefully, by the end of this course we should (as professional educators) be able to use this technology to make information more accessible to students. This type of information presentation is desirable for use in the classroom because it is a form of technology that the students enjoy.

In this course Blog we will discuss why it is important to engage all students in a respectful, meaningful way. Considering this notion, why is it often times difficult to reach African-American males in low-income communtities? I believe it is very difficult to motivate disenfranchised black students in low-income areas that may have never had a good teacher (someone who cared to motivate them). Please feel free to refer to White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms and post your comments, concerns, and condemnations.
Thank you.