Most of us are familiar with the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. It’s an insanely awesome, student-centered school that has an intense commitment to students’ cultures. Teachers at RCA use highly-engaging, culturally responsive teaching methods to reach their students. Their lessons are so engaging, in fact, that many of their students’ projects end up going viral on social media. Like…
Tag: Cultural Competency
It’s Not Enough To Talk About Equity. You Have To Do Something, Too.
By the time I graduated college, I was well-versed in all sorts of teacher talk about equity and social justice. I had gotten into books like Pedagogy of the Oppressed and The Dreamkeepers, and they were basically my law and gospel. I thought the wisdom they imparted alone would be all I needed to close the achievement gap by myself.…
We Don’t Just Need Diverse Teachers. We Need Teachers Who Care About Diversity.
I just read this piece from Education Post about recruiting teachers of color, and it’s been on my mind lately. The story basically describes how the number of minority students are on the rise across the country, yet the schools they’re attending have few – if any – teachers that look like them. I immediately thought back to my own…