Rookie Reflections

There’s this annoying “ding” sound that I hear every once in a while in my classroom. It’s so brief that I can’t ever figure out where it’s coming from, and there doesn’t seem to be any consistent spacing between the dings.

In other news, it’s Black History Month. Early in February, I overheard two of my students having the following conversation:

Girl: It’s Black History Month!
Boy: It’s what?
Girl: Black History Month. It’s February.
Boy: What are you talking about?

NOT GOOD. It inspired me to have at least a few lessons relating to nothing but Black history. Today, we concluded the final lesson. These are my reflections on the mini-unit:

1. After about the fifth time I said “African American,” one of my students looked at me and said, “Mrs. Duncan, we’re Black. Just say Black.” I looked around and the other students were grinning and nodding. I thought that wasn’t PC?

2. This was a big personal step for me; I have never done anything like this before, mostly because sometimes I feel uncomfortable teaching my African American students about oppressive White people.

3. One of the components of the lesson included small group presentations of material I broke into sections. Each group was responsible for presenting the material in their section. I WAS BLOWN AWAY by how maturely they handled it. I could tell by their presentations that they put thought behind what they were doing. They maturely and rationally discussed the issues as a class (for the most part). See below for an example.
4. One group drew out scenes from a metaphor they made up to represent racial struggles. They presented their pictures and told a story about red and orange ladybugs. In the story, the red ladybugs wouldn’t let the orange ladybugs have access to the large delicious strawberries. The orange ladybugs fought for their right to eat the strawberries, organizing protests and marches. Some of their ladybug leaders were squashed in the process, and they were treated badly. Even still, they were valiant! Eventually, some red ladybugs even helped them fight so they could have equal access to the large delicious ladybugs.

Here is one of their pictures I scanned in:

The story ended with them saying that it is up to all us ladybugs to make sure that ladybugs of every kind still have access to the large delicious strawberries. SO cute.

5. When asked how race relations were at TCHS, many of them responded that they have voluntary segregation. They all agreed that they tend to spend time with people who are “like them,” which would include race, who they grew up with, who they have classes with, etc. I encouraged them to consider WHY they grew up with people of their own race, why neighborhoods are divided along racial lines, and why most classes are predominantly one race. For example, my afternoon advanced class has 30 students, 5 Black and 25 White. My morning lower-level class has 27 students, 20 Black and 7 White.

6. I hope all of them learned something about Black history. My main goal was to get them talking about race relations. Many White students expressed their hesitance to discuss racial issues with Black students because they either felt guilty for what had gone on in the past or because their upbringing didn’t accept mixed-race friendships. Black students expressed that they didn’t think White students understood where they were coming from on racial topics. They also agreed that their parents were hesitant to accept them having close White friends.

7. After all is said and done, I am re-reading Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, which I read in college. I think I will get much more out of it now, and maybe I can share with them some of the main points.


Ding!