For my MUED 273 class, 4 of my classmates and I read For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... And the Rest of Y'all Too by Christopher Emdin. This book goes into detail about different scenarios while teaching in an urban community. Our group split the chapters up between ourselves, and then we filled in this google doc with summaries of each chapter, key points and quotes, and discussion questions. ReflectionReading this book really opened up a whole side of education that I had never truly thought about before. I knew that when I finally become a teacher that I'd have to adjust to the environment and the culture of the city/town that I'm in, but this book went into so much detail and gave so many real life scenarios about teaching urban youth, especially if you are not already acclimated to their current culture. From the two chapters alone that I went really in depth with, I learned so much about different ways that teachers have modified their teaching/personal habits in order to gauge and connect with their students more. Even just reading the summaries of the other chapters just flooded my brain with ideas of what to do when I eventually teach, but for now, I'll just go into detail about the two chapters I went in depth with.
The third chapter spent most of its time showing comparisons between predominantly black churches and youth urban classrooms. It also brought up the situation of a teacher who got awards for the precise lesson plans he wrote, but he could never get his class engaged. There's a quote from the chapter I really like from after the author left that teacher's class for the first time after observing it: “After leaving this class, I wondered why the ability to plan a lesson, and not the ability to connect with students, was the prerequisite for being a model teacher” (Emdin, Ch. 3 p. 48). It lets me know that when I will inevitably be teaching, that having a lesson plan, even the most precise lesson plan possible, can be helpful and enriching for the class, but it means next to nothing if I can't bond, connect, and engage the students in a positive way and encourage growth. Chapter 9 covered a lot of topics. The first one it brought up was about a teacher being very confused as to why her students were dressing so nicely and presenting themselves so well if their families are struggling with money, to which the author rebutted with something along the lines of "people shouldn't have to worry about being to afford to feel good about themselves". The teacher then asked why she had problems engaging her classroom, and the author suggested buy a pair of new shoes that the kids would like, which inevitably stirred up conversation between the teacher and her students. Even students she didn't teach would come up to her and recommend other shoes or music suggestions, and she got engagement up in the classroom just from putting herself out there and being willing to at least try to relate to her students. It makes me feel more confident that if I just am willing to put myself out there in front of my students and at least try to connect with them, they will at least try to connect with me too.
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