radicallyimaginingmyclassroom

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

In this article, we follow Jessi and Maggie as they tell their story about how their language was literally buried in front of their eyes by their teachers. As educators it is so important to make sure our students languages are not buried, but shown as a good thing. I can’t help but think about how different Jessi and Maggie’s lives would have been like if they had teachers who affirmed their languages, and allowed them to use translanguaging in the classroom. Us as educators must look at our internal bias's and see that we might not understand what our students are going through, but we will work along side them to make sure they get the best education possible, no matter what that looks like. 

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

This podcast is about the story of what is going on in Southlake, Tx. A place where I used to call home for 15 years. Living in Southlake as a white student was easy, however, living in Southlake as a person of color or an emergent bilingual student was almost impossible. There is an organization I am a part of called Southlake Anti-Racism coalition, we are made up of current and former students of CISD. We are fighting for the rights of people of color and emergent bilingual students. Over the two years we have been doing this, we have gathered over a thousand testimonies from current and former students talking about their experience in CISD. Here are some of the testimonies sent in. 

“My sophomore year of high school I was in class one day and we had a substitute teacher. There was a student in my class whose first language was Portuguese and he was speaking Portuguese to one of his friends. While this was happening, the sub called him out in front of the whole class and said that he needed to speak English because he was in America now.”

- Carroll Alum, Class of 2020

“When I was in 7th grade, a teacher told me ‘you probably do this in your country but here in America we don’t do this’ but the thing is I’m from America and I was the only minority in my class.”

-Carroll Alum, Class of 2020

Reading these testimonies makes my stomach churn, knowing there are still teachers out there telling their students these things. Teachers who very obviously are not able to look at their own bias’s and see that what they are doing is wrong, and they are making the students feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. These teachers that were mentioned use Raciolinguistic Ideologies. This is defined as “language minoritized students [are expected] to mimic the white speaking subject while ignoring the raciolinguistic ideologies that the white listening subject uses to position them as racial others. The students who wrote these testimonies had white teachers and those teachers only saw them as an issue rather than an addition to the classroom. Us as educators, as said before, we must make it a top priority to make sure our students feel safe and seen in the classroom. Whether this be through literature or through the curriculum. 

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

In this video Dr. Jose Medina explains the importance of teachers using Translanguaging.

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

Going off of Activism and the importance of affirming our students identities, having literature in the classroom that represents all students is so important. By having books that have different languages, this allows for our emergent bilingual students to understand what we are reading, as well as seeing themselves represented in literature. As well as introducing monolingual students to different languages they might not have seen otherwise. As a teacher who is wanting to teach younger kids, around K-2, one of my main focuses is going to be to have an expansive classroom library that represents every type of student that steps foot in my classroom. I am also very lucky that my sister and mom are teachers so I know where and who to get books from!

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

In this photo we see a drawing of someone who is speaking Spanish as well as English. We learned in class that this is called Translanguaging. It is defined as “when a multilingual person’s full linguistic repertoire is used to and honored, instead of trying to keep narrowly focused on a single language. This concept is so important in affirming our students identity and making them feel safe and that their language is important. Often in schools, emergent bilingual students are told to “leave their language at home” and to “only speak English”. As educators, when we allow them and show them that translanguaging is not only allowed, but encouraged in the classroom we are tying that into the core commitment of Activism. As educators, it is our job to make sure that the curriculum that we are bringing into our classroom is not tailored toward just one type of student, and that we are representing all our students in the classroom. 

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

This is a picture that a student drew about their feeling of what it means to be Bilingual. On one side we see the boy in Mexico with him water and the sun being around him, while on the other side, we see the boy in America with him holding fire and it being dark around him. This is a great way to include Emergent Bilingual students in the classroom, while us as Educators might not understand their language, everyone has one common language and that is Art. In class we have talked about the term Critical Listening, and by doing these art projects and allowing our students voices to be heard and their creativity to be released, we are allowing for our Critical Listening as educators to begin. As educators, we must try our hardest to understand everything and learn everything about our students, and by doing this we are able to listen and understand what they are feeling, while they might not be able to communicate it with us. Especially with younger kids, who’s learning is done with a lot of coloring and art, this is an amazing way for them to connect to not only the teacher but their peers as well. 

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

As teachers in Texas, we need to realize that many of our students are going to be Emergent Bilinguals. Looking at this graphic, we are seeing the percentages and demographic of Emergent Bilinguals in Texas. In the graphic we see that 20% of the student population in Texas are Emergent Bilinguals. This is such a big deal! Due to me being Monolingual, I often don’t look at the statistics of Emergent Bilinguals in my state. Due to this class, I have now begun to see that these students go through a lot, they are often times over looked, and when they are seen, they are not understood. As an educator I will make it one of my top priorities to keep learning about how I can try to understand my Emergent Bilingual Students. 

[radicallyimaginingmyclassroom]

This is a bulletin board that is shown as you enter a school. Here, it is shown where the students of the school are from. In class we talked about the importance of affirming our students identities. This is an amazing way to do this, as educators, we not only are educating these children, but we are making sure they are feeling safe while learning. This ties into the core commitment of Community, making sure that we are seeing and understanding that our students might come from different up bringing and different cultures, and we must affirm their cultures.