A 4th grade black girl is talking to a white teacher:
“I love your hair.”
“Why thank you.”
“It’s so nice and soft, mine’s really frizzy.”
“Oh, yes, sometimes mine is frizzy, too.”
Perfect example of an enlightened teacher showing empathy, right?
Guess again.
This was just one of the tidbits learned in the SxSWEdu session Let’s Teach About Race.
A black teacher overhearing the exchange felt a dagger had been thrust into her heart. Hair is an important factor in self-esteem for girls. With her statement, the teacher was actually reinforcing any insecurity the girl had. One of the many better responses, “I love your hair, it’s so beautiful.”
We all strive to be more sensitive to different cultures, races, genders, orientations, and experiences. I blogged about what I recently learned reading White Trash and The Color of Law.
As part of that journey, Edchat Interactive is having a live online discussion on March 22 led by Rodney Turner, What a Black Educator Wishes White Educators Knew About Students of Color. It’s going to be epic (and fun) so please register and join us.
Back to SxSW Edu.
In Startup: 21st Century Intrapreneurship, Sarah Sherrill and Tiffanie Harrison of Round Rock High School talked about how they built two courses around creating and running a print shop. They were able to get a Perkins grant to purchase the equipment, and local businesses coach and mentor the students and teacher. In the business class, students learn how to sell, service customers, make a profit, account for cash flow, revenues, and expenses, and manage projects. In the design class, students learn design skills, operate professional printing equipment, and have to learn how to design for a customer. The print shop operates primarily to serve the school’s custom printing needs and, in just 6 hours a week of operation, saves the school about $100,000 a year.
Imagine if more school found ventures that could inspire students with real life skills while also generating a return!
In Students Can Build the AR/VR Worlds of the Future, Rafranz Davis, Mark Suter, Jordan Buisantoso, and Jessica Lindl, related some of the cool ways students are learning to build in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. AR is definitely more accessible: it works on virtually any tablet or smartphone (and with special triggers on Chromebooks), but you can’t beat the immersion of VR. Teaching kids to develop in Unity can have a steep learning curve, but Adam Crespi of Unity showed how Unity Technologies offers a bunch of starter lessons to ease kids into the process.
Oh, and I participated on two panels. In Can Evidence Keep Up with EdTech, Denis Newman (and I wish I had a video of the crowd chanting his name!), Jason Palmer, Malvika Bhagwat, and I discussed how effective research practices can both inform continuous improvement and help educators make informed decisions without breaking the bank. And in Assistive Tech Innovations That Change the Education Landscape, Kevin Custer and I led a discussion in ways that technology can help every student learn and grow.
And back to Teach About Race
Akiea Gross, Tierney Oberhammer, Timothy Jones, and Yvonne Tackie had a wealth of insight and guidance (and hopefully some will join us on March 22!).
If you are white American, obviously you’re not black, Asian, or Latino. For example, the way you as a white person, have a conversation with a policeman is different from their discussions and interactions with police. Acknowledge that you are different. Appreciate, don’t denigrate. Give students of color agency, Help them be proud of their culture. Teach how to embrace differences.
We all need to learn how to have discourse and disagree, and we can teach kids how to have a disagreement discussion effectively and civilly. Like the one we will be having on March 22 here.