Good Evening,
Tomorrow will be our virtual day and we have a meeting at 8:45. Please make sure your child is on the call by 8:45. We will be working on the start of a project about Martin Luther King Jr. and it will be rather difficult for them to complete it without an explanation of the requirements and process. I do believe the Weekly News Journals have been recycled (by accident). So your child has a packet, in their homework bag, that is lab;led for this week's entry. Please have them use this packet.
This summer, I met with 7 or 8 friends of mine who are also teachers and people of a variety of races. When the events of the summer highlighted the racial issues that still exist in our society, I wanted to do more than attend some meetings and pledge to do better. I wanted to use my position as an educator to help my students develop their own understandings of what racism is, looks like and what the term even means. I also wanted to learn in a way that would (hopefully) impact them the best. As I talked with these friends and colleagues, I asked a lot of questions and listened to their answers as well as their stories. I asked them how does a school, with minimal people other than caucasian The work that we do over the next few months, the books we read, and the people we hear from are mostly a direct result of my conversations with them.
This week we have already read books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. We have talked about segregation and civil rights. I focused on how Martin and Rosa both took on laws and rules that were not fair by peacefully fighting for them. I started a lesson with the students on Monday. I asked anyone who had blue on to stand up. All but four kids stood up. I told them that the four kids would receive some candy every hour. Everyone else would not receive it. Immediately several kids objected. One even said it's not fair just because they didn't have blue. I will continue to pick colors all week and reward kids in the same fashion. At the end of the week, I will ask each student to make a flip grid video about this lesson and focus on how they felt about it and why. This will hopefully lead to a bigger discussion but I think the lesson will help them express stronger understandings when we discuss.
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| Les Talking to the class about Florida |
This week we are visiting the state of Florida. My friend and retired teacher, Les Nicholas made a video about the state he now lives in. He is a former high school journalism teacher and if you have a chance you should watch his video.
That is all for now. I hope you all have a great week.
Peace,
Mr. Young
