Last weekend, I went to see part one of Mockingjay and I absolutely loved it. I've been a huge fan of the Hunger Games series since it first came out because 1) Katniss is an awesome protagonist, SO MUCH BETTER than Bella Swan and 2) Suzanne Collins throws our materialist society back in our faces and is all like, "This is how it could be someday, people. Think about it."
The Lorde song from the credits is awesome-- it starts slow and then the drop comes and BAM! It makes your adrenaline spike-- but not too much. It mostly made me think about spin class and how this song would be a great one for a hill climb. Sometimes I think about getting certified as a spin instructor if only for the chance to play DJ for an hour.
I spent last Saturday in Chicago at one of my favorite annual events, the Teacher's for Social Justice Curriculum Fair. I wanted to know if the information I'm trying to put into a book proposal is worth anything to people who matter the most to me-- educators and people who work with youth. It is and knowing that people want it was all the validation I needed. I would love to say that I'm above validation, but I'm not. C'est la vie.
I'm ready to spend Thanksgiving with my family and to take a break from social media. I unfriended and unfollowed a lot of people on Facebook yesterday in the aftermath of the Ferguson decision. There is too much work to be done, too many deep-rooted issues in our society to address, too much healing that has to be done-- no use getting angry at acquaintances and having arguments over a status update. If you want to talk about how I feel, let's talk on the phone or over coffee.
Now, on a less (emotionally) heavy note, I must continue baking and cooking for tomorrow's fat pants extravaganza, er, I mean, Thanksgiving. Last night I made a Pinterest recipe and it is AH-MAH-ZING:
I'm a little wary of slow cooker stuffing because I'm worried it will be too dry tomorrow. Hopefully the grease from the sausage keeps it nice and moist, amiright?
My new work office is on a college campus. Last week, I ran into one of my old students in the hallway of my building. She immediately grabbed a few of her friends and dragged them over.
"Do you see this teacher?!" she exclaimed, "she was like the Freedom Writers teacher! She taught us so much!" We hugged, and caught up, and parted, but I was feeling something I haven't felt in awhile. Seeing her and her excitement gave me the warm fuzzies, but her comparison of me to the Freedom Writers teacher, Erin Gruwell, made me cringe on the inside:
My gut did this when she made the comparison. [via]
When the Freedom Writers movie came out in 2007, I found myself getting compared to Erin Gruwell's self-sacrificing and savior figure teacher quite often. My students were really into the movie and saw themselves reflected in the characters. They saw me reflected in the teacher. I found in conversation with pre-service English teachers that the movie and book was--sometimes-- what brought them into wanting to teach English to urban school kids in the first place. I had to see what the fuss was about. So I watched it. And then I read the book over Spring Break. When it was all over, I was irate. Really? I mean, really? Did my students really think that I was similar to the Freedom Writers lady?
I kept this feeling inside and took a look at my language and attitude towards my students. Did I act like that about my students? I didn't voice my distaste until a few years later. I was at a big English teacher conference and Erin Gruwell was the keynote speaker. It was ridiculous. I'm not quoting word for word and this was five years ago, but part of her speech went something like this:
"At a time when my student Sally should have been enjoying her childhood and eating popsicles with her friends, she was watching blood the color of red popsicles running down the street in rivers because of gang violence in her neighborhood. I gave her a notebook and a pen and a way to get it all out."
A people around me were crying and nodding. I could almost read their minds: "Yes. That's why I became a teacher. Uh huh. These kids need saving."
I started thinking about how dangerous it is for teachers--especially white female teachers working in urban schools--to use movie characters (and caricatures) like the Freedom Writers teacher as a reason to become an English teacher.
It's not real. It's not healthy. It's not good for your relationships, bank account, or personal health. It's not a good way to go into a job. It's not a good way to view your students. No teacher is an island. No teacher is a savior and viewing yourself in that light isn't a good idea. When I started teaching a college course on school and society this year, I found that in the beginning, some of the pre-service English teachers cited the movie as a reason why they wanted to become a teacher. In 2014.
I did an exercise with my college students that I used when I taught a film class and a senior English class. I've used this with adults during presentations as well. It's one of my favorite discussion starters on what it means to view texts through different lenses. I often use media clips and then "counter" media clips to teach my kids about viewing texts differently. These texts and counter-texts are all over the place. Try it...
We watch the trailer for Freedom Writers:
Then I ask for a literal description of the trailer, which helps students practice summarization, which is a common core skill, if anyone asks why you're watching media clips.
From there, I asked them questions rooted in Critical Race Theory. I've used these questions with kids and adults of all ages. Here are two of them:
How does the text portray people of color?
What conclusions does it seem to make about people of color?
THEN, it's time for the counter media clip. This is probably my favorite Youtube video of all time:
My favorite part:
NWL: (Slams hands on the desk) WHY WON'T YOU LET ME TEACH YOU?
Student: 'Cuz you a white lady. You don't KNOW me. Look at you, in that sweater vest you wearing and that ADORABLE patterned blouse. What you think is gonna happen here? You think you gonna inspire me? You think you gonna break through my tough girl act and teach me the beauty that's inside? You think you gonna make me do and feel things that I never have, never had before? All because you a non-threatening, kind-hearted, beautiful white lady? Is that what you think? Well you wrong. We fightin' for our LIVES in these streets.
NWL: (Hands her a notebook) Write that down.
Then the good discussion starts. It can get awkward-- in a good way. Like anytime we use texts and counter-texts it ends with people saying that I ruined the original and now they don't know what to do with what they thought before:
Teacher Jen: Messin' with your world view since 2005.
Last year, one of former students Facebook messaged me, telling me that I definitely wasn't the Freedom Writers teacher. I was more like the teacher from Disney's Recess, Miss Grotke:
As I've settled into life outside of the classroom (which is TOTALLY different and lovely and still technically teaching but not as stressful), I've come to realize that since I'm not ignoring everyone I love and putting blood, sweat, and tears into making awesome daily lesson plans spending all of my time outside of school writing lesson plans and keeping my head above water, I should share a few pieces of the fruit of my research and labor: I'll be posting a resource connected to my multicultural/anti-biased/social justice-- whatever you call it-- way of teaching English once a week/two weeks/month/whenever I feel like it.
You can have it. And use it. And make it your own. And ask me questions about it if you want. I'm not being sarcastic when I say that I am in love with researching and writing curriculum:
It's like, how many frameworks, lesson plans, and unit plans do you want me to write? Fer reals.
It's in my future plans for school curriculum domination to work on a book proposal for likeminded English teachers, but I can't keep hoarding this stuff because people want it and I want to give it to them in a neat format.
So yeah, I've written about school before, but I always tried to avoid it since I was teaching in a school and this blog was a sweet me-haven away from school unless I needed to vent. I'm still going to write about everything I like, but writing lesson plans is one thing I like and I need to share the wealth.
