What's up with Welsh

If we are to be educators who implement a UDL/CRT pedagogical practice in our classrooms, we must not only be open-minded to how we can target all of our students' unique abilities and learning styles, we must also be critical of the standards we are adhering to as educators. We must be able to critically  analyze these while fostering our own pedagogical philosophy because if these are the "rules" as imposed by our future school departments, we'll have to learn to operate as pedagogues with these strictures. It's a unique and challenging rhetorical situation.  Of all the sets of standards out there, it seems to me that the Teaching Tolerance of Social Justice standards are the most in-line with UDL and CRT because it is not predicated on what/how to teach;  it is based in the notion that all students are individuals, and that they must be honored because of who they are. Not only this, it enables students to critically  think and analyze topics such as race a...

While it was a wonderful to experience JR's teaching style and to interact with the students, this is only one dimension of the overall observation that this past week has yielded. This past week has demonstrated to me that the classroom is indeed multidimensional, from the teacher's pedagogy to the materials students have, from the furniture design to the posters on the walls. Each classroom that I observed in seemed to convey a distinct energy. In room 300, where JR taught English 3, this energy, or vibe (as the kids would say), was one of illumination and camaraderie. This room had many windows, which let in a lot of sunlight. Aside from this, I felt that the room was set up in a way that was conducive to learning: the desks were organized in two sets of six rows, with 3 desks to a row. Each of these two sets of rows were facing each other with about a 10 foot gap between them, operating as a central aisle where the teacher may pace back and forth while teaching. There was...

Observing the first day of school at NPHS, for me, brought back a flood of memories from my first days of school, from students hustling to find their classes to catching up with each other after summer break. It seemed surreal, however, to observe this because Amy and I were operating in a position of in-betweenness-- as that of students, and that of a pre-service teachers. Before this practicum, I did not expect to see another first day of high school until I got my first teaching job, but this experience has allowed me to observe how a veteran teacher, JR , is able to build rapport with his students from the get-go. The first class that Amy and I observed, Kingian Nonviolence , was interesting not only because of JR's keen ability to foster community, it is a class that he developed based on URI's Kingian Nonviolence program. JR began the class by taking attendance and joking around with students that he was familiar with, which created a sense of ease and comfort in t...