Social Issues in Education

 Emergent bilingual education is something that I feel very passionate about. I am majoring in teaching English as a second language and am an advocate for my ELLs and all ELLs when I can be. This includes educating others about the needs and rights of emergent bilinguals especially to those who are in control of laws and regulations like RIDE. Both professor Hesson and Toncelli are inspiring and knowledgeable educators with whom I have had the privilege of taking multiple classes under. Emergent bilinguals have the right to an ESL/bilingual teacher. In my school, there is an ESL/classroom teacher per grade level. At other schools in my district, they have one ESL teacher who travels to all 5 grade levels at the elementary level throughout the week. There is no co-teaching which would be ideal, but instead they follow the pull-out method. Emergent bilinguals should be with their peers in their classroom, while having access to a certified ESL expert to aid them on their journe...

Reading through the lesson plan, I was encouraged to see there are educators out there who are addressing important topics such as queer affirming, trans affirming and collective value. I know that these can be hard topics to teach based on grade level and what administration allows. This lesson allowed for critical thinking and deep discussions. I also thought it was great that the educator included multimedia to aid student's understanding as well as extension activities. The short video on Intersectionality was an interesting claymation way to explain a topic that is so important and hard for young students to grasp. I had never heard the term intersectionality until very recently, and apparently my spellcheck still hasn't! I was aware of the definition and what it meant for different people but, I had never put that term with it. Watching the video I realized, I am Greta. Everyone in my family attended college so did all of my friends, I always knew I would go to...

I found the article on Teaching Tolerance, Why Talk About Whiteness? very eye opening. As a white women myself, I truly have never thought about my race that much and I definitely do not talk about it either. I do believe that I am self-aware and I acknowledge my white privilege and feel comfortable talking about it to an extent. I love what Molly Tansley says, " naming whiteness and its privileges among white friends, family and colleagues is where the real work needs to be done." Talking about white privilege with people of color is not what is going to help as they are already aware. This topic needs to be addressed with other white people who perhaps are not so aware of their white privilege.  The Tools of Whiteness was also something that resonated with me. I was taken back a bit when reading some of the transcripts from actual educators especially Diane. Reading this was very eye opening in that I have heard people say things I was reading like "I don...