Ms. Ali Teacher

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The one teacher that inspires me up to this day is Ms. Ali, a 5th grade teacher at an urban charter school in St. Paul. She is extremely passionate about her students and the service she provides for her community. Over ninety percent of the students in her classroom are students of color. Ms. Ali is well rounded and very particular about the way she addresses her students. For instance, she refers to all of her students as “scholars”. She has high expectation of how they act, learn and carry themselves. For instance, when she first welcomes her students to the classroom, she would often say, “Keep your head up”, “You are a soldier”, “You can do anything you set your mind to”, “You gotta push through”. She teaches them various chants that …show more content…

Ali is an African American woman from an immigrant family, so most of her students relate to her life experiences. More often than not, she talks about her struggles in school when she was younger. For instance, one time she was teaching a grammar lesson and she realized that it was difficult for students to fathom. She stopped the lesson, and she started telling her students about a time when her elementary teacher was explaining a lesson and she did not understand because she knew little to no English. As she told her story, I saw students’ faces light up and some of them chuckled. In the end, she gave her students a morale that they may not understand this lesson, but one day, this grammar point will come naturally. After the short story, she went back to the lesson. Ms. Ali executed this element profoundly because she developed an informed empathy. According to Ladson-Billings (2006),” This informed empathy required the teacher to feel with the students rather than feel for them “(p. 31). As I have witnessed in this case, this empathy created solidarity between Ms. Ali and her students. In addition, Ms. Ali assigns projects that connect her students to their prospective community. One day, she organized a class trip where they went on a walk around their school community and observed the neighborhood. This was meant to be a quiet activity. She allowed students to take pictures, and record audio so that they can share with each other when they get back to the …show more content…

Ali’s lived experiences lead her to have strong sociopolitical consciousness. Growing up as an African American child from an immigrant family, she faced disparities at first hand. Positive examples of this element is the use of her lived experiences as a teaching tool for her students. Any chance she gets, she tells her students personal experiences or asks them to share how they connect/disconnect with the texts they read. Moreover, I noticed, in her book selections, the text are diverse and more often than not, include immigrant families, people of color, etc. She is particular about the books she provides her students. I love how Ms. Ali is strong minded and focused on teaching her students from a multicultural perspective. However, from my observation of her classroom, I think it would be best if she focused on deconstructing the narratives present in their curriculum. Sometimes teaching a child inherent oppression and how to identify is just as strong and powerful. In the future, I will approach this element by being conscious of my own sociological stands. I will educate myself about my school environment, and school policies to best serve my students and their families. According to Ladson-Billings (2006): “Teachers who foster cultural competence understand they must work back and forth between the lives of their students and the life of the school. Teachers have an obligation to expose their students to the very culture that oppresses them” (p. 36). I know some

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