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Rita Tenorio works with first
grade students as La Escuela Fratney.
- photo: Susan Ruggles |
A
veteran offers some advice to new teachers.
Rita Tenorio has spent more than 25 years teaching children
in the early elementary grades. Since 1988 she has taught at La Escuela
Fratney, a public school in Milwaukee that she helped to found. Fratney
features two-way bilingual education - all students learn in both English
and Spanish - and a curriculum that emphasizes anti-racist, social-justice
education. In this interview by Leon Lynn, she offers encouragement
and guidance to those just starting out in the teaching profession.
Q: Do you think that the average person coming out of a teacher-education
program in college is ready to be a teacher?
A: I would say this to them: You've spent a lot of time in school,
you've had some teaching experiences, you've been able to accumulate
a lot of information, and lots of it is probably very, very good.
But there are also a whole bunch of other things, important things,
that you may not know yet. You need to be open to that and ready to
learn things.
Q: Like what?
A: Well to begin with, if you haven't been around teachers who have
a political consciousness, who have experience with the social and
political effects of things that take place in the schools, you definitely
have to learn about that. You can't be thinking that your classroom
is a safe little place that's separated from the rest of the world.
Schools are impacted by larger social forces, by the dynamics of who
has power in our society, issues of race, how decisions are made.
These forces determine so many things - whether schools are adequately
funded or whether the students and their families are comfortable
or struggling to make ends meet - things that affect what happens
in the classroom.
I like to think that the people who have worked with us at Fratney
have a sense of that, because we try to make it a real up-front issue.
Fratney is built on the principles of antiracism and multiculturalism,
the idea that we're not just preparing students to take and pass tests,
we're not just preparing them academically but also to play a conscious
and active role in society, to recognize and combat racism, to actively
pursue social justice. These are things that many new teachers may
not have been exposed to.
Q: What advice would you give to a new teacher who finds a job in
a school where the students are from a culture the teacher doesn't know
well?
A: I think all teachers, especially new teachers, have to work very
hard at getting to know who their students are. I don't just mean
learning what their favorite colors are, but understanding things
about them and their families. When I was first teaching, I knew very
little about African-American history and culture. My stereotypes
were that the African-American children came from very poor families
who didn't have much education, and that they were city-bound kids.
But then I began listening to the children, the stories they told,
and I began to realize just how stereotyped and limited my understanding
was. I remember hearing children talking about going camping with
their families and realizing that I never would have imagined them
doing that. That's just one small example.
In college you learn how to teach different parts of the curriculum,
how to teach math, how to teach social studies. It's kind of assumed
that the kids will come into the classroom and sit down, and you can
take what you've learned about and just start teaching it and the
kids will learn. And what really happens is very different from that.
You need to assess where the kids are coming from. Find out what they
know. What is their daily experience like? What language do they speak
at home? What past experiences has the family had with schools and
learning? And then you need to move them along from that place.
Q: How can the teacher start that process?
A: It's the teacher's job to invite the students to bring that information
into the classroom, to tell stories about their families, to feel
valued for making that contribution and for who they are. And we need
to make sure this applies to all the children, not just the cute and
verbal ones who are acclimated to the culture of school. That tends
to happen a lot: There's this picture in the teacher's mind of the
ideal kid and this notion that things would be better "if you could
just be more like so-and-so." And that's so limiting, so unfair.
Kids are learning all the time, but they're not necessarily learning
the curriculum you think you're teaching them. Curriculum is everything
that happens. It's not just books and lesson plans. It's relationships,
attitudes, feelings, interactions. If kids feel safe, if they feel
inspired, if they feel motivated, if they feel capable and successful,
they're going to learn important and positive things. But if those
elements are not there, if kids feel disrespected or neglected in
school, they're learning from that too.
Q: Teachers are under everincreasing pressure to "teach to the test,"
to drill everyone on the same narrow band of curriculum and keep test
scores up. And in many places there is increased support for very strict,
scripted curriculum and teaching, such as Direct Instruction. How can
a teacher do the kinds of things you are saying are crucial, while coping
with these pressures?
A: It's a paradox, to be sure. In college you learn all about multiple
intelligences, and different ways and styles of learning, and then
you start teaching and more often than not they hand you a curriculum
and say, "This is how to do it." And you can't just walk away from
that. But you have to try and find ways to go beyond what is being
scripted. Maybe you have to follow a very narrow instructional model
in reading, for example, but maybe there are ways you can integrate
a broader vision of reading into other subjects, like science or math.
In my first-grade class we keep science and math journals, for example.
We get the kids collecting data about what we're doing with those
subjects. They're using the research process to investigate their
world. We also get the kids involved in formulating questions to investigate,
questions they might have about their families, about the teachers.
And in their journals they are using reading and writing to reflect
on the process and respond to what they've learned.
There's another element too: You have to be part of a culture that
stands up and asks, "Is this the best thing for our children?" There
are schools where those questions are never asked. It's up to teachers
to play a role in changing that, in raising holy hell if necessary
to advocate for the children.
Q: How can a new teacher, brand new in the building and the district,
do that?
A: It may seem overwhelming for people who are newer in the profession,
but in some ways I think it's actually easier for them. I know I had
a lot more energy for this stuff when I was younger. This is the time
to ask questions. When you're young and new, you can establish who
you are and what your priorities are.
One thing that really helped me was getting together with a network
of people, searching out people who felt the way I did, and staying
connected with them. You want to find the people in your own building
whom you feel you can communicate with, whom you can raise questions
with. You want to start looking in your district: I found some terrific
people in the teachers' union and through some professional development
activities. There are networks and groups that stretch all across
the country that address some of these issues, like multiculturalism,
and you can tap into those. If you have friends from the university,
and other people you've known for a while, you stay connected with
them. Find people in the community, people who aren't teachers, who
are interested in education issues. Get on the web and start hunting
for good websites and listservs. Then it's not just your voice out
there in the wilderness. And together you can make good things happen.
Leon Lynn is director of book development for
Rethinking Schools.
Fall 2002
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