African American Teachers

In Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average”, readers can determine from what he says that teachers play an integral role in the educations of students. When others are teaching you what to do, it becomes easier to understand; when others are not teaching you, it becomes harder to understand. You can tell how essential a teacher is to a student if you were to read Rose’s narrative and see that: students float to expectations, if teachers don’t expect anything of you they won’t help you, and how beneficial it is to have a teacher who challenges you to be better.

Currently, general education classrooms have increasingly become diverse with both disable students and students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In order for educators to ensure that they effectively teach these classrooms, meet the needs of each student both successfully and individually, effective research that is based on strategies need to be implemented. The U.S. Department of Education suggest that, the current school-age population is becoming more diverse as time passes, yet, majority of the teachers in these schools are white non-Hispanic women. According to another report by The Condition of Education in 2006, American schools are portraying increased diversity and growth. The report suggested that, forty two percent of students in public schools were ethnic or racial minorities in the year 2003; this increased from twenty two percent since 1972. Owing to these reasons, teachers in these schools are expected to educate a diversified class of students including those that come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers are therefore, required to implement a number of key strategies that will ensure that every student in specific classroom feels that he or she belongs there (Worrell, 2010).

America has encountered a change within the teaching profession: concerning, experience, age, credentials, and ethnic background (Feistritzer, 2011). It is almost as if the year of 2005, overturned the trend of older employed teachers (Feistritzer, 2011). A six-year survey shows that the amount of teachers under the age of thirty has increased drastically, and that most teachers have earned master degrees. Also, although teaching has been a predominately white profession, more Hispanic and African American teachers were hired between the years of 2005 and 2011 (Feistritzer, 2011).

Finally, this journal has enlightened me and my thought process of generalizations pertaining to urban schools: “When we think of low poverty schools the first thing that comes to mind are inner urban schools. Again, this process is considered a stereotype because many urban schools perform well and meet required standards. Unfortunately, there are urban schools across the nation who has a high demand for teachers and resources. Teacher.com is a comprehensive resource for information. It is in partnership with California State University-Rossier online. It provides state specific information on how to become a teacher, areas that are in demand of teachers, teacher pay in those areas, teaching credentials, teacher certification tests, alternative teacher certification and more. Its objective is to provide all information to become a teacher anywhere in which you reside. Sadly the schools that have the highest demand for teachers are the

The teachers profiled in “Unforgettable Miss Bessie”, “My Favorite Teacher”, and “And the Orchestra Played On” are remembered and admired by the narrators. Miss Bessie, Miss Hattie, and Mr. K. possessed significant qualities that made them remarkable educators. They inspired and encouraged students. They only wanted the best for their students and prepared them for their futures, enabling them to overcome difficulties in school. Besides the content of their subject matter these educators their taught students to believe that their lives and future all depends from themselves: whether they would choose the clean asphalt road or dirty, bumpy one.

Correspondingly, nobody can inflict a massive transition like the students themselves. The student's program like minority scholar at my school place emphasis on thrusting minority students into advanced class (AP). As an African American myself I often struggle to voice my opinions on the educational matter because I feel like nobody regards my issue as serious. As a fellow peer member, my responsibility lies in uplift minority students to excellence on a land beyond their boundary. Nonetheless, the students need to believe in themselves and their goal considering the fact that not all teachers will partake in their journey for success. There are teachers who care about the student's success and those who could care less. The States and government must step up to the plate and aid the school through funding program to hire the true teachers who are willing to dedicate their time and effort promoting the success of all

Lisa Delpit’s book, Multiplication is for White People, she outlines different reform strategies that will change African American education in the 21st century. The first reform strategy Delpit outlines is to recognize and build on children’s strengths. When teaching in an urban school, teachers should begin by understanding the children and their home lives. Using the knowledge that the children already have, and building on that will help students succeed. Believing that African American students are not worth being taught, plays a major role in the way students react to their educator. I believe that once an educator begins at a specific school, they should survey the student's knowledge to use that to go forward. Then using that to build on everyone’s strengths throughout the year will help in class participation and build a sense of community in the class. Recognizing a student's strengths, will make the student believe that he or she has someone on their side who cares. Once they feel that someone cares, they will want to do

Williams (2012) conducted a study which explored the perceptions and lived experiences of African American male teachers. Using purposeful sampling, the researcher conducted interviews with 15 African American male teachers from elementary teachers through high school in a southeast Georgia school system having 19,000 students. The ethnic diversity of the school system included about 50% African American, 40% Caucasian, 5% Hispanic, 4% multiracial, and 1% Asian students. Fifty-six percent of these students were considered economically disadvantaged and received free or reduced lunches. About 35% of the school 48 teachers in this system were African American which is five times higher than the national average (Synder, 1999 as cited in Williams,

While growing up and observing my teachers at school, I have learned that it isn’t always an easy job. Teachers do everything they can to teach their students’ academic, social and other formative skills. Plenty of my teachers have to deal with complications, most of them being minor, but it isn’t always an easy job helping children, teens and young adults. As a student myself, I know they can be stubborn, unwilling to learn, aggressive, and irresponsible. Sometimes, they simply don’t care. However, that is a teacher's purpose: to help and shape their students to become better learners, so that they have a clearer understanding regarding a variety of subject matters. Someday, I actually want to become an elementary art teacher, which is

Over the years the role that teachers play in the child’s life has massively changed. In the late 1800s and early 1900s many children did not go to school, what they learned came from home, so when they did come to school, it was a shock. Many of the parents would send the children to school, and forget about them. Especially in girls, education has been the hardest from them over the years.

African Americans are not the only ethnicity group to be singled out with behavior. Racial and ethnic minority students report experiencing low teacher expectations, having less access to educational resources, being placed on lower educational tracks, and being steered toward low-paying employment (Kozol, 1991; Olsen, 2008).This low expectation is causing

The first test that I took on the website was the “Race IAT” test. As I was answering the first few questions I was finding it to be a little racist. The reason why I found it be racist is because, of how they said whether I agree or not if African American children have a negative effect on European American children in schools. My answer was no, African American children do not have a negative effect on other children because, their only kids going through an education and every child has their own view points. In a way children can be influenced by other kids but, having a certain race in the class doesn’t automatically influence other children to bad. While I read the questions given to me I started to feel a bit of anger because, I have

be at an educational disadvantage compared to the students attending the predominantly white suburban schools. (Batts, 2012).

As discussed by Jabari Mahiri, African American culture and discussions about African American youth cannot be eliminated when trying to help educate black students. In detail, two African-American teachers who taught in the same high school had two different outcomes with their students. The reason there were two different results between the teachers was because one teacher decided to introduced and exposed the students to familiar faces that they can relate to and African American issues. In addition, Quassan Castro Writer, Activist, Columnist, Poet, Educator and Culture Critic suggested some tips and strategies to teach African American students because he noticed that there is staggering amount of African American students dropping out of high school and not attending college. Specifically, Castro mentioned that main three tips all Educators Must Know About Educating African American and Latino Students is 1) Connect with Parents. “Establish a positive connection with parents from the first day of class. A phone call to report good news is as equally vital to the success of your student as informing parents when children are struggling” (Castro). 2) Cultural Images. “Due to the overexposure to white identities in media, African American and Latino students need to see images of themselves where they are not portrayed as inferior or subordinate to white culture.” (Castro). 3) Value of Education and Real Life. “Express the value of education. Explain the varying levels of educational possibilities one can attain. Do not assume your students know how many high school credits they need to graduate. Do not assume your students knows what a bachelors, masters or doctorate program consists of” (Castro). These particular sources link the issue of African American students not having a high rate of academic achievement because

African American students account for the larger majority of minorities in public schools in the United States. Most areas in the northern part of the United states and coastal areas are ethnically diverse. However, down south this is not the case. Students of color will experience a harder time in the education system. African American students meet the obstacle of educators who will not want them to succeed based on a preconceived thought. In fact, Caucasian teachers make up for 85% of all