Picture an Astronomer

As I believe I've mentioned previously, grade 3 has begun our second unit of inquiry, surrounding how the world works.  Our focus is on the solar system and the interconnections among celestial bodies.  As part of this, my fellow grade 3 intern and I have been conducting "science lab" twice a week.  Mondays we have mixed groups with all of grade 3, and Fridays are class-by-class.  So far we've done a lesson on orbits, a lesson on gravity, and a lesson on atmosphere.

This Friday, grade 3 is taking a field trip to a planetarium.  In preparation, today's "science lab" was on astronomers.  My co-intern and I each took a small group of seven to ten students for each block and led an activity called Picture an Astronomer (courtesy of my own grade 4 science teacher, Mrs. Tux!).  In the activity, I read aloud a paragraph to students, and they were to draw and write about what they visualized.  Here's the paragraph...

"Close your eyes and picture this scene.  It is the end of a long night at the observatory and the astronomer is closing up as the first rays of dawn are seen on the horizon.  The astronomer is tired and ready for a good day's sleep.  Now focus in on the astronomer, coming toward you on the road that comes from the observatory.  Get a good close look at the astronomer, rubbing tired eyes.  Draw a picture and describe in words what the astronomer looks like."

As you can see, the paragraph carefully avoids making any reference to the age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, or nationality of the person in question.  I had students work independently without talking to those around them, and they were asked to draw a picture and write down the name, age, nationality, and gender of their astronomer, as well as any additional information they thought of.  Out of the 26 students I had in my three groups, here are some of the statistics on the astronomers they imagined...

• 6 were female (23%)
• 4 were Asian (15%)
• 2 were Latino (8%)
• 1 was black (4%)
• 1 was mixed-race (4%)

This leaves 20 males, and 18 white.  (Side note:  of the female astronauts, only two were not white -- one (my favourite) was a mixed-race single mom, and the other was Asian.  Intersectionality, yo.)

This opened up conversations among them about why they imagined more men than women, more Americans than Koreans, more whites than any other race.  Students posed and responded to great questions -- are boys smarter?  stronger?  better at or more interested in science?  braver?  more willing to take risks?  Why do we have these images in our minds?  What does the media tell us about who scientists are and what they look like?  How does that in turn affect the way we think?  I was so sorry to have such limited time with them to dig into these big important issues, but I hope that they will continue these conversations and begin to see these issues in their daily lives.

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Currently reading:  working through The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao...but I've been distracted by a new TV show XD

Current high:  a busy but productive day

Current low:  the IRS is a maze and I wish they had everything as an online form!  Expat life is hard!!!

Congratulations

Last week, grade 3 finished our first unit of inquiry.  The culminating project was creating a "learner space" which included a word wall, five items that connected to who the student is as a learner, paragraphs explaining why each object was chosen, and a narrative reflection on the learnings of the past six weeks.  We invited all the parents to come view their children's work, and each student gave a brief presentation to their family on their project.

I milled about, taking pictures of the presentations, listening in as students shared their learning, and enjoying the happy buzz.  I popped into the classroom to supervise a couple of students who were packing up.  Ms. W's husband wandered in; their son was presenting to her via FaceTime since she was away on professional development.  "Congratulations," he said to me.

It took me a minute to understand what he was congratulating me for.  Then I realized:  the success of that day did not belong only to the students, but also to the teachers.  We had designed the unit, planned the learning engagements, and guided them along the path of inquiry that brought them to their final products.

I remember once having a conversation with my dad.  He told me that many teachers will say, "Let me tell you what I did with my students today."  However, in his opinion, it is great teachers who say, "Let me tell you what my students did today."  The success of a teacher is not reflected in her or his actions, but in the ultimate success of the students.  Do they engage?  Do they learn?  Because that is where the true success of a teacher lies.

"Congratulations," he said to me.  I reflected, smiled, and said thank you.  While that day belonged to the students and their success, I suppose I owned some small part of it too.

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Currently reading:  still in my articles phase, but trying to take a trip down memory lane and track down Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice series!
Current high:  Skyped with one of my best friends from college this morning, going out with new dear friends tonight.  Also I'm a ginger now!
Current low:  reflecting on life choices...not a low, just pensive

Small Frustrations

As I am sure I have said on this blog before, I am so incredibly happy with my life here.  Beyond happy...blissful, ecstatic, thrilled.  I have great friends, amazing students, fulfilling work, fantastic opportunities, and tons of fun.  I am really thriving in this place, and I'm so excited for what's to come.

But it's not perfect.  And one thing that really grinds my gears is that sometimes, my passion for social justice education is laughed off.  Today as my team planned our next unit, I brought up a couple of ideas for activities that my own fourth grade science teacher (Tux!) sent to me -- one science-based, and one transdisciplinary.  Then I hesitantly mentioned one activity that she sent to me that I think is a great one for sparking conversations, which is called Picture An Astronomer.  In the activity, students have a guided visualisation of an astronomer after a long night at the observatory, then they write down or draw what that person looks like.  The narrative is very careful to make no reference to age, race, or gender, so you can unpack their preconceived ideas about the dominance of middle-aged white men in scientific fields.  Tux suggested using it pre- and post-field trip, so I mentioned it in that context.

As I began to describe the activity, as soon as I got to the phrase "old white men," one of my team members started to laugh.  "I remember a conversation to this effect," he chuckled, referring to a debate on social justice issues we'd had one evening over drinks.  Yes, I recognize that sometimes I can be a little too aggressive when someone says something that I find offensive -- and I'm working on walking the line of speaking up without pushing too hard.  But never mind the fact that microaggressions such as that are deeply harmful to the feminist cause.  Let's get to what I see as the greater issue here:  social justice education matters.  It matters beyond you and I and our different beliefs.  I care deeply about encouraging my students to think in new ways, to be open-minded toward and accepting of difference.  The PYP emphasises international-mindedness, celebrating our differences while embracing our common humanity.  What a great goal.

Honestly, I feel to a certain extent that if one of the four white men in the room had brought that idea to the table, it might have been received differently.  I may be wrong, but I find that when members of a majority group speak out for minorities, they're lauded for their effort, whereas I am brushed aside as an "angry feminist."  (My cousin thoughtfully pushed back on me for my use of that term in a previous post -- but in this context I feel it's apt!)  However, as the only woman on my grade-level team, I feel all the more passionate about speaking up for feminism.  Social justice is important to me, and it should be important to every educator.

The bright side?  For the upcoming unit, my fellow intern and I have been slotted two 45-minute lessons each week with all of grade 3.  I've got my space to share this activity and have what I think are incredibly important conversations for young minds to consider.

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Currently reading:  I'm in an articles phase, lots of stuff in my Pocket which I hope to share here soon!
Current high:  several, but my top two:  one of my students took first prize in a cooking contest with his dad today, and lots of fun social stuff on the horizon!
Current low:  super tired...but looking ahead to a mostly restful weekend

Rachel Rostad

Yesterday as I casually scrolled through Tumblr (as one does in the 20 free minutes one has before students return from lunch), I stumbled across a video captioned, "Ever wonder why a Korean girl is named 'Rachel Rostad'?  Watch my newest piece & find out."  Living in Korea and working with Korean students, my curiosity was piqued, so I watched the video.  (Here, you can too!)

What a powerful piece.  A powerful speaker, a powerful woman, a powerful story.  It led me to reflect on the population I work with daily, the students I serve.  We are members of an international school community, and here's how that shakes down in my class.  15 of our students are Korean; 1 is Japanese-Korean; 1 is American.  3 other students are listed as foreign passport holders; I am not sure of their nationalities, or if they are dual citizens.  So let's call it 15 Korean students.  Of those 15, 14 students have a Korean birth name listed with the school.  Of those 14, only 2 choose to be known by that Korean name at school; the remaining 12 have selected an English name that they prefer.

Why?  We're an international school.  International means your background and culture have as much value as mine.  Why do you want an English name?  Why do you want to give up being called Mi-Yun* in order to be Rose*?  Do you fear that I as a teacher will like or respect you less as Minsoo* than as Eric*?  You don't need a made-in-the-USA sticker.  You don't need to put on an American wrapper for me to appreciate you.  I love you for who you are.  I love you wherever you come from, I love you whatever language you speak at home, I love you whatever your background.  I love the ways in which my students are different and the interesting and unique ideas they all bring to our community.

To be fair, and play my own devil's advocate, here's the flip side.  As Rachel Rostad says in her video, when you name your daughter, it's your dream for her.  By choosing their own English names, my students can name a dream for themselves.  They can explore their identities, be who they want to be.  Apparently the middle school has some trouble with this as students will change their names frequently as they discover who they are!  I remember myself, my sister, and my friends going through a similar phase with nicknames in late elementary and middle school.

But I'll say it again:  we're an international school.  The beauty of an international school is variety within the population, a celebration of backgrounds and cultures, an opportunity to share our lifestyles and become more open-minded and accepting of others.  Ms. W mentioned to me recently that the school is encouraging students to stick with their Korean names -- and I sincerely hope more will choose to do so.

* Of course, names have been changed to protect students' identities.

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Currently reading:  my Lonely Planet Korea guidebook
Current high:  a postcard from my best friend brightened my morning :) And my day ended with babysitting two great kids and a brownie date with EB!
Current low:  PD workshop coming up in Yokohama unfortunately means a non-weekend weekend

Every day may not be good...

For the last two days I have been subbing with my kiddos in grade 3 while my co-teacher runs parent-teacher conferences.  The first morning went really smoothly, and I felt like I was starting to use my own management style with my kids, and that they were responding to it.  (My co-teacher's management is quite different from mine!)  Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, my students started to push back, which led to some not-so-fun student interactions.
This afternoon, the last period didn't go smoothly.  They were assigned some independent work which required a lot of focus (copying something down into their journals) but we had folks running all around and the noise level was getting out of control.  I had to hold a few kids behind for a few minutes before they went to their Exploratories so that we could have a conversation about attention and listening, and it was such a sour note to end my day on.  I hate when the last period is eventful and I hate sending my kids home on a less-than-positive note and I hate when I have to be "mean" or give a "lecture."  When this is how my day wraps up, for the rest of the afternoon, I am tired and defeated; the energy I usually draw from being with my students has instead been sapped out of me by these frustrating moments.
I was in the middle of writing a post similar to this (maybe a bit more whiny!) on my more personal blog, and began writing about how this exhaustion was going to make it hard to motivate myself to go to Korean class tonight.  That led me to reflect on earlier today when I told my students about my Korean classes.  I practiced my vocab words with them and they laughed and laughed.  The memory made me smile, as I thought of their sweet giggles behind their hands at my limited knowledge and iffy accent.
I really love the quote, "Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day."  (Attribution unknown -- anyone??)  Would I say that, overall, today was a good day?  Not really.  I think that I failed my students in a lot of ways and that there are a lot of things I could have done better.  But was there something good in today?  Absolutely.  I had some really wonderful moments with students and had one lesson that I thought I nailed.
I don't like not being good at things; I am a perfectionist to a fault.  (Heaven knows that's a blog post all its own!)  But I am a new teacher.  I will fall short a lot.  I will make a lot of mistakes.  But I am constantly learning:  from my errors, from my students, from my peers.  I feel so privileged to be surrounded by such a great community and such incredible teachers.
In short:  here's to finding the good in every day.  It's there if you look for it.

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Currently reading:  still in the middle of no less than four books...I have book attention deficit.
Current high:  1.5 days to vacation, and 5 days to the arrival of M and K!
Current low:  less-than-rockin' afternoon in the classroom

Because I'm Pretty

Yesterday I was walking back from my recess duty with one of my favourite students.  Strolling hand-in-hand, she asked me about her parents' homework.  (We sent home goal-setting sheets for the parents to reflect on their academic and social goals for their children in preparation for conferences next week.)  I explained that yes, we had homework for all the parents to talk to us about their children so that we could be better teachers for them.
"Don't worry," I told her, "your mom said lots of nice things about you!"  Which is true!
"Of course she did!" OL exclaimed.  "And do you know why?"
"Why's that?" I asked her.
"Because I'm pretty!"
"No it isn't!"  I blurted out in response.  "You are so much more than pretty," I tried to explain to her.  "You are smart and loving and many other valuable things.  Those are the kinds of things your mom wanted to tell us."
OL is a lovely little girl, but she is also bright, funny, kind, hard-working, a loyal friend, a voracious reader, a strong student, and a really wonderful child all around.  The fact that she, at the tender age of nine, sees so much of her value in her appearance...that broke my heart.
I had another interesting student interaction involving appearance earlier this week.  I subbed in grade 4 for the morning while the teachers and interns had a planning meeting, so I circulated and supervised their morning tasks.
"What do you do here?" one girl asked me.
"I'm an intern in grade 3." I explained.
"Like Ms. K?" another girl asked me.  (Ms. K is one of the grade 4 interns.)
"Yup!" I replied.  "I really like Ms. K, she's so nice.  Do you like her?"
"Yeah," the first girl responded, "she's pretty.  So are you."
Of course, everyone likes the self-esteem boost of someone telling you that you're pretty, but I want to be more than "pretty" to my students.  I want to inspire them, push them, challenge them.  I want them to view me as intellectual, hard-working, passionate, and strong!
This article circulated some time ago, and it's something I reflect on often.  As I speak to young girls, especially my students, I always try to refrain from telling them that they are pretty, or cute, or complimenting their outfits.  I love reading with them, suggesting books that I loved at that age, talking about their ideas and their aspirations.  I want to show them that I value their minds and unique thoughts and perceptions of the world.
The level of internalized sexism in the world outside of my women's college haven shocks me every time.  At least once a day, some offhand comment will make me silently seethe.  I'm still reeling over hearing that in middle school intramural soccer, "having girls on your team can make a big difference in that every goal in soccer made by a girl counts for 2 points!"  But so much of it is that people don't realize it's offensive.  Sometimes, such as in that last comment, they may even think it's a positive thing.  This is why I think it's important to call people out on it, speak my mind, explain why that comment makes me uncomfortable.  It makes me sad when people tell me that's being "too PC," when I think it's a crucial step toward creating a culture that I want to live in.  I am striving toward always assuming a positive intent, and one of my personal goals is to be more gentle as I bring up these topics and have these conversations.  I have a lot of strong feelings which I've realized can make me seem aggressive, and that's not what dialogue is about.
As I have made abundantly clear on this blog, I am staunchly feminist (sorry-not-sorry for the rant).  What I wonder now is how to use my knowledge and beliefs to bring about positive change.  How can I help OL see herself as more than just a pretty girl?  How can I teach young girls to value others on their ideas instead of their looks?  What can I do to help my fellow educators improve the way they interact with their students and peers?  The conversations I had with OL and the grade 4 girls led to one of my professional goals for this year:  to teach both implicitly and explicitly about sexism, racism, heterosexism, and so on in the classroom.  I hope to open my students' minds and hearts to what is different and unfamiliar, and begin to equip them to dialogue with those who think differently and learn new things.  Ideas and suggestions for teaching social justice to kids are totally appreciated :)

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Currently reading:  SO MANY BOOKS.  Right now I'm digging The Perfect Summer, written by Juliet Nicolson and recommended by Weave :)
Current high:  just completed my first 5k!  Next up, Songdo Marathon 5k in October.
Current low:  seeing and experiencing sexism always makes me miss MoHo.

House

At my college, we always joked that it was basically Hogwarts.  The library looked like a castle; you could swear some of the buildings had moving staircases; and the number one reason, our classes were divided not unlike Hogwarts houses.  Each class year was assigned a color and a mascot (green griffins, red pegasi, yellow sphinxes, and blue lyons) which was loudly and colorfully celebrated throughout and beyond our years at the college.  The #1 event for class spirit was the annual convocation, ringing in the start of a new school year.

On Friday at CI, we had our first day of house.  Now, I'm still figuring out what exactly house is, but here's what I know.  All students from pre-K to grade 10, plus all faculty and staff, are assigned to one of four houses:  earth, fire, air, or water.  (I'm earth house -- green again, yay!)  Every other Friday there are house competitions, collaborative efforts across the grade levels that promote community and teamwork.

This week was our first house event.  Donning our brightly colored shirts, we started with a really cool picture -- check out this time lapse video to see the final result!  After that, each house took one quadrant of the outdoor track and lined up by grade level.  When the signal was given, everyone ran or walked around the track, leading to a blending of colors, houses, grade levels, and people.  It was such a fun event to be a part of!  The jubilant spirit and excitement to welcome new faces to the community brought me for a moment back to my college, and I fought tears as I fondly remembered sharing those celebrations with my friends.

Soon, the college will officially welcome a new class of green griffins on convocation day.  And while I will always be a green griffin, I am proud to have found a new green home here in South Korea.

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Currently reading:  Wild Hike by Jake Maddox, recommended to me by a student
Current high:  busy weekend of cooking and cleaning means starting the week with a clean apartment and a full fridge!
Current low:  didn't get around to washing my sheets this weekend...that and a few other cooking projects will have to be tackled next weekend!