Social justice in the classroom | Miss Cashwell's Teaching Toolbox

Think of a teacher who significantly impacted your life and/or changed your path for the better/worse.

What about this memory has resonated with you for so long?

Everyone has had experiences with teachers that they will remember until the earth corrodes; these memorable experiences may have affected us in both positive and negative ways of which we’ll never forget. I’m saddened by the fact that some teachers do not use their roles in society to better the lives of its young people, but I’m also SO incredibly thankful for the teachers who are conscious of their students’ needs and the obstacles they face every day.

Most of the memorable moments I can remember with teachers involved some kind of compassion they showed to my classmates or myself. I read an article that claimed compassion to be the best rule of thumb for classroom management. Although this may seem like some fairytale ideal, my memory of being a student rings true to this principle. All memories I have with teachers involve either compassion or a lack there of. Elizabeth Peyton’s article has a bold title: “The Secret to Classroom Management in a Title I School.” The “Title I” part is also very significant to this concept because kids who don’t have enough to eat at home need a certain level of compassion every day, without fail. The basic fabric of this idea lies within this quote from the article:

Treat a kid like a decent person and, more often than not, they’ll act like one.

The Secret to Classroom Management—No Matter Where You Teach

Learning the origins of words has always been one of the best parts about being in a Language Arts class. I’m fascinated with the people, places, and things from which our language is derived, and one thing I vow to always remember is that there is a valuable lesson within ever word and all its translations. One thing that we can be certain of is that language is what binds us and divides us, and understanding how a word functions in another language can unlock secrets we never knew we didn’t know. This concept brought to life for me, yet again, through the discussion of Deconstruction and Post Modern Theory.

I have this daily activity in mind that could count as a classroom grade if students choose to participate. I will instruct students to choose a word from the lesson material and provide a translation. This can be a translation in a language you speak natively or one whose history they investigated. These translations will be written on the board, and each student who writes one will have to explain where the word came from and why it’s a valid translation of the English word.

This daily activity will get students playing with the English language, but also with their own. There could be bonus points given if a student can explain how this word functions in a complex text. This could potentially turn into a discussion of how a word is not a valid translation. There are many things to learn about language and how it is connected to life itself, and this activity aims to explore the spaces in between words and the people, places, and things they describe.