Pedagogy and Praxis Day 7

Today I had Pam Africa, Ramona Africa, and Bessima Muhammad come in and talk about Mumia Abu Jamal. They wanted to do it all in one class so we piled 4 different classes into my classroom. The seniors had all gone to Laney Community College so classes were smaller and everyone fit in. They were amazing speakers but I was bummed that we weren't able to prepare for them better. I had thought they were going to be coming in on Wednesday then I thought they were coming in on Tuesday during 2nd period. It wasn't until yesterday afterschool that I found out that they were coming into my 1st period. So I didn't get to tell my class about Mumia and prepare them to ask questions. Those ladies were amazing powerful speakers. I found Ramona to be very powerful and the burns on her body were a testament to the violence that has been done against her by the government. Bessima was great too and she sang Bob Marley's "Redemption Song". The class was really quiet but people seemed to be really affected.

In my US history and multicultural class I gave a writing prompt inspired by my 1st period speakers. The prompt was

Tell me about a time when you or a friend was harassed by the police. What was the situation? What do you think should be done about the harassment?

The students really seemed to enjoy this prompt and I got a lot of writing. There were only a few kids that hadn't had run ins or known someone that hadn't had run ins with the police. After the prompt or if students got done early I had them drill their flash card vocab words. This worked out well because it gave the students something to do quietly and was a good transition for when everyone was drilling. Then after 5 minutes I pulled a stick and had the student look me in the eye and define one of the 5 words. I expected that some kids would have trouble with the vocab but putting them on the spot will hopefully force them to learn the words next time. This has been a good way for checking if students are learning.

In my US history class after everything was done I introduced them to blogging and and gave them the homework assignment to sign up for a blog by Friday. Once again most students seemed to be excited by the whole idea of blogging and having a blog where they could network with friends and post their thoughts and reflections. As always there were some that just sat there and seemed uninterested but sadly those students seem to be like that all the time.

In my Multicultural class I did a seminar. This is a project that was assigned to me for one of my teaching credential classes. I had the students read the "The Exploitation of Women in Hip-hop Culture". Then I gave them a run down on the rules to a seminar and defined misogyny and sexism. Then I had them circle up and I pulled sticks and asked questions of students. My first question was,

What does the author mean by the statement, "For young people that do not hold sexist ideals, mainsteram hip-hop may influence them to do so as it spreads and continuously gains popularity." Do you agree with it?

This was a question went well and caused a lot of responses by the students. Sadly and not surprisingly, many of the boys had the attitude that many of the girls wanted the bad attention and had it coming to them. Then I asked,

What do you think about the sexism and misogyny in hip hop?

I pulled a stick for this one and I was happy that the boy that I called on was against it and thought it was wrong. Unfortunately he was shy and didn't want to expand as much on his thoughts on the issue. My next question was,

What are the roots of sexism and misogyny in hip-hop?

I pulled a stick for this one too and called on a very bright and strong young lady. It cracks me up though cause this girl is hella loud and talkative, but when she was talking in the seminar she all the sudden got quiet and soft spoken. But she had great things to say. Perhaps she was shy to speak against what seemed to be a common consensus among the louder more insistent boy views. My next question was,

Why do women consent and collaborate with their own sexual exploitation?

This question stirred up a lot of differing views once again. But sadly the views were split down down the gender line. My final question was,

What are solutions to the misogyny and sexism in hip-hop?

Students gave good answers, but it wasn't surprising that a few felt that things would never change.

I thought that the seminar went well but I forgot to praise the students for their participation in the seminar. We were running short on time and I just handed out notecards to ask them what they thought about the whole thing. This class is my young freshmen class and they really love it when I talk about hip-hop. I thought it would be good to talk about social issues within the context of hip-hop. I would definitely do this again.

Kids have been telling me they are going to come in after school to get their blog going. Go internet and Blogger!