I'm witnessing some close friends of mine experience different teacher education programs and sometimes it hurts just to hear the comments when they come back from a day's worth of classes. The biggest complaint I'd say is the lack of respect. It's not that they don't feel respected as students, it's more that I think they don't feel respected as teachers. Part of the biggest challenge of becoming a teacher is starting to see yourself and value yourself as a teacher. For many preservice teachers, they have already been educators in many capacities! Teaching overseas, teaching in environments outside of school, community based education - teaching experience is a prerequisite for many teaching colleges so it's not surprising that these group of students expect to be treated as people who hold valuable experience and not as strangers to the field walking in with a blank slate.

The Wire kicks ass. it's one of those shows that's so smart, you can tell yourself you're 'doing research' when plopped in front of the t.v. watching an entire season at a time. and then when season 4 came along and they introduced the storyline of an academic researcher who enters Baltimore's inner city schools with a large grant and intentions of creating a program for at-risk youth, i actually did start thinking about my own research.

"The Association of Raza Educators (A.R.E.) continues its fight to defend academic freedom and the human dignity of teachers and students at Jordan High in Watts . Karen Salazar, English teacher at Jordan and a member of A.R.E. Los Angeles, was recently attacked by administration for being too “Afro-Centric” in her teaching. She was further criticized for using a three-page excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a reading in her classroom and told she would be terminated from her position at the end of the school year". - Statement from A.R.E.

when i think the words ph.d., professor, academic, and scholar

then i see older, white, middle-upper middle class, dressed in a blazer or sweater sets in my mind, my imagination.

last friday i experienced two incredible events like two sides of a coin.