WRAP-UP
"If I am prejudiced against a child who is poor, or black or Indian, or rich, or against a woman who is a peasant or from the working class, it is obvious that I cannot listen to them and I cannot speak with them, only to or at them, from the top down...This is oppression" (Freire, 1998, pg. 108).
Through the suggestions of her mentor teacher, Sara has been able to make small changes to her classroom that have had a big impact. Sara now provides more choice in her classroom: in the last unit, she gave her students a list of short stories written by a variety of authors to choose from and allowed them to be summatively assessed in divergent ways. She has worked to create authentic relationships with her students by having them keep a journal that she responds to weekly. Sara also has been reaching out more to parents - calling home for positive reasons in addition to those concerning discipline problems. Further, she has been trying to include more student-centered activities the promote each student's individual viewpoint and voice. Through these small changes, she has already noticed that those students who were disengaged and falling behind have started to do better in class!
Teaching matters more than any other factor in a student's school years (Jensen, 2013, p. 7)