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Showing posts from August, 2024

What Happened to Ebonics?

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Turmoil in 1980s Oakland Leads to Continued Definitive Conclusions about Language’s Impact on Education in the 2020s by Matthew Bamberg Photo by Kiana Bosman on Unsplash The Ebonics debate has often been misunderstood. It refers to the dialect of AAVE (African American Vernacular English). This type of language is prevalent in the Black community and has also spread into popular culture through lyrics in rap music and similar genres. I be workin’ Yes, I be workin’ on this article. This can be defined as: I’ve been working on this article for a while, although not necessarily at this very moment. I begin here because using AAVE helps readers understand the importance of training teachers to use it in our classrooms. Before getting into the meat and potatoes of the point, AAVE is an important dialect and, therefore, should be treated with the utmost respect, especially when dealing with it as a teacher. Slavery was Brutal The history of AAVE in the United States began in the 17th and 18t...
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Understanding African American Vernacular English (AAVE): Definition, History, and Examples

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Photo by  Kiana Bosman  on  Unsplash First and foremost, when a child walks into the classroom, he/she comes with his language as it is, whether AAVE (African American vernacular, which is what Ebonics is) or Spanish. More than just African Americans speak Ebonics.  Everyone uses it at one time or another, and within popular culture, it's everywhere, from rap music lyrics to the sounds of hip/hop, expressions for some, which are a right of passage.  Its evolution from African languages to the current nonstandard English goes as far back as the time when slaves were brought to North America. First and foremost, any well-educated person knows this dialect is contained in classic literature, from books like "To Kill a Mockingbird " to Richard Wright's writings.  Put your hands together for a warm welcome to Ebonics in the classroom, as many programs teach it through literature within the context of its relationship to standard language.  "So go 'head, kno...
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10 Metacognitive Learning Strategies for Students and Beyond: Boost Your Learning Skills in Any Setting

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Photo by Matthew Bamberg   Generally, adults can figure out how to talk to themselves internally for optimum communication with others. The challenge of self-talk is remembering to use the strategy, even in the most stressful conversations. To increase the chances that I use self-talk and self-reflection to monitor my social and cognitive awareness, I intermittently teach myself learning methods for maintaining my responsibility to recognize that there are other people in the world besides myself. Those same learning strategies I use with my students for them to learn to think about their own thinking or metacognition. As a professor of education, my favorite course to teach was about the explicit teaching of learning strategies. When it comes down to it, many adults, myself included, believe that there are a few ideas on self-improvement that need to be learned…and relearned. My thoughts about learning to be a rational person lie in necessity. Without re-educating myself th...
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Heterogeneously Mixed Student Groups: Benefits, Strategies, and Best Practices for Effective Learning

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Photo: Vanessa Loring Photo: Vanessa Loring pexels.com   Remember when you learned to read in school? The teacher placed you in a group by your reading level. That was it for working in a group for the day. Some lower-level students stagnated because they weren’t challenged in the same way as those in higher-level groups. Consider that there are two types of groups, heterogeneous and homogeneous. Arguments exist that the former is better than the latter. The former consists of students of varying genders, English language proficiency levels, academic levels, and social skills. The latter includes students who are at the same academic level in a subject such as leveled groups which would be used for reading instruction in the elementary grades. In order for students to acquire language and learn academic vocabulary in useful contexts, they need to do a great deal of work in groups that expose them to peers of varying academic levels not just with peers who are at the same...
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STEM Wildfire Education Necessity

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  California Wildfires Are Getting Worse. Why Schools Must Teach Fire Survival Now From science to social-emotional learning, a comprehensive approach is needed to safeguard communities from natural and man-made hazards Wildfire in the Inland Empire of Southern California as seen from the desert. Photo by Matthew Bamberg Communities in California and elsewhere have shown remarkable resilience in uniting to cope and heal after a wildfire. Yet wildfires will remain a critical challenge, especially during droughts. The future doesn’t have to mirror the past. To ensure a safer tomorrow, California’s education system must prioritize wildfire preparedness and mitigation as a core part of its curriculum. A New Interdisciplinary Wildfire Curriculum The current model of isolating academic disciplines is inadequate for preparing students to face the uncertain world shaped by climate change. A significant curriculum overhaul is urgently needed to equip students with the skills and knowledge t...
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Social Emotional Skills and Holistic Education

Holistic education focuses on students identity in order for them to become good  community members by teachers instituting appropriate  moral, social, emotional, psychological and academic goals for functioning as a productive member of society.  As a teacher, you have to consider what's going on in students' lives order to teach the students coping skills to deal with challenging situations. Holistic education can really help students who are falling behind. Creating engaging lessons that reach all students is the primary focus of planning for instruction in most schools.  You can combine this inclusion with extensive education in all areas. "All students will learn the skills they need to succeed across all domains, including social, cognitive and academic" (Schwartz as cited in Volk, 2013, para. 5). Students perform better academically when teachers address the social emotional needs of students Socio-emotional skills are for school, work and life. They inc...
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What's the Future of Climate Change under Trump? Five Important Links

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News Links to Trump Climate Change Plan Trump's achievements in safeguarding the environment are not monumental.  Courts defeating trump's anti-climate initiatives. Private sector clean energy industry execs plan on working with Trump to continue developing clean energy sources as costs decline.  Chris Wright, Trump's pick for Secretary of Energy has said "there  there is no such thing as clean energy or dirty energy." Majorities in Congress might not support Trump’s desired changes.
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