I have been away from video blogging for a while. You know when you get so caught up in actually doing things in life that you thoroughly enjoy, that time just passes by? Yeah, this is definitely one of those. Between all the amazing lessons and activities I did in my classroom, getting involved at my Spiritual Center and 350NJ, taking classes at my Center, UGA Botanical Gardens, and even online with FutureLearn, and planning for another around the world trip – I just couldn’t find time to vlog about it.
Surprise! I am on another trip! I am currently teaching in China, with plans to volunteer at The Wildlife Friends Foundation Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand, then touring around Australia and volunteering at Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary again, and then going to Hawaii to see the sights and see how I can combine my eco life with touring life while not feeling so incredibly guilty about the environmental impact. More on that in other video blogs 😉
My classroom at Rafael Hernandez School in Newark was one of immense clarity and confirmation of my own knowledge and power. I absolutely adored every student who came into my class (whether they were on my roster or not) and the discussions we had about racism, sexism, environmental issues, and other justice/equity problems and solutions were influential, eye-opening, and life-changing.
Children are our future, and they have some amazing ideas.
When I say ‘clarity’ I really meant it – this school, although I was only there for 6 months, impacted who I was, what I thought, and who I want to be moving forward. Which is why, after working in Newark Public Schools for 6 years as an educator, I made the decision to leave. There will never be a time where I will look back on my experience through the Newark Teacher Residency Program, and my career in Newark, and regret any of it. It is impossible to separate my experience working in Newark with shaping the leader that I am today.
I know in my heart that I am destined to do more, to be bigger. I can’t see that future me just yet, but I can tell you she is pretty phenomenal.
The confirmation of my ‘knowledge and power’ stems from feedback from my students and other teachers in and outside of my school and district. As a teacher, you can make anywhere your classroom – and that is what I decided to do. I brought the real world to my kids, and I went out and made my own attempts at changing it.
With this, and all of life’s adventures, I plan on continuing to make the world my classroom, and teach and learn how to make it a better place. Not just for humans, either – for trees, elephants, pangolins, grizzly and polar bears, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds – for all of the planet’s children.
Below is a rough outline of a series of lessons I did around Childish Gambino’s song “This is America.” It stemmed from not only my love of the song, but the symbolism in the lyrics and the music video that are so (unfortunately) true and poignant today. We had discussed racism in my classroom before, and so we had funds of knowledge before starting this set of lessons.
The enthusiasm spread; students would request to hear this song, and I would oblige, as long as we participated in a discussion about racism afterwards. It would either be a history lesson or one that would be related to more recent incidents. From discussions on race in the media, race in our communities, and race in our own school, my students and I changed our individual and group perspectives on race, abilities, and our own strengths.
It would be an honor to one day vote for them in office.
Children are our future. The Earth is not given to us by our parents – it is loaned to us by our children, and our children’s children’s children.
This is America
Objective: You will identify various symbolisms in the music video and lyrics of “This is America” by Childish Gambino. You will connect them with racial justice issues, both current and historical, and the racist mentality that you see today, in the media, politics, and your own community.
Essential Questions:
- How does your race define you and influence your experience in your family/community/country and the planet?
- How do the media influence your perspective on other race and cultures?
Vocabulary: racism, racial profiling, advocate, revolutionary love, respect
Materials/Resources:
- NewsELA article “This is America” is a Powerful Music Video by Childish Gambino” https://newsela.com/read/childish-gambino-music-video/id/43659/
- NewsELA article “NFL Owners say Players Must Stand for the National Anthem” https://newsela.com/read/nfl-owners-adopt-new-anthem-policy/id/43814/
- “This is America” music video
- Additional video – The Meaning Behind “This is America”
- “This is America” song lyrics
- Writing journals and utensils
- Any other historical or current event news/documentaries about racism in America. Below are some topics that can be explored in conjunction with this unit.
- A great documentary is Netflix’s 13th, about the incarceration of Black Americans and inequality
- Anything on Jim Crow laws
- Or school-to-prison pipelines
- Racial profiling
- Police brutality
Procedure:
So I am a big fan of using NewsELA in my classroom. We used it for our current events lesson almost every morning; sometimes I would read them TIME or NJ.com or other articles, but NewsELA was a staple resource.
I need to stress that there is ONE curse word in this song. So teachers – if you decide to print out these lyrics, you will need to use marker to blot out that one curse word. Personally, I did not really care if my students heard one curse word while listening to the song (writing is different – I definitely blotted it out on paper). I had 5th/6th graders, and they hear a lot worse being on the playground or in the cafeteria (or hallway) at school.
Like many of the lessons I post, I will tell you what was successful in my classroom. However, I try to leave the procedure part open to interpretation, because every classroom is different. Students have various interests, and will react to different topics – there is so much symbolism in just this song that you as an educator can pick and choose how much and how long you will want this unit to go on.
It also depends on current events too. When we started this unit, I didn’t really know how to expand it, but knew the kids and I would benefit from connecting what they learn in this song with other issues that happen in the world. And obviously, issues happened, and we talked about it.
One of the first issues we discussed was the ‘slave mentality’ that still exists today, and what that looks like. The idea that one person is more superior than another based on the color of their skin, that a culture is full of drug dealers and criminals, is not only indecent, but that shows up in everyday life. It takes the form of someone crossing the street to avoid them, in calling the police on a black boy that is walking down the block (happened to a son of a community member at our church), in police brutality and shooting a 13 year old boy for having a toy gun. We talked about Trayvon Martin and the stand your ground laws that kept his murderer free.
And then, the NFL decided to pass a rule that no player, on any team in the NFL, is allowed to peacefully protest police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Go, go away”
We always watched the meanings behind “This is America” video (in resources above) first before watching the actual music video. In the end of that video, it asks what other symbolism we listeners could find in the song. The above lyrics speak volumes in such simplicity – we love when black professionals beat the odds. We love black performers and athletes. But once they speak their opinion, especially about anything political – OH NO! No sir (or ma’am, or person) you can sing and entertain us and win us rich white people Superbowls and titles, but nowhere is there a place for you to speak up for individuals that look like you. Even when we (white people, policemen, etc.) murder y’all for no reason.
How DARE you mock America, while we sip our flag beer, wear flag shorts, bikinis, suits, high heels, or even cut up an American flag that we use as a poncho t-shirt thing.
So then we got into the many ways that citizens offend the flag, without even realizing it. What the founding fathers stated about treatment of the American flag, what it stood for – both historically and what it represents to us as individuals.
Students did a lot of discussion and writing responses to prompted questions. We discussed how we could change training policemen to be more culturally relevant and respectful. How we need more diverse members of our government in order to have different perspectives and gain more insight into how America can work for everyone who lives here.
Again, this unit can go so many ways – please expand in any way you want. And message me to tell me how you did it in your classroom! I would love to hear about it.
