Teaching the Taboo

Teaching the Taboo PDF Author: Rick Ayers
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807772860
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Rick and William Ayers renew their challenge to teachers to teach initiative, to teach imagination, to “teach the taboo” in the new edition of this bestseller. Drawing from a lifetime of deep commitment to students, teaching, and social justice, the authors update their powerful critique of schooling and present classroom stories of everyday teachers grappling with many of today’s hotly debated issues. They invite educators to live a teaching life of questioning—to imagine classrooms where every established and received bit of wisdom, common sense, orthodoxy, and dogma is open for examination, interrogation, and rethinking. Teaching the Taboo, Second Edition is an insightful guide to effective pedagogy and essential reading for anyone looking to evolve as an educator. What’s new for the second edition of Teaching the Taboo! A deeper exploration of issues of white privilege and racism and war and peace. A more thorough examination of the problems with math and science education, including possible solutions. An expanded exploration of the importance of creative writing for validating individual and community experiences. A more thorough discussion of Freire’s work and comparison to the radical teaching projects of African American activists in the south during the Freedom Schools. An in-depth look at how students can be part of co-constructing historical narratives and analyses. An update on school struggles in Atlanta, Chicago, and Seattle. Praise for the first edition of Teaching the Taboo! “For those frustrated by the thrust of educational 'reform'…this book provides what can be described as both a challenge and a set of alternatives.” —Education Review “Drawing from a lifetime of deep thinking about education and courageous commitment to precious students, Rick and William Ayers have given us a marvelous book. Their devastating critique of the pervasive market models in education and their powerful defense of democratic forms of imagination in schools are so badly needed in our present-day crisis!” —Cornel West, Princeton University “Teaching the Taboo is provocative, challenging, funny in places, wild but sensible enough to be useful, inspiring, and practical for educators who are working to negate the educational madness that is infecting the schools.” —Herb Kohl, author of 36 Children and Painting Chinese Rick Ayers is a university instructor and founder of the Communication Arts and Sciences small school at Berkeley High School, and teaches at the University of San Francisco. William Ayers is a school reform activist and a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Teaching the Taboo

Teaching the Taboo PDF Author: Rick Ayers
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807772860
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book Here

Book Description
Rick and William Ayers renew their challenge to teachers to teach initiative, to teach imagination, to “teach the taboo” in the new edition of this bestseller. Drawing from a lifetime of deep commitment to students, teaching, and social justice, the authors update their powerful critique of schooling and present classroom stories of everyday teachers grappling with many of today’s hotly debated issues. They invite educators to live a teaching life of questioning—to imagine classrooms where every established and received bit of wisdom, common sense, orthodoxy, and dogma is open for examination, interrogation, and rethinking. Teaching the Taboo, Second Edition is an insightful guide to effective pedagogy and essential reading for anyone looking to evolve as an educator. What’s new for the second edition of Teaching the Taboo! A deeper exploration of issues of white privilege and racism and war and peace. A more thorough examination of the problems with math and science education, including possible solutions. An expanded exploration of the importance of creative writing for validating individual and community experiences. A more thorough discussion of Freire’s work and comparison to the radical teaching projects of African American activists in the south during the Freedom Schools. An in-depth look at how students can be part of co-constructing historical narratives and analyses. An update on school struggles in Atlanta, Chicago, and Seattle. Praise for the first edition of Teaching the Taboo! “For those frustrated by the thrust of educational 'reform'…this book provides what can be described as both a challenge and a set of alternatives.” —Education Review “Drawing from a lifetime of deep thinking about education and courageous commitment to precious students, Rick and William Ayers have given us a marvelous book. Their devastating critique of the pervasive market models in education and their powerful defense of democratic forms of imagination in schools are so badly needed in our present-day crisis!” —Cornel West, Princeton University “Teaching the Taboo is provocative, challenging, funny in places, wild but sensible enough to be useful, inspiring, and practical for educators who are working to negate the educational madness that is infecting the schools.” —Herb Kohl, author of 36 Children and Painting Chinese Rick Ayers is a university instructor and founder of the Communication Arts and Sciences small school at Berkeley High School, and teaches at the University of San Francisco. William Ayers is a school reform activist and a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Can I Teach That?

Can I Teach That? PDF Author: Suzanne Linder
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 147581478X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Can I Teach That? Negotiating Taboo Language and Controversial Topics in the Language Arts Classroom is a collection of stories, strategies, advice, and documents collected for teachers who are using or plan to use materials or implement policies they know may be controversial. It is for any teacher dedicated to engaging their students in the complex, challenging, and rewarding activities of reading and writing, for any teacher committed to speaking honestly with students. For any teacher, period. Because when we decide to work with young people, when we commit to sharing books and ideas that engage their hearts and minds, when we strive to get adolescents to think critically and write honestly, we open ourselves up to suspicion and critique from someone, somewhere, no matter how above reproach we feel our materials and strategies are. Few language arts teachers will experience a full-blown challenge to the content of their curriculum, but many may self-censor or suffer through awkward and challenging conversations with colleagues, administrators, parents, and other members of their community. This book is for those times when teachers are called on to defend and legitimize their use of controversial material in their classroom––material that they know reflects students’ reality, even as it makes adults uncomfortable and fearful about their inability to protect children from that very reality.

Teaching the Personal and the Political

Teaching the Personal and the Political PDF Author: William Ayers
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807744603
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
These essays follow a veteran teacher educator and school reform activist as he tries to understand an enterprise he calls "mysterious and immeasurable." By focusing on the authentic experiences of teaching and learning that he has lived over the past 15 years, Bill Ayers reconsiders, argues, reflects, and searches for ways to break through the routine and the ordinary to see teaching as the important and extraordinary work it is. Covering a range of issues—standards, equity, testing, professionalism—this book shows us teaching as an achingly personal calling, and ultimately as a social and a political act. With these essays, Bill Ayers invites teachers into a wonderful conversation about the meaning of teaching as craft, as art, as vocation. He reminds us that an active kind of hope is at the core of teaching,seeing things both as they are and as they could be.

An Empty Seat in Class

An Empty Seat in Class PDF Author: Rick Ayers
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807756121
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
The death of a student, especially to gun violence, is a life-changing experience that occurs with more and more frequency in America's schools. For each of those tragedies, there is a classroom and there is a teacher. Yet student death is often a forbidden subject, removed from teacher education and professional development classes where the curriculum is focused instead on learning about standards, lesson plans, and pedagogy. What can and should teachers do when the unbearable happens? An Empty Seat in the Class illuminates the tragedy of student death and suggests ways of dealing and healing within the classroom community. This book weaves the story of the author's very personal experience of a student's fatal shooting with short pieces by other educators who have worked through equally terrible events and also includes contributions from counsellors, therapists, and school principals. Through accumulated wisdom, educators are given the means and resources to find their own path to healing their students, their communities, and themselves.

Teaching Toward Freedom

Teaching Toward Freedom PDF Author: William Ayers
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807032662
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
In Teaching toward Freedom, William Ayers illuminates the hope as well as the conflict that characterizes the craft of education: how it can be used in authoritarian ways at the service of the state, the church, or a restrictive existing social order-or, as he envisions it, as a way for students to become more fully human, more engaged, more participatory, more free. Using examples from his own classroom experiences as well as from popular culture, film, and novels, Ayers redraws the lines concerning how we teach, why we teach, and the surprising things we uncover when we allow students to become visible, vocal authors of their own lives and stories. This lucid and inspiring book will help teachers at every level to realize that ideal.

To Teach

To Teach PDF Author: William Ayers
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807771473
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
“For those of you pondering the question of whether to teach or not, this book will help you figure out whether teaching is for you. For those of you already in the classroom, it can inspire you to remember why you chose to teach in the first place.” —From the Foreword bySonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and author ofWhy We TeachandWhat Keeps Teachers Going? “To Teachprovides a wealth of tips, lessons, approaches, and ways to think about thinking. But it also provides a sense of the calling to teach. That is why we need today books like this one, to remind us of why teaching matters.” —From the Afterword byMike Rose, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies To Teachis the now-classic story of one teacher’s odyssey into the ethical and intellectual heart of teaching. For almost two decades, it has inspired teachers across the country to follow their own path, face their own challenges, and become the teachers they long to be. Since the second edition, there have been dramatic shifts to the educational landscape: the rise and fall of NCLB, major federal intervention in education, the Seattle and Louisville Supreme Court decisions, the unprecedented involvement of philanthropic organizations and big city mayors in school reform, the financial crisis, and much more. This newThird Editionis essential reading amidst today’s public policy debates and school reform initiatives that stress the importance of “good teaching.” To help bring this popular story to a new generation of teachers, Teachers College Press is publishing an exciting companion volume:To Teach: The Journey, in Comics. In this graphic novel, Ayers and talented young artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner bring the celebrated memoir to life. TheThird EditionofTo Teach, paired with the new graphic novel, offers a unique teaching and learning experience that broadens and deepens our understanding of what teaching can be. Together, these resources will capture the imaginations of pre- and in-service teachers who are ready to follow their own Yellow Brick Roads. TheThird EditionofTo Teachoffers today’s teachers: Inspiration to help them reconnect with their highest aspirations and hopes. A practical guide to teaching as a moral practice. An antidote to teaching as a linear, connect-the-dots enterprise. A study guide that is available on-line at tcpress.com. William Ayersis a school reform activist and Distinguished Professor and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Praise for the Second Edition! "An imaginative, elegant, and inspiring book... essential reading for anyone who believes that teachers can change lives."—Michèle Foster, Claremont Graduate University “To Teachis one of the few books about teaching that does not disappoint.” —From the Foreword byGloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison “William Ayers creates a wise and beautiful account of what teaching is and might be.... He leaves us with fresh awareness of what the teaching project signifies. He provokes us, each in our own fashion, to move further in our own quests.” —Maxine Greene, Teachers College, Columbia University “No one since John Holt has written so thoughtfully about the things that actually happen in the classroom. Ayers has been there and he knows, and he shares what he has learned with tremendous sensitivity. The book, I’m sure, will be required reading in every school in the nation.” —Jonathan Kozol “Bill Ayers speaks as teacher, parent, and student: as compassionate observer and passionate advocate of his three sons and of all of our children. What is unique is the way in which the personal and professional merge seamlessly.... Ayers is a wonderful story teller.” —Herbert Kohl “Ayers’s riveting description of his unfolding journey as a teacher will be a helpful guide to teachers at all stages of their careers.”

Teaching in the Cracks

Teaching in the Cracks PDF Author: Brian D. Schultz
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807775681
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
This engaging book shows how teachers and schools are creating emergent, democratic, progressive education amidst the current context of high stakes accountability. In this follow-up to his bestseller, Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, Schultz explores how today’s rhetoric and restrictive mandates result in curriculum that fails to capture the attention of students. For meaningful learning that develops transferable skills and engages students, teachers and sometimes whole schools need to find spaces to “teach in the cracks” so that students can connect with issues relevant to their lives. Teaching in the Cracks provides both a theoretical and practical foundation for incorporating an action-focused curriculum that meets academic standards and provides students with opportunities for agency and to use their voices in their own learning. “Through compelling examples, Brian Schultz shares how educators can help students use their powers.” —From the Foreword by Deborah Meier, teacher, principal, and advocate “This book is an invitation to rethink teaching from top to bottom, to dive into classroom life as a passionate adventure in discovery and surprise.” —From the Afterword by William Ayers, education activist “For teachers who genuinely seek to make a difference through their work, this book will be a helpful resource.” —Pedro A. Noguera, University of California, Los Angeles

Studs Terkel's Working

Studs Terkel's Working PDF Author: Rick Ayers
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565846265
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
The author presents a teaching guide to Studs Terkel's book on the experiences of men and women in the workplace, including questions designed to generate discussion of Terkel's book.

Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature

Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature PDF Author: Victor Malo-Juvera
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475851332
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This text offers 6th - 12th grade educators guided instructional approaches for including diverse young adult (YA) literature in the classroom as a form of social justice teaching and learning. Through the YA books spotlighted in this text, educators are provided pre-, during-, and after reading activities that guide students to a deeper understanding of topics that are often considered taboo in the classroom - race, racism, mental health, immigration, gender, sexuality, sexual assault - while increasing their literacy practices.

about Becoming a Teacher

about Becoming a Teacher PDF Author: William Ayers
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807777889
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
Education activist William Ayers invites new and prospective teachers to consider the deepest dimensions of a life in teaching. Should I become a teacher? How can I get to know my students? What commitments come with me into the classroom? How do I develop my unique teaching signature? In his new book, about Becoming A Teacher, Ayers muses on 10 such questions (and a little more) to shape and structure an indispensable guide that features hands-on advice and concrete examples of classroom practice, including curriculum-making, building relationships with students and parents, fostering an effective learning environment, and teaching toward freedom. This brilliant and concise text offers a conception of teaching as both practical art and essentially ethical practice. “In your hands is the gift to help and empower students, which is the greatest gift you could ever give as a teacher.” —Kevin Powell, author, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood “Chock-full of entertaining anecdotes, great teaching and learning moments, and hard questions that help inform the highly consequential decision to become a teacher.” —Angela Valenzuela, University of Texas at Austin “I’m excited to add a new guide to my ‘must-read’ list for teachers-to-be. This is a delight of a little book.” —Eve L. Ewing, University of Chicago “Wow, do I wish I could have read this book, not only when I was just starting to teach, but every year since.” —Kevin Kumashiro, consultant