White Teacher Privilege
Nearly 600 teachers at this conference and I could only count 6 who were black. I'm the biggest proponent of solidarity. I truly believe that we are one, however, I was utterly disappointed to find myself at a conference that did not reflect this ideology. This was in Philly, where according to my research, "Black and Latino students showed a 29-point gap in reading proficiency rates compared to White and Asian students." I went to learn from one of my favorite authors, Jenn Serravello. Her books are like my teaching bibles. During the PD she took her expertise from one deminsion to 3-D. Multiple ways to confer with students, seeing data as student work- not standardized tests, and using goal setting to intrinsically motivate students were just a few of my takeaways ... but I was literally in tears, at the fact that other teachers of students who share the same dismally low desire to read as mine (according to the data, Philly children and Baltimore children are pretty