Waiting for Superman is a documentary that analyzes the educational deficits of inner-city schools. This documentary was really empowering. I heard about this video from one of my friends in the Ed.D program. She was giving a presentation about the leadership style of Michelle Rhee. If you are not familiar with Michelle Rhee, she was the chancellor of the Washington, D.C public schools from 2007-2010. The interesting thing about Michelle is that she had only taught three years before becoming the chancellor, she had no Ph.D and have never ran a school district before.



If you are interested in watching Waiting For Superman I have attached a link I found on Vimeo.

Have you ever noticed that the majority of chapter books children are reading have only European-American main characters? Well I have, and I have set out on a journey to locate culturally relevant text that my minority students can read and relate to. 

In the past, I have found it difficult to integrate culturally relevant text into my existing curriculum. For example, when I am planing a new writing unit, I look for a great read aloud that exhibits the writing style or traits that I want students to emulate in their own writing. Typically, I will pull out one of the tried and true books off the shelf.  Although these books are wonderful, I would like to use this read aloud time to introduce culturally relevant text to my students. In the past this has been very difficult, that is until I stumbled across Kidslikeus.org (Just so you know, I have absolutely no affiliation with this site). Now when I am planning a poetry lesson, I go to their website, click on genre and scroll down to poetry. Now I have a list of great poems and books of poetry to read aloud to my students. Many of the books listed I have in my classroom, the ones I did not have I checked my library for. For the books that my library did not already have, I sent a list to my wonderful librarian. She is awesome about using any funds to purchase books that teachers request. 

A little about Kids Like Us:
Kids like us is a website geared toward providing students with quality texts that they can realte to. As their About Us page reads "We believe that one of the keys to becoming an expert reader and writer is having access to outstanding books that reflect, value, and celebrate our lives."

Click on the logo below to read more about this site.

Typically I try to keep this blog light and fun with quick ideas that teachers can implement immediately in their classrooms.  Today however my post will be a little different. For those of you who personally know me, you know that my interest of study lies in closing the achievement gap of our African American youth and school reform in low achieving schools. I wanted to share a little bit of information with those of you who are interested, in hopes that these videos or articles might inspire you to help make the change within your classroom, school or district.


The first exemplar of school reform starts with Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children Zone.



Another great example of school reform initiated by parents is the Nettlehorst School in Chicago's intercity.


Additional great articles are linked below:

The Color of Discipline 

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management

Culturally Responsive Teaching