Moving from Local to Global

Critical Literacy should be a major component in all schools; however it is crucial in our “at risk” neighbourhoods. For many of these students their lives are usually bordered by well known streets and intersections. Their parents usually work in the area and many of their family and friends live close by. I remember taking my Grade 5/6 class on a trip to downtown Toronto. The students were awestruck by the huge golden buildings and questioned if they were made of real gold. When they were told they were office buildings and they might be working in them one day in the future, they were shocked and in disbelief. It is our job as teachers to expose and connect our students to the world at large.

How do we prepare our students for the future? Using critical literacy/social justice can provide them with the tools to understand their position in several discourses. Like Luke said, teaching is like dancing. We need to change the dance steps when the music changes. Teachers need to teach were our kids are at. We have to use texts of all types: media, internet, books, and magazines. Our teaching styles needs to be flexible…inquiry based as well as some direct instruction.

This unfortunately can not happen in the bubble that is your classroom. I was lucky as a new teacher to have a few mentors that assisted and lent me a hand for the first couple years of my teaching career. We need to see what works for other teachers/students. We need to share what good teaching looks like. Many teachers are very secretive of what they do in their own classroom, afraid that another teacher will “steal” their great idea. Which means, “then I can’t do it next year.”

Mentorship should happen organically and not forced upon the new and experienced teacher. Principals, new and experienced teachers should back and support good teaching. Our younger teachers can help experienced teachers with the technological world we all live in and our principals and teachers can be of assistance to our younger teachers by helping them see the larger picture of education.