Whose Your Daddy? or Pop-Culture (get it? Pop-Culture?))

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It has been a long year.  In fact, its been a whole year since I wrote on this blog.  Not that I am trying to make excuses, but exciting things have happened.   "What could have possibly distracted you from giving us your profound wisdom?" you're probably asking yourself.  On a professional level, I spent the year as a Dean, doing administrative-type-work at my school.  *cough* way over my head *cough*  And on a personal level, I became a dad.  This is a scary concept, I know.  I am now responsible for another human life.
Though fatherhood isn't something I want to necessarily make my blog about, I will however plan on speaking about it from time-to-time.
As I sit here and contemplate this role I have stepped into for the rest of my life, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of my pop-culture's offerings for models of parenting.

Let's go through the line-up of all star dads from my childhood...

Homer Simpson-  The irresponsible father, frenemy to his son

 Pro's of Homer as a parent:  *Loves to eat with his kids
                                              *Takes his kids on fun, yet ridiculous outings

Con's of Homer as a parent:  *Neglectful
                                              *Supports child abuse (remember all those times he choked Bart?)
                                              *  Drinks heavily

Jason Seaver- Psychiatrist father and theme song writing extraordinaire  

Pro's of Jason Seaver as a father:  *Able to psycho-analyze his children
                                                     *Took in homeless youth, Leonardo Dicaprio

Cons of Jason Seaver as a father:  * Missed the fact that Ben, his youngest son skipped months of class
                                                        and in the end was a bigger screw-up than Mike ever
                                                        was
                                                        *Ran his practice out of his house, with unstable patients "dropping
                                                         by" at any given point, creating a vulnerable situation for his
                                                         family
                                                        * Let his kids be friends with characters named "Stinky" and
                                                          "Boner"

Heathcliff Huxtable- "Create a scheme so to teach my kids a lesson" father, and fashion icon

Pro's of Heathcliff Huxtable:  * Able to orchestrate family performances for the numerous sets of

                                                  grandparents

                                               * Taught Theo a valuable lesson virtually every episode

Con's of Heathcliff Huxtable:  * Missed the fact that Theo was dyslexic until he was in college

                                                 * Let all of his damn kids move back home, season after season

                                                 *Let his son refer to females a "Burgers"

                                                 * Let his kids hang out with questionable characters such a

                                                    "Cockroach" and "Bud"

This is my pool to choose from for elite dads on TV... well the ones that initially came to mind.  After trying to think of a Latino role model, all I could think of was him:

Abraham Quintanilla- The Mexican Joseph Jackson

Now, I know that Edward James Olmos's role as Selena's father was from a movie, but any other prominent Latino father came AFTER my childhood years.   Now-a-days you could look at someone like George Lopez (whom I have been told I have a slight resemblance to), but not when I was growing up.

What can I gather from all of these sages of fatherhood?  Pretty much this:  I shouldn't look at anything television or movies have to offer for parenting.  I have learned that lessons can't be solved in 2 hours, let alone 30 minutes with commercials.  I have learned that there are good days and there are bad days, and if my life as a father was taped for a tv show, I wouldn't be doing much better.  As far as real life goes, I do have my own father as the strongest role model:

Ok, maybe Lionel Richie isn't really my dad, but he bares a strong resemblance to Billy C!  My dad, though not perfect, did a pretty damn good job, if I do say so myself.  He taught me responsibility, honesty, integrity and perseverance.  If I do even half as good of job at being a father to my son, as he was to me, then I think my boy will grow up just fine.  This is all for now, but I am sure I will have more nuggets of wisdom to share soon. 

So, now you tell me.  Who did I miss?  Who are some father figures in pop-culture that either set a good example or poor example of parenting?  

We No Speak Americano

Not only is this posting's title in reference to the topic for this week, its also from a catchy little ditty released a while back by Yolanda Be Cool & DCup.  It was then really popularized by Latino rapper Pitbull, sampled in his song, "Bon Bon."  Because of the high booty-to-bikini ratio of the Pitbull song, I decided to share the original.  Its  sorta a quirky little jam so enjoy it while you read the rest of my blog (plus the video is funny-dope):

Let me begin by saying, I'm no expert. There are education and language experts out ther that are much smarter than me. They know much more about educational theory and language acquisition than I ever care to know. That is my disclaimer, so let's start the discussion:

What do you know about ELL? Is this a new acronym for you? For me, its a label, that as an educator, is always in the back of my mind. ELL stands for English Language Learner. ELL students are those students who grew up in homes where English was not the primary language. You can always tell, in the education world, if there is a serious concern with students when they give it an official set of letters (ADHD, PBIS, RTI, etc.). Working with the diverse student population that I do, ELL students make up the large portion of our school. It was recent conversations with both administration and faculty that compelled me to write about this as a topic this week.

What sparked my mind dwelling on ELL students specifically was a conversation a group of teachers had in regard to a group of our students who indeed were struggling with their reading and writing due to ELL barriers. There seemed to be two camps: One which was sharing and discussing academic interventions to support our ELL students in their reading and writing. The other seemingly washing their hands of these students as they felt they will never be ready for college, despite anything we have and continue to do to support them. And to be fair, both camps' attitudes are felt at one point or another by every adult in the building...sometimes in the same day.

Now, part of the audacity of my school's mission is to get inner-city, under resourced students ready for college (hence the "college prep" part of our title). By choosing to work with this demographic, one has to be both an idealist and a realist. Ideally, I would like to believe that with enough attention and enough hard work, we can indeed get a 9th graders from a poor economic means, and diverse cultural backgrounds ready for college regardless of the fact that they read and do math like a 5th grader. Putting this into practice however sometimes proves more challenging than walking on water.

This may indeed be easier...
...than this. 
What's that?  You would like to spice up the challenge even more?  Sure, lets throw in the fact that a significant portion of our students are indeed ELL. What often needs to be reminded to the adults in the building (including myself I am ashamed to say), is that ELL does not equal learning disability.  Life, may in some ways be easier if it did.  We could draft up an IEP (another of those damn acronyms, meaning "individual education plan), as we do with students with disabilities, and get them support from the Minneapolis public schools and tap into a multitude of resources and social workers to help keep them on track.  However ELL is NOT a disability.  Information acquisition, writing ability and complex reasoning are not an issue.  Translation is. 
I have become especially sensitive to the ELL students as of late because of the Spanish class I am taking.  On a weekly basis we are required to write a 4 paragraph paper.  The topics are usually pretty basic.  As an example, one assignment was to write an instruction letter to our teacher on "How to have a good time in Minneapolis."  In my mind, I know without a doubt, how to have  a good time in Minneapolis.  I can explain to any English speaker how to do it.  I can write volumes and volumes in English about how to have fun.   However when it comes to writing this in Spanish, it simply takes a 5 minute writing assignment (in English) and turns it into 2 hours of translating, checking, and double checking my work to make sure my damn verb conjugations are correct.  And despite my dilligence and attention to detail, I still end up with a garbled piece of caca writing that looks like a 7th grader with an IEP wrote. 
Now, flash over to our students.  They are completely capable of learning the content we are teaching. As an example, say they are comparing an contrasting Marxism and Capitalism.
 vs. 

Not an impossible task but could pose a small challenge to any 11th grader in high school. First they have to read the material, and in their minds translate what is written into their native language. Then they have to form their arguments, then they have to translate their arguments back into English. They turn it in and receive a low grade, not because their comparisons and contrasting were bad, but because they couldn't for their lives put together a grammatically correct sentence. Tough stuff right?

Unfortunately, this is a very real situation. Some of our brightest students are ELL. Sadly, unless they have the work ethic of a work horse, they will rarely demonstrate their academic capabilities. The rock-and-hard-place for us is that we can't lower our academic standards for these students. As they struggle with their language, English first students at other schools are mastering the material with only 1/8th the effort.

Ready for the kicker? Our students are American born. This is the thing that keeps me up at night... If you are a 1st generation immigrant, or exchange student, Colleges and Universities have all the supports a person could want. They even are given certain allowances in their writing because of their status. But not if you are an ELL that was born on this side of the border. What are the ELL Americans to do? They are almost a "hidden" demographic, that gets very little attention. Well, part of our school's job is to not only get the ELL Americans into college but, maybe more importantly, we HAVE to teach them how to navigate the college's writing and math centers. We have to connect them with the right supports and right programs so that they can be successful. We have the task of finding the right colleges where we know, without a doubt, they will be able to succeed (which I might say, our college counselor does indeed do a superb job).

Ultimately however, I need to say this: if an ELL student isn't learning, then it is the fault of the teacher. If our students aren't learning its not because they aren't capable, but because the lessons aren't scaffolded in a way which will best support our students! Obviously traditional methods of teaching haven't worked and continue to not work. I have learned in my 7 years of education that there is a ginormous difference between teaching and learning. Just because I may have taught it, this doesn't mean that it has been learned. I have heard it a million times by some of the best teachers, "I don't get it, I taught it a million times!" Unfortunately, they never checked for how much was learned. My challenge then for myself and all teachers who work with ELL students: always support the students learning, not the teachers' teaching. We need to find new ways to reaching our students, to tap into their knowledge, and overcome the language barrier. At the same time, holding them to the writing and reading standards.

How then do we do this? Well that, I will leave to the experts...

　

Setting Goals like Beyonce Knowles

 Thought I would sexy up my blog a little.  Ok, not really, but hey who doesn't want to see Beyonce dancing around with a Spanish track dubbed (poorly) over the video?  Sometimes I wish my ability to speak the language was that easy...but first things first.
 Its come to my attention that some of my students have "discovered" the fact that I have a blog.  I guess this means that I need to be a bit more conscious of what it is I am writing.  To be fair, I am not sure if they actually have ready anything I have written, other than to see a few pictures that I have posted in my past posts.  It may in fact blow their minds that someone would actually write for a purpose other than school or work!  Either way, I will have to start watching my potty mouth, for sure.
So, its September and school has started again.  This means a few different things.  One:  A new batch of students that I need to convince that I am indeed  (part) Mexican.  Two:  I have taken on a new position as a Dean of Student Achievement which means my parent interactions have increased.  Three.  My Spanish classes have started up again, and I have only one more semester to master the language.  I will touch on all three of these points for today's post.
Point 1:  Like I said, I have a new batch of students.  Each year since I have been at my school, it takes a good couple of months before my sometimes-self-absorbed students come to the realization that the name "Contreraz" is of Latino descent.  Once discovered however, I have a delicate high wire act which I have to perform in order to let them know I know enough Spanish to understand when they are talking trash about me or another person, but avoid having to actually speak it in front of them.  I know, I am the adult, and at this point of my life, I should be "over" people laughing at me.  But when I am sincerely trying to work at my linguistic abilities, and practice through conversations with my students in their native language, I usually receive roars of laughter and ridicule.  Usually lines like, "Your accent is hilarious!"  "That's not how you say it!" and you guessed it, "Mr. C. are you sure you're Mexican?"  As a 7 year veteran educator and now-administrator, I have pretty thick skin.  However, for reasons that I am sure are painfully obvious, I tend to get sensitive on issues over my Mexican-identity.  As the year unfolds, I hope to get over myself, and my students' laughter and really work at my Spanish.  I am blessed with a school of 60-70% Spanish speakers.  I need to take full advantage, right?

Point 2:  As mentioned above, I was promoted this year to the role of Dean of Student Achievement.  This means I am following in the footsteps of such classic deans as Dean Wormer from "Animal House" and Dean Pritchard Cheeeeeese from "Old School."

We have already had a couple of "open-house" type events at our school  and I can't help but see a pattern of repetition between my students and their parents.  I get that same look of disappointment from Senor and Senora Estudiante that I get from their hijos y hijas when they discover I don't speak their language.  To add insult to inury, I have an (extremely) white translator helping me when it comes to parent phone calls and meetings.  As you can imagine, it causes some confusion when parents come in, and see me, who looks like the real thing but is unable to effectively communicate.  Then the guerra comes in and is able to speak impeccable Spanish.  Embarrassing? Undoubtedly.  I have tried to speak a bit at the start and end of the meetings, hoping that it counts for something.  However, I am pretty sure its more insulting than helpful.  Kudos though to my translator however, because her linguistic capabilities are mind blowing. 

Point 3:  I started last year with a program being offered through the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in connection with the Resource Center of the Americas that offers Spanish classes for employees that work with Latin populations.
Its been pretty good and helpful thus far.  In fact this summer, I had  to take a placement test which would split our last semester of classes up between an Intermediate 1 and a review class.  I tested into the Intermediate class, which is great.  Its very rigorous and requires a paper written in Espanol each week.  There are only four of us in the class so its sorta impossible to blend into the crowd.  Again however, just like with my last couple of teachers in the program, there is confusion about why I am in the class....they always say, "Contreraz...why are you here...don't you speak Spanish?"  In my mind, I always want to say, "I wouldn't be here if I did dumb-ass."  I don't say that out loud however.  I always respond with the usual politlely canned answer, "No, but hoping to!"
Anyway, regarding these three points, I have devised three goals for the year.

Goal 1:  I will get over myself.  You heard it here first folks.  I will no longer be intimidated by my students condescending laughter.  The only way I will get better at speaking Spanish is to P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E.  If I get laughed at, so be it.  I like to think that maybe Einstein was laughed at until he created the A-bomb.  Whose laughing now?

Goal 2:  Very much like the above goal...I will do my best to engage parents in Spanish.  No longer will I let my insecurities get in the way in my attempts at communication.  The only way my extremely white-translator friend will be able to outshine me is by her glowing white skin.  Not in skills!

Goal 3:  I will work my ass off in Spanish class. Somewhere someone payed for me to be in this program.  I need to make the most of it, in order to best serve God's Spanish speaking people.  Gone are the days of doing things at the last minute, I shall do my homework ahead of time! 

To finish the way I started the blog:  I'm done being a "Baby Boy." Its "time to "ring the alarm" because "I'm a survivor" and I won't ever go on thinking that "I'm irreplaceable" as a teacher.  You are welcome for the terrible puns...and if you are still wondering why I included these, its because I'm setting goals like Beyonce Knowles.  Let's see if that line catches on!