There has been an influx of reading lists for white Americans to more deeply understand the long history and enduring egregious examples of systemic racism in our country in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. This is a rational and important reaction: we know that reading increases knowledge, understanding, and empathy. I am a white educator in a predominately white county and school. Too often, segregated white spaces are insulated from needing to do the urgent work of dismantling...
My name is Jane Bannester and I’m a teacher at Ritenour High School in St. Louis, Missouri. On Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis. It happened on a Saturday. Our school began its first day of a new school year that Monday. Ritenour High School was in the circle of protests that ran several weeks. It is only 13 miles from Ferguson, separated by an airport. At...
Presidential election years present ample opportunities for lessons in media literacy; depending on your outlook and your class dynamics, this is either exhilarating or terrifying. Either way, it’s necessary for us to play a role in helping students navigate the overwhelming messages that surround them. As I have written about in the past, I’ve found rooting my media literacy lessons in classic rhetorical analysis has been the most successful in eliciting meaningful class discussions....
Laura Miserez, a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, currently works at “The Missourian” in Washington, Missouri, as a reporter and the publication’s Features Editor. She is also working on her master’s degree in American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis. SJ: How did you first get interested in journalism? LM: “I didn’t get interested in journalism until college actually. I have always loved reading, and for a long time I wanted to write fiction books someday. I knew that a lot of writers had backgrounds in journalism, so when I started college at Mizzou I enrolled in the journalism school because I knew it had a great reputation, and I...
Many of us are lucky enough to have students as teaching assistants. Some of us have students with too much time on their hands. What meaningful work can they do that still respects all policies of your school, district or federal government? Each year, I have one or two seniors with an empty block. At our school, they can become a TA (teaching assistant) for a teacher of their choice. Each teacher may only have one or two TAs. Here’s a few ideas that have worked for me over the years: Classroom: Straighten the room. Cleaning is for the custodial staff. But a TA could sharpen your pencil supply, straighten items in the room, rotate the posters on the classroom walls for...
Over the course of the pandemic, many of us have become attached to our pets. There has been a boom in the number of pet adoptions as more and more people have sought out ways to stay happier at home. Our pets became an excuse to take a walk. They made mealtimes more entertaining. My dog certainly made fetch happen. Inspired by Bailey For me, my dog served a special purpose. Last year, I was diagnosed with limbic encephalitis, an incredibly rare disease, and spent two weeks in a medically-induced coma. After that experience, I needed an emergency tracheotomy at Mt. Sinai Hospital. To add an additional stressor, a pandemic broke out. Throughout this experience, my dog, Bailey, was by...
