{"id":124522,"date":"2022-07-21T09:53:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/ceel\/?p=124522"},"modified":"2022-07-21T09:53:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:53:53","slug":"summer-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/ceel\/2022\/07\/21\/summer-in-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer in the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aspiring teacher Lamani Crawford \u201922 is drawing on lessons she\u2019s learning outside of the classroom to prepare for her first day teaching in the city of Newark. As part of an intensive orientation with the Montclair State University\u00a0Transformative Education Network<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 nationally recognized for training antiracist and social justice educators \u2013 Crawford is a student of the city to understand where her students are really coming from.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, for me, this has definitely been a period of self-reflection,\u201d says Crawford of the experiences this summer as a member of Montclair\u2019s Urban Teacher Residency, including visiting neighborhoods where her students live and learning more about the city\u2019s political and social history from community leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a chance to think about my personal values as a person, what I believe, what I stand for, what I don\u2019t support, and how I could bring that into my future classroom,\u201d says Crawford, who as part of the residency will earn a master\u2019s degree in Teaching (MAT) and certification as a teacher of students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\"Amber
From left, Amber Francy, Chelsea Fonseca and Rashmi Rajshekhar explore a Newark neighborhood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Transformative Education Network \u2013 known by its acronym TEN \u2013 offers the critical professional development in recruiting and preparing prospective teachers with partner districts, Newark Board of Education and Orange Public Schools. Over the past five years, 98 Montclair graduates have earned degrees through the Urban Teacher Residency and Newark Teacher Project.<\/p>\n

The summer orientation helps the prospective teachers understand the distinct neighborhoods and the community-based organizations dedicated to improving the schools, according to Teaching and Learning professors and TEN co-directors Bree Picower and Tanya Maloney.<\/p>\n

Environmental concerns are highlighted, particularly the health consequences for children who live In the Ironbound section of Newark crowded with factories and warehouses, a power plant, chemical refineries, the state\u2019s largest garbage incinerator and a Superfund site.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo actually engage in the environmental justice tour and smell the air and see all of the different places where waste is being collected and how there\u2019s an incinerator right next to people\u2019s homes, that\u2019s a different experience than us, as professors, telling prospective teachers about their students\u2019 experiences,\u201d Maloney says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows us to have a different conversation when we start to talk about, \u2018why do you think that student is acting the way they are in the classroom?\u2019 It allows us to have that conversation from a place of thinking about how that child is being affected by systems, outside actors, that could be out of their control,\u201d Maloney says.<\/p>\n

\"Group
From left, Nadia Williams, Dominique Metivier, Alize Plaza, Lamani Crawford, Cristina Tapia-Lugo, Tamara Dixon and Diane Tehranian are among the new cohort of Montclair\u2019s Urban Teacher Residency and Newark Teacher Project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The summer orientation also featured an intentional focus on community partnership and organizing. The Montclair students received an introduction to working with community-based organizations as a way to deepen their connection to the neighborhoods they will serve as teachers, Picower says.<\/p>\n

The summer experiences segue directly into curriculum design as prospective teachers develop lesson and unit plans based on the students\u2019 neighborhoods, experiences and identities.<\/p>\n

Sharing an example, the professors pointed to a unit on social justice and community activism developed by Urban Teacher Residents Kathryn Restituyo and Katiana LaCroix. The teachers shifted how they were teaching common topics such as \u201ccommunity helpers\u201d to be more culturally relevant for their students, including inviting environmental activist Christian Rodriguez to share how Down Bottom Farms is growing healthy food in the Ironbound.<\/p>\n

The unit \u201csolidified how community activism and activists can create substantial change right in their \u2018backyard\u2019,\u201d Restituyo and LaCroix shared in the\u00a0TEN newsletter<\/a>. \u201cOur students are able to see that within their own community activism plays a vital role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such community wealth connects with the other assets, including the cultures and languages students bring into the classroom, observes Diane Tehranian, an engineer by training who is changing careers. She was attracted to the Newark Teacher Project after her experiences as a parent advocate at Montclair Public Schools, where her children go to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a proponent of hiring teachers of color and I am a white woman who\u2019s coming into this,\u201d she says. \u201cI have an extra burden of needing to educate myself, to put in that extra work if I\u2019m going to be a good teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cristina
A scavenger hunt introduced prospective teachers, from left, Cristina Tapia-Lugo, Robert (Eric) Wagner and Erica Russelman to different parts of the city of Newark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reflecting on what she\u2019s learned this summer, Crawford, who earned a degree in Family Science and Human Development, says she\u2019s confident she\u2019s on the right path. \u201cI feel more confident in myself and my goal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Her friend, Tamara Dixon \u201922, added the word \u201cenlightening\u201d to the experience. \u201cI\u2019ve learned so much about myself, about the world around me,\u201d says Dixon, who was selected for the Urban Teacher Residency after graduating with a degree in Family Science and Human Development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to meeting my students,\u201d Dixon says, \u201clearning more about the community, and continuing to meet new people who all share the same goal of wanting unity and love and gaining more knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story by Staff Writer\u00a0Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/a>
\nPhotos courtesy of the Transformative Education Network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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