Then, the Michigan Department of Education announced statewide changes to teacher education standards in January 2019, and the momentum really shifted.ĭrake coordinated a TPP redesign retreat with faculty from MSU and mentor teachers across the state to discuss what changes they needed and wanted to make to the program.ĭrake also invited two students to share their insights and hopes: Alvarez and Gundrum. “I had a fabulous discussion with them I knew this was a message our faculty needed to hear,” Drake remembered. So when Alvarez and Gundrum set up a meeting that fall with Corey Drake, director of TPP, it came at the perfect time. Those principles were the guiding light as faculty thought next about how to improve the renowned Teacher Preparation Program (TPP). In early 2018, faculty in the Department of Teacher Education established a list of Core Principles dedicating themselves, as scholars and as a department, to practices of equity and social justice, participating in public discourse and amplifying voices of others, among other tenants. “Then, we started to think: What could we actually do? If we have this power, why aren’t we using it?” REDESIGN & RECOGNITION “We didn’t know we could do anything!” Alvarez, who later became an elementary education major, continued. Johnson overheard Alvarez and Gundrum talking about their experiences, and asked what they were going to do about it. Though she didn’t know it then, this was the moment when Alvarez started to take root. That’s where Lamar Johnson, assistant professor of language and literacy at MSU, stepped in. “I felt like I needed to seek things out versus having them be already in my program. “I was struggling in how the program prepared or hadn’t prepared me as a white woman to teach students of color,” Gundrum said. This included questions about how the program did-or did not-acknowledge topics about race, equity and more. She was talking with fellow student Olivia Gundrum about frustrations and limitations within the Teacher Preparation Program at MSU. In fall 2018, then a secondary education major sitting in ENG 302 at Michigan State University, Alvarez, in her own words, was a very young tree. It’s easy to see the potential-the full-grown tree-in others, but I am working on seeing it in myself.” And yet, applying that to yourself is really hard. But, at some point, students need to learn to grow themselves. “In the Teacher Preparation Program, we talk a lot about adapting to different learning styles and working with kids to make them comfortable with failing, or not always doing things right the first time. “As an educator, I see the tree that students can become,” Alvarez explained. People are a lot like trees, Alvarez says.Ī person who is finding their way in the world-say, a young student-might be a sapling just planted in the ground. She’s also thoughtful, educated and refreshingly candid about the world around her: the world she is going to change.īecause if there is one thing you will feel after talking to Alvarez and those who know her, it’s that she really is going to be a driver of difference-and she’s only just getting started. She’s warm, energetic and hilarious, and makes you feel as if you’ve already known her for a long time. Julia Alvarez has a magnetic personality. What are some of the political events that occur in the novel concerning the history of the Dominican Republic? Talk about why the Garcia family was forced to flee from the Dominican Republic for the United States.Ī lot of the story centers on relationships.Meet the future Spartan educator learning to be a force for creating change By Lauren Knapp How are they different from one another? How do you think changing point of view affects the story? Why do you think the author chose to write the story in this way? Talk about each of the sisters using characteristics and events from the story. How does the fact that this book is told backward affect the story? Why do you think the author chose to write the story in this way?Įach chapter is told from the perspective one of the sisters. What are some examples from the novel where the girls feel conflicted between their old and new worlds? How to do they resolve these challenges?Īs you read, ask your child if he or she notices anything with the way in which the story is being told. One of the book’s themes is the Garcia girls’ struggle to fit into their new world. Here are some examples to get you started:
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