Alex LaForest

Issue Investigation Summary

Issue Investigation Summary

For my Issue Investigation paper, I chose to examine issues surrounding the achievement

gap. My main focus was the social issues, or mindset, about school. My first two years of

teaching I worked with a transient population, trying to press the importance of math. As I taught

I realized how disconnected I was from my students. I then strived to connect with them and use

a hidden curriculum of life skills and mindsets. We worked more on how to handle situations

appropriately than math. On any given day if you were to walk into my class you would most

likely see a problem written on the board and solved, and students working on independent work.

However, you would hear me conversing with students about life issues, music, or what poster

we should hang up in the corner of the classroom. My classroom became more of a hot-spot, or

safe space for my students then a math classroom. I had students who hated math, loving my

classroom because they would be heard. These students enjoyed their classroom environment

and wanted to succeed academically where they emotionally thrived. Having seen the results

from emotional connections in the classroom, it is something that I continually push for in every

class that I enter. This can be hard when student populations are transient, but it’s a fight that

cannot end. Throughout my research I have been able to learn more about Chris Emdin’s reality

pedagogy, as well as how pedagogical and social competences result in teacher and student

success. As I go forward with my teaching, I would like to examine more about how to

implement this into the classroom, as well as how to extend classroom cosmopolitanism and co-

generative dialogues to English Language Learners across language barriers. Currently, I am

doing well with my ELL students, but I know I can be doing better.