Hello, 

My name is Jessica Mirch, and I am a high school mathematics teacher at a private school in Los Angeles.  Currently I'm teaching Algebra 2 and AP Calculus.  I've been living in Los Angeles for four years, and prior to that I taught high school physics in Chicago (my hometown) as part of the 2011 Teach For America Corps.  In my spare time I like watching sports and traveling. I'm a huge fan of college football and baseball. I'm a Michigan Alumni so GO BLUE! As I mentioned, I grew up in Chicago so GO CUBBIES!

I've had many scholarly discussions about culture and inclusion in American education.  As a white female in the Teach For America Corps, I looked to my mentors for advice on how to best reach my students.  I always felt like I was at a disadvantage because I didn't come from the same background as my students, so building classroom culture was a forefront goal for me at the beginning of each school year. That's why I was disappointed reading this article that started by effectively saying, "white people just don't listen." From my experience, I never considered myself the expert at educating low-income minority students. I relied on the knowledge and expertise of veteran teachers to help me try to reach all of my students. Currently, I teach in a majority white private school.  I am happy to report that our school added diversity as a core value a few years ago, and just this year hired a Director of Culture and Inclusion. The school has affinity groups and something called Community Time where issues of race, socioeconomic status, culture, etc. are discussed.  I'm excited to be taking this course and program.  I hope to learn some new skills that I can implement in my classroom this year.   

Hi Megan, 

Sounds like your charter school is a very interesting place to teach. I love your comment about color blindness. I also think it's important to highlight individuality. Your post made me think of a speaker that came to talk to our school last year on Diversity Day (which is a day we don't run classes and instead bring in experts to host discussion panels and activities for our students and faculty to participate in).  The speaker was a traveler/photographer/author/producer who authored In The Footsteps of Marco Polo. The talked a lot about impact technology has had on world culture.  In recent years, he has seen vastly different cultures from all over the world start to look more and more the same because what is portrayed in mainstream movies and media. I realize I kind of went on a tangent there, but my goal was so say I like that the mission of your school is to promote multiculturalism.  

Hi Alex. I like what you said about all parents wanting what is best for their child. As teachers, I think we always need to remind ourselves of exactly that.  Whether I think a parent is putting too much pressure on a student or I'm having trouble getting in contact with another student's parent... It helps to remember that each family has their own unique background but our goal of wanting what is best for their child is the same.