Final Reflection

Dear Blog,
In terms of ending this blog for the purpose of the class ending this will be my final post. I would say I have changed a ton over the few short months I have been learning to understand and care about all sorts of people.  I am serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints this upcoming Fall sometime. I won't know where I am going until mid-may and then around September I will be going to this place to serve the people there for 18 months. This class has reached out of the bounds of classroom preparation and prepared me to go teach any culture anywhere I am called. I'm anxious because I don't know where yet but I'm mostly excited. What I have become after taking this class is more aware, patient, and accepting. I look for ways to talk about hard issues with people I care about, I am excited to share what I have learned and am more willing to listen to what others are willing to tell me. When you are more aware of race and ethnicity you realize when others are less aware and the uncomfortable circumstances this can put people in. I've realized I have to be patient, not everyone wants to talk to me, surprise! But really, getting to know people is a two way street and when they are ready to stop and talk I am ready to meet them there. Dr. Draper put it this way talking about teaching kids, "This is the day that they are ready to learn fractions so do it again!" We are teachers, excited, energetic, and passionate about our work. If a kid asks me how to write a thesis am I really going to say, "We just went over that!" If an investigator on my mission asks if we can talk about that Joseph Smith story again am I gonna say, "ugh I've told that story like 5 times today!" That's clearly ridiculous. Patience and understanding and love for these people I haven't even met is what comes out of studying ways to teach others. I am most excited to be taught by my kids, my coworkers, friends, family, and the spirit. That's what this class has me thinking about, pondering, loving.
Carly

Five Good Terms to Know:

Five Terms:
Here are five terms that I have come to understand in my multicultural Ed. class

Culture is specific to a person or a group of people. It is the activities you do,how you celebrate, how you are together, how you do daily chores, activities, how you are with strangers, with your family... it is essentially how people outwardly interpret their experiences and how they create things and reactions to things. I often think of a certain type of music as representative of a culture. One thing I learned from class was that cultures are conservative, they want to maintain the norms of the culture, you don't really see huge shift in culture because it is such a big part of who we are. In our classrooms we can notice how our kids are perceiving each other. There are a lot of different perspectives on just one culture and getting the kids to talk about this will help there to be more understanding of others.

Funds of Knowledge is what the kids come to the classroom already knowing. I think of it as your savings account of knowledge. We can always add to it and it just keeps getting bigger. So kids come to school with a set of values, a set of codes of conduct on how to behave, and a way of learning and acquiring new information. They come with bias just like we do and they come with interests. As a teacher it is important to tap into their funds of knowledge in order to reach them and expand their horizons. What they already know can be a starting point to build of off and a million points to compare new experiences to. This is why getting to know your students is so important. You, know besides being inherently important.

Inclusive Learning Teaching to reach all students regardless of their background or culture. Kids are differently advantaged. Maybe there capitol doesn’t serve them well in school. We have to take into consideration what they do know and then we can teach them what they need to know to be successful in this society. Part of teaching inclusively is questioning the canon and going out and finding what is missing or what needs to be changed. Often the kids in the school you work at live near each other and they share some specific cultural present. I think incorporating this reality into the classroom can be a powerful tool and way to teach in an inclusive way. As teachers we have to be able to adapt to what we learn from our students but also be able to use the resources we have to help those same students realize there are answers to questions that they have right now. If they want to learn about something they can learn it from someone. This to me is the most exciting piece of inclusive learning. We get to show these kids that they can learn from everyone.

Race is the physical appearance of a particular group of people and Ethnicity is the cultural traits of the group. So someone’s race is determined by their skin-tone and many other things that are typical of that race, certain hair, eyes, facial features, body types etc. 

Ethnicity is determined by things other than how you look. Your ethnicity is most often determined by where your ancestors came from and from your language, religion, and culture. This brings up the problem again, of defining people by making assumptions. One of the big problems in classrooms is that we assume we know things about a certain race or ethnicity and we start acting like we know who some one is by what they look like or where they are from. A kid can be a good student and not be asian and an asian can not be hardworking. We learn these stereotypes and they factor into our teaching and how our kids learn to treat each other. This can't happen, so we institute inclusive learning.

All of these terms are interrelated and not solely related to the classroom setting. They are good for all people to understand and appreciate.

"And Still We Rise"

I just finished a book called "And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City Students." It is a book by Miles Corwin an acclaimed author who was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He knows the L.A. area really well and is able to candidly narrate the stories of 12 High School seniors as he goes with them into the ghetto and less glamourous parts of L.A.  One of the stories he follows is a young women named Olivia as she struggles to stay in school and fights her way through foster homes until she is able to go off on her own. Another story talks about Toya a young women who took her little sister and went to a group foster home after her father killed her mother. Sadikifu another brilliant student was in a feeding group for one of the biggest gangs in L.A. and nearly escaped being convicted of a murder he didn't commit. This quote pretty much sums up the views of many of the kids in the book: "What makes South Central L.A. so complicated is the fact that good-hearted, honest people share the same streets with drug users and thieves which causes daily anxiety for those of us who want to get ahead..."(68) If I learned anything from this book it is to know our students back stories. We have a whole year to get to know as much as we can about them. In the first few weeks of school we need to find what motivates them. Maybe it is their ownership over something and keeping that ownership, their personal satisfaction of expressing themselves through music, the affirmation they get from peers when they excel in competitive sports, the need to keep their families afloat, the need to be seen, heard, remembered. Motivation can be seen very early on in meeting someone if we look at what they want to accomplish, where they are heading, and how they are getting there. This book helped me think of my survey I want to give to my classes on the first day of school. Who are you? Where do you want to go? and How can you get there? I think this last question is especially important. We can show our kids that they don't have to get there alone. I'm also grateful we don't have to do it alone. One class at a time, one student at a time, doing the best we can, really our very best. That is what this book shows in it's portrayals of struggling students and the striving teachers that help them.

My First AA Meeting

            Today, (Wed. April 3^rd) I went to an AA Meeting (Alcoholics Anonymous) at St. Mary’s Church in Provo, Utah at noon. I was nervous but only because of the newness of the situation; I had a very stereotypical view of what an AA meeting was like. Basically, they sit and talk about how they are overcoming alcohol addictions right? When I walked in all of the people were seated at round tables put in a larger circular formation. I took a seat next to a red headed, middle-aged man and introduced myself. Kelly and I talked about where we were from and why I was there and he explained how all of the meetings are run. First the man running the meeting had a moment of silence for those suffering from alcoholism, I was rifling through The Big Book at this time. Then they read Chapter 5 pages 1 and 2 of The Big Book and the Twelve Steps in the back of the book. I was well acquainted with The Big Book by the time I left. That is literally the title of the AA Recovery Guide, The Big Book. Kelly let me borrow his for the meeting.

            As we progressed throughout the meeting, Don awarded coins to those who had been sober for a day, two days, a week, two weeks, … all the way to a year. Dennis got up and celebrated his 60^th day of sobriety and Jim celebrated a sober life of 28 years. After awards, we passed out cake for Jim’s birthday. Then we began what most people think of when they think of AA Meetings. The open floor, “never-ending testimony meeting” as Kelly called it. Jim went first and told us the story of how he cleaned up his act 28 years ago yesterday. None of them forget the day they stopped drinking. He said his wife and family kicked him out of the house they had bought in Salt Lake and when he returned from a rehabilitation center clean and ready to start over a month later they said, “ We told you it was better without you.” This broke my heart. He said his wife died of alcoholism 6 years later and he is now on good terms with his kids.

            There were many heart-wrenching stories that were told and many good people trying to change. Josie had been off alcohol for two days. This skinny, little, smiley, maroon headed girl was so beautiful and put together you never would have known she had any problems at all let alone an alcohol addiction. This is what I got out of the whole meeting: we can’t judge and when we do because sometimes we do, we have to be willing to listen to what someone has to say. For example, I judged Jonathon by his ragged appearance, gruff voice, lack of hygiene, and eight bags of groceries he brought with him, full of donuts and milk. The man was scary; he was the only part of the whole meeting I was nervous about. Then the “Never-ending testimony meeting,” as Kelly called it, started and he got up and spoke: “Hi, I’m Jonathon and I’m an alcoholic. ‘Hi Jonathon’ I know we need Him everyday, it’s the way we get through everyday, He reminds us that we can do this. Thanks” After he spoke I realized that he was not that different from me at all. I need my Savior every day, all day too; I just don’t have a vivid reminder of what it is like to not have that constant spirit with me. That was the coolest part of the meeting was realizing that everyone’s story matters and if you let people speak you can learn so much more about people. This can directly relate to my kids in the classroom but, I had an epiphany about something else as well. Not many kids have alcohol problems, but their parents might. Being introduced to the AA program today has made me an advocate. It is an inspired program with a purpose full of tolerance, compassion, and understanding for others.  I definitely understand what these parents are going through and from most of the stories, what kids have to go through when a parent is an alcoholic. I can not only refer them to an AA meeting in full confidence of it’s helpful affects, but I can sympathize and promise them they will receive empathy from a community full of wonderful people. We can tell our students about groups in the community like AA groups that can help their home lives. We can make a difference, and it doesn’t just have to be in school. Kids face real-world problems. It was fun to go and be the other. I can help students more than I thought.

Values Clarification Exercise

Consider the following list of values. (There are 43) From this list, make a list of what you consider the top 20 values. Once you do that, reduce your list to your top 10 values. Once you do that, reduce your list to your top 5 and put those in order from first to last. Finally, post that list to your portfolio and discuss what that might mean for your work as a teacher.
My Top 20: Integrity, Service, respect, honesty, creativity, collaboration, patience, perseverance, humor, cooperation, fun, safety, courage, cheerfulness, optimism, organization, imaginative, kindness, open-mindedness, happiness
My Top 10: service, respect, honesty, creativity, patience, fun, safety, optimism, kindness, open-mindedness
My Top 5 In order:
Safety
the kids always need to feel first and for most safe in my classroom, physically and emotionally
Optimism
If we are optimistic about life and learning life and learning are optimistic things
Open-mindedness
this ties right into the idea of discrimination for me, I will be open to learning from my students and want an environment where my students can be open-minded
Honesty
I need to be honest with myself and my students, I think this includes sharing feelings with your students
Creativity
Students are so darn creative, let them express in different ways, let them have choices
The Full 43 Values are as follows:
Try this out for yourself!

Integrity

Hard work

Independence

Service

Wealth

Chastity

Respect

Honesty

Creativity

Collaboration

Patience

Perseverance

Wisdom

Humor

Cooperation

Dependability

Power

Mercy

Fun

Safety

Obedience

Manners

Self-control

Courage

Cheerfulness

Helpfulness

Optimism

Ambition

Organization

Generosity

Logical

Loving

Immaginative

Kindness

Intelligence

Open mindedness

Excellence

Ambition

Compliance

Critical thinking

Progress

Loyalty

Happiness 

Reflection on Discrimination

http://youtu.be/Ml7eEklNwNE
Here it is. Type this into your search bar and it's the second thing down. It's about a ten minute long video
Here's my reflection on the video and an article we read

After watching the video of these kids and adults be so vicious to each other I was troubled. I think that was the point. I identified with the boy who said that he was so mean because the discriminatory environment gave him an opportunity where “any pent up hostilities could come up.” There’s suddenly a reason to relieve yourself of all the feelings you have towards someone, it’s suddenly okay to do this. It made me queasy. She told the kids that “Prejudice and discrimination are things that people build with in their minds,” and I agree but that doesn’t make them go away. Don’t we need discrimination to go away?

            The article we read was helpful in being a very realistic voice on the issue of prejudice and discrimination. I know I’m not going to be a bad teacher if I have some biases but I still want to be aware of them. One of the main things is taking responsibility for myself and my reactions, thoughts, and actions to others. How do you take critique and still have the confidence to keep going as a teacher? In the article Paul Gorski talked about “celebrating yourself as a total person.” I can realize that the time spent understanding myself will help me to relate and understand others and make me a better teacher. I don’t know if I could do this exercise, I’d probably be the one to crack and not be able to play along with the experiment. It’s too hard to see people go at it that way. But could I do it for these kids? Would showing them this video be enough? I think it is impossible to not have biases as a human being but prejudice can be taken out of the picture. Someday it really won’t matter what skin color we are. I hope. Am I saying this because I’m white? I feel something from these videos from these articles, it’s wrong and discriminating should never feel right. The problem now is being able to reach beyond myself and tell people. That’s the hardest part, that’s what Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Junior, Gandhi and so many more have done, we need action.  Can I do it? All the words are there.

Frontline A Class Divided with Jane Elliot PBS1

This is part of the video we watched for class today, I had to share

Being the "Other"

This assignment was to go be the "other" in a place that is foreign to you. Here's what went down:

            Last night I went to the BYU Luau. I had heard it was quite the cultural shock to go and experience a little bit of “poly pride” on BYU campus. When I first arrived there was an instant recognition of being the other.  The whole Wilkinson center was full of Polynesians. There was nowhere to sit because the whole middle and the most part of the side sections were full of family of the cast. Now thinking back on the situation I remember thinking, “Man, Polynesians have big families.” As if I don’t have a big family.

            Before the show started a woman introduced the performances with the reminder that we were “not at a church meeting, so audience participation was encouraged. From the very first performance I found out what she meant. The room was loud, yelling, and cheering, and inappropriate cat calling, continued throughout the whole performance. I realized that this was how the show was supposed to be enjoyed, participated in, and responded to. It just didn’t seem right in my cultural view to scream “Chi-hoo” at the performers while they were performing! I thought about being a performer and how distracting that would be.

            About half way through the performance I was able to muster up the courage to let out a good, “woohoo!” The man next to me, old white man, necessary to say in this context, looked at me funny.  Was I not aloud to join in the fun because I wasn’t from Samoa? I only let out noises when they issued a call and response portion after that. Even here though there was trouble in not knowing the language I was responding in.

            The next incidence that occurred was when people from the audience started going up and putting money on the performers hats and in their costumes as they danced. I recognized someone I knew and thought about going on stage and giving her a buck or two.  My immediate reaction was, “What a fun tradition?” and then I got really nervous. In my notes on the experience I wrote, “Maybe I missed something about this tradition. I’d do it wrong.” What was it that I was afraid of? Some people looking at me like I was some white chick that didn’t know what she was doing? Not really, I felt like I could perform the tradition fairly well. I knew I’d stand out, that couldn’t be it, but somehow the combination of the two made me sit in my seat thinking.

            The flirtatious nature of the dancing made me really want to open up and express how I feel more often. What’s wrong with being proud of being a woman? In my notes I actually wrote, “Do I need to be more flirtatious?” Ha! The show had me thinking all sorts of thoughts. At the end of the night I thought it would be fun to be a part of this next year. After all there were some skinny little white chicks that were in it. They stuck out like sore thumbs, especially the red heads.

            I went up to a performer and said the dancing looked so fun, I think it would be fun to do. Her response: “You should, we accept all types, you saw them up there.” This may have been the first time I remember where I was a “them,” an “other.” It shook me for a minute. I didn’t particularly want to be the “them.”

            In my future classrooms I realize now that it could just be uncomfortable to not want to do things. I think often we feel we don’t know enough, or that it’s easier to not stick out like a sore thumb, or that the combination of emotions just leaves us unmotivated. We can admire from a distance and not explore.

            The luau was fun, and I did enjoy myself but I definitely had the moments where I sat trying to understand.

 It is so important to have friends, I want to remind my students to never burn bridges. Also for my personal sanity I am going to need to go out myself and do other excursions away from school. My main focus is to teach that life educates, so go live it!

These are my siblings, some of my greatest friends, if I can find away to get to know my students family I think that this will help me be able to teach them.
I have learned that we can learn so much from people. I want to learn from my students how they interact with people what music they are into, what their dreams are, and what they like to do. All good questions I need to ask myself. This assignment was pretty hard for me to do. I'm not even sure if I did it right but i did Review my artifacts and reflect on how what I learned about my own culture and how my culture serves as a help and/or a hinderance in school settings. I enjoyed learning about all of the funny ways people break social norms, the mores, folkways, and values of society. I tended to stick to values in my artifacts and what view as "good and just" in my family. These are the things we value and that I hope to be able to show to my students.

 In believe in not leaving the kids out of the conversation, they deserve to be able to express themselves and feel comfortable being themselves in the classroom. I think being able to get along with kids out side of a school environment will help me be open to new ideas and be able to be a little crazy in the classroom.

 This is my brother who has always loved basketball. We support him in his passion and get excited for him when he gets to play in his high school games. One thing that is so important as a teacher is helping kids realize that there are so many ways to learn and one great way to learn how to cooperate with others and be part of a team is on a sports team.

 This is my brother who doesn't like sports. He's a talkative, lively 11 year old but he doesn't want to play anything with a ball. He's a lot like me in that respect. He's genuinely interested in things like animals and new fun games and making up outdoor explorations. He learns by talking and doing. I know it will be easy to relate to these kids who genuinely want to learn.

 Another huge part of my family culture is finding new ways of working out. I had never done any weight lifting until I came to BYU and when I came it was difficult to learn how to lift weights. Teachers need to be healthy and establishing a pattern of working out now will help me stay physically and mentally healthy in the future.

 This is my little brother receiving his Arrow of Light at a Boy Scouts awards ceremony. A big part of my family culture has to do with working on our moral character and constantly finding ways to serve our community. I want to promote extracurricular activities at the school I work at.

 This picture was taken at a fair where we unexpectedly came across the opportunity to ride an elephant. Kids will have so many great opportunities that they will have to choose to take or not. I want to teach my kids that they should take opportunities that come their way. In terms of school this may mean being in a club or on the student council.

 This is a picture of my first time on a go kart. There was major risk involved in driving this with very little training and no one to be with me as I was driving. I want to help my students realize that soemtimes we need to take chances and we are capable of doing things on our own. I think one of the hardest kids to teach are those who have given up, they have never been given the reigns or the steering wheel of their own lives and they need so desperately for a friend to take a chance and let them express themselves.

Holidays are so important. As a teacher we have to realize that we need times to rest. I want to stress the importance of enjoying life in my classroom, bringing holidays into the classroom will be one of my  biggest challenges. Children come from so many different backgrounds that I know I will have to be careful about not celebrating any holiday but I can celebrate holidays. Being happy is a part of our culture in a very big way. Until reading the articles, I did not realize that smiling was not a social norm in other countries.

 This is a picture of the book my mom used to teach all of her kids how to read. Learning how to read in my family is by far on of the biggest things that is taught at a very early age. I am sure that this will affect my teaching philosophy. I plan on having an emphasis in reading and getting my reading certificate because I want to help kids feel competent in reading, maybe even enjoy it.

 This is my little brother. In my family culture you work hard through school and are supported by family and friends when you do something well.

 This is my older sister graduating from BYU. In my family we are all expected to graduate from college. I think it will be hard to motivate kids to want to go to college because I have always wanted, and been urged to go.

Toni Morrison

"I really think the range of emotions and perceptions I have had access to as a black person and as a female person are greater than those of people who are neither....So it seems to me that my world did not shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger." Toni Morrison

"In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."
Toni Morrison

"I was thrilled that my mother is still alive and can share this with me. And I can claim representation in so many areas. I'm a Midwesterner, and everyone in Ohio is excited. I'm also a New Yorker, and a New Jerseyan, and an American, plus I'm an African-American, and a woman. I know it seems like I'm spreading like algae when I put it this way, but I'd like to think of the prize being distributed to these regions and nations and races."
Toni Morrison- Nobel Lecture

I read these and want to go teach! Thinking of the Principal El video and Chimamanda Adichie Video I now think of African-Americans as somehow opposite of the stereotype. I hold them in a state of wonder. I think a lot of Americans feel this way. We are taught our lives about the oppression that they went through, the way whites have viewed them. We're tired, they're tired, heck everybody's tired of discussing the problems with race. Woah, this is a rant, I knew I'd do it at some point, please understand I am just trying to figure things out, gosh it's hard. We aren't ever going to get answers. But a ton more questions : ) Back to what was mentioned in class, of course we need to discuss race because it's there and if it hasn't greatly affected me yet it will. My mind is going to explode. 
I want to relate these last six posts with each other. So here are the overall question for the asssignments:

• What message(s) (consistent or conflicting) are being sent about this cultural group through these artifacts?Illustrate how the artifacts convey the message(s). Africa-American culture has become more widely known in the united states than any other culture. We have great writers, professional sports players, politicians, and a President that can identify with the black community. Consistently, we are bombarded with the message of equality and how to honor this culture with out over emphasizing differences. 

• How might this message(s) impact how a child from this cultural group is viewed and treated in the classroom? Why is it important for teachers to examine how cultural groups are represented in the media, curriculum, and policy? An African- American child would know the stereotypes about their culture. In a classroom of 40 fourteen year olds something will be said concerning race, or some thing will be brought up in class concerning race. I think the way to deal with things is to talk with your students. If something said was even mildly offensive I think it's okay to just ask the kid if their okay? If they want to talk about it? 

• Why is it important for teachers to examine how cultural groups are represented in the media, curriculum and policy? This I struggled with from the first time i heard we were going to take a multi-cultural education class in order to teach. I thought the rule of "leave it alone it will take care of itself" or "don't make it such a big deal and it won't be" applied. The thing that made this issue so real for me today was facing reality. When you are Latino and pulled over every week in California because the cops think you are an illegal immigrant, or you are white walking into a store getting looks from black people, when you feel the need to remember every race and culture, you can feel it, you are living it, it's oh so very real. I think we study the media, stereotypes,points and views of others just so we know some angles at which to help the one. We can only go one person at a time, well at least that's what I feel like right now. I'm not going to solve the problem of race, if it's even a problem? That's another question to ponder. Oh goodness. Treat people as people and treat race as a real thing. That's all I'm letting myself write. : )

Frederick Douglass

Our view of African americans has changed over the years and will continue to change. Often nowadays people think we should not treat everyone the same and not be racially biased, but race does exist and we learn by embracing it.

Here are two very good quotes by Frederick Douglass:

"In regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us.... I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! ... And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... Your interference is doing him positive injury."

Frederick Douglass, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro

So we don't have to completely go against race and act like it's not there. In class today I brought up a question about race that lead us to discuss the desire to forget race or something to that effect. The Professor reminded of the fact that I wasn't getting pointed out everyday. I'm not a minority where I live. Wouldn't this seem like such a bigger problem to me if I was suddenly thrown into a foreign country. We talked all about stereotypes and this project to look at a race up close and personal. I'm so scared to speak on this topic, so scared to fall into stereotyping or try too hard not to. Where is the balance?

Today in class this kid said "to approach it one person at a time." Get to know their story. Don't judge based off of " the single story" for let's say, African Americans, that is commonly used to set people in a context. This is going to be my goal, one person at a time. That doesn't sound too hard. 

Here's a favorite quote, again by Frederick Douglass, I love how "exciting" and "agitating" are right next to each other:

"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress."

Frederick Douglass, Civil Disobedience Manual

So here I go, man it's going to be an exciting, struggle.