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Showing posts from June, 2018

What I Have Learned

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Working with children from different backgrounds requires us to take a flexible approach to teaching. What I have planned for the day may not connect to the students in a way that is helpful because if a cultural disconnect, difference in vocabulary or background knowledge, or because it brings up a microaggression I was not aware of. That’s why planning with inclusion in mind is essential, but so also is the flexibility to modify a lesson when that disconnect or oppression is witnessed. A goal I have moving forward from this course is to be more intentional in my planning and implementation throughout the school year to not just focus on teaching students reading, writing, and math, but also broaden their ideas about the world in a meaningful way that is relevant to their lives. When we as teachers intertwine the academics with social justice and inclusion, we can make time for empowering advocacy.             My hope, then, i...

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression: Hopes and Goals

Each year we welcome students back in August. Some come through our doors excited, others, frightened. Students come to the classroom with confidence, having spent previous years at the school and already knowing the procedures to be successful while for other students they wander the hall searching for a friendly face on their first day in a new school. We have students from many different ethnicities and a myriad of family backgrounds, but they all have one thing in common. Each student comes through the door looking for someone to believe in them. My hope when I meet my new group of students for the next school year, especially those from diverse backgrounds, is that they feel welcome in my classroom not just on the first day but throughout the year. I hope the students feel like they matter, with their likenesses represented in a fair and just way throughout the curriculum. I hope they feel valued, through their interactions with me and their fellow students.  Part of feeli...

Welcoming Families from Around the World: El Salvador

For this assignment, I chose the country of El Salvador. This small Central American country suffered devastating earthquakes and continues to be plagued with violence. The Families have come for the last several years gaining temporary protected status (TPS) as a result of the destruction in their own country (Terrazas, 2010). Although President Trump is ending that designation, the people are continuing to enter the country seeking a better life for their children. In order to welcome a child from an El Salvadorian family into our classroom, I would need to prepare in several ways. 1.       Study the language and learn key phrases. The people of El Salvador speak Spanish, and I know none. I need to learn basic phrases that would help the child throughout the day. However, just as with the dialects in the United State, there will be differences in pronunciation, so I can consult with the family to modify phrases as necessary. 2.     ...

Start Seeing Diversity: Creating Art

This is a poem I put together to represent my learning and growth through the Start Seeing Diversity videos (Laureate Education, 2011) and the topics explored in the blog assignments. It is meant to chronicle the transitions from biased thinking through my realization of areas I could improve. My aim was to focus on the awakened realization of bias and how to move from a place of naivete toward creating a more inclusive approach to teaching. Reference: Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Start seeing diversity. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu It’s Not About Me It’s not about me, I live in the home of the brave In the land of the free, I never owned a slave, Look all the way back in my family tree It’s not about me, I’m just a teacher, I help kids to count one, two, three. How could I be an intolerant child of a preacher? I’m not even a person of color so you can plainly see. Its not about me, When I see an “other” I practi...

Start Seeing Diversity: "We Don't Say Dirty!"

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            Children notice difference around them. Pelo (2008) notes that by the age of two children see differences in skin color, and by three they notice bias. Children then use what they notice and their interactions with those who have different social identities to form their attitudes around bias (Pelo, 2008). Therefore, when incidents happen with children, how we as adults react is crucial to their development. The incident with a child I witnessed happened on the sidelines of a soccer field about a year ago. My son plays soccer, and we spend many hours in the spring at fields all over the state. On day my daughter was playing in the grass behind the line of parents waiting during warm-ups. She had a ball and saw another little girl also waiting for her brother to play, so we went to ask if the girl wanted to play. The little girl then went to her mom, who was sitting next to me as said, “there’s a strange girl talking t...

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

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This was our church home Bias, prejudice, or oppression can take many forms and come from many sources. Sometimes those sources are strangers and people who do not matter, so it is easier to write off the experience. Other times the source is much more important and can be life changing. My husband and I were looking for a church home when our children were small. After trying many places, we finally settled on a church. The pastor was kind, there were other parents with small children, and there were a few other multicultural families in the congregation. These are the kinds of things we looked for-places that would be accepting of an interracial marriage and authentically embracing of our children are not as easy to find in the mid-west. We felt like we had found a supportive, loving, Christian environment to raise our children in so we began to get involved in church activities. My Husband and I My husband and I follow politics very closely and enjoy many lively conversat...

Practicing Awareness of Microagressions

Microaggressions are everyday occurrences, yet most of us do not recognize their existence, or their prevalence. They can take the form of words, behaviors, and actions from someone with or without the intent of harm who may or may not be aware of the harm (Laureate, 2011). However, at the heart of a microaggression is the stress and harm it does to another. While there are people who set out to harm another, the most problematic of these microaggressions are those from the people who mean well and are unaware, as they do not even understand they are harming, thus you cannot fix what you cannot see. This week was the last week of the school year for students in my community. As my own children finished school before my class, they came to visit our second grade classroom. This became an interesting study in microaggressions, and internalized biases. My children are multiracial, with cinnamon skin with their fathers curls but their mothers texture. They resemble both my husband and I i...