My confidence and independence have come a long way. Before starting college, I was exceedingly shy and unsure of my own abilities. Since that time, I have received my large center director letter from the state of Colorado, which would allow me to direct a large early childhood education center. I have also received my associates degree in Elementary Education from San Juan College. I have learned more than I can express, but what I have really gotten out of this experience is confidence.
This course has also helped to increase my confidence level. It has done this by providing opportunities for written reflection on a variety of materials. These reflections being posted online has increased my desire to improve my writing. I have also had the opportunity to assist other students in the course with their understanding of the content that we are covering. This allows me to gain a deeper understanding of the material and my confidence with it.
Not everything in this course has come easy to me. This course requires critical thinking and reflection at a personal level. The openness of the assignments provides an opportunity to make each assignment meaningful and interesting, but this also leaves room for questions. In the past, I have developed relations with my professors that has allowed me to feel comfortable going to them for help; however, I have rarely needed to go to a professor for help. At the beginning of this semester, I made sure that I was comfortable with Dr. Frances Vitali, so that I could go to her for help if I needed it. I can honestly say that I have emailed Dr. Vitali with questions far more often than I have ever emailed any other professor. Some may think that this would make me reconsider my confidence level, but it has had the opposite effect. I know I can do well in this course, because I know that support is available if (and when) I need it.
I feel that learning to ask for clarification or help when I need it has allowed me to become a better student, and a more understanding teacher. As a teacher, I will have to develop a relationship with my students that will allow them to feel comfortable coming to me for help with material. This will allow my students to develop confidence with the material that we will be working with.
The material and assignments for this course have allowed me to develop my skills and strategies. I have had ample opportunity to practice critical thinking as I reflect on the material we have covered thus far. Which has helped me to develop in the areas of reading comprehension, critical thinking, evaluating, and writing. However, I realized while reading the skills and strategies section that I have been using an incorrect citation format for this course. I have been citing in MLA, instead of APA. I will be sure to correct this on future writing assignments.
This course has required me to improve my reading and writing skills. The reading material that we have utilized in this course is more advanced than material that I have covered in the past. The increased reading level of the material has encouraged me to improve my writing level, so that I am writing at the same level I am reading. This has included using a more advanced vocabulary, more complex sentence structures, and making the connection between my written responses and the material covered.
This course has allowed me to develop an understanding of how to best work with linguistically diverse students. In the past, I have strived to treat students as individuals as I learn about their unique cultures and families. This led me to believe that a color-blind approach was the best way to work with students from a variety of backgrounds. The materials that we have used in this course has allowed me to see that this is not the best way to be culturally responsive to the students and their families.
The color-blind approach aims to treat everyone in the same way, as if they were identical individuals. While this approach was taken with good intentions, it fails to acknowledge what makes individuals unique. For example, if a teacher holds the expectation that students will look directly at the person they are speaking to while they are speaking, the teacher is failing to take in consideration how some cultures feel about direct eye contact. By having the same behavioral expectation of everyone, the teacher is treating all the students the same; the teacher is then disrespecting the students that come from a culture where direct eye contact is inappropriate.
The approach that should be used in an educational setting should not place expectations on students that are outside of their cultural beliefs. Instead each student and family should feel that their cultural differences are respected by the teacher. This requires work on the teacher’s part. Learning about each individual student and family takes time and effort.
At times, it seems like it would be easier to use stereotyping and sociotyping with students. Stereotyping is defined as applying false and inaccurate characteristics attributed to a culture to an individual. Sociotyping is defined as applying accurate characteristics attributed to a culture to an individual (Dr. Vitali, 2017). Whether the characteristics we are attributing to a student are accurate or not, applying preconceived characteristics to a student fails to account for each student’s individuality. Dr. Parhar gives an excellent example of this in his TEDx talk, he talks about being a young doctor and treating an Indian grandmother. Her test results showed that she was not getting enough iron. So, he researched vegetarian meals that were high in iron. When he talked to the woman and gave her the recipes that he had found she said, “would it be easier to eat a couple cheese burgers a week?” (TEDx, 2016). Dr. Parhar had assumed that the woman was a vegetarian because of her culture. If he had asked her about her culture and diet, he would have known that he could recommend a burger because she was not a vegetarian. He was trying to do the right thing, which led him to make assumptions about her. Even though vegetarianism is a sociotype for that culture, it did not apply to this individual. As a teacher, it is vital that we get to know our students so that we are not making assumptions based on sociotypes or stereotypes.
We have spent a fair amount of time this semester learning about ourselves. This has included looking for our own biases using the IAT tests, writing our I AM poems, and will include our Ethnic Roots projects. As vital as it is for us to get to know our students, it is just as vital that we get to know ourselves. We all bring to the table different backgrounds and experiences, which effects the way that we see the world around us. Our experiences play a direct role in our conceptions and misconceptions about others. This in turn, effects the way that we treat others. As a teacher, we cannot let our past experiences dictate the way we treat our students. We must be aware of our biases so that we can act intentionally to overcome them. For example, if a teacher is aware that he is biased against Latino students, he can intentionally change the way that he treats them. However, the teacher must be aware of his bias for this to happen.
I have been able to draw on my own personal experiences to make sense of the information that we have been presented in this course. Before becoming a full-time student, I worked as an early childhood educator for seven years. This included five years of working with toddlers and two years of working with five-year old’s. My experience working with different cultures in these settings has allowed me to connect to the material that we have covered. For example, we have discussed the Navajo culture and how it effects the way that students interact in the classroom. My second year of teaching toddlers, I had a student in my classroom that was more traditional Navajo than other students that I had taught. Unlike teaching at the elementary school level, teaching toddlers is much more personal. I had to work closely with the student’s family to make sure that we were being respectful of their culture and traditions. This is more sensitive when we are talking about potty training and language development. While working with this family, I did my best to make sure that the traditions of the family was respected.
This course has allowed me to reflect on the experience of working with this family. There are some things that I feel that I handled well at the time, and there are some things that I now think I could have handled better. The family was happy with the school, and the treatment of their child while in my care. However, I now know that I could have done more to make the classroom more welcoming for the student.
Another experience I have drawn on to help me make sense of the material we have covered was my fourth-grade year. At the beginning of the fourth grade we moved from Colorado Springs to Detroit, Michigan. While in Colorado Springs I was surrounded by a diverse population because of the Fort Carson Military Base. The population was much less diverse in Detroit, where I found myself the only white student in my grade. Besides myself, there was one other student in my grade that was not African-American. This student was Cuban. In Colorado Springs, I was picked on and made fun of, mostly for my weight. In my Detroit school I had friends, and everyone seemed to like me. No one said I was fat, and most of the students told me I was pretty with my light skin and long hair.
Although this was a happy experience for me, I never really understood it. I thought the other girls were prettier than I was and they were definitely skinnier than I was. So, why was I so popular? The materials that we have used in this course have helped me to understand what was happening at the time. The Anderson Cooper article that we read for class talks about the biases that children have towards race. The article states, “Her daughter is taking part in a new CNN pilot study on children's attitudes on race and her answers actually reflect one of the major findings of the study, that white children have an overwhelming bias toward white, and that black children also have a bias toward white but not nearly as strong as the bias shown by the white children” (Cooper, 2010). So, when the other students were complementing me, they were showing their bias towards white people. The color of my skin made me prettier to them than the beauties that had the same skin tone they had. This is White Privilege at its very core. My reaction to this situation is explained well in the book Understanding White Privilege, Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships. The book states “The process of looking at what racism and white privilege cost us – those of us who are white and have skin-color privilege – is a difficult one for several reasons. First, many of us don’t feel particularly powerful or as if we have privilege” (Kendall, 2013, p. 23). I didn’t feel powerful in the fourth grade. I had just moved from a place where I was picked on and bullied for the way I looked. However, being surrounded by students who were not white gave me power. My looks didn’t change, I was still the same person; only now I was powerful and only because of the color of my skin. Unfortunately, we moved back to Colorado Springs at the end of the year, and I went back to being picked on.
This class has allowed me to look back on my experiences and make sense of them. I believe that this will allow me to use these experiences to make me a better teacher.
This course has taught me to step back and reflect. While reflection has been a part of my academic skills in the past, this reflection was generally centered on the information being presented. This class has allowed me to not only reflect on the new information, but has also required me to reflect on the connection between the new information and prior experiences. This has allowed me to make sense of the past and make changes to my behavior for the future. For example, the IAT tests that I explored at the beginning of the semester showed that I had a slight preference for members of the LGBTQ community. I have taken time to reflect on what that will mean for teaching. My goal is to teach middle school math. During the middle school years students are filled with hormones, and beginning to become interested in dating and relationships. I was 13 the first time I remember finding myself attracted to another girl, so it is entirely possible that I will have a student who is a member of the LGBTQ community in my class. Now that I know that I have a slight bias, I will have to make sure that I am not treating the student with favoritism. Along the same line, I will make sure that I am not overcompensating for this bias and treating the student unfairly.
Being a teacher will require me to reflect on my experiences and practices. I feel that I am now better equipped to do that. I know how to reflect on my actions and thoughts; which will allow me to make informed decisions as an educator.
I feel that the tasks that I have completed for this course were done to a high-quality standard. I have gone above and beyond what is expected for each assignment, and followed all guidelines provided. Completing this reflection has made me realize that I have not been using the citation style required for this course. While using the correct format is important, I do not think that using the wrong format should have drastic negative effects on my grade. Especially since citations were still provided, just in MLA instead of APA. At this time, I feel that I should have a mid A in this course.
I must acknowledge that I need to dedicate more time to this course than I have leading up to this point. I have completed the assignments, but I can do better. I plan to put in more time working on my Ethnic Roots and community observation assignments.
I have really enjoyed the format of this course and the way that it has played out. In this course, what you put into it is what you get out of it. It would be nice to have more guidelines for assignments. I like that I have the ability to make each assignment personal and meaningful to me. However, a more detailed description of the assignment would be helpful.
Cooper, A. (2010, May 18). Kids' Test Answers On Race Brings Mother To Tears. Retrieved from CNN: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/18/kids-test-answers-on-race-brings-mother-to-tears/
Dr. Vitali, F. (2017, Sept. 7). Part 1: Chapters 1-12 Presentation. Retrieved from Eduating Diverse Students, LLSS 315: https://sites.google.com/site/unmelds2/chapter-presentation/frances-presentation
Kendall, F. E. (2013). Understanding White Privilege, Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race; Second Edition. New York: Routledge.
TEDx. (2016, June 14). Fixing Racism - racism is at the root of many of humanity’s evils [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POU1HjdXziM